Fritodog said:
FOR KC GEORGE:
Those ignorant of history fail to recognize that in 1900 France if you did not
own a bicycle you were unemployable. I have a car which is unfortunately a
neccessity but does not move if 2 wheels will do the job. In 1900 USA, if you
did not have a horse or mule, the same held true. In 1916, my Grandfather
bought my father a Model T Ford to take my Grandmother to church services.
(My Grandfather worked the oilfields 10 months out of the year as a millwright
commuting by horse and buggy) but on weekdays he had to walk to school
because he couldn't afford a bicycle!
When I was 13 I bought a 1952 Triumph motorcycle and my bicycle went in
the garage.
When I came back from Viet Nam, the bicycle came back out. I have never
apologized to anyone for getting anywhere on my own power. I cobble my
bikes together and commend you for the same. I do not know the status on
availability on Schwinn parts are in your region, but if you can start from frame up, let me know, and I WILL SHIP YOU ONE. They are legally avail-
able here for a few bucks.
As to your job, I would not even tackle that.
As to your photography, I will look it up. Used to shoot a Canon F1, Mamiya,
Hblad, then went to the digital stuff because it was so much fun to play with
on the computer. Also meant one whole room in the house was no longer
off limits as the "lab".
NEVER "DOWN" YOURSELF because you ride a bike. Get on your bike and do
what you like.
Anybody else who reads this and thinks I will ship them a frame better show
up at my door with more metal holding them together than I have.
V/R
FD
Just edited this. Put a sign on the back of your bike that says " MY OTHER
BIKE IS A LAND ROVER"
Dear FD
I loved your extremely enlightening and perceptive reply. Well, this probably needs to be a rather lengthy reply.
During my childhood (I was born 12 Feb 49, slightly before you were), it was not easy to go biking. The Indian family set up is different. I was the youngest at home, and I had at that time four brothers and three sisters. There was an English Raleigh at home (26" wheels, no gears): my father probably bought it and it eventually became an elder brother’s machine: he would ride it to meet his friends in the evening. Raleigh, because India was a British colony until 1947. That probably explains for the absence of Schwinn in India.
I learnt bicycling on this bike: I was maybe 10 years then. I would push it around and graduate to acquire balance not by sitting on the too-tall Brooks saddle but by straddling the horizontal cross-bar. The saddling took years: I needed to grow tall. Oh, there was another stage in between: a small boy would tuck his right leg below the crossbar on to the right pedal of the big bike, and he would have the nose of the saddle support his weight by courtesy of his right armpit. I am curious to know if boys in the States ever do this to a big sized bike. What a sight, when I look back in amazement!
This brother incidentally had a Triumph Tiger Cub. He was a genius in mechanical engineering. In 1960 maybe when my 60-year-old father bought a Studebaker, my brother (who is no more) replaced its original indicators (which literally swung out and up) with blinking indicators. The earlier car we had as I remember was a 4-door Italian FIAT: this too had this swing-out-and-up kind of indicators. Nobody in today’s India would believe that cars’ indicators were the swing-out-and-up kind in the olden days. For that matter, until Suzuki introduced their 500cc-converted-to-800cc cars in India, drivers of other existing brands had to go to a car workshop to get the seat adjusted for their personal anthropometry. With Suzuki, one could recline and move the seat back or forward.
The automobile scene in today’s India is radically different. Porsche and Lamborghini and Harley Davidson are eyeing the Indian market.
That brings me to the bike. There is not a single proper bike on the Indian market: one on which you could adjust the distance between the handlebar and saddle, and raise or lower the saddle and the handlebar heights. These three things are sine qua non, I guess.
That apart, I have been reading up a lot of materials on bicycles, and I stumbled upon an article on Paul de Vivie (more famous as Velocio) at
http://cycling.ahands.org/bicycling/velocio.html.
When Velocio invented the derailleur nobody would accept gears: maybe like the Pope who refused to accept Copernicus’s and Galileo’s observations. The earth for the Church remained flat till recently.
Let me quote from the original article.
