cudak888 

Today marked another weekend of bike shop hopping, including a trip to the local co-op, where I found this Roberts:





Once again, I'm putting some money aside for a bike that I don't need. Unfortunately, not for sale...yet.

That didn't stop me from throwing my hat into the ring for it already. I found the pairing of the Nuovo RD with the Super Maxy front crankset interesting - though there's way too much chain here (not the co-op's fault, they have a gazillion bikes and this hasn't even been looked at yet). I'm already envisioning a spare, black anodized SR drillium chainring on it, even though I have no business working my way towards a bike that isn't even on the market yet.

The shop - Recyclable Bicycle Exchange of Ft. Lauderdale, also has more youth-sized track bikes than I've ever seen in my life. These were the big ones - 50cm was the biggest, I believe (and if not, they started at 48cm). There was another row of them that were tiny and just had to be 650C. Not sure, couldn't tell.

I've seen Andante badging on any frame you can imagine, so there's no telling what these are - probably frames from a South American builder. They're the ACME Bicycle Corp. of this region, really.



The owner of the co-op also hooked me up with a super nice B.Cycle station sign for the Bike Share Museum and gave me a tour of the facilities - the Broward B.Cycle system is without a doubt one of the cleanest, nicest bike share operations I've seen.

Sure makes you think "London Underground," doesn't it?



-Kurt

3speedslow

Awesome world you got down there!

cudak888 

In my 5-6 year absence from the hobby, I thought it had all disappeared. Nope - just had to visit some new shops!

-Kurt

52telecaster

Love the bike underground sign!

bwilli88 

You have more info on the kids track bikes?

cudak888 

Here's what happened - and in response to your PM, I might have misled you as I thought you were asking about the 650C-sized bikes:

What you see are about 20 ~48cm 700C kids-sized, lugged steel track bikes made by a Columbian framebuilder (from Columbus tubing, so I hear) for the Brian Piccolo Park Velodrome in Broward County, Florida. The framebuilding was contracted through a local shop, Andante Bicycles, that has the connections - they'd ship Columbus tube to the builder, it'd come back as a bike. Another 20 are pint-sized, 650C track bikes.

I don't know whether the kids' program was scrapped at the Velodrome or if they just updated the fleet, but the co-op - technically a non-profit 501(c)(3) - Recyclable Bicycle Exchange, acquired all of them upon their retirement. So far, there's been very little interest in youth track bikes, so they've been hanging up for a few years now. They are now moving from their original location and they're disposing of a lot (pics to follow of some interesting stuff).

I don't think these track frames are going to get chucked, but I did want to put a few to good use. I don't usually mention it, but I currently work at a university-based non-profit for kids bike riding/bike safety ( https://twitter.com/ibikesafe ), and I convinced the staff that we needed to save few of the little 650C buggers (once for lugged steel, always for lugged steel) for our program, converted to upright-bar bikes a-la Raleigh Space Riders.

Jeff at RBX donated them directly to BikeSafe, and while I presently have the bikes in my personal shop right now, they're not mine.

FYI, we (BikeSafe) would benefit greatly by donations of 650C tires, tubes, kids-sized North Road handlebars, and single speed freewheels to make these conversions happen. Just sayin'.







You can text Jeff (at the shop's # - 954-540-7609), and see what he says about the others for your grandkids. I think Jeff prefers merit-based assistance in the shop, so I'm not sure how a remote thing could work out. Talk to him and see what he'd be interested in doing, and then we can talk about how I could facilitate.

This shop is a good 30 miles north of me, so going there once a month is about max for me, and the only reason I brought three Andantes is because I had a rental pickup truck at the time.

Pics incoming of a few other interesting finds in the old shop.

cudak888 

From the old shop:

Fantastic Sugino crankset on a relatively meh Japanese bike:



Late model Nishiki International with some nice Suntour:



Schwinn Passage with a bent fork:

juvela

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Thanks very much for posting - fun thread!

Roberts was known for bespoke touring framesets in the late '70's - early '80's era of this machine.

Did you examine the white Bianchi Forza immediately to the left of the Roberts in the first two images?

If Andante is the ACME of south Florida it must be where Wiley Coyote orders all of his machines...

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cudak888 

Far as I know, this is a Chas-era Roberts frameset. Would look really nice with a set of Bluemels. It doesn't have front pannier attachments though, so it's probably not a full touring machine.

The Forza is a '90s-era frame with a unicrown fork and Japanese components. It may be a nice rider, but it really doesn't interest me. Seemed to be in nice shape though.

The Andantes are a bit crude, but they're solidly built.

-Kurt

wrk101

Yep, the sources continue to change. Those that change with it can prosper. Those that are looking in the same old tired spots tend to no longer find anything. "Where have all the old bikes gone?" They are out there. You are just looking in the wrong places.

One thing I like about looking when on a road trip is I sometimes discover an entirely new source.

cudak888 

Not to mention the folks you meet! Jeff is an amazing guy - in addition to running Recyclable Bicycle Exchange, he also runs the B-Cycle bike share in Broward. His main RBX mechanic volunteer, John - in the picture with me - shares a love of tinkering with both bikes and high-end computers for video editing.

It's a small world.

-Kurt

SilverSteve

Nice find, brother. Is the background of your pictures of your bike collection or the interior of the bike co-op there? I'm gonna pay a visit to that co-op when I'm in Florida if it is.! Roberts; is that the same company that made whoop-ass stereo receivers and reel-to-reel tape decks back in the long haired 1970s, like Panasonic? They were recording studio quality and probably helped to make vinyl records for rock bands and solo artists alike. Good stuff.!

cudak888 

All the co-op. Call Jeff to make sure it'll be open when you come. Not many other 531 frames there, but if you like 3-speeds, there's a fair amount of them there...ask Jeff. His phone # is above; texting is his preferred communication method above any other.

No relation to that Roberts. This was a family-owned UK framebuilding shop that was in business until 2015. Pretty decent Wiki article on them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberts_Cycles

-Kurt