diricks0n

^^^
Super! Do you ride this often?

1oldtrackie

I also have an Andre Bertin Track bike I bought from the original owner way back in 1987. He said he bought it new in 1952. I still have it and need to start on the restoration soon. It's black with chrome Nervex lugs with front half and back half in chrome. Same style letter font on down tube. These early Bertin's are quite rare!

bikamper

Gitane Mexico from the early 70s that I'm just making rideable.


The pink Shogun fork may go away if I can scrounge an M25x1 headset for the original fork, though that Shogun is a damn nice fork.

Pogliaghi

No not often at all, I tend to ride my road bikes.

Pogliaghi

I would be very very interested in seeing photos of your bike!

1oldtrackie

It was kind of rough when I got it so I lightly sprayed it in black to freshen it up ( still the original paint underneath ). I painted the lugs gold and put it together with my Campy track stuff. I rode it one time down the street and back and it's been in a box ever since. I have Stonglight 49D cranks, Prior hubs with Limone French rims for it. I should pull it out and start on it to get some photos but just so busy restoring so many other track bikes right now. I'm restoring a Goossens "Special", Rotrax, Hobbs, Pollard, Ru-Fa Sport, Uppadine, Blue Riband and also many others from the Turn Of The Century - ( 1890's ) so I'm pretty busy. Probably why the Bertin has sat for sooooooo long!

Pogliaghi

Yep you are certainly busy! My only other track bike is a mid 60s Pog. I mainly stick to road bikes as there are no velodromes around here (sadly).

1oldtrackie

My 1971 "The Flying Scot" after a ride last week. I bought this in 1980 or '81 from the original owner as frame & fork only.

Dylansbob 

Connie Carpenter's early 80s "Puch" track. Looking forward to getting this out this summer. Can't help wonder who the builder was.

nvsalgn

that BB cutout is so cool

1oldtrackie

1930's "GOOSSENS SPECIAL" ( original )

alexihnen 

Windsor Profesional:







Frejus 1962:

schwinnderella

Never noticed this thread before, here are a couple.
1. Oscar Wastyn built bike, updated for use as a recreation bike in the 1970's. Although I can in no way confirm this bike supposedly originally belonged to Cecil Yates who was a Factory Schwinn Paramount racer. The hubs have a CY carved into them that looks to have been done a long time ago.
2.Oscar Wastyn Special raced by a local gentleman back in the day.
3. Schwinn 1939 Paramount

m_sasso

My classic Spectrum, newer wheels and components allow me to ride and race with the youngsters almost daily.

1oldtrackie

I have looked for one of these Track bikes for many years. I finally have one and would like to share the story of one of the great German 6-Day frame builders. This is a great read - written mostly by a friend in Germany. Enjoy

There is no doubt that Karl-Heinz Lüders is one of the most admired and successful German frame builders. While his original profession was an orthopedic specialist, he built his first frames for himself in the early 60's and raced them. In 1962 he opened a bicycle shop in Charlottenburg, a quarter of Berlin. Lüders took the chance when he met Sigi Renz ( 6-Day rider ) who was a star of the velodrome races during the 1960's. When the champion of the Western German National Road Race in 1963 spoke to Lüders, he complained about his Masi frame – it is too soft! Lüders offered to build him a frame stiffer than Masi did. Sigi Renz was impressed by his new Lüders frame and became a regular customer of master Lüders. In an interview Lüders said that his way to make a frame stiffer was to use tubes with a larger diameter. But in these days the size of the tubes were limited to the size of the lugs and the fittings of the bottom bracket shells available. Logically he decided to make his own shell which he milled out of solid steel so he could braze larger chain stays on it (25mm). Together with larger seat stays he remarkably improved the stiffness of the rear triangle. Additionally to this he also milled his own fork-bridge which could embrace wider fork blades. In its time a Lüders frame appeared massive but it was still well-proportioned. In the following years Lüders became a kind of an insider tip among racers. Until the late 70's master Lüders was the most preferred frame builder of Germany to professional and amateur riders who all won several national and international races with his bikes, like the German champion Dieter Kemper. As well the Western German National Team used Lüders bikes for their races.

Lüders was a perfectionist and his frames are stiff, reliably strong and they work very well. He was a precise and diligent working craftsman and executed all work by himself. Even when his order book was overfull, Lüders had decided not to move onto a manufacturing production process. He refused making a career like Masi, Colnago or DeRosa. He looked at himself as a frame builder not as a business man. He did not expand his business or render it to others by following the call of investors.

When you see a Lüders bike in original colours you can be sure that the master carried out all the works by himself. He worked out the construction and the technical drawings. He did the cutting of the tubes, the brazing, the painting and the lug lining by himself. He even put the decals on by himself. Every detail of the frame is as accurate as it could possibly be. Lüders even produced sleeve nuts for the brakes which had his name engraved instead of Campagnolo ( as also seen here in the seat bolt on this blue track frame ). Accordingly you do not see a Lüders very often. But every time you see one, it catches your eyes with its beautiful sportive appearance and superb quality. Of course almost everybody who owns a Lüders is obsessed with it and wants to keep it. It is not an easy task to find a Lüders that fits your size and preferences and then try to convince the owner to sell it.

Master Lüders is known as a man with character. Lüders bike enthusiasts know a couple of anecdotes about him which support the picture of a man who knew exactly what he was doing. One of these anecdotes is that one day the great Eddy Merckx came through the door of the small shop in Charlottenburg and wanted to order a frame. Merckx was by no doubt the man to tell Lüders the geometry of the frame he wanted. But in the end Lüders rejected the order of the worlds most famous champion. After a small dispute Merckx left the shop a little bit irritated. But ... the story continues when two weeks later he came back ordering a frame designed by master Lüders. Lüders once said that he never sent someone away who wanted a frame built from him. But if someone wanted a frame in the geometry of another master, he rejected it and suggested instead to go to the other master directly. It is a proof of his strong personality that master Lüders built frames of his design only – the Model Lüders.

alexihnen 

I’d love to see more of the Lüders and the Cinelli!

1oldtrackie

I do regret selling my 1981 Flying Gate. One day I'll have another ........ or maybe I'll find this one again!!

EJM73

That is nice!!!!

EJM73

Revived this thread because vintage track bikes are cool and I been riding mine a lot. Early 80's Viner. Mixed components but all period correct.

merziac

EJM73

Nice...do you ride it often?

merziac

Tx

Um, no, not a fixie/trackie but wanted a track Paramount for quite awhile.

Took it for a 15 mi. ride when I built it and a couple more short ones.

Its fairly new to me and I do plan to ride it a bit more, had it a few months now.

Should have had one a lot sooner, now that Alpenrose velodrome is closed, its a lot less relevant, ef me.

Yune_Garage 

1968 Allegro Special
Reynolds/Campagnolo

Yune_Garage 

sprintcarblue

Judging by the tubing stamps and pantographs it's 1979-1980ish Marinoni. While restoring I found two tubes were old feathered bird Columbus stamp, one tube with the new Cinelli merger bird stamp. From what I read 1980 they stopped stamping all but steer tubes.