Punk Rock Bike Club » carl

Here’s a quaint little piece from the 1980′s…

carl — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:47:28 +0000

I saw this today, and I definitely had to take a few sly snaps of this crazy ride. I’d love to have seen the owner because judging by the length of the headtube it belongs to Leeds’ tallest man.

At first glance I thought it was just another gnarled looking single-speed, but on closer inspection I saw it had a small Sturmey-Archer gear shifter. So, three internal speeds for this lanky piece of steel.

Aside from the abnormally large frame, another odd feature was the double chainring but no front mech set-up. The chain runs on the inner ring, so maybe the outer one is used as some kind of guard or something?

The frame is Reynolds 531 steel, highly sought after due to the fixed and single-speed craze sweeping the hipster nation (check out eBay to see the silly prices some of these battered heaps go for!) Much of the bike seemed to be original, it had Dawes cranks, some ancient single pivot caliper brakes, with even more ancient looking brake shoes/pads, and very interesting bull-horn handlebars and brakes with leatherette hoods.

Morrisons is certainly turning up some interesting velos at the moment.

Don’t mess with the bull, young man, you’ll get the horns…

carl — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:27:02 +0000

In amongst the rusted up heaps that are usually parked outside my place of work, there are often a few little interesting gems that catch my eye.

Imagine my joy when I say this rare beast today…

Blacked-out “anti theft” frame, home made bull-horn handlebars, triple 105 chainset from god knows when, 1″ threaded headset and this guy is also “rubbing” some Continental GatorSkins. A commuter warrior to be proud of!

I have to say, the STI shifters are in possibly the most awkward position imaginable (unless the guy who owns it has tiny little claw hands like Jeremy Beadle), and there can’t much brake leverage either. I guess he wanted the hipster looks of a track-bike combined with the good sense and practicality of a bike with gears and brakes…it could catch on you know.

Bella in Sella

carl — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:01:52 +0000

So, BBC4 are running a few shows about the bike. Sitting down to watch “Ride Of My Life: The Story of The Bicycle” I’m distinctly skeptical that cycling and bicycles are going to be presented in a fitting manner.

However, I’m suitably impressed at the level of care and attention that’s gone into the documentary. Hell, I even learned a few things! I learned that cycling has a patron saint (The Madonna Del Ghisallo), that the Italian for “Looking Good in the Saddle” is Bella in Sella, that Joe Breeze et al saved the Bike industry (not totally sure about that, but that could be my MTB-phobia making me biased!) and that Chris King makes pretty headsets.

Even New York Bike Snob would have been impressed/depressed at the city of Portland being featured on the show. The UK bike industry wasn’t neglected either, with Brooks saddles and Rourke frames being featured also.

One of the best things about the show was that the bloke presenting it was building his perfect bike, and this meant that you got to see how important good components, frames and wheels are to making a bike nice to ride.

All in all, I thought the show was interesting enough for experts like us at PRBC (!), and for novices who might not have realised just what a wonderful, beautiful, emancipating world cycling can be. Chapeau BBC4.

Finger-banging season is upon us.

carl — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:09:04 +0000

Le Tour, I think that we’ll be seeing a few of these:

The Finger-Banger finger-banging.

So, when I say finger, you say:

BANG!

I’m trying to work out some kind of finger-banging drinking game, maybe neck 10 pints each time he bangs one off?

Better get used to these bars, kid.

carl — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:21:20 +0000

Well, I don’t post much on here because I’m a bit like Garth from Wayne’s World…I don’t really have much to say right now. But, I did put the bars from my first proper bike, a Raleigh Mustang (from when I was 8 years old no less) onto my single-speed and I’m very happy with the results, so I thought I’d share. They are slightly narrower than normal bars, and have an awesome old skool BMX stem to add a nice retro touch.

In other news, I literally am the Daddy of The Punk Rock Bike Club as I have very recently become a father to a wonderful son, Vincent. I’m getting the indoctrination started early by making him watch The Giro d’Italia with me. He does tend to sleep through it mostly though…

New Year, Old Start.

carl — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:42:51 +0000

Tomorrow is Jan 1st. That is the time when the festivities stop, the excessive pie intake ceases, and the booze stops flowing…well, maybe not the booze, but you get the idea. The commuter has been my only source of bike pleasure of the last eight weeks or so. Pleasure isn’t really the right word. Being wet, freezing, having snow clogged brakes and iced up cleats, is not pleasurable. especially when you have to do eight hours of work afterwards. But it’s done out of love (and a small portion of stupidity). But Jan 1st is a day where the turbo comes out, all saturated fat is banished, and a new, slim, trim rider emerges from his lardy Christmas cocoon.

