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I'm very late posting here because I've been under the weather all this week.

First, like so many others, I want to express my gratitude to Velocio for the great work done in creating and maintaining this forum.

We users have perhaps abused Velocio's generosity by allowing one person to be so central. This is something which has happened many times in the world of cycling clubs and the result is usually a collapse when that vital person goes (one classic example - Clarence Wheelers and Alf Whiteway).

I feel the only way forward is for some one else to put their head over the top of the parapet, and preferably more than one person.

Since the high point of my own computer literacy is being just about able to use this forum, I'm afraid I have little to offer beyond moral support and a modest cash contribution if that will help matters.

I joined the Clarion second claim because of the third party insurance that comes with membership, but it does seem a lively club that does a fair amount of actual bike riding, and it's refreshing to find this in these days when so many clubs are in the doldrums.

Is the abandoned bottle on the grass in the Big Ben and statues photo any kind of comment?

Baines Gate

Another one for the completist, and it may well give pleasure to some one.

But you would have thought that a professional trader, asking a thousand pounds, would have taken better photos. Apart from the poor focussing, surely it would have been better to put the (anachronistic) saddle up so that it's higher than the bars - it certainly doesn't look 'gen' as it is. Perhaps the seat pin is stuck?

Also the front wheel is visibly off centre in the forks: is it buckled, are the forks bent, or is the wheel just badly fitted?

I suppose the design isn't weird if you think the most important feature of frame design is to have a very short wheel base. I wouldn't agree with this theory.

Bit of TLC?

No, no amount of tlc would help - I'm pretty sure this is a Raleigh originally badged as a Humber. I'm going by the fork crown.

Photo wouldn't load with post: second try.

Evelyn Hamilton (The Person)

It's unusual nowadays for me to see a copy of Cycling Weekly but, by chance, I happen to have the issue for 3rd October '24. The photo below is on pages 60 and 61.

I'm almost certain the rider on the far right is Evelyn - it looks very much like her, and she's about the right age (Born 1906, so 24 in 1930) and, unlike the others, she has a proper bike - with sprints and tubs - note tapes. CW didn't notice what they'd got in that pic, or possibly didn't care.

She was a remarkable person, even if we don't believe absolutely everything she claimed. Good looking and photogenic she shines out of all those photos with dowdy looking blokes ( I'm including Claud Butler himself and he was generally a bit larger than life).

She claimed to be a champion cyclist and it's not hard to believe she was good, but just what women's championships were there in the 1930's? The French resistance story is great, if it's true, but if she was awarded the Cross of Lorraine it seems surprising that there is no record.

One thing that does seem to be beyond dispute is that she lived to be ninety nine (the same age as Eileen Sheridan). Evelyn certainly is an intriguing character and I hope all the stories are true, but I really would love to see a little more proof.

Evelyn Hamilton (Bike)

The photo in post 5399 shows a very attractive bike - but is it the one actually advertised on Ebay?

I ask because the bike in the photo has a Chater chainset and a Super Champion derailleur, but the text under the Ebay ad states that it has ' a Williams 45 tooth chain ring and a Sturmey hub'. Just wondering.

Thanks for your comment

Two for the price of one

I don't know why I failed to post October's report, but here it is, along with this month's, where the speaker was our own Oliver Schick:

https://www.velouk.net/2024/10/18/feature-the-pedal-club-lunch-october/

https://www.velouk.net/2024/11/26/news-the-pedal-club-lunch-november/

Musk Biography in Comic Strip Form

On Oliver Schick's suggestion I am reposting this here (previously on Reading thread)

https://www.editions-delcourt.fr/bd/album-elon-musk

This has not been published in English, but if you can read French (even with Google translate) you will find it interesting.

There seems to be no public explanation as to why there has been no publication in English, but since there would obviously be a big market one can only speculate. However, since Mr. Musk is such an eloquent advocate of free speech, it's a bit surprising he hasn't stepped in to ensure full circulation in the anglophone world.

