Hill Cycle tattoo

     Well, I am back upstairs in the office now that our season is winding down on the ground floor. Sorry for the lack of posts over the summer time, but I was way too busy fixing bikes all summer! I was going through my phone and found a bunch of photos I forgot about from earlier in the season.
     Jerry Casale Jr. paid the shop a visit over the summer and showed me the commemorative tattoo he had gotten in honor of his father, Jerry Casale Sr. The Casale family owned Hill Cycle for several generations and had a huge impact on the Philadelphia cycling community and American racing. They started the Keystone open which became the Corestates race and is now the Sugar Hill cycling classic. it was one of the top American road races and still draws massive crowds to this day and is a part of most Philadelphians late spring conciousness.

Tribune 3 seat tandem- Hill Cycle

Here is a photograph I recently ran across of the Jerry Casale and Jerry Casale Jr with their Tribune tandem. (middle rider is unknown). The Tribune is outfitted with Williams cranks, Cyclo rear derailleur, and British Hub Company large tandem drum hubs. That is one long Cyclo continuous cable.

Cool bikes seen at the Vintage Vagabond ride

 early 1970s Cinelli. repaint, after a cracked bottom bracket was repaired.

A rack of bicycles at the lunch stop. The Hill Cycle I rode, a beautiful wood rim restored Umberto Dei track bike, a fixed gear converted Scapin, and a mid to late 1960s Carlton.

 Rack 2- Peugeot PX-10 converted to a fixed gear with early Schwinn Paramount hubs and fork truss support. Chrome Maino fixed gear. Blue Trek 610 and then a Rivendell Bleriot 650b bike.

 Jed, one of the 2 ride organizers rode this stunning Carlton.

 The early Umberto Dei. Beautiful bike, and pretty fast rider as well!

 Chrome headlugs on the Maino, Italian built bike.

 Seat cluster treatment on the Maino.

 Front brake on the Dei, notice the cork brake pads for the wood rims.

British bikes stick together. 1970s Mercian and Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix- Reg Harris model.

 Colnago

 Beautiful, low miles Marinoni.

Classic bike ride- Hill Cycle I rode

photo by Jed Kornbluh

 Curtis and I were dressed in all wool, knit gloves, old Detto cleated shoes and toe-clips and straps.I even wrapped an extra spare tubular tire around my shoulders in case of a puncture. The 100 ride was fun and spirited and thanks to Jed and Mel Kornbluh for organizing it. I look for more in the future.

I ride this early 1970s Hill Cycle bike originally owned by the Casale family, and now in possession of the our shop. The Brooks saddle has been "hot-rodded"- a service where the leather top is taken off, the craddle plate is reshaped, and the leather is trimmed and reattached. I will post more pictures of the saddle in the future, with a comparison to an untouched Brooks Professional of that time period. Hill Cycle Shop offered that service along with drilling and milling, I have the catalog mockup somewhere with photographs and prices. Ottusi was the famous Italian who modified saddles.

Check out some amazing drillium from an older blog post of mine, including an Ottusi bike, owned by Ken Denny.

  1970s Drillium at it's best. Drillium was the milling and drilling of components with the idea of making them lighter and leaving just the bare minimum of material available to have a fast lightweight bike.

Shifting with these lightened Campagnolo levers were very delicate.

Lightweight bikes seen at Trexlertown swap meet

There were some cool lightweights at the Trexlertown swap meet this spring swap meet. There seemed to be more interesting bikes, than interesting parts. I wonder if the current trend of only bringing bicycles to swap meets rather than parts is prompted by sellers reluctant to sell the complete bikes on Ebay because of the hassle of buyers and then of shipping a complete bike. I hope sellers bring some parts back.

Early 1970s Mondia Special with full Campagnolo Nuovo Record.

Rare unrestored early 1960s Gitane. A mix of Campagnolo gear,  and Mafac brakes, and Stronglight 49d cranks. I just noticed it on ebay HERE

San Rensho track bike.

Rare late 1980s Colnago Carbitubo, twin downtubes like the Colnago Bi-titan. Developed with Ferarri Engineering, produced by Alan, this frameset has a history of failure.

Repair on a Trek roadbike that had the wheels changed from 27"(630mmERD) to 700c(622mmERD). This "dropbolt" design doesn;t look that bad, compared to some repairs I have seen. and it somehow didn't destroy the paint in the area, too bad.

Gold Alan aluminum frameset with gold Galli cranks.

Junior Hill Cycle Shop track bike we bought. Shortened and tapped Stronglight 49d cranks. 24" tubular wheels.

Jerry Casale of Hill Cycle passed away this week

The Casale family owned Hill Cycle shop and was very important to the area cycling/racing community and Jerry Casale later went to run the Corestates and other incarnations of the "Philadelphia Bike Race," even having it upgraded to the U.S. Professional Cycling Championship.

He will be greatly missed.

More information at Hill Cycle on our Blog HERE.

Schwinn Paramount chrome junior racer

 This petite Schwinn Paramount is one of the newest additions here. The Stronglight Mod. 93 crank arms have been shortened and tapped, effectively now making them 145mm long. The frame is Reynolds double butted tubing and Nervex Pro lugs, but the fork crown is the older 1950s design. The fork also has an unusual rake for a track fork, probably to provide ample toe clearance. It uses 24" tubular wheels.
Oh yeah, no Paramount headbadge, but instead a Hill Cycle sticker, so probably sold through the legendary Philadelphia cycle shop.

Hill Cycle bike at Philly bike expo

We will be showing the Hill Cycle bicycle at the Philly bike Expo Vintage gallery this sunday. We even have the Hill Cycle display stand to properly showcase the bicycle. We will also be selling New Old Stock Hill Cycle bells. they are $25 each.

Free ride on a bike at Hill Cycle Shop

. . . well if you have a time machine, and nine more of these cards. I love this ephemera of old bicycle shops. Here are more posts about Hill Cycle on this Bikeville blog.

Hill Cycle Shop Bell for sale

Bike Shop bells would be an interesting collection to see.This is from Hill Cycle Shop, that was located in Chestnut Hill, in Philadelphia. 

$25

Hill Cycle van

I thought this photograph of the Hill Cycle shop van was really cool. It was taken post race, with these young lads in front of a Gitane track bike with TA cranks and an underslung track stem. One kid has a trophy, one has a pump and some boxes(tubes?) and the middle kid is holding something unidentifiable. I assume all prizes. Hill Cycle shop was a big supporter of cycling and cycle races in the Philadelphia area for many decades.

Hill Cycle show bike- Drillium at it's finest

A beautiful early 1970s Holdsworth decaled as a Hill Cycle, the premier pro cycling shop for many decades in the Philadelphia area. This was the show bike, detailing some of the high quality drillium that they were capable of doing. Back in the early 1970s, drilling and milling parts was all the rage in the pro-cycling world. Sure there was a limit to how much material could be taken out, but there was only one way to find out.
Check out the brake levers and the chainrings look like swiss cheese! The derailleur jockey wheels are even drilled for weight savings.

(some articles on Drillium is found HERE)