Happy New Year.

You don’t need an angle-grinder and a hacksaw…

carl — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:10:15 +0000

In reference to an earlier post by Benny. It’s as easy as this to lose your ride.

2 Minutes Hate.

carl — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:20:05 +0000

1. Being spat at while riding home.
2. Mopeds in the bike lane.
3. Rudeboys in Novas, Corsas, Clios, Civics etc etc yelling “Wankaaaaaa” at me while riding riding home.
4. Darker nights.
5. Glass, logs, road-works, parked cars, dogs, runners in the bike lane.

The girl who shouted, “Alright, sexy” this evening as I rode past sort of makes up for the above, but only if I pretend she wasn’t taking the piss.

It all keeps adding up, my frame is cracking up…

carl — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:06:05 +0000

After three very hard years of ownership, my Trek 1000 has finally given up the ghost. This was my commuter/winter bike, and it has been through a lot. Crashed into by a deaf (and apparently blind) octogenarian, crashed into by an inattentive Jaguar driver, crashed by me every winter because of black ice, knocked over by my clumsy (but lovely) girlfriend, you get the idea.

Happier times...

Riding to work last week I noticed a distinct wobble when getting up out of the saddle, and on further inspection I discovered this:

Stay off crack

That’s about as terminal as it gets, I think. On the plus side, it has given me an opportunity to make a quality investment in my future transport. All will be revealed after I get back from France, did I mention I was going to France? To Mont Ventoux? To watch Le Tour de France? That’s right. You’re as green as Mark Cavendish’s sprinter’s jersey, eh?

They got straight edge?

carl — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:17:51 +0000

Tomorrow, the greatest cycling event in the world ever (TM) will get underway in Monaco. I am, of course, talking about the Tour de France. Watching “Le Tour”, or any other professional cycling race is a bit like watching Rancid. It’s all about willing the suspension of dis-belief. If you can see past the fact that Rancid are fat 40-somethings, very rich and no longer the street punks they dress up like, then they are great. If you can see past the fact that it’s highly possible that a good deal of the riders contesting the Tour are “chemically altered” then it too is awesome.

I love the Tour but I always dread the inevitable dope scandals that happen every year. Just when you don’t think it can get any wore, it usually does. If 1998 marked a low point in the sport of cycling, then it’s pretty much stayed down there in the gutter since. The Lance Armstrong years (1999-2005) may have felt like a reprieve, but it has since turned out that most of his main rivals in that time period have served two year suspensions or taken forced retirement due to being caught doping, Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, and Alexander Vinokourov the main culprits. Lance Armstrong himself, possibly the most dope tested athlete ever, had been implicated by French newspaper L’Equipe that his 1999 victory was aided by the use of EPO.

2006, the first “post Lance” Tour de France was marred from the outset by drugs, firstly by Operation Puerto, then by the “winner” Floyd Landis being busted for having synthetic testosterone in his blood (this was discovered after his “amazing” solo breakaway on Stage 17 to Morzine, where he blitzed the field just 24hrs after blowing up and effectively losing the Tour). 2007 saw the Yellow jersey holder Michael Rassmussen sent home in disgrace after it was revealed he missed three out of competition dope tests and lied about his whereabouts in the off season, and Alexander Vinokourov was found to have someone else’s blood pumping around him. Would 2008 be any better? Of course not, Riccardo Ricco and his Saunier Duval team mate Leonardo Piepoli busted for using CERA, a thought to be un-detecatble form of EPO along with Polka Dot jersey “winner” Berhard Kohl and his Gerolsteiner team-mate Stefan Schumacher.

The 2009 edition sees most cycling fans clinging to the hope that things are changing, that the cheats are being weeded out, but I’m not holding my breath. I think this year’s Tour will be a great spectacle, but when you see that heroic breakaway succeed, or see attack after attack on seemingly vertical mountain roads, it’s that doubt in the back of my mind that tarnishes it all. But, I still love it, and as the French say “Vive Le Tour!”