Louis wrote:
"I wish someone could find something interesting to say about vintage bikes, but I haven't heard anything lately."
I'm not surprised you are bored by look alike bikes. I am too!
What excites me is when I see a way of constructing a bike where the builder could have done things the "traditional" way but chose not to.
Some examples of bikes that really captured my attention:
Mecacycle turbo - short wheelbase "unicrown" split seat tube matching the appearance of the "unicrown" fork All fillet brazed. I ended up buying one of these just for the kick I would get out of looking at it from time to time.
Calzone - conventional Italian bike from Torino but distinguished by pale green metallic paint every bit as distinct and engaging as Gios blue. Exceptionally deft cable routing thru the bottom bracket and out the chainstay and seat tube that made all the other bikes around seem clumsy in their handling of control cables. Subtle and exceptionally nice filing of the lugs to consistently minimal thickness. I imported these for a while.
3Rensho - every bike a little different - ever imaginative but sometimes even wacky constructions that could never be mistaken for any other bike - consistently imaginative graphics - style, style, style, and amazingly tasteful color selection (love that baby blue pearl!). I would go to each yearly bike show eager to see what new franes would be on display. I just missed several opportunities to be the importer of these bikes and now I wished I'd tried a little harder.
Zunow - If 3Rensho rocked my world, Zunow knocked me out. Utterly unique constructions by Kageyama with ideas ultimately copied by many other builders. "Monocoque" (in steel) construction that later appeared as the Cinelli Lazer. Amazing Hummingbird logo cast into fork crown, bottom bracket, and elsewhere. Everything else engraved. Complex graphics that swirl around the tubes. Endless new ideas like integrated suspension. Bold use of color and no reluctance to draw attention to itself - think fourth of july fireworks! Intended to be looked at!!! I could go on and on. I count myself fortunate to have been able to import Zunow for awhile and to get to know the Zunow team.
Sabliere - from my first sighting, I was in love with this bike. Ovalized tube ends in lugless steel construction with minimalist fillets. Fabricated fork crown and "Breezer like" dropouts. Later I saw brazed aluminum frames with large (not to big and not too small - just right) flowing fillet joints as nice as any I've ever seen. The name of the builder deeply engraved in the bare aluminum left chainstay. Impossably subtle and yet bold!
Mairag - Clean lugged construction with proportionally sized lightening holes around the head lugs. The most subtle fork crown I've ever seen, totally machined from one piece of steel, a diminutive two plate effect. I'd like to have one of those crowns as a paperweight to remind me how much the materials you have to build with really do matter. Typically fussy "Swiss" graphics (but better than Mondia or Allegro) that matched and enhanced the frame details. One look in their shop and at all their machinery to realize this had to be Switzerland and not Italy! I had the chance to import these and I'm sure sorry I passed.
Mobius - from one of those incredibly tiny and crowded shops one finds in Japan (I came across the shop quite by accident on one of my rambles in Tokyo, although I already knew about Mobius) come frames that look like, well, a Mobius in the frame tubes and stays. Simply jaw dropping mitering and fillet brazing make these "art" frames. A singular vision of one builder.
Freschi - my most recent acquisition. Looks like 100 other Itailian bikes, judging by the graphics, until you start looking closely and realize that each little aspect of the bike is subtly different from the "traditional" Italian frame. All the braze-ons have diamond reinforcements, the seat cluster is unique, the cable guides are fabricated and bolt ons. Start looking and you see more and more unique details. (I'm looking for a pair of Campy calipers, countersunk and 44mm reach, to put on this frame).
I've probably revealed a bit more about myself than I should in these recollections (and I haven't mentioned my own one-off frames).
But nothing to say??? I'm stopping now because I'm hungry, otherwise I could go on all day.
Cheers to Norris, who is "educating" us about unique British bikes.
Hugh Enox
Sunny La Honda