Some might make a comparison between this work and L.A. Confidentiel which also was never published in English but was readily available in French. I believe the French courts were less sympathetic to Armstrong than the English and American Courts. I'm sure that this book played a significant part in Lance's downfall.

If you follow the link above you can read the opening pages (as a trailer). I've done this and ordered my copy.

Thanet

Les Cassell was clearly a clever bloke - not so much as a bike frame designer, but as a self publicist. The Thanet design seems to be addressing a non existent problem, but there's always a small market for weird frames - it has to be small because if lots of people had them they wouldn't be weird any more and so lose their attraction.

Hilary Stone has written a good pamphlet on Thanet, and I seem to remember that he says local clubmen laughed at them, calling them 'ploughs'. It wasn't unknown for the BB to break out of its 'truss' and no one could claim they were aero!

If you are a rich completist frame collector then the price quoted will seem reasonable. If you want a sensible vintage bike to ride, forget it.

Elon Musk in Cartoon Form

I'm sure some people on here remember'L.A. Confidentiel' which must have been an important factor in Lance's downfall. It was never published in English because of threats from Lance's lawyers, but the French courts were clearly unsympathetic and publication went ahead there.

Now we have this:
https://www.editions-delcourt.fr/bd/album-elon-musk

A cartoon strip biography of the great defender of free speech, published only in French because no English publisher would print it.

Forbidden fruit are irresistible so I've ordered my copy- I've also read what's available as a trailer on line and it seems to live up to expectations

Great pictures, both of them.

The later one, being well focussed, has excellent detail - is that bike a New Hudson?

It certainly looks as though your Gt. Grandad wasn't planning to hang about, with that big chain ring (50, 52 ?) and open side tyres. I also note that his saddle is a bit higher than the handlebars, so it's not a sit up and beg position.

In fact this bike is quite close to what I was trying to imitate with my Sunbeam roadster, although I've got a 44 ring and no aspiration to speed.

Let me hazard a guess at dates: The Penny must be 1880's and the later one about 1905?

Coppi and the 'conversion look'

Coppi was the master of looking cool and stylish on a bike - you might almost say he invented the concept.

I was aware of his choice of ends for track. I will admit I was surprised the first time I saw one, which was in the bike museum in Novi Ligure. That machine also had campag q.r, skewers with the release levers cut to about half their normal length; track regs? look, if you've paid a big chunk of start money to Il Campionissimo you're not going to tell him he can't start because of his bike!

I'm not sure where I heard this, but there is a story that Coppi's track bikes are more common than you might expect. This is because when he went to a track meeting (outside Italy, at least) he would take a spare bike 'just in case'. Being a thrifty (and shrewd) Italian peasant, he would sell the spare bike before returning home. I guess Bianchi winked at this, thinking the publicity was more valuable than the bike.

Your post 2997,

The rear ends on that Condor Tempo are exactly like the tradtional ends which I refer to in my post 2980 - the style which I date (roughly) from 1910 -1980. If something lasts a long time there must be something good about it!

You refer to the Tempo ends as being 'horizontal', but in fact they slope down towards the front. This is, as stated above, to allow for the wheel to be moved while still keeping the brake block alignment.

Back to my Question

In the interesting discussion above some good suggestions have been made for how to deal with the problems arising from using track ends for normal road riding, but so far as I can see no actual benefits have been suggested; that is, in comparison with traditional, angled, forward facing dropouts. Track ends are better for a single gear than vertical drop outs, but that's just stating the obvious.

Is this the conclusion: Track ends can be used for road, but they cause some small problems which can be overcome with a little ingenuity. There are no benefits?

Turning the Wheel

The subject of track and road ends has provoked a livelier discussion that I would have expected. Here are two photos which may be of interest.