Incredible as it seems today, Velocio actually had to fight for the adoption of his derailleur gear. The cyclists of the period resented this marvellous invention as a stigma of weakness. They stoutly maintained that only a fixed gear could lead to smooth pedaling. Even Henri Desgrange, the originator of the Tour de France, attacked Velocio. To defend himself, Velocio wrote dozens of articles, answered hundreds of letters, cycled thousands of miles (average, 12,000 a year). At his suggestion the Touring Club de France organized a test in 1902. Competitors were to ride a mountainous course of 150 miles with a total climb of 12,000 feet. The champion of the day, Edouard Fischer, on a single-speed was pitched against Marthe Hesse on a Gauloise with a three-speed derailleur. The Gauloise won hands down. The newspapers were ecstatic because "the winner never set foot to the ground over the entire course." Still Desgrange would not concede. Wrote he in his influential magazine, L'Equipe:
"I applaud this test, but I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft. Come on fellows. Let's say that the test was a fine demonstration-for our grandparents! As for me, give me a fixed gear!" Said Velocio with admirable restraint: “No comment.”
Velocio has defined the ‘proper’ bicycle in his own way: let me quote:
A proper bicycle meant a comfortable bicycle with wide-ratio gears, a fairly long wheelbase, and wide-section tires. A bicycle with close-ratio gears, a short wheelbase, and narrow-section tires will roll better at first, he pointed out, but it will wear its rider down on long-distance attempts.
Then, there is Dr Alex Moulton’s comments:
If anyone imagines that present day roads especially in urban areas are smooth - forget it! Suspension is a must for all vehicles on which mankind sits! In cars the suspension of which I am still concerned, the present craze for tightened suspension and low profile tyres in my view is madness and encourages violent driving. (
http://www.alexmoulton.co.uk/frames.asp?id=theman)
Dr Clive Sinclair’s new A-Bike design might enhance interest in bikes. (
http://www.a-bike.co.uk/store/home.php)
Now, let me get back to myself. Another brother probably ignited my interest in bikes: he is an ardent reader of Scientific American, among other things. (He introduced me to Cartier-Bresson’s work and to Leica. With digitals around, I have no use for my Leica M7 and 90mm Summicron!) This brother prompted me to read an article, which appeared in Scientific American maybe in early eighties: I can now only recollect the title of the article: Bicycle Technology. It would have been in late 70s, and those issues don't appear in Scientific American's archives.
www.sciam.com.
I at that time put it across to the chief minister of Kerala (the south Indian state where I live): my suggestion was that a well-designed bicycle and things like a unique Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome could improve the common man’s lot. The dome was something students in Accra (Ghana) were building under Fuller’s guidance. The serendipitous result was that temperature inside the dome was inversely proportional to the temperature outside. It came to be called the Chilling Box! Where would the airconditioning people be with such a dome around!
The chief minister was elated but nothing much happened for sheer lack of bureaucratic knowledge and interest.
Later, in the early eighties, I suggested it to Mrs Indira Gandhi whom I happened to know personally. She was then the prime minister of India. She ordered for the Cycle Corporation of India to be formed, but with her assassination and thanks to the cycle manufacturers’ pressure and vested interests, the idea behind the corporation itself was promptly muffled and killed. (Unfortunately I cannot attach any file to this reply.)
There was another interesting article in Scientific American: it was about a bike designed in a Corning-sponsored competition: the Kanagaroo. (
http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.c...LEID_CHAR=F373850F-15F1-4357-BDC6-4ECB485DC8F)
Kangaroo, as the Scientific American article points out, could be made for around 80+USD, but I have not been able to figure out whom the design belongs to.
It’s half past four here, afternoon. I am excited about something else: in another couple or triple of hour’s time, the TNT people deo volente will bring home a parcel: it’s a Mobiky coming from France. I have ordered for two Giatex bikes, too, and they will probably reach sometime next week.
I am kind of taking the risk of trying to introduce some new things among bikes in India. I bank on my expertise at branding and positioning. But quality bike accessories are not available in India.
Mountain bikes are there in India, but there isn’t any mountain biking. There isn’t any biking at all, for that matter. When the affluent, high-income people who regard themselves as omniscient do not realize the intrinsic value of cycling, it’s almost a hopeless case. Or so it might seem.
Maybe I will look ahead to your advice.