Hey, Mike:
I was going to ask if you were "Rigger Mike" of U.C. Berkely boathouse fame; but now that I see your email address (Crankyrigger), I know that you must indeed be him. ;) Welcome to the list.
Kerrigan Bennett Oakland, CA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Crankyrigger@cs.com Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2003 12:38 PM To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Introduction
Greetings
My name is Mike Fennelly. I have been reading the archives for several months now and have decided to try subscribing. I live in Alameda, CA. I make my living working on racing shells, but I find bicycles much more intriguing. My first "real" bike was a Falcon San Remo in 1974, full NR and Phil Wood. My nicest current rider is a 1998 Rivendell.
Several months ago I inherited a number of classics from an old friend. By far the nicest is an Ohrt ladies town bike with 650B wheels. It appears to be almost entirely original. The one glaring exception is a pair of godawful red Hunt-Wilde grips. The bike is red with chrome fork ends and stays, green and white box pinstriping. It has LeFol Balafon fenders with matching red and green stripes. The crank is Stronglight with the Touriste chainrings. The rear
derailleur is a Simplex Tour de France (I think) with a four speed freewheel. It has matching racks with JOS lights and a Radios generator. The handlebars are moustache type with Mafac levers. Cables are internally routed to some very low profile steel cantilevers. The tires are matching red Dunlops. All in all it is a very nice old bike, but I would welcome any advice about a proper handlebar treatment to replace the grips. The story that goes with this bike is that Ohrt kept it in the shop for years because Katherine Hepburn rode it when she visited San Francisco. I can't prove that, but my friend eventually wore him down and purchased the bike some time before 1959.
I also have two other Ohrt touring bikes. These are his and hers, very well used, with 700C wheels. I doubt that much of these bikes are original, but they are still unique. In the summer of 1959, my friend and his wife rode them on a three month tour from Oakland, CA to Vancouver, BC and back, totally unsupported and camping out every night.
The final Ohrt was another 700C ladies touring bike purchased as a spare. It was never ridden, but stripped for parts over the years. The frame, fork, fenders, racks, and cranks are all NOS. All the Ohrts still have their original matching Ad Hoc pumps. The ladies 700C bikes have drilled fenders, and I have the original elastic skirt guards.
The last bike is a nice Flying Scot touring bike with a 26" (!) frame. It is in excellent shape, in spite of being my friend's commuter for years. The dark blue enamel and champagne decals are in fine condition, and the racks and Bluemels Airweight fenders are straight. Although a few of the parts are not likely to be original, the only really inappropriate component is the Deore rear derailleur. I would also appreciate any advice on a more proper touring derailleur for this bike. It has old Campagnolo dropouts. My friend says the original was a Simplex that was notorious for bending into the spokes. My favorite parts on this bike are the Cyclo bar end shifters.
Wow, this is by far the longest e-mail I've ever sent, hope it's not too
tedious. I've learned a lot from this list, and hope to learn much more in the future. As I look at my small collection, the most important less I've learned is be nice to older people and when they ask you to help them move to their retirement home, do it.
Mike Fennelly
Alameda, CA