Sylvere Maes was the winner of the 1936 Tour which was the last to be run without derailleurs. This picture shows him about to remount after changing gear. Interestingly, the caption is wrong since it states the he is about to change (va changer) for the descent, but it's quite clear that the wheel has already been turned since the chain is on a small sprocket while the larger sprocket is on the left.
I'm pretty certain these are forward opening drop outs.

The other pic shows the little hook (usually a nail head) on the right hand chainstay of a pre-war frame. This is intended to catch and support the chain while the wheel is being turned. This frame also has forward opening drop outs.

I think Condor at one point made a fixed gear frameset with horizontal dropouts precisely for this reason

This sounds interesting, but I really don't quite understand how this was supposed to work.

For what it's worth, I have tried removing the back wheel from my Gillott (see post 2980 above) and it's tight, but it can just be done without delating the tyre. It's perhaps worth noting that this frame is now quite a way from the builder's original intentions, since it now has Campag ends and 700 wheels (probably intended for 26" since it dates from about 1950)

Yes, I was going back that far!

My comment wasn't intended to be about something I'd done myself, it was just a general remark about the possible advantages of track ends.

In fact, when I was very young I did ride a few TT's - on fixed, and I think I always rode out to the start. As far as I can remember I just rode on the wheels I was going to race on and hoped for the best, but of course I didn't have superlight tubs.

A little anecdote from that time. One of my young clubmates (probably 16 years of age) rode out from Hounslow to Pangbourne Lane (West of Reading, at least 30 miles) to ride his first 50. After getting to the start, he lost his nerve and decided that even if he could manage 50 miles at race speed, he would be too knackered to do the final 30 back home. So, when none of his mates were looking, he let one of his tubs down and told them that he had punctured and was going to DNS. (Again, he must have ridden out on his racing wheels)

The striking thing here is that adult clubmates would think it OK to take a 16 year old out to a TT which was going to involve a 110 mile round trip!

Yes, I'm sure you're correct, the axle should not 'creep forward' and even if it did it would not move evenly, but jam as mentioned above.

On your second point, I think there's something in what you say. Nowadays very few people actually ride their bikes to races and, as you say, we have multiple bikes.

However, track ends must give more scope for chain adjustment, so you can have a bigger difference between the sprockets on a double sided hub, which might be useful to an ambitious time triallist riding out to a flat course suitable for a big gear. Is there anyone who would still do that?

Hi Chaley, I'm sure you yourself always tighten those wheel nuts efficiently, and possibly that's why you haven't noticed that if you don't get them tight the wheel just pulls over and jams against the left hand chainstay. It must be practically impossible to get the wheel to fall out of the frame in that way - I've never seen or heard of it happening.

However, it's certainly true that there is a theory that it can happen - just no evidence!

Ultimately the best solution to keep a rear brake aligned on a fixed wheel bike is to use a rear disc brake and sliding dropouts.

There is a much simpler solution.

The forward opening dropouts which were a standard feature on road frames for many decades (say 1910 - 1980, at least) are angled down towards the front. This is precisely to maintain the correct angle of the brake blocks (pads if you will) as the wheel moves in the
fork end.

The attached pic of my Gillott shows this angle - I could find a clearer example, but I happen to have this one conveniently to hand.

A question: for non track use, can anyone explain why it is better to have rearward opening ends for fixed?

I can see disadvantages (eg: with mudguards it's difficult to get the wheel out to change a punctured tube), but no real advantages.

If you're concerned that the top tube is too short, it seems odd that you have the saddle set about as far forward as it will go.

You should be aware (perhaps you are already) that those existing brake linings are probably asbestos, so be careful with the dust. It's carcinogenic.

It would almost certainly be possible to find some one in the old car business who could reline your existing shoes with non asbestos material, but it's worth mentioning that I've heard the modern linings don't work as well as the old asbestos type.

A Question

The Gazelle's rear derailleur - has the jockey wheel cage been turned upside down, or did it start life like that?

VCC Photo

Sunbeam