Orpington Stats · Stainless steel D-rings · 100% cotton canvas - 18.5 oz. · Water-resistant finish · Heavy-duty side-release buckles · 677 cu in/11 liters (W: 25cm/9.85", D: 20cm/7.9", H: 22cm.8.7") · Four colors: gray, black, olive and blue · Price $105 · Made in Iowa, USA Speaking of tall frames, most everyone in touch with cycling is familiar with the Surly brand of bikes/frames. As an old tourer, I have been a fan of the Surly LHT since I first discovered it many years ago. Alas, for most of its existence it was not available in a frame size that would fit me. Then last year I became aware that Surly was making the Long Haul Trucker frame in a 64cm size. So I snapped one up. I built it up with sturdy yeoman class parts like the Deore rear derailleur and 8 speed barends. There’s also a fairly eclectic assortment of stuff I like, some vintage. For instance, I used a Huret Challenger front derailleur and a set of 180mm Sugino AT triple cranks. For brakes I used a set of polished Tektro CR720 cantilevers and some no-frills Dia-Compe areo levers. Topped it all off with a VO headset and rando bars, aged Brooks Flyer, and MKS touring pedals. The wheels are Shimano hubs with Sun CR18 rims made complete with a pair of 35m Panaracers Paselas. All in all, nothing too special but decent stuff. As it turns out the geometry is pretty close to my custom made Mercian tourer. I remember coming upon the LHT when I was looking for a loaded touring bike in 2003. I opted for the Mercian, but may have gone with the LHT had it come in a little bigger size. I am pleased by how comfortable this bike is. It has all the braze-ons I want and it's a real pack mule. It would also be worthy for commuting or social rides. I almost put Nitto North Road bars on mine and still may at some point. There are a lot of ways to go with a frame like this and all of them are good. |
Sales of the Orpington have been brisk. Along with the sales we’ve had questions from customers pertaining to mounting the Orpington, which is a rando style bag. So, in anticipation of future questions and those that have questions but never asked, we want to say that we highly recommend a rack and decaleur. Also, before you order take care to ensure the Orpington will be a proper fit for your bicycle. If you ride a small or tall frame take special note of the dimensions.
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Lots of stuff happened In 1984. The Olympics came to Los Angeles, we lost Marvin Gaye, and Harry Dean Stanton was in Repo Man and Paris Texas. I was planning to start graduate school at the University of Iowa in the fall and I desperately wanted to spend the summer on a bike. I connected with a couple of friends that were thinking the same thing and we rode out to California. There were lots of adventures along the way. Like a Basque Festival in Idaho that included feats of strength, free beer and chorizo sausage. And there were tornadoes in Nebraska that left us seeking refuge in a jail... and plenty more. Well, I recently reconnected with one of the guys I rode with that summer when he bought a set of Ironweeds. It turns out he had a bunch of slides from the ride that he passed on to me. I had the local camera shop convert them to digital. Here are a few of the slides from that trip. Last weekend, I landed on the harebrained scheme to make a rando bag decaleur for my Moulton. I had the bag sitting there on the Moulton’s front rack. It was strapped on with the two side straps and such but needed a third point of attachment. A strap on the back of the bag could have been done, but it would have been awkward attaching it and the two rear pockets would get smashed up against the back of the rack.
I was stuck with the idea that a decaleur would be best, but there is no obvious way to attach one to the Moulton. But there is a center mounted boss on the headtube where the front rack mounts. I figured I should be able to mount something to that. In these situations, my mind generally starts wandering to kitchen utensils. There are a lot of stainless things and plenty of shapes and sizes. So, I rode off to the Salvation Army to survey their product line. Our neighborhood Salvation Army recently underwent a facelift. With a little clever reorganization, they were able to squeeze about 40% more product into the same space. They also tidied things up a bit, which usually corresponds to an elevation in prices. When it comes to junk stores, it seems there’s a direct correlation between dust and disorganization and finding treasure. In other words, clean and organized usually equals picked-over and pricey. I walked through the door and straight to the kitchen utensils aisle. I’m blocked briefly as a brother and sister, maybe 5 and 7 respectively, settle a dispute over a tattered Shrek stuffed doll. Or maybe it was the Hulk. In less than a minute I spy this grilling multi-tool. It was a the long, tong-style set up with a spatula on one side (that includes a bottle opener!) and the more petite claw-like flat piece on the other side. The width of the smaller claw was pretty much a perfect fit for the space between the two back pockets on the Ironweed Orpington randorrific front bag. Once I get it back to the workshop, I throw on some music and go to work on this thing with the hacksaw. First, I cut off the serrated end from the non-spatula side of this impressive multi-tool. Then a little more cutting, filing, drilling and bending. Now I needed something to work as a receiver for the 5mm posts on the decaleur bag mount. I have several of these aluminum stand-off spacers; I can’t remember where they came from but they are perfect as the receiver for the decaleur. I tapped them to ¼”-28 because I had a couple of stainless bolts in that size lying around and fastened them to the newly fabricated piece. I bolted the homemade decaleur to the front rack boss and it all came together like a herd of sheep. Check out the pictures. It’s a little weird and kind of ugly, but it functions just fine. It’s on my to-do list to make a few bags for the old Moulton “F” frame bikes. It’s not on the top of my list, but it's on my list. Until that happens, I can use this contraption and it’ll work just fine. Trailers for hauling cargo and kids are very popular these days. I saw my first red and yellow Burley trailer hauling a couple of kids on RAGBRAI around 1980. I was fascinated with it. I later bought a Burley and pulled my daughters around in it. I can vividly picture the two of them sitting side-by-side with their tiny hands curled around the fabric at the front of the trailer. On the way home from the park, they would chant in unison for me to take one of Iowa City’s surviving brick streets so they could sing and shout while the bumpy ride added a little vibrato to their voices. I’ve always been fascinated with bicycle trailers; first as cargo carriers, then as kid carriers. A lot more options have come on the market in the past decade. In the US, production bicycle trailers started to come on to the scene in the late 70's and early 80's with Blue Sky and Burley. But in France, trailers were popular long before. I remember seeing old funky trailers around France and that was 25 years ago. I've put together a few pictures of interesting vintage French trailers for cargo and kids. |
Brian Loring
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