For Sale: Bill Vetter touring bike 61CM

     This is a really nice Bill Vetter touring bike we picked up recently and is offered for sale here. Bill Vetter worked out of Vermont in the 1970's. He is most known for his touring bikes. Bicycle quarterly did a profile of his work in issue vol. 3 #4 (summer 2005). this bike is for a taller individual. The metallic green paint sparkles nicely in the sun and it retains the original decals. The build is a s follows:

• 61CM CTC seat tube
• 57 CM CTC top tube
• 35" stand over height
• 27" wheels, Sunshine pro am hub set laced to super champion rims with Specialized touring tires.
• Eclipse rear rack
• Blackburn front lowrider rack and bottle cage.
• Shimano BR MC70 cantilever brakes with Weinmann levers and cane creek hoods.
• Campagnolo Nuovo Record front derailleur.
• no rear derailleur
• Campagnolo super record braze on shift levers.
• Sugino triple crank set 171 G-5 stamp on arms.
• Suntour XC bottom bracket with grease injector crank bolts.
• SR seat post and suede San Marco saddle.
• KKT road pedals with XL Christophe toe clips and leather straps.
• Shimano 600 head set.
• Cinelli 1A stem (newer logo) 70mm extension and Campione del Mundo bars 41 CM wide.
• New black Brooks bar tape.
• Alloy bell

     The bike needs a drive train, rear derailleur and derailleur cables to be rideable. There is also grey primer around the cantilever stud areas, front and rear. Not really sure why as it does not appear that they were added on and the original green paint is visible underneath the primer. this will make a great bike for your upcoming tour! please email: bikeville@gmail.com for price. We can deliver to upcoming east coast swap meets. Shipping and handling will have to be calculated depending on location. Local pick up is OK, and preferred. enjoy!

      Here is a link to the bike Bicycle Quarterly profiled:BIll Vetter!

Campagnolo / Super Champion Wheelset for sale

In excellent condition, true and bearings feel excellent. Appears to have very little use, no wear on the braking surface.
36 spoke front and rear. with Campagnolo quick releases. Standard English threading for freewheel.
27" rim size. I don't know what the tires are, consider them a gift, one is newish and the other should be replaced as the rubber looks a little dry.

$200 for the set.
Email me if interested.
Bikevilleatgmaildotcom

Some people may scoff at this destruction

We have tons of tubular tire(glue-on tire) wheels, jokingly I would say we have a 'wheely' lot of them. Most of the are mediocre rims, basic Mavic or Fiamme or Super Champion, and have not much resale value as a complete wheel, the hubs are worth more than what we could sell the wheel for. With space at a premium in this over packed place, I have decided to 'compress' some of the piles and the tubular wheels were the first to get the ol' heave-ho. So expect some hubs and hubsets for sale in the near future. and if you were looking for any tubular rims, let me know. . .we have them.

Stronglight marking

The Stronglight alloy cotterless cranks were introduced in 1933. The logos on the most popular model, 49d, changed slightly over the years some more drastic than others. Very subtle variations can be seen in the "S" and "G". In the 1950s the logo deleted the word "Marque" from the logo, and then inexplicitly brought the "Marque" back in the logo soon after the introduction of the Super Competition Mod. 63 cranks in 1963.

In the photograph, the oldest crank arm is at the bottom, from the 1930s, and the one at the top is from the 1970s. Along with the logo stamping subtleties, the profiling and milling of the crank arms also changed over the years.

The Return from out West

The trip went well, the weather turned perfect, after rain on Thursday and Friday morning. We left midday Thursday and encountered periods of torrential downpour before arriving at Memory Lane at 11pm. We scouted around and bought one bike that night.

Friday morning was looking grim, the field was flooded in spots and that made a lot of mud. The Memory Lane scene is mostly classic Balloon tire and Middleweight bikes, but we have been going long enough that sellers know what kind of bikes we are looking for and bring them for us. The two days at Memory Lane did not turn up any rare bikes for us, but we did find a bunch of riders to bring back to the shop and a nice Schwinn Town and Country Tandem. The best thing I picked up was probably an NOS TA waterbottle cage, still with the tag.

From there, we packed up and drove about an hour and a half north to Ann Arbor Michigan, looking for a motel to take a shower and get a good night's sleep. In Ohio, we sleep in the van usually, or if the weather permits, outside the van. Turns out, it was University of Michigan's graduation weekend and almost all rooms were booked. We found a room, ate, set the alarm, and went to sleep around 9pm. One problem, the alarm went off at 2am, rather than 5am, and we almost didn't realize until we were about to get in the van and leave. I finally went back to sleep around 3:30am.

The line of vehicles leading into the swap meet is usually short around 5:30am, but this year it was already around the first bend. That was a promising sign. Once we were let in, it was a buying frenzy, 5 bikes bought from one guy, 2 bought on the way back to the van with the first batch. People approaching me to buy their bikes, and even more people trying to buy the bikes we just bought to bring back to Philadelphia. This went on all day. No rare bikes or parts were found, just useful bikes and parts for the shop. I wonder how many people went to the swap meet looking for left side Selecta cranks, basic 1/2" pedal axle BMX platform pedals, or 700c Super Champion 40 hole rims? Probably not many, but we were very happy to find them.

I did remember to put on sunblock and drank plenty of water, but the long weekend was getting to us, and the packing seemed to take forever. We were on the road around 6pm or so, and soon realized that we were not going to get that far. So we got a room in Ohio and feel asleep eating Oreos for dinner.

The drive back to Philly was nice, the weather was beautiful. I came back with a few "keepers" for myself- all books. I got a set of Schwinn Service Manuals, Collecting and Restoring Antique Bicycles, and some reprints of high wheel and turn of the century bicycle catalogs. Overall, a nice trip, but it left me wishing I found something cool.

Pictures are of the bikes we bought there, we arrived with an empty van!