In The Wild: REM Special Peugeot Swoopy Mixte

Windmill Street, Fitzrovia, London -- Summer 2015

In The Wild: Freddie Grubb Ravensbourne

St Mary Axe, The City of London -- December 2016

(Not built by THE Freddie Grubb but by a new start-up who, rightly or wrongly, have adopted the name.)

Operation Body Swap: RESULT

Yes, it's done! And yes, it is a complete success. 

Lorelei is the London Town Bike, on the road the whole of this past winter. She's a pleasure to ride and completely reliable, having needed not so much as a brake cable adjustment in the past five months. 

Petra is the Modern Retro Road Bike, on the road for the past two weeks and just a dream to ride. 

N+1 -- or, The London Town Bike Revolving Door

There's a story to be told -- actually, 2-3 stories -- and these will follow in due course but I'll lay the groundwork now with a few announcements: 

Astrid the Viking will be retired before next winter. 

Astrid has done surprisingly well in the role of London Town Bike but she has one fatal weakness and I have another vision for her. This won't be pursued until next winter, at which time I will give a long-term review.

I've acquired another Puch Princess, in astonishingly original condition. (One careful lady owner from new, etc etc.)

In a few weeks' time, she will look somewhat different. (As will Lorelei.)

#Errandonnee 2015 Challenge: Rides 6-8

Errandonnee #6

Date: Friday, 13 March 2015

Errand:  Get drugs (!)

Category:   Personal Care

Destination:  Local pharmacy

Steed: Lorelei the Puch Princess 

What I learned/observations:

I had my timing wrong and reached the village just at school leaving time. The streets were heaving with children... and with people driving their cars for the school run. I saw two other people on bikes: one a young lad cycling slowly on the sidewalk keeping pace with his mum who was pushing a stroller and a small girl about 5. The other was a teenage boy who lives near us, who walked by our house just as I was leaving home. He was hammering back up the street towards the village again, riding no-hands as he shrugged into a jacket. Late for his after-school job, I reckon. I envied his no-hands skills and was pleased to see him putting them to practical use rather than showing off!

Deja vu! Today was warmer and the bike has been rebuilt. 

Puch Princess Reborn: Sacrilege? Or Best Of Both Worlds?

This post comes with a health warning... and an apology. 

Some of you may be offended by what I've done with this vintage bicycle. 

For the offence, I am truly sorry. For what I have done... not so much. 

Because this time I listened to what the bicycle was telling me, what the bicycle wanted. True, I curated this build according to my preferences but at the end of the day, I had a 35 year old frame that wanted to go fast but couldn't due to the limitations of its build and/or its rider. 

The rider, I couldn't change any more than I can for any other bike (those grumpy knees!) but the build, I could. 

This is not a restoration but a rebirth as something else entirely.  

#Coffeeneuring 2014: Ride 6

Destination:  Chilterns Gateway Centre (National Trust), Whipsnade Road, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, LU6 2GY

Date:  Saturday, 15 November 2014

Hot drink of choice:  Black Tea

Total mileage:  25km
Bicycle:  Lorelei the Puch Princess

My friend Tim* joined me for today's coffeeneuring expedition. He was quite intrigued by the whole concept! 

"Wow, a whole 2 mile minimum?!"

Which rules out the cafe in the village, unless I want to take the looooonnng way round. 

"Does it have to be a HOT drink?"

Well, yes.

And then he remembered the "hot beverage" designation, which is impossible for an Englishman to say without one arched eyebrow and tongue firmly in cheek. 

"Did you remember to get a photo?" 

Yes, I did. 

"Will I get mentioned on your blog for this?"

Well, of course!

