road bike stuff and junk

fuji

p...kin...e — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:30:08 +0000

team fuji-servetto comes in this year replacing the completely disgraced saunier duval. since they basically had to start over from scratch you probably won’t hear much from them in le tour, but one never knows. fuji is a pretty highly regarded brand that sorta disappeared in the 90s, so it’s good to see them back, though they are now a taiwanese company. i know sometimes “made in taiwan” is synonymous with “junk”, but these are looking pretty good!

de rosa

p...kin...e — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:36:29 +0000

spring is almost here i can feel it. bike race season is starting in the warm climates, my bike is longing for it to get above 40 or so (sorry, i’m no cold weather biker). anyway, time to start up again!

ugo de rosa‘s been around forever. for real. he started designing bikes way back in the early 1950s and has been a mainstay on the scene ever since. de rosas are maybe not as famous as some of the other italian companies but they have a great reputation and a lot of history. they’ll even make some bikes to measure, so you know they take biking seriously (i also found this great old pic of de rosa with eddy merckx):

ronde van vlaanderen

p...kin...e — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 05:42:13 +0000

the tour of flanders takes place right before paris-roubaix and is almost as notorious. famous for its hills and cobblestones this is definitely not a ride for the faint of heart. this is also another one of the “monuments.” if you want a taste here’s a great video (with some guy’s head in the way unfortunately) of the koppenberg hill from this year’s ronde, i love how some of the guys hop off of their bikes and run up the hill!

also a great pic from wikipedia:

retrotastic raleigh fest

p...kin...e — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:04:16 +0000

here are two great retro raleigh sites i found, and if you dig around them a little bit you’ll find some serious retro love from all over. so here we have ‘em: raleigh at classic rendezvous and retro raleigh. here’s some images from them that kind of some it all up:

paris-roubaix

p...kin...e — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:38:47 +0000

hell yeah! this is *the* one day race for real men. it is famous for its cobblestone roads, crappy weather, and many crashes. and this is the very definition of a classic, going all the way back to 1896.

basso

p...kin...e — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:53:03 +0000

basso is yet another awesome italian manufacturer, founded by the basso brothers (alcide, marino, and renato) in 1977. marino was the most accomplished rider having won the world championship once and the maglia ciclamino in the giro once. ok, so i don’t really know that much about basso, but here’s some bikes:

here’s a little pic of marino basso from back in the day:

lemond

p...kin...e — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:15:32 +0000

i don’t think i have to tell you who greg lemond is because he was probably the first name most americans ever heard in cycling. 3 time tour winner, 3 time world champs, si’s sportsman of the year in 1989. yeah maybe he should just shut up now a days, but you gotta admit he was awesome. i also really like lemond bikes, especially since so many of them have really classic designs and paint jobs. here’s some bikes (notice a couple look like they could be from the 80s):

its funny how all the names of lemond bikes reflect his personal glory, not sure if that’s ego or marketing (or both). lemond chasing hinault:

from www.grahamwatson.com

eddy merckx

p...kin...e — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:14:16 +0000

ask just about anyone who loves cycling history and they’ll tell you eddy merckx the rider was the greatest ever…and eddy merckx the manufacturer is pretty classy, too! merckx the rider was known as “the cannibal”, so you know he was a badass. he was a three time world champion. he won the tour 5 times, and holds the records for most stage victories and days wearing the yellow jersey (not to mention the only rider ever to bring home yellow, green and polka-dot in one year). he also one the giro d’italia 5 times. some bikes:

here’s a vintage pic of the man:

merckx in 1966

(the above image taken from here)

cinelli

p...kin...e — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:07:18 +0000

i guess when a lot of people think cinelli, they think grip tape, but man their frames are some of the most aesthetically pleasing ones there are. their bikes are far and away the smaller part of their operation, but they’re great. i really want to buy an old frame and build a bike a cinellis are on there shortlist of frames i would buy (almost saw the perfect bianchi the other day, though, but it had some bad 80s graphics kinda mucking it up). this company goes back to 1948 and was founded by a pretty famous rider, and they’re based in milan, so location and history rate them pretty high in my book.

here’s a great pic of cino cinelli from the 2008 catalog:

kraftwerk – tour de france

p...kin...e — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:48:04 +0000