cocoabeachcrab 

after reading with interest this thread.. How Rare Are 1900s - 1920s Road Bikes? , i was reminded of a covid lockdown project i was pondering... a faux vintage look alike but with easier to find components and frameset. i have an early 70's Moto grand record frame that is rough but undamaged, and had considered doing a weathered and aged paint job with lug lining to accent those nice lugs, maybe some Lauterwasser bars, a well worn leather saddle, that sort of look. no labels or decals on the frame, just going for an old timey look but easier to source parts for servicing. anyone have some inspiration pics of projects like this on this nor easter day for me to drool over?

BFisher

I don't have a photo, but I did something like that to a $10 brown Schwinn Suburban a few years back. Rubbed out all of the graphics, Soma Lauterwasser bars, single speed wheels with aluminum rims. It definitely had the look with the slack frame angles. It was a fun build, but I didn't ride it much. Ended up donating it.

RustyJames 

Many of my bikes are ratty enough to make this a 20 minute job.

BikingViking793 

sounds like a fun idea.

rustystrings61 

I have a couple of fixed-gear conversions that, with different brake levers with non-aero cable routing, and perhaps different bars, would be reasonable enough budget facsimiles of interwar road racing bikes.

There's the battered '71 Gitane TdF, which has a slack enough seat tube to work well and we'll ignore the head tube being a tad too upright for complete historical accuracy, but the patina - oh, my yes, the patina is glorious!


Then there's the all-roads configured '73 Raleigh Competition, which takes larger tires and is awesome on dirt and gravel roads. This is the one set up with 42/44T chainrings and a Surly 17/19T fixed Dingle cog on one side of the hub and a White Industries Dos Eno 20/22T on the other, so without cross chaining I have 70-in fixed pavement and 60-in fixed gravel gears or 60-in general and 52-in singletrack coasting choices. I need to ride this one more.


But the one I have had longest is this 2002 Mercian Vincitore, which was built to be a replica of a late 40s-early 50s road-track iron with dimensions and fittings compatible with modern parts. 72x72 angles (approximately, the head is tad steeper than that) and its only real flaw is my fault - I specified 28s and fenders, and if I were doing it over again I would say at least 32, and maybe brazed-on posts for Weinmann 999 centerpulls.

nlerner

Somewhat along these lines, for one of the Velo Cheapo contests, I turned this:



into this:

cocoabeachcrab 

wowzers

1989Pre 

Here's a photo of a British cycle shoppe in 1908. Notice the "well-back" angles on the racer on the left.
This is what you'd want, optimally.

rustystrings61 

It's only fair to warn you - this can be a dangerous path.

I used to ride lovely bicycles with nice bling-y bits. I had lovingly restored vintage bikes, and for a dozen years there a Joe Starck-built Rivendell Road Custom with all the approved retrogrouch bling - Nitto everything with T.A. Zephyr triple on an Axix BB AND the sealed bearing T.A. pedals, even. I think the only Grant P. box I didn't have checked on that bike was I had no Phil on it anywhere. Only the Mercian above survives, sufficiently worn and torn and ridden for several years as a daily commuter to free it from the hangar queen prison.

Now I ride mostly beaters and couldn't be happier. Projects like this make me smile, they tickle the same spots the Clunker Challenge does, they please my inner cheapskate and stimulate that part of my brain that likes homebrew solutions to problems anyone else would throw money at. The sentence that comes to me nearly 50 years after I first read it was in Richard Ballentine's Richard's Bicycle Book - "One of my greatest, happiest tours was on a battered 1935 B.S.A. that shed its parts like water." There is just something so delicious about deliberately choosing to ride a bike that looks like it came out of Olduvai Gorge.

I don't have ready pix of these, but just for fun here are links to an early 80s Trek pretending to be a British clubman's fixed gear, and here's a vintage Falcon I rode c.2001-2002. I regret that I don't have pix of the other bikes I set up this way - another green Gitane TdF, a c.1958 Raleigh Lenton that came to me as a rattle-canned frameset, a dented but still cool Gitane Super Corsa (also a bare frame, no treasures were drewed, etc.), and the one I miss the most of all, a once-lagoon-blue-and-white 1971 Raleigh Competition I plucked from a roadside trash heap that I spotted at dusk as I drove past it. Even underneath the multiple layers of Krylon and exterior latex I knew it was something special.

cocoabeachcrab 

great to read on this blustery day! i have to see if the moto grand record will handle the 38mm 700c tires i have set aside for this project. if not, i have a slightly too tall coffee brown early 70's italvega gran turismo that might be a good candidate. i'll need a weird and classy headtube badge for my fake oldie reproduction build (and while i typed this, it occurred to me to most folks might consider the 70's era as being old all on it's own!)

jamesdak 

Well to be honest for me if it doesn't have that crazy relaxed geometry of a true classic path racer it just won't do. I kept toying with finding a real path racer or making my own for several years. I just didn't want to settle for using a regular road frame to create one. So for the first time in years I bought a new bike to scratch this itch last winter and am totally happy with my choice. Just throwing that out there in case it's something in the back of your mind.

The Pashley Guv'nor is so beautiful and rides so well. It's heavy but it will get up and move just fine on primarily flat rides. I'm loving mine. I also didn't think it was really all that expensive today when compared to the cost of some many other new bikes.

iab

If you really want the pathracer experience, I recommend finding the worst brakes possible. Good times.

cocoabeachcrab 

that would be mahvelous if i was willing to have it shoved up my butt after my wife found out what it costs! and that is assuming there will still be room up my butt after the 1957 Viking "Tour of Great Britain" arrives tomorrow!

jamesdak 

Divorce is such a liberating thing.

cocoabeachcrab 

after all the effort getting trained, (and the thrill of getting away with something...), i think i'll keep her!

veloz

Started as a '88 Schwinn Traveler - True-Temper, Greenville, MS. There was a contest about 15 years ago on Fixed Gear Gallery for a $100 (max) Path Racer build. I finished a week too late to enter. $40 bike, $19 saddle w/matching tape from eBay, polished bits, converted to moustache bar, frame painted black with gunmetal lugs using $1 Autocolor paint cans from a closeout bin. I've done a couple others but this one is my favorite. Rear quick release put me just over $100. After a couple years fixed, I change to SS as it's mainly a summer night cruiser.

steelbikeguy

this reminds me of a bike built by Wes Williams and featured in a short article in a 1991 issue of Bicycle Guide....



Steve in Peoria

cocoabeachcrab 

very nice!

sykerocker 

Done many years ago, ridden for a couple of years and then sold. This was the final incarnation of the original Raleigh Gran Sport frame that got me back into cycling back in 2004.

romperrr 

Love what you did with the wrench on the rear wheel. I may borrow that idea for me fixed builds.

Alsobay

Beautiful!! You nailed it with proportions and the period aesthetic!! So few are done so well.

clubman 

Check. Absolute crap.

Velognome 

This one was built on a Hercules 20's Roadster frame using period parts: Celloid bars, 3 speed Quadrant, Bluemels peak , alloy 3 speed hub and ancient Dunlop cotton cord tires. Rackishly fun to ride fast on turf

Velognome 

Built on an early 60's Raleigh Delux frame with all period Raleigh components except the Brooks saddle & Wall fenders

Velognome 

This is an actual Road/Path frame, meaning the frame was build for fixed gear with fender eyelets for road work. The frame is a JA Holland circa 1948 built up with modern components. It was a daily rider for several years. Single front brake and shaved Campy chainring....it's light and fast.