I picked this frame up awhile back and decided to put it together last weekend with Mafac, Stronglight and Campy bits. It started life as a Peugeot PX-10, but somewhere along the line someone put on a bunch of cool touring braze-ons and gave it a professional respray. (I added the contrasting head/seat tube color and the Ironweed headbadge transfer.) Unfortunately, this frame is all wrong for touring, especially the geometry. It’s kind of like using a scalpel for a steak knife. Thankfully, there’s plenty of length in the chainstays. I'm not really to sure what to do with it, but it makes a nice model for a set of Elinor panniers!
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Here's an interesting commercial video by a company called Nord. Their website says they were "founded in 2003 by a group of Swedish surfers to suit a lifestyle occupied with surfing, skateboarding, living and working in Sweden" The guy in the commercial reminds me of someone I know who's not very commercial (and a vegan)... but I guess maybe that's the point. NORD Spring/Summer 2012 from NORD on Vimeo. In the summer of 2004, I helped start the Iowa City Bike Library. It was a whimsical notion with a serious mission… to get more people using bicycles for transportation. In the past seven years the volunteer-run community bicycle endeavor has flourished!
The core business is refurbishing donated bikes and checking them out to people for 6 months in exchange for a modest deposit. If a patron returns the bike within the 6 months, they are entitled to the return of their deposit. If they love the bike and want to keep it… no problem, but we keep the deposit money which goes back into the project to buy new parts and such. The idea is to offer a non-threatening, low-cost entry point for the would-be cyclist and become the gateway into cycling for lots of people. Well, this Saturday we will check-out our 1000th bicycle. Of course, many of the bikes have been checked out multiple times, but we have reconditioned and shared 1000 bikes! The key to all of this is a group of awesome volunteers with a passion and commitment that is truly unmatched! In honor of this milestone, we’ll be having a party this Saturday, September 17, from 9:30-noon. So if you happen to be in the Iowa City area, drop by for some coffee and pastries! Our address is 408 E College Street. This past Sunday, a few of the veteran (code for old guys) bike librarians got together for a breakfast ride. The weather and the fellowship was spectacular. The ride included a fair amount of gravel so we were thankful for Saturday's rain, which kept the dust down and the road smooth! Even Donald's delicate vintage Motobecane handled the rocks with grace and dignity. Who knows, maybe this becomes a weekly ritual!
I was over on Bike Forums in the Classic and Vintage section where someone started a thread called favorite cycling photo. So I posted one of my favorites of a man and young child on a tandem and thought I'd share it here. There's something about this picture that really warms my heart. I don't remember where it came from, but the image is chock-full of narrative possibilities!
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Brian Loring
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