Velicious bicycles.

Donnerstag, 13. Juni 2013

Cyclists diary 1887

In 1887 Walter H. Dutton was a 25 year old bachelor living at 13, Sandstone Road in the West Derby area of Liverpool. He and his 21 year old sister, Amy, his 23 year old brother, Arthur, and his 16 year old brother, Tom were all keen cyclists. Amy, Tom and possibly Arthur lived with Walter, their elder brother. Walt had a certain artistic ability (the 1891 census identifies him as a book-keeper and artist in oil and water colour) and in March 1887, when he acquired a new tricycle tandem and the latest safety bicycle, he decided to keep a sketchbook diary of the cycling activities of himself, family and friends. This diary contains all the sketches (well over 200) contained in Walt's 1887 diary...

I made a version of that diary which fits well with an ipad and other mobile devices, thanks to www.cyclingnorthwales.co.uk for the files.

You can download a small file (ca. 10 mb) or the big file (ca. 100 mb, with much better resolution) here

Have fun looking at the wonderful drawings!

Freitag, 7. Juni 2013

Velocipede / Tretkurbelrad

Dieses Velociped kaufte ich recht günstig vor ca. 1 Jahr. Es war nicht ganz komplett und ein paar Sachen waren zu richten:

• Eine Kurbel fehlte
• Pedale fehlten
• Sattelfeder fehlte
• Die Laufräder waren vertauscht und die Achsen und dazugehörigen Löcher durch die Naben zu richten
• Bremsfeder abgerissen
• Lenker verbogen
• Sattel fehlte
• Messinglagerschalen fehlten

Ich bekam den Kontakt zu einem sehr guten und alten Schmied in der Nähe, der eigentlich nichts mehr macht aber seine Esse selbst gebaut im Keller stehen hat. Als ich ihn anrief wollte er zuerst gar nichts von Schmiedearbeit mehr wissen, als ich ihm aber ein paar Tage später das Rad zeigen konnte bekam er doch Interesse und willigte ein mir die fehlenden Teile nach Fotomustern nachzufertigen. 3 Monate hat er gebraucht, gekostet hats trotzdem fast nichts, er hatte eine rechte Freude daran, und das Ergebnis ist einwandfrei, meiner Meinung nach. Er konnte mir auch viel zur damaligen Arbeitsweise erzählen, immerhin hat er jahrzehntelang Schmiedearbeit in der hiesigen HTL unterrichtet.

Den Sattel, ein Replica, konnte ich in England erwerben, passt recht gut aufs Rad. Pedale bekam ich übers Forum, eine sehr schöne Anfertigung, auch nach Fotografien, mein Dank nach Ungarn!

Schwierig war es die Laufräder zu richten, ein falsches Loch in der Nabe, ob zu groß oder zu klein, macht mehr Probleme als kein Loch in der Nabe. Alle regionalen Tischlereien, Wagenbauer und Drechsler haben mir abgesagt, keiner konnte die Räder einspannen da sie viel zu groß für die Machinen sind. Der Ausweg war dann doch recht einfach, nur draufgekommen bin ich lange nicht: Mit einer Drehbank in einem nahen Betrieb konnten wir die Naben aufbohren und neue Hartholzeinsätze und Messinghülsen einbauen.

Der Rest war relativ einfach, ist ja nicht viel dran an so einem Rad...

Das Rad selbst ist sicher die Arbeit eines Schmieds, ich schätze ca. aus 1870. Er muss sein Handwerk sehr gut verstanden haben, die geschwungene Form der hinteren Streben, die recht schöne Schnecke vorne und auch sonst ein paar Details sind schwer zu machen hat mir mein Schmied erklärt. Den Rahmen abwärts zum Hinterrad hat er allerdings recht einfach gehalten.
Am hinteren Rad kann man noch gute Reste der ursprünglichen Linierung sehen.

Auf den ersten Bildern die ich letztes Jahr sah, sahs kleiner aus als es jetzt ist, ich hab mich fast ein wenig geschreckt als ichs gestern nacht zum ersten mal aufstellte. Heute hab ichs getestet, das Ergebnis sieht man in dem kleinen Film unten dran. Es ist ein ziemliches Vergnügen, wenn auch wackelig, mit dem Rad zu fahren.

