Bikes from Cirque, Part 3- Weigle

There were many great J.P. Weigle bikes at Cirque.  I overheard one person say that "there should be an award for best Weigle" during the award ceremony.  There were so many that it was hard to choose one favorite.  This post will highlight some of his bikes and their unique and beautiful features.

 Built in taillight.

 Custom front rack nicely mounted to Paul new racers.

Sorry for the out-of-focus shot, its the best that I have of this entire bike. 

Another integrated taillight with a interesting cable hanger and Mafac Competitions.

 Fork crown detail.

 A wider shot of the rack and lights that I posted before.

jokes!

Bikes from Cirque, Part 1

My name is Aaron Popelka, and I am a mechanic at Via Bicycle.  I will periodically be making guest posts on this blog to supplement Joel's regular posts.

This past weekend I accompanied the Via team to Cirque for the Sunday show and swap meet. I took many more photos, and will be posting more detailed photos and descriptions of bikes in the coming days, but here is a sampling of some of the bikes that were there that were particularly interesting or beautiful.

J. P. Weigle

Super clean Mario Confente track bike in the hotel lobby, owned by Wayne Bingham, organizer of Cirque.  I wish I could get a drive side shot, but the couch was in the way.

An early Hi-E lightweight road bike owned by Larry Black.

 Pristine Paramount headlugs.

Dual headlights and a nice rack on a J.P. Weigle.

Alex Singer constructeur bike.

Copake swap meet and 500th Blog post

 Copake swap meet was set with perfect weather this year. Above, the line of cars was just starting to file into the field at sunrise. Copake is the bike swap for Wheelmen types and with the 2nd Annual ride afterwards, it is great for collectors who want to ride their cool old bikes, and see others doing the same. Bikes and parts are not just limited to the turn of the 20th century, there is something for almost every collector.

Below are some pictures of interesting items I saw there-

 Large flange Chater Lea Hubs with GB aluminum wingnuts. The axles were fitted with a grease fitting.

 Early Dursley Pedersen gear hub.

 Weird New Departure hub with large flange added. I have never seen this before and couldn't figure out why it was added on the non-driveside.

 Unusual early pedal bike- Crypto Bantam (thanks brian!). Smaller wheels and there seemed to be some sort of gear mechanism in front hub/pedal crank.

 Early 1970s Raleigh Professional with Campagnolo Nuovo Record group.

 Durkopp track frame with a mix of parts. FB hubs, Stronglight 93 right arm, mod 49 left arm. Brooks Swallow saddle, Philippe adjustable stem.

 Dayton in pieces. maybe you could call it a build-a--bike.

 Nice selection of early lamps.

 Selection of early hubs.

 JP Weigle's new bike, freshly painted the previous day.

 Gathering for the 2nd annual 10 mile bike ride.

 Stop near Bash Bish Falls, while on the bike ride.

1939 Raleigh Tourist. beautiful.

Curtis & Curtis & Curtis's bike

These picture was taken by Peter Weigle, maybe you have heard of him, and there is a Peter Weigle bicycle in the background. In the foreground is a little bike, of unknown marque, that Curtis set up for his son-Curtis, the third. It as aluminum cottered cranks, fixed gear, and hand box-lining.

Notice the "C" on the fender, that's for Curtis, made from a bicycle spoke. 

We added the Sun bicycle headbadge, because it is for Curtis's son. get it.

Weigle window view

3 interesting dropouts hanging in the window at Peter Weigle's shop. One is a super drilled out track dropout, one appears to be a French vertical dropout, and one is a British dual dropout- it can either be used as a vertical dropout when used with a derailleur or horizontal dropout when used as a single speed. I believe it was manufactured by Cyclo and was found on British bikes in the 1950s.


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My painted Hanford frame!

Me and my framebuilder Simon Firth traveled north today to pick up my frameset from the Peter Weigle, who painted it. I pulled a lot of strings and traded a lot of favors to have one of the top framebuilders in the world to paint my first frame. It came out better than I could have imagined. Love at first site. I cannot wait to build it up and ride it. It has has to have the logos handpainted on, that is going to look very sharp, and have some nice subtle luglining. Yes, It will be at the Brooklyn Bicycle Jumble this weekend in NYC. more info about the bike swap meet here.

400km bike ride

On Saturday morning I awoke at 3:45am to take a shower and get prepared to begin a 400km bike ride that started at 5am. I should add that I was as prepared as I could be at that point, other than dressing myself, everything else that I needed for the ride as been taken into account days and weeks before. 400km is a bit hard to comprehend, even when I give it the American equivalent of 250 miles. I usually look at distance from point to point- so it would be the distance if I rode my bike from my home in Philadelphia to Richmond, Virginia, or from New York City to almost the border of Maine and New Hampshire.

As one can see from the ride profile, it was a varied course(almost 19,000 feet of climbing) which included a cross over the Appalachian Trail. It is rather difficult to gauge the severity of climbs by looking at these types of charts until you have done enough of them and it starts to make sense. Let's just say, it is tough.

The ride went seemless and smooth. No mechanicals, my body felt great other than a little saddle sore from lack of chamois cream, and I still felt fresh when I finished. My bike has performed very well, given it is was not originally intended for this type of bicycling. It is an early 1980s Eddy Merckx, that I installed 700 x 28c tires(the largest the frame would allow), Schmidt Dynohub with Edelux headlight affixed to the fork with a plastic clamp for a reflector and a Carradice handlebar bag. I also outfitted it with a TA Pro 5 Vis crankset with a 46/30 chainring combination. The bike is fast but lack of braze-ons for fenders, front bag support, and lights were definitely a big drawback. I have now ridden it in this current state for over 1250miles in less than 3 months, and have only had one punctured inner tube. That's pretty good.

All that said, I can't wait to ride my new bike(Hanford built by Simon Firth), currently at the painter(Peter Weigle), getting painted. One more ride until I am qualified to ride Paris Brest Paris.

A cool photo "blog", well there are photos and words

Peter Weigle's Flickr album is a wealth of information. The photos generally speak for themselves, but Peter also adds little bits of information and background stories. For those who don't know of Peter Weigle- shame on you. He is one of the premier framebuilders in the USA and is known for his subtle detail and elegant lines. The bike ride is just a bonus!