Curious bike
#1
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Curious bike
I went to check out a rather enigmatic "touring bike" yesterday afternoon. The CL ad listed it as a custom built touring bike; talking to the owner, an older and very sincere retired gentleman, I was told it was assembled by Hatchers Cycle, in Rockford, MN. The tubing is nice: Ishiwata 022, and the components are decent enough early 80's era Suntour, with rather pedestrian DiaCompe sidepulls and turkey wing levers. A 50/40 crank with a six speed medium range gear in back...not exactly what I'd describe as "touring bike," but not bad and the bike itself is in primo condition. A long-ish serial number on the underside of the BB - those usually aren't very helpful and I didn't write it down. Nicely lugged frame, no chrome, forged dropouts, no other decals except for two Ishiwata 022 labels. Kind of dusty cotton bar wrap. The bike is too small for me: it's a 20.5 or 21" c-c and I'm 6' 1". I didn't even think to take photos at the time (some photography teacher I am!)
So here are the curious parts: (1) The guy is my height, yet the "custom built bike" seemed to me too small for someone that size. Would a custom builder actually have built a touring (or any kind of roadie) that much smaller than the customer? (2) Everything about this bike screams 1980's, but the guy insists it was built in 2005! As I said, he seems to be very sincere (and as a teacher, I've got a pretty good B.S. meter.)
So I drive away thinking to myself, "WTF?" Curious, right? Or am I missing some other very obvious explanation?
So here are the curious parts: (1) The guy is my height, yet the "custom built bike" seemed to me too small for someone that size. Would a custom builder actually have built a touring (or any kind of roadie) that much smaller than the customer? (2) Everything about this bike screams 1980's, but the guy insists it was built in 2005! As I said, he seems to be very sincere (and as a teacher, I've got a pretty good B.S. meter.)
So I drive away thinking to myself, "WTF?" Curious, right? Or am I missing some other very obvious explanation?
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the long serial sequence leads me to think the frame was a production made unit that was later "personalized" by a frame builder which led to confusion about it's origin.
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Frank, that is totally what I believe to be the case also. I'm still confused about the vintage though.
#5
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Confusion between custom-built and custom-assembled.
I love the term "turkey-wing" -in the motorcycle world they are usually called dog-leg.
I love the term "turkey-wing" -in the motorcycle world they are usually called dog-leg.
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did anything look like a custom frame? extra brazeons, fancy luggs? perhaps the frame was custom built up with his old kit. when we first contacted the seller of that whitish Bianchi I just got we were told "it was custom built for the owner". so far the only custom building I see is the odd mix of duraache drive and DiaCompe lever and Victory calipers.
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“One morning you wake up, the girl is gone, the bikes are gone, all that's left behind is a pair of old tires and a tube of tubular glue, all squeezed out"
Sugar "Kane" Kowalczyk
#8
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did anything look like a custom frame? extra brazeons, fancy luggs? perhaps the frame was custom built up with his old kit. when we first contacted the seller of that whitish Bianchi I just got we were told "it was custom built for the owner". so far the only custom building I see is the odd mix of duraache drive and DiaCompe lever and Victory calipers.
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