Former employee's Tom Teesdale frame.

     This bike belongs to one of our alumni here at Via Bicycle. his name is Connor and he was a great employee with a great smile. He is currently attending college and is unable to work with us, which is great for his future. He stopped by the other day to pick up a couple small items and as we were chatting about recent events I glanced over and noticed the bike he rode in on. I had never seen it before, and he had never mentioned getting it. It is really nice! he was gracious enough to let me take some photos and do a post about it.
     It was made by Tom Teesdale in 1980, he has the original sales receipt / build sheet. Sadly Tom Teesdale passed away in 2014. Here is a link about him and his work.  Tom Teesdale, a rememberance . Mr. Teesdale did it all, with skill and passion, and that shows on this particular example of his work as well. Connor got the bike at the Trexlertown swap a few years back from Wayne Bingham, owner of the awesome shop Velo Classique in Maryland.
     The construction is top notch, all the lugs are thinned out with nice crisp and long points. Lots of braze-ons for racks and fenders and very nice lighting wire guides front to back. One unique feature is the oversize chain stay bridge behind the BB shell. It is threaded for fender mounting, I am not sure of the advantage. Maybe to stiffen up the area around the BB shell to make the tail end less "whippy"? The back of the fork crown is threaded as well for attaching fenders, a nice touch.  The paint is nice and thin revealing any mistakes, and there are none. Very clean brazing. the other unique feature is the reinforced rear brake cable stop, a design I have never seen before, but makes perfect sense.
     Tom Teesdale's work speaks for itself, it is a shame he is no longer around to make great bikes. R.I.P.

Cool shop bike: Le Chemineau diamond (men's) framed bike.

     Last year I profiled the Le Chemineau ladies bike we have here at the shop. Le Chemineau ladies bike
This is the men's (diamond frame) mate to it. These bikes came to us as a pair several years ago. The ladies bike is  more deluxe than this bike, but it is still very cool.
      My favorite features of this bike are the Le Nervurex fenders with the "crocodile" pattern ridges and the rear fender reflector with its hammered alloy housing and original lens. The housing is engraved with the word "agree" and a couple numbers. I do not know what they mean and it looks like it was done after production (home job).  I estimate this bike is from the early to mid 1950's. Le Chemineau ended production in the late 1950's. It has the proprietary early indexing shifter and rear derailleur mount, but uses a Cyclo rear derailleur as opposed to the one of his design. The frame also has unusual rear drop outs, perhaps Oscar Egg or Cyclo? I am not 100% sure who made them. Please let me know if any of you readers out there can educate me. It has nice GB super Hood levers and mis-matched calipers. The front is GB and the rear is a Gloria Iseran model. The chain and seat stays have "cro-mo" stamped on them, perhaps the Reynolds speedy model?,  which was below 531. There are nice early Mavic tubular rims as well. On the front fork leg is an after market light bracket solution attached to the  generator mount, pretty cool. The bike also has nice sleeved GB Maes bars and an incorrect stem. The frame uses Nervex professional lugs and an early Nervex bottom bracket shell. All the original decals and head badge (a personal favorite of mine) are there. This bike is in great shape for its age. I wish we had more information about the original owners and how they liked / used these bikes as it is obvious they were well used and well cared for, a combination that does not always go together.  Enjoy the photos!