Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 9,813
Likes: 1,790
From: Northern California
Bikes: Cheltenham-Pedersen racer, Boulder F/S Paris-Roubaix, Varsity racer, '52 Christophe, '62 Continental, '92 Merckx, '75 Limongi, '76 Presto, '72 Gitane SC, '71 Schwinn SS, etc.
Some of this stuff is too cool for me, but the light switch that can easily be turned on quickly with a gloved hand is great.
The Herse stem, if that is original or not, does perhaps take craftsmanship/design elegance to some new level, truly over the top.
The blue bike, man that's a beauty, and those bars, what I would call a Brampton or Brompton(?) bend, is one of my favorites. I might even fit that bike, looks like I could even use a horizontal extension on it that some would find more proper, but some really slick custom stems have been made over the years that, in the interest of mechanical efficiency, made a straight line from the top of the headset to the handlebar, horizontality be damned, a straight line being the most efficient structure in this case.
I bought a Klein from 1999 yesterday, with a Salsa road stem that I'm wondering about.
It's TIG welded, with about a plus-60-degree rise. Might it be custom?
BTW, the early Ross Shaefer bikes were named Red Bush, pre-Salsa.