Monday, August 26, 2013

My passion for wood

I can think of a dozen good reasons why you would want to buy a wooden bike (ride quality, superb stiffness, environmentally friendly, etc.). My reason to buy one was different though.

My parents run a custom wooden furniture building company for as long as I can remember, called DW Meubel. When I was a child I spend countless hours in the workshop, looking at furniture being built and building my own (mostly silly) things. Although I never really got any good at it, I did develop a passion for wood craftsmanship during my childhood. That is why, when I first came across a Renovo wooden frame online, I knew I had to have one some day.

Whilst I am very passionate about the things my dad builds, he isn't exactly thrilled about the bicycles I build. That said, he was very excited when he saw the Renovo wooden frame for the first time. In the picture below you can see him holding the frame in the workshop. Maybe we should combine our skills and try and build a wooden frame together some day.




Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Pearson Weka time trial project, part 1: frame, wheels and handlebars

Recently I picked up a rather special Pearson Weka time trial frame. The frame was made by a builder from New Zealand called Pearson, who is not in business any more. The design is based on the mountain bike frame, built by the same company.

The wheels that came with the frame are 'Elite-Shape', which I believe was a Russian (USSR) company that also made kevlar disc wheels. The wheels look quite fascinating and have seen very little use. According the previous owner Jan Svorada took these with him for the USSR.

I already managed to find an ITM Dual CX handlebar that looks very nice with the frame. The seatpost and the saddle on the pictures are just two items I had lying around. The frame requires a 27.0mm seatpost and the only one I had available was a Suntour Superb Pro. The saddle is an Ultra Pro, made in France. I believe it is the same as the ones made for Corima.













Thursday, April 11, 2013

Massive collection of vintage Eddy Merckx frames

I just finished uploading pictures of all the Eddy Merckx frames I have sold over the years onto my Flickr account. These include MX-leader, Corsa, Corsa Extra, Strada, Pista, Lo Pro and many more models. Go ahead and take a look:

[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/quality_vintage_bikes/collections/72157633199178136/[/url]
Here are a couple of teasers:
 





Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Massive collection of Colnago Master frames

I just finished uploading pictures of all the Colnago Master frames I have sold over the years onto my Flickr account. Any self-respecting Colnago (Master) enthusiast should really check it out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/quality_vintage_bikes/sets/72157633198472249/

I will be adding more pics of other Colnago models and more information about the frames in the coming days.

Here are a couple of teasers:





Sunday, April 7, 2013

H Plus Son Archetype - Shimano Dura Ace wheelset

You may have already seen these wheels on the latest build of my Renovo R1 bike, but for some reason I forgot the take some pictures of the wheels on their own up until now.

The wheels feature H Plus Son's beautiful 23mm wide polished Archetype rims, ultra smooth Dura Ace 25th anniversary hubs and snowflake spoke lacing.









Saturday, March 16, 2013

Renovo R1 wooden bike project, part 13: new wheels


In case you are wondering if low tubular rim with tan tubulars look good on every bike, the answer is yes!

I got a chance to buy a pair of Tune Mig Mag / Ambrosio Montreal tubulars wheels with Vittoria Corsa Evo CX tires glued on (prototypes from Rabobank) that I plan to use in a couple of races I have planned for this spring. This will be my first hands on experience with tubular tires, so I am really looking forward to it.

Here are some pics of the bike in it's new setup. Enjoy!







Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Sanomagic wooden bikes and parts

Sanomagic makes very special bike frames, but not nearly as nice as Renovo. What sets them apart from Renovo though is that they do all wooden bike, including forks, stems, handlebars, saddles and ... wheels! I might need to get a pair of these wheels someday.




Sunday, February 24, 2013

Owen wooden bike

I am a sucker for wooden bike an this Owen bike styled like a Softride Rocket is no exeception. All it need is a Gilles Berthoud Galibier saddle and it would be perfect!


Friday, February 22, 2013

Wooden saddle anyone?

Just came across this very special saddle made of wood. According to the guy who purchased it is anything but comfortable, but he reckoned it was due to the shape and not due to the fact it is wood. The shape looks a lot like a Selle Italia SLR, the one with padding, whereas they probably should have gone with the shape of the SLR C64, the carbon version.


Friday, January 4, 2013

Winter bike project, part 5: ALAN Alu Cross cyclocross bike

I ended up keeping the ALAN Alu Cross after all. I decided to stick to my initial plan to make this a budget build and so I sold off all the other bikes and parts I purchased for this project. All but the groupset that came off the Diamant cross bike. You can see the end result below.
 

I did my first 50 km off road ride last weekend and everything worked like a charm. With the Edco headset from the Diamant the fork has somehow become super stiff.