pullup

Supercool looking Rih Harm and I agree with your choice trying to complete the Dura ace 7400 group as it is one of the nicest working groups around.

Harm Dommisse

Got the pedals today for a bargain. First took them apart and degreased them. New grease and ready to fit them!

Already got the STi shifters from a colleague.

Vanlerberghe

Here's one of my 2 RIH's

Vanlerberghe

This is the other one

Vanlerberghe

You should try cleaning the chrome with aluminium foil and water ( great results ! )

Saronni

Hi,

I own RIH Super Course.
Now i have some questions about the frame.
The frame number is 2827 , i looked in the list and this could be correct acc the information.
But it could also be 282Z
I bought the frame without a fork.
There is no rear derailleur installation pad.
Also there are 2 holes (with plugs) drilled in the upper and lower lug , i thinks for light cable .
I do not know if this frame is a race or sport frame.
Can somebody tell me more about this RIH Super Course

non-fixie 

Hi Saronni, welcome to C&V! I'd hoped you'd show up. I saw that frame for sale earlier this year, and as the seller's pictures showed the serial #, I thought I'd add it to the list. It looked like 2827 to me at the time:




But, looking at it again, the decal style is more in line with the mid-sixties bikes, so 282Z might very well be correct. Fongers also used the 'Super Course' moniker in the earlier years. If that is the case, your bike will have been a light weight sports bike like in the articles below from 1964. That also fits with the wiring holes. Very nice bikes, that were well received at the time.

Italuminium

^Interesting read, thanks for sharing!

marius

Nice to see an article written bij jonkheer Gerard Bosch van Drakestein.
Bosch van Drakestein was a well-know cyclist and journalist.
For many years he wrote about all things regarding cycling in De Kampioen.

non-fixie 

Thanks, Marius. I didn't know that, so I looked him up. Here he is, at the end of his career, when he won a silver medal at the 1928 Olympics in the 1,000 meter sprint. He was 41 at that time. Anyone know what the bike with the cool Chater-Lea chain wheel in the background could be?

Zieleman

What a portrait, those eyes look like he did two six-day races on his own in twelve days...

Bikedued

Am I the only one who has never heard of this brand until this thread. Some nice looking road bikes!,,,,BD

non-fixie 

63 world and Olympic titles have been won on a RIH, so you can safely assume they ride as nice as they look. But I think the men behind RIH were always more concerned with, and better at building bikes than developing the business.

Woutervanwijk

Saronni. nice post. the funny thing is that I have a comparable RIH dating late 50 begin 60s. this one has 5411 as a frame number. notice the different nervex lugs. this baby is for sale by the way. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dutchbi...7631730024923/ https://link.marktplaats.nl/692158071

Martyl

Hello,
First I like to thank you all for the amount of information on this site. It helped me in my first steps of discovering my bike. Like example to find the place of the serial number of my bike.

Since my youth I own a RIH frame that my father turned in to a nice race bike for me by painting the frame blue and adding a shimano 600 set to it. After years of cycling I left my elderly house, studied, married and started my own family, and the bike gathered dust. Until this year when the rice bike virus caught up on me again since my first miles on my pinarello. And my enthusiasm is growing. So I dug up the old RIH and since then the internet hours for the quest for information are a real competition to my training schedule. The thing is that I can't find the correct build year of my bike nor the colour numbers and correct decals for my planned restoration. I hope you can help me out.

The frame number is 6597 under the lower part of the head tube. Underneath the frame there is a number 40 that doesn't mean a thing to me. Also see the photo's.

greetings

Bikedued

Wow, nice bike!! Love the whole combination of color, lugs, the whole package! Lower that stem though, it looks dangerous!,,,,BD

And let me be the first to say, PLEASE don't repaint this bike! Disassemble, carefully clean/polish the paint and the components, and reassemble with new cables and fresh grease. I think you will be shocked at how nicely it will turn out. By all means touch up the few chips, but I see nothing that warrants a repainting.

non-fixie 

Hello, Martyl, welcome to the unofficial RIH owners club! Lovely bike. Fifties, I'd say, with that serial number and those lugs. I agree with BD: just clean, lube, polish and take it from there. Pretty cool decals too. A bit small for you, isn't it?

Martyl

Thanks for the enthusiastic reactions. I admit the colour is a good one but a rat-look bike is not the thing I want. Besides, the frame was painted by my father and is not in a original colour. Does anyone had the numbers of the original colours?

non-fixie 

No, but metallic red was quite popular. Have a look at woutervanwijk's RIH from the same era (see post 64) for reference.

Bikedued

Clean and polish it, then it will not look like a rat bike. Hell, it doesn't even look like a rat bike as is? I guess I'm just more nostalgic than the next guy. All I have to say on the subject. It is yours to do with as you wish.,,,,BD

Polish can do some amazing things... The shop owner where I brought it to measure it for the housing, KNOWS vintage bikes. The first thing she said coming around the counter, was "Who did you get to do the repaint on it?".

Before....





After...

non-fixie 

^ That's a mighty nice looking bike, BD! Even though it's not a RIH, I'll let it stay as an example of what elbow grease can accomplish. (BTW, who did do the paint job? )

@Martyl: I agree with Bikedued re keeping your paint. You are not going to improve on the current paint job unless you have it professionally done, which will be costly, and it will still not be original. At best, it will look like another RIH. Yours is special.
Also, I think it is a very nice shade of blue, that fits the bike. Clean, polish and line the lugs with a gold paint marker. And I, for one, really like those Cycles Champion decals.
If you want to spend money, I'd spend it on a nice, well-used Brooks Professional saddle (that will improve the looks if only because it will allow you to drop the seat pin a couple of cm's) and maybe some more period-correct blingy parts. A chromed cottered Stronglight crankset would be nice.

Having said that, it's your bike, not mine, so please feel free to completely disregard all of the above. Enjoy your RIH!

Martyl

Hello everyone,
First: BD, I love you're bike. The paint is still in a very good condition, also are the decals. Wauw

In the last weeks I followed my own stubborn advice (sorry) and removed the blue paint on a few spots on my frame in search for the original colour. And what I found what a combination of mostly gold and a red contrast colour on the vertical and diagonal tubes. I also found an old photo from myself on the bike at the age of about 13, and yes it was a golden bike.

Another nice thing that happened to me last week is that I finally got in contact with Wim van der Kaaij, who is restarting with a shop in Amsterdam. His goal is to train a group of youngsters and to learn them the old school frame building. Nice to know that there seems to be an next step in the history of RIH. It was nice to speak to Wim and hear the old stories of Peter Post and Kneteman.
It seems that they plan to restart at the end of this year, so that gives me the opportunity to let my frame respray in the original colour. So it will become a winter project.
Keep you posted!

Italuminium

wow, that's awesome news that vd. Kaaij is restarting his shop! where do I sign up for a framebuilding course with him?

non-fixie 

You know you're going to have to post that picture now, don't you?

pullup

That probable restart is good news indeed. I had heard it from several sources but yours seems to be the most direct source up till now

I have swapped the, as it turned out just too little blue Rih, from this thread out for another pretty one that fits me better by the way.