Re: [CR]Got Monkey? (long)

(Example: Production Builders:LeJeune)

Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 16:31:21 -0700
From: "Brian Baylis" <rocklube@adnc.com>
To: Brandon Ives <monkeylad@mac.com>
Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]Got Monkey? (long)
References: <a05100301b903d8977a71@[10.0.1.2]>


Hey Late For Beer,

Long time no see! Monkeylad Lives! No need to give up something FUN like surfing for the dull routine of hacking out tubes arranged in geometric shapes with the goal of suspending a human form of locomotion for the purpose of transportation. Framebuilding will still be here when you finally get too waterlogged to float and your core body temp. is a steady 96 degrees. Nothing drastic has happened in the past 100 years (don't take that too literally) in bike frames; you're not likely to miss much. What is it about the phrase "Mitzi's Mixte" that gives me the feeling I'm about to enter a tonguetwister?

Looking forward to the musings from the lad trapped in a monkeysuit. Don't let Ivycycles grow too much moss, though. Comming down to Pasadena in Oct. for the 2nd Annual Velo Rendezvous? I hear on Fri. there will be some has-been old hack who will be passing on to anyone who may be interested in such foolishness, some "vintage framebuilder tricks". Highlights of this live demonstration format symposium on "framebuilding methods of the past" include what to do once you realize that you have brazed your fingertips together inside the BB shell as you were working on the chainstays. How to look casual after you drag your entire frame fixture and pinned frame to the floor after having pinned your jacket to the frame. "I meant to do that" comes to mind. How to administer the "tounge test" to indicate metal temperature. Entry forms for the "most interesting burn" contest will be available at the door. Last years winner was a beautiful imprint of a Joe Breeze dropout (name imprint intact) on the forehead of framebuilder (insert funny name here) as he took one in the head from his partner who spun about with the hot iron for his friend to check out. Accidents can happen, but sometimes the results can be beautiful. Infomercial over; just make sure you join us at Velo Rendezvous this year.

Welcome back Monkeybrain (and I mean that in a good way) ;-).

Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA
>
> If not now you do. I'M BACK, after my extended hiatus to "get stuff
> done." I've been lurking for a couple weeks and decided I should
> announce my reentry back to the list. So anyway. . . when last we
> saw our hero he was getting ready to start building frames under the
> Ivycycles moniker. Well two thing happened that has kept that goal
> at bay for the time being. First I was unable to keep flammable
> gasses at my apartment/workspace, thus making it quite difficult to
> join lugs and tubes with fire. Second was I found surfing. As many
> of you know I'm now in beautiful Santa Barbara, California where
> small waves lap the sands everyday. It's a great and fun sport with
> a lot in common with cycling as far as lifestyle and personalities.
> Alas this all means Ivycycles is on the back burner for the time
> being. Though I've still got some designs going on and I'm mitering
> and jigging Mitzi's mixtie.
>
> I've noticed a lot of new names on the list so here's the whole bio
> rundown. I'm an unrepentant bike nut and geek. I'm 33 (as of
> tomorrow) and married to Mitzi who's a great companion and bike nut.
> I play a kinda accountant for the UCSB Chemical Engineering
> department, while Mitz is an Ph.D candidate in Art History here.
> I've been a cyclist for about 25 years and spent 15 of those as a
> professional mechanic. If it's a bicycle I've owned it or worked on
> it. Right now I own about a dozen bikes with a few of them actually
> classic and the others are just different. I've gone through my
> fat-tire cruiser phase, my Italian and British bike phase, my
> go-fast bike phase, my 70s-80s bike phase, but now I'm over all that.
> You might also know one of my web pages
> http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~mkirklan/classiclinks.html and I still
> need submissions.
>
> Now the stuff I'm interested now is small builders stuff from between
> the American bike booms, roughly 1915-196. I like interesting bikes
> like the Hurtu that was listed the other day. You guys can keep your
> Raleigh's and Masi's, I'll take an early Albert Eisentraut, "Pop"
> Brennan, or Alex Singer anyday. I've never been a very good racer so
> I don't really care about "go fast" bikes and I really like bikes
> designed to take a beating. I really like rough-stuff bikes, though
> so little information is available for them in the states. I also
> have a soft spot for older tandems and rue the day that I sold my
> prewar Barre tandem. I've also started looking at Japanese bikes
> more these days. The exception to my "go fast" rules are track
> bikes, I love the track since it's cycling in its simplest form.
> I've long gotten over my Campagnolo blindness and though I still have
> boxes of the stuff it just bores me now. I'll take Sturmey-Archer,
> Suntour, and Mavic any day over another Record deraileur to shift my
> gears, and Weyless or Maxi-Car to spin my wheels.
>
> I believe a bike is more interesting with it's battle scars, restored
> bikes leave me cold. This is not to say no bikes should ever be
> restored, but bikes that show their miles are much more interesting
> to me. Bikes with mismatching rims, some paint chips, and a missing
> headbadge tells a story. Period correct restored bikes really don't
> tell you anything about what the bike's been through over all those
> years. It's really where you draw the line on "how trashed is
> trashed?" Also, wether you're more into history or aesthetics. I
> count some of the "big name" restorers as my friends so don't take
> these words as bashing the lads and ladies in that profession. With
> all that said I do have some bikes that will be restored since they
> have more battle wounds than scars. The ride or not to ride question
> is always interesting. If it's restored ride it, it can always be
> restored again. If it all original that's another matter. I REALLY
> believe in preservation of history. It not that these bikes should
> never be ridden, but they should be ridden very carefully and at
> appropriate times. And there's nothing wrong with lending bikes to a
> museum. The reason we have so little information on bikes made 50+
> years ago is because no one ever thought about preservation then. I
> really believe we need to leave things for the bike geeks to come so
> that they will have the answers we don't. Think of how nice it would
> be to have the information and evidence to answer a lot of the
> questions that come up. Instead we have a lot of 3rd hand
> information, speculation, and educated guesses. We're not going to
> be there in person to answer all the questions in the future, but
> it's up to us to assure the questions get answered.
>
> Well I think I've bored you folks tears by now, so to close I'll just
> say I like bikes.
>
> enjoy,
> monkeylad aka monkeyman (known the the IRS as Brandon Ives)
> way too sunny Santa Barbara, Caifornia
> http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~mkirklan/
>
> PS: Some of you might note that I'm now monkeylad, but you can still
> call me monkeyman. Just don't call me late for beer.
> --