Walking and riding around Philadelphia, you will see quite a few awesome bicycles locked up or being ridden. I'm not just talking about new Trek
Madones and Sevens and other ultra modern bicycles from the not too distant future, but classic steel vintage lightweights. Just today I saw a
Pogliaghi track bike locked to a street sign. It made me reflect on how any
Classic Rendezvous visitor that comes to Philly and to Via Bicycle, they remark on how many vintage bicycles there are around the city. It is true, just the other day, I was photographing a beautiful Jack Taylor that a customer owned. When I was in New York City, there was also a
plethora of cool bicycles, but the city is so much more spread out, Philadelphia's bicycle community is more close.
Just the bicycles that the employees of Via Bicycle ride and lock up around the city is enough to make the average bicycle collector drool. A mid 1970s Pogliaghi track bike, Schwinn Paramount track bike with campagnolo inch pitch, 4 different Jack Taylors, 1961 Schwinn Paramount Tourist, early 1980s Merckx, various Path bicycles, late 1970s Bruce Gordon, etc.
All this brings to question - to ride or not to ride. I love my bikes, as do the other employees, and feel it is perfectly acceptable to ride these awesome bikes around the city. They were intended to be used, not coveted. I am more cautious when riding some of the more exotic bicycles, but I still ride them, and lock them up. I have been asked on numerous occasions why would I ride one these bikes on the harsh city street. I always answer it is just my way of airing them out. Otherwise they sleep in my basement, hanging out in that basement air. It is also a good way to keepthe grease from hardening and going bad. I don't want my bikes to get atrophy;)
Here is a beautiful 1970s Jack Taylor owned by a customer of ours. Outfitted with a Campagnolo Nuovo Record group and Phil Wood hubs, the bicycle is a perfect example of 1970s Jack Taylor's Tour of Britian model. side note- shame the pump peg was removed, but that happens. The Velo Orange water bottle cage looks period correct.
Davis(David to his mother and father), has been working at Via Bicycle for some time now, many 7 years, maybe 300, it's hard to say, he seems to know everything about the business. He works part time at Bilenky Cycle Works in North Philly learning the bicycle building trade there, I assume to one up me. Under the firm tutelage of Simon Firth and Stephen Bilenky, this bicycle was built for him, by him, with a little help from his friends. Bilenky Cycles, known for their retrofitting of S & S couplers on frames to make them more transportable, is a formidable bicycle building force. The frameset is built up with a mix of Shimano and Campagnolo, even with a hint of Velo Orange.
