Rene Herse Cranks

Jan Heine(of Compass Bicycle and Bicycle Quarterly)is introducing a reproduction Rene Herse crank. Well, maybe not a reproduction, it might be better to say he is putting them back into production. They can be purchased as either a single, double, or triple chain ring setup. Only one crank arm length, 171mm, and chainring sizes are from 24 to 48 tooth, in 2 tooth increments. For $400, that is a great looking crank, and I will be getting one for my Hanford.

Bike ride from Paris to the start of PBP

So let's face the facts- Paris-Brest-Paris does not start or finish in Paris. It once did, but it would be a logistical nightmare to attempt to do now. So it starts in a suburb of Paris, Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines. I am staying in Paris, I have rented an apartment on Airbnb and really enjoy staying in Paris, who wouldn't? A lot of riders choose to stay close to the start, in Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines, engulfing in PBP culture and fellow riders.
So Jan Heine of Bicycle Quarterly recently blogged about riding from Paris to the start of the ride, and even has a cue sheet. I am hesitant to ride the route to start PBP, but I am thinking of riding it to the check-in and bicycle inspection the day before, Saturday. I think it will be a good to loosen up some jittery nerves and to give the bicycle a shake down, after being reassembled.

Best part of the route is riding past the Chateau of Versailles.

The route is blogged here, I highly recommend following his blog postings.

Overtly critical

Well to be fair after the last posting about finishing touches on a restoration, I do understand that sometimes it is not the bicycle that is the true goal but the path that it takes to get there. From locating the period correct bit and bobs, to reproducing decals, and sometimes just the simple thing of finding out who actually made the bike.

Finding out who made a bike can sometimes take you down the rare road of documenting a builder that there is no gathered information about. In talking with various collectors, looking through old magazine and trade publications you begin to form a story- a history. This can be rather rewarding because you will be the keeper of the flame, someone that saved it from obscurity.

With the advent of the Internet, almost every vintage bicycle aficionado knows of Mario Confente, even though he built reality few bicycles under his own name. That is not only because he built finely crafted ones, but he is well documented. Take someone more obscure like Harry Rensch, that name is foreign to a lot of American collectors(and I assume Europeans alike, minus the British). He built very unorthodox bicycle frames that would completely stand out compared to any other postwar bicycle at the time(even most today). His history has also been cataloged for the future so collectors have correct information for restoring. Names like Pop Brennan, Dick Powers, Alvin Drysdale, or even the famous builder Gloria need to have a formal account of bikes they built and riders who used them. I applaud all the collectors that help document the history of cycling and the technical advances made over the past 100+ years. Magazines like the Bicycle Quarterly and On the Wheel, and websites like Classic Rendezvous and Velo Retro offer invaluable information and a place to meet other like minded collectors.

In the photo is a myriad of cotter drive side cranks. Rudge, BSA, JC Higgins, Raleigh and Phillips are all visible.