Sonntag, 26. Mai 2013

IVCA 2013

This years IVCA Rally took place in Veseli nad Moravou, a small town in the south-east of Czech Republic. It was my first time at a Rally of the International Veteran Cycle Association, so i was very curious what would happen there. Sadly i couldnt be there on the first day, too much work at the office had to be finished.
We, a fellow bicycle enthusiast and me arrived at the evening of the first day, when the first tours were already finished. At least we only had to pay half of the entrance fee, which was very nice of the organisators. The evening programm was some sort of penny farthing show of the local czech penny farthing club, very nice to look at. Some traditional songs were sung by a chorus of older ladies of the town, a country band tried to entertain with 70ties hits in czech language and all participants gathered in the towns sportshall to eat, drink and chat.
To our surprise we met another austrian collector and he told us that we three are the only austrian participants at the rally. Shame on you, austrian collectors and bicycle friends, the rally was only 1,5 hours to go from Vienna!
We sat there for a while and tried to talk, but the music was so loud that you even could understand your own words, so we left the hall very early and went to sleep - in our tent, on the camp site next to the hall. The night was cold and the surface was rough, so we slept very bad.
On the next day the swap meet, some bicycle shows and an exibition of tricycles took place in the center of town. We were exited... of course you expect a lot of things going on at an international meeting like this. All the more we were very disappointed by an bicycle show with some self made bikes like you can see it on every small towns party, the total lack of nice bikes and parts on the "market" and the tricycle exibition, which only contained childrens tricycles...
In the afternoon the races for all different bicycles took place. Here the next frustration awaited us - we couldnt participate because we had no registration, because we came one day too late... but it was nice to look at the different races. Strangely there were very less original bicycles, mostly replicas or bad restored bikes could be seen...
For our own sporting activity we used our penny farthings for a ride of 15 kilometers to a near village. This was nice, the bicycle roads are very good and the weather was ok.
In the evening a visit to some local wine cellar was on the program, but we didnt want to go there, we were more interested in veteran cycles. But we had the big luck that Zdenek Mesicek invited us to have a look at a very special and private exibition of some of the most wonderful tricycles, safety bicycles and other bikes we ever had seen! That for sure was the highlight of the week :)
Thanks again, Zdenek!
After another cold and rough night in the tent the great tour with all bikes and historic outfit took place. Maybe. We dont know, we left the rally, it was raining and the weather was very cold, no good requirements for 40 kilometers of riding a penny farthing.
Later on the day we visited a bicycle collector in Austria and he showed us some very beautiful bicycles so the day ended very good for us :)

My personal concluding remark: This IVCA 2013 rally was disappointing for me.
• The website showed a nice town. Vesesli isnt that, its a typical ex eastern bloc town with ugly 60ties and 70ties buildings.
• For me there were very less interesting bicycles
• The market was nonexistent, the show was made for the local people and especially for children.
• The evening program was boring.

And: when will organisators learn that plastic flags with numbers do not look good on historic bicycles? Take a look at Tweed Run London, they know how to make nice and fitting registration labels...

Hopefully next year its more interesting.

The penny farthing show was very nice to look at

At the "market"

A very nice french aluminium racer

200 Euros for a totally painted and bended Kolo Zbrojovky... ?

They were very nice but not for sale :)

Our own tour

Kids race. Participant on boneshaker replica.

Tandem race

Mostly replicas

One of the winners with an original bicycle.

He had to run 3 rounds... that took a while.

I hate those plastic flas with numbers, they disturb all pictures

Winner an world champion Josef Zimovcak

Sonntag, 19. Mai 2013

Across the border

Up to the present this was my longest tour with the penny farthing: From my hometown Gleisdorf to Szentgotthard in Hungary. I started at 10 in the morning (had to visit the local fleamarket first to find and buy a very nice 30ties tri-ang tricycle :) ), weather was fine, only a little bid windy. After the first 10 kms the wind got stronger and always blew from south-east, so it got much harder to pedal. I never thought about that before, but sitting on top of a penny farthing you are much more exposed to the wind than riding a modern bicycle.
The first kilometers i knew very well from my former journeys, they are easy to ride, good roads, mostly asphalt and less cars. I reached Feldbach - 28 kms - after 2 hours and 10 minutes, took a brake at a nice little pond and checked all screws on my penny farthing. The bicycle worked very well as always :)
At this point i thought that i had reached the middle of my journey, silly me, i should have looked more exactly at the map at home.
The wind got stronger as i jumped on my bike again. From here on the streets, which are 75% only allowed for bicycles, got more bad, mostly small stones and earth, sometimes asphalt too. Otherwise the view is much more beautiful, you always ride along the river Raab, only meters away from the water.
Reaching Fehring i decided to have lunch at a restaurant. For that i had to leave my route and go east to the center of the town, exactly against the wind, which was even stronger than before... very unusual for the east of styria. After a few hundred meters i turned and changed my plans. The wind was much stronger than my hunger and my cap was blown away...
My rear started to hurt in Burgenland. You should know that the seat of my penny farthing is made of 5 mm leather, which is far too strong, it doesnt bend. I got it from a friend and im thankful for that, to make a leather seat for a bicycle is not that easy. But i must change it one day.
In Jennersdorf i finally stopped for lunch - or more precisely shopping. I bought a bun at the local supermarket - my first time going shopping with the penny farthing - for the people of Jennersdorf it seemed to be as funny as for me :)
Leaving Jennerdorf i got the wind in my back, which was great to ride, the last 15 kms very easy again. I reached Szentgotthard after 71 kilometers and 7 hours of riding, including some brakes. Here i took a rest at the main square and then used the train back to Gleisdorf.