*who I had not seen in... let's see... eight years as near as I can figure out, possibly longer. I remember a camping trip in northern France before I started my law degree in 2005. One dear friend on that trip has since died. It seems a lifetime ago. Tim and his girlfriend Kate (later wife) discovered kite buggy-ing on the beaches around the mouth of the Somme on that trip. The trip was also memorable for all the small snails on our campsite that worked their way into my tent, sleeping bag, everything I owned... and came home with me... mostly squished flat. I didn't own a bike, then. Neither did Tim. He 'found' me this year via this blog. Turns out, we've been crossing each other's paths at various local events for the past two years without spotting each other. It's almost uncanny. Meeting up with him again is one of the very nicest things that has happened as a result of this little blogging lark of mine. 

The Original Swoopy?

You may recall the story of my Puch Emerald, bought as frame + forks + headset (only) on ebay a few years ago, which we attempted to build up as my London Town Bike. 

I've never known what the original factory build may have looked like, but there is a complete bike listed on Ebay UK at the moment, which the seller claims is "totally original and unrestored". 

#Coffeeneuring 2014: Ride 3

Destination: Harpers, Half Moon Lane, Pepperstock, Nr. Slip End, Bedfordshire LU1 4LL

Date:  Sunday, 26 October 2014

Hot drink of choice:  Cappuccino

Total mileage:  11.5km

Bicycle:  Lorelei the Puch Princess

Almost exactly a year ago, I used a new-bike-shake-down ride for coffeeneuring.... or a coffeeneuring ride as a shake-down. Here I am, doing that again. 

This past Sunday, I wanted to check out the new Harpers Food Hall and Cafe the other side of Slip End. Harpers are a family run business going back to just after WWII. They started out basically as butchers, gradually expanding into a range of premium meats and even meat-based ready meals. For decades, they were in Studham, not too far to the west of us, but last year they refurbished an abandoned and delapidated old pub as a spacious "show room" for their wares, with a meat counter, cafe and function rooms. 

In any case, this was a perfect excuse to get away from the books (finally finishing my law degree) and see how the recent re-build has changed Lorelei. 

Mystery Bike

There is a "new" bike in my future. The build has started and I hope will be finished this weekend. 

It is an interesting concept combining certain features I love from very different schools of thought on what a bike "should be". No doubt a few readers will be amazed while others will be horrified! 

I can't wait to unveil this new "brain child" of mine but what I can show you, for now, is a rather unremarkable collection of parts that will be fitted. 

There is one component there that may hint at what's going on. Care to post a guess? :)

Announcing: A Viking Invasion

Yes, I did it:  I ordered a Viking Bromley singlespeed mixte from Parkers of Bolton, taking my chances with buying via mail order. 

Opening the box.
(Is there anything else as exciting as taking
delivery of a big cardboard box
that by its shape and size screams NEW BIKE?!)

If you are thinking of doing the same, here are a few points to consider. 

The London Town Bike Challenge: A Look at the Modern Viking

Just a few days ago, I wrote about the dilemma of finding a suitable bike for commuting in London with minimal risk of being stolen.

Recently I spied a new-ish Viking step-through framed bicycle locked up in the West End, one street away from my office.

I recognised the Viking name, partly because of a recent discussion on the Lovely Bicycle! blog about the Viking company, its English and Irish history and the "competent but un-inspired" reputation of its bicycles, but partly also because I run regular searches on Ebay for mixtes (as you do) and the Viking name comes up regularly as the main modern alternative to all the vintage Raleighs and Peugeots out there. From the Ebay listings, I knew the current owners of the Viking brand offer a 7-speed mixte called 'The Continental' and a singlespeed called 'The Bromley'. I also knew they are incredibly cheap! The Continental runs £160-£180 and the Bromley is often well under £150. Most are offered for sale by Parkers of Bolton, a well-established online retailer in the north of England. And if you visit Parkers' website, you'll find both models at even lower prices than those on Ebay. 

Frankly, I had assumed that the Vikings on Ebay were "Bike Shaped Objects" on a par with what you can expect to buy from the likes of Halfords. True, the Viking name has more 'heritage' behind it than Apollo but these days it's difficult to know who owns the Viking brand or where exactly the bikes are made. It certainly is not Wolverhampton or Derry anymore! 

