mapleleafs-13 

Post any interesting fun facts having to do with C&V. Unique stuff, funny stories about the companies, histories, riders etc.

I always like hearing interesting facts and stories so let's share!!!

thinktubes 

Apparently, cabin fever has arrived early this year.

cyclotoine

^ It's about -5 here and the streets are covered in ice. No biking or skiing.. yet... so yeah.

thinktubes 

F or C?

mapleleafs-13 

you guys are no fun.

i'll start.

An old italian dude in toronto told me where the color Celeste from Bianchi came from. Supposedly Bianchi bought tons of left over military surplus green paint from the army way back. They then diluted it with white paint and eventually Celeste was born. Supposedly back then the celeste shades did vary a lot due to the different mixtures.

Rocket-Sauce 

There are two forms of competitive rowing:

• In SWEEP rowing, each rower has one oar, held with both hands. This is generally done in pairs (coxless 2-, or coxed 2+), fours (coxless 4-, or coxed 4+), and eights (all coxed 8+). In some regions of the world, each rower in a sweep boat is referred to either as port or starboard, depending on which side of the boat the rower's oar extends to. In other regions, the port side is referred to as stroke-side, and the starboard side as bow-side; this applies even if the stroke oarsman is rowing on bow side and/or the bow oarsman on stroke side.
  

• In SCULLING, each rower has two oars (or sculls), one in each hand. Sculling is usually done without a coxswain, in quads (4X), doubles (2X), or singles (1X). The oar in the sculler's right hand extends to port (stroke side), and the oar in the left hand extends to starboard (bow side).

look171

I thought I was pretty cool guy, relax and easy going guy. Until I got marry, then everyday day after that, my wife tells me there's something wrong with me or reminds me of all my flaws. I really did not know that.

ftwelder

Awesome post, best of luck to you.

In 1900 there was two U.S. patent offices in NYC. One was for bicycles and the other for everything else.

The Bridgeport mill (the standard for machining metal) was invented for bicycle manufacturing.

The tangent laced wheel has an extremely high strength to weight ratio. It's one of man's greatest creations. Ball bearings, drive chains and industrial thread standardization were invented for bicycles also.

There were over 1000 bicycle related brands in the states in 1900.

It was in the 40's today. Winter seems to be here already.

rootboy 

I'm gonna learn a lot from this thread.
I don't know how much a whole lotta 9's is.

StevePGN10

Would you have a reference for that? As far as I know it has always been in DC.

rootboy 

I didn't know that.

rootboy 

Did you know...

that Merino wool doesn't come from Merinos, which went extinct long ago.

and mink oil doesn't come from minks. Which I'm pretty sure are still around.

PedalTraveler

Some Ross lugged bicycles that were made in USA have a patent stamped on the head lug (hard to see under paint) that refers to the process of manufacture.

rootboy 

Oh. C&V related?

did you know the paint on this bike contains powdered fish scales as the pearl additive? I didn't either, until a while ago.
And I still don't know if I buy it.

look171

It was suppose to be a joke, although it does feel like that sometimes.

Ok, I am serious with this one. Due to the huge amount of fish diet in the Pacific NW, Lois and Clark traded the lcoal Indians for their dogs and ate them because they were craving for meat.

rootboy 

You mean Lois Lane and Clark Kent? Damn. I didn't know that either.

look171

AHAHAHAHAH. How did I screw up that badly? Yeah, that exactly what I meant as I am just done trying to fit my little one into his brother's old Stuperman Halloween costume at this very moment.

16Victor

Well once upon a time fish scales were indeed used, but I believe that was about 60 years ago...mostly aluminum and titanium flakes now, IIRC.

iab

In the late 1930s Arrigo and Giotto Cinelli started Cinelli Co in Florence.
In 1948 Cino Cinelli took over the business and moved it to Milan.
Giotto went to work molding plastics.
Arrigo kept on making handlebars, motorcycle handlebars.

An Arrigo Cinelli bicycle stem is silly expensive.




An Arrigo Cinelli motorcycle handlebar is 20 Euro.

https://www.ebay.it/itm/manubrio-nuov...7b3863b&_uhb=1

rootboy 

Well, that frame is 50 years old this year, so it could be. Some fella on the CR list was espousing about the Frejus blue paint.
I believe him, I guess. Makes sense I suppose. Plenty of fish in Italian waters back then.

rootboy 

Then you're a lucky man,

16Victor

On your next trip along Interstate 75 in west central Ohio, stop off at exit 102 (between Sidney and Wapakoneta) and go 11 miles west on Ohio 274 to the Bicycle Museum of America in the little town of New Bremen (kept immaculately clean from the benevolence and significant ownership of the Dicke family, who own Crown Equipment, a major liftruck manufacturer headquartered there). The museum is free and very well done, filled with interesting bikes of all types. Well worth the stop...it's been a few years since I've been there and I look forward to my next sales visit to Crown to have an excuse to visit again.

Pompiere

As an old sailor, I have to disagree. Port is left, Starboard is right.

ftwelder

I am sure you are correct.

Italuminium

...Two guys decided to try their luck in the Dutch East Indies, but were too poor for the boat, so they cycled all the way instead?

...The Koga in Koga Miyata sounds Japanese, but isn't - it's a contraction of the last names of the founder and his wife's maiden name.

...The first Dutch National Championships were disrupted by angry crowds of orthodox protestant churchgoers who considered cycling a vain and vicious pastime?

...One of the greatest pre-war cyclist, cycling writers and olympians jhr. Gerard Bosch van Drakestein frequently rode under pseudonyms like "Ulysses" and "Bismarck" to hide his noble parentage, since cycling was considered a working mans' sport by then?

Dutch office out.