But to be honest, I was really impressed by the bike I saw in person. It was obviously quite new so it's hard to say what it will look after the coming winter, but the welds were tidy and the build looked really quite nice. 

So at this kind of price point, is Viking worth considering?  I'm going to take a closer look at the two models of mixte.

The Last Goodbye

It is with great sadness that I announce that Swoopy could not be saved.

We made another attempt to build her up -- this time with a proper plan and a selection of new components that all worked together, as opposed to a hodgepodge of old parts we happened to have lying around!

Unfortunately, the slight kink in the driveside rear triangle (just above the dropout) means there is no way to prevent movement of the wheel in the dropout. Adam believed that fitting a rear mech would help make allowance for any movement, but we have not been able to find a mech hanger that fits the dropout very well. The best fitting one we found could not be fitted so that absolutely no movement was possible.

So today I'm afraid we stripped the frame again and are awaiting the next visit of the rag-and-bone man.

I am very disappointed as she was a lovely ride -- quite sprightly and responsive.

RIP Swoopy.

In looking back at my first post about Swoopy, written with such excitement and hope, I am grief-stricken too by the fact that the kitty who inspected her that momentous day is gone now, as well.

Unbeknownst to us, she had heart disease and one morning in early June, her little heart just gave up. And with her last heartbeat, my heart was broken too.

RIP Sara.

Swoopy Is Dead. Long Live Swoopy.

I am sad to announce that Swoopy -- after just a week of life -- is no more.

Swoopy outside St Pancras station

Through a week of commuting, I struggled to figure out why and how Swoopy kept throwing her rear wheel askew, hard into the lefthand chainstay. Nothing we tried made the wheel axle stay in place in the drop out.

Swoopy's wheel strops were sudden and seemingly unprovoked. One minute, we were gliding along, the next we would come to an abrupt wheel-locked halt, with the rear wheel hard fast against the chainstay. Time after time, I loosened off the wheel nuts, re-centred the wheel and re-tightened -- only for it to happen again. Tantalizingly, not immediately -- usually the next day.

We experimented with the position of the axle in the drop-outs. We changed which cog in the cassette the chain ran on and slid the axle hard against the back of the dropouts. No difference... except to add fender rub to the equation.

Then Thursday morning, standing in the shadow of Birkbeck College on Malet Street -- in the rain -- I re-centered the rear wheel yet again and then noticed that the axle was positioned very slightly differently in each rear drop-out. Hmmmm. Had one rear triangle been bent? In other words, had Swoopy been in a crash somewhere in her dark mysterious past?

I got home that evening and told Adam what I'd spotted and my suppositions. He was doubtful -- there had to be another "more likely" i.e. "possible to fix" explanation.

However, Friday came and went with the same problems so I rode her to St Pancras and instead of locking her up for the weekend, rolled her onto the train to Luton, where I bundled her into a taxi and brought her home.

After a thorough investigation, Adam came into the house and announced "you're right; she's bent".

We tossed around a few ideas to change the build in ways that might compensate for the discrepancies in the two rear triangles, but the most obvious is the one that we won't have an opportunity to do in the foreseeable future: build her up a set of singlespeed wheels. And even then, there might still be problems.

So.......... that's the end of Swoopy's brief but glorious life as a London town bike. All a bit sad but at least I'm glad the problem has been diagnosed, as life was a bit bumpy and I just couldn't trust her and that made me sad too.

*******************
Post-script added 10 May:

Adam just read this post and said (with some surprise and even indignation): "Swoopy's not DEAD! She's just gone back into hibernation after being woken briefly from a deep slumber."

A nice way to look at it. She'll wake again one day.

Swoopy Comes In To Land

I've had an old Puch loop-frame mixte frame banging around in the garage several years. I bought it on Ebay. I didn't have any firm plan of how I might build it up into a complete bike. I suspect I bought it on the rebound... feeling some regret that I had resisted the temptation to "liberate" just such a frame (shown above, with more photos here) on my morning commute over the course of one summer.

I then made a serious attempt to pick up this immaculate and original Motobecane mixte on ebay, but gave it up when bidding reached £200.

Then a Puch frame appeared on Ebay, listed by an older chap down on the south coast who commutes into London by Brompton every day. He slung the frame over his shoulder one morning and brought it into town to hand over to me after work in Waterloo station.  Included were the original stem, headset, bottom bracket, brakes (without full cables) and seat post. 

Rural Ramble

I was "supposed" to be #ScotTourTraining today but couldn't quite find my get-up-and-go. To be honest, I just didn't fancy donning all the gear for a serious ride.

So I got the mixte out for a pootle round the neighbourhood.

The road heading south out of the village is still flooded in the dip.

Double The Gears!

My last reports on the renovation of my Puch Princess mixte were back in March: new bars with correct period brake levers, new Brooks saddle, removal of rear rack, new MKS touring pedals with classic French toe clips.

Unfortunately, my experiences with the brake levers were not entirely successful. I like to ride on the hoods, which wasn't the fashion back in the days of so-called non-aero levers. They're just not comfortable on the hands or wrists over a period of time. They had to go.

Somewhere it's spring... but not here

We have snow. Again. It started about 5am, stopped about 9am and has now (2pm) started up again, quite as if it means to carry on for a while. We're going into town to see a movie later - hope the buses are still running!

Meanwhile, we've had a quiet Saturday... starting with a nice lie in (just what the doctor ordered after the week I've had)... followed by what is fast becoming the traditional Saturday omelette... enjoying the cats' antics... then a bit of bike fettling...  Thanks to ebay, Lorelei now has very shiny MKS Touring pedals with Christophe clips and straps. :)

Snowy debut

No pics because we had no time to stop, but this morning Lorelei took me to Harpenden for physio.  In steady falling snow and strong veering winds. Two enforced stops early on -- first to raise saddle (more) and then again to tighten up bolt to keep the saddle's nose from dipping! 

The 'front end' of the bike feels quite strange... partly from not being able to rest hands right over hoods, mostly using suicide levers to brake (meaning hands are closer together at slow speeds and stops -- affects balance more than I expected!). I have no problem with stem-mounted shifters as that hasn't changed, and I quite like friction shifting.

The bike feels quite lively, which confirms what I suspected from the beginning:  the geometry is more "road" than relaxed.  (I can't seem to create a hyperlink for the explanation on this, so here's the URL: http://lovelybike.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/buying-vintage-mixte-what-to-look-for.html).

Pity I needed a saddlebag loaded with clothes and two heavy locks.

Proper outing tomorrow. With photos. Else it didn't happen - right?

Oh for a quiet life!

As some readers know, I am enrolled with the Open University after a 5 year gap, to finish my law degree. On top of working full-time! Although it's a short-term job and is thankfully due to finish 3rd April. My first written assignment was due at midnight last night. I don't know how well I did on it... although I must say I did a sterling job of stressing out in the days leading up to it.  (Trying to re-establish good study habits is tricky now, being part of a family rather than living as a hermit!) So I spend some quality time in bed yesterday afternoon with a migraine and a dose of Imigran. And then got up and finished the assignment. And got it submitted online. With an hour to spare.

I did steal a moment Tuesday morning -- and boy did it feel like 'stealing' when I had to own up to Adam that I hadn't in fact spent the ENTIRE day with my nose in the books! -- to hasten Lorelei's transformation.

Rear rack and kickstand removed. Small things but it made me happy.

And Adam has since finished the brakes.

Our Friday overnight ride from Birmingham to the Rollright Stones looks likely to be cancelled due to forecasts for heavy snow. 

So.... Lorelei may get her new road debut on Saturday morning! :)