Sheldon Brown (1944-2008)

I have just learned that bicycling oracle Sheldon Brown has died. There are few fields where one person reigns supreme as the final authority but in matters of bicycle mechanics Sheldon Brown had that distinction. There are countless arguments that run on bicycling fora until someone goes to www.sheldonbrown.com for the definitive answer. And then there is no need to argue further, Sheldon has spoken.

When I was building my bicycle last summer I frequently visited his site because I knew, firstly that the answer would be there, and secondly that it would be explained clearly so that even a knucklehead like me could understand it. If one man can be said to have demystified the mechanics of bicycles of all vintages to allow anyone with a modicum of mechanical nous to get one up and running, then Sheldon Brown was that man.

Thank you, Sheldon.

Zeitgeist and Me

I just don't seem to be part of the current cultural zeitgeist in stuff. Mostly this doesn't matter since I don't really need more stuff but occasionally it does become a bore. An example of former occurred today when I visited the Cycle Show at London's Earl's Court with my pal Wichie. He's in the market for a new mountain bike so he had his little eyes wide open and juicy nose was held aloft sniffing out the perfect down-hill machine that his hard-earned could get him. I was just there for the experience and to see what the world of new bikes is like. I am not in the market for buying a bike since I have just built one, a fact which has been recorded at seemingly unending length on this blog, somewhat in the manner of a very dull Norse epic. I am also not currently riding my new bike, a machine Wichie has described as being "like an Edwardian crotch rocket" thanks to the huge workload I currently have. I have had two days off in the last four weeks, and that doesn't leave much time, or inclination quite frankly, to go out and cycle.

As it turned out my pre-expo pep talk of "You don't want a new shiny bike, you don't want a new shiny bike." turned out to be utterly superfluous. 99% of the bikes were horrid. Thousands of gears, ugly, lumpy frames, enormous elaborate suspension set-ups and garish paint-jobs. If you cycle down rocky mountain paths at breakneck speeds I'll allow you all but the garish paint-job, it's necessary to not dying whilst pursuing that particular hobby. But I suspect that much in the manner of most 4x4 SUVs being sold to people who will take them no further than the local Tesco's, most of these mean down-hill dirt-bikes are more likely to be seen plying the North Circular than the South Downs. And it's a shame.

There was one exhibitor who did delight my tweedy old-fashioned tastes in all things cycling and that was Witcomb Cycles. Ernie Witcomb and his son Barry have been hand-building lugged steel frames in south London for over 50 years. Nothing has changed in the styling, the odd concession to modernity aside, they are pretty much indistinguishable from a road bike of the 1940s. They are beautiful works of craftsmanship, each frame individually tailored to the height, weight and riding style of the customer. Of course such attention to detail and bespoke design does not come cheap (upward of £1500 for a frame alone) but it is a pleasing sight to see someone making things on a small scale, with care and tremendous skill rather than shipping the whole operation off to a sweat shop overseas with an "it'll do" attitude.

So I left the cycle show only £4 lighter; I couldn't resist this Fullers London Pride water bottle. It's one of my favourite beers and I like the irony of the logo appearing on a container for water.

On my way home I stopped off at the last of the central London guitar shops I had to visit to see what the world of guitars has to offer me. And it was, once again, a very depressing experience. There were countless practically identical standard Stratocasters, plenty of 1960s pastiche guitars by Burns and Hofner and the usual none-more-metal, none-more-black heavy metal machines. In other words nothing that appealed to me. What I'm after, to replace the Flying V, is a 1980s style superstrat with perhaps just one humbucker and a Floyd Rose trem. I don't really want one of the modern styled Jacksons or Ibanez models as they're a bit too pointy, too Steve Vai and not enough Eddie Van Halen. Try as I might I have yet to find anything that comes close to the pretty basic, but solidly constructed, guitar I seek. I have had a tip-off that an out of town guitar shop may be getting one Charvel San Dimas style guitar in next week but if that falls through then I'm back to scanning the eBay listings. If anyone has any pointers to a not-too pointy superstrat type guitar in the Kramer Baretta or Charvel San Dimas tradition that are available in the UK then drop me a line will ya?

All Finished At Last

finishedHoldsworth_7647.JPG, originally uploaded by Mr Atrocity.

It's taken two months longer than expected, there have been many twists and turns along the way from bent dropouts, to seized seat-posts, to bizarre seatpost sizings, to chain-line calculations, to getting wheels built, to stripping the old paint, to sanding the frame, to respraying the beast, to tracking down the right decals, to fitting all the components to the frame, but finally it's done. The Penge Flier is ready for its maiden voyage.

Almost Done

Almost Done, originally uploaded by Mr Atrocity.

I have a few bits to fix, the observant amongst you will notice the absence of a chain - an important compnent of a bicycle I'm told, but lookee here, I have a nearly finished vehicle. From this:

to the above in a couple of months. I'm quite pleased.

Big Bad Bottom Bracket

I installed the bottom bracket into my bike frame last night. I only hope that I've measured everything correctly otherwise after spending another hour putting on the cranks and the wheels I'll be doing the whole thing in reverse, spending another fifteen quid on a new bottom bracket of differeing dimensions and then rinse and repeating the entire experience, only with fifteen less quid than I had when I started.

Pie and Calipers

Yesterday we had some chums over for dinner as they are to fly out to Australia at the end of the week to start a new life. I have tried to warn them that Australia is full of poisonous bitey things but to no avail, they're still going. Tinseltroos made a delicious pilaf from the Madhur Jaffrey veggie cookbook I got her for her birthday. I decided to take everyone back to the 1970s and made a lemon meringue pie. I am proud to say that I made everything from scratch, pastry, lemon curd and the meringue. I even branched out by making hot meringue, the method where you add hot sugar to the egg white so it cooks instantly and you end up with the lightest, fluffiest meringue imaginable. And I got to use my blowtorch to finish the top off. What's not to like?

Tonight I finally got round to trying to calculate the correct bottom bracket to buy for my bicycle project. This is a rather crucial element of the build as the load on the chain from fixed wheel riding is very high so it pays to have the straightest chain possible between the chain wheel and the rear sprocket. Having spent the evening with rulers, my vernier calipers and severals sheets of paper for my notes and calculations I have determined that I think I need a 110mm bottom bracket and that is what I've just ordered. If my measurements are accurate, and my arithmetic is all in order then this will be the final part to buy and now, finally, I'll actually be able to finish the build. Just in time for winter when no-one wants to ride anymore. Bugger. If it's the wrong size, I'll have wasted fifteen quid and have to do the whole thing again but hey-ho it's all a learning experience.

Scrubbed Up Lovely

I spent Saturday painting and putting the decals and stickers on my bike frame. Here's the progress from intially stripped frame to removal of paint, sanding of the frame's rusty bits to final paint job and new badging:

I'm really rather pleased., it's taken a lot of effort and time to get this far and though there are a couple of minor paint runs for a rattle-can paint job, it's not too shabby.

Nice Lugs

Nice Lugs, originally uploaded by Mr Atrocity.

I stripped the majority of the paint off the frame and forks this morning. Jesus but Nitromors is nasty stuff. It's bloody effective though. A few areas of remaining paint will get the treatment again next week and then I can sand off the little rust spots before I send it away to be painted. It actually feels like I'm achieving something on this project.

We Have First Stage Separation

Well it's taken longer than anticipated because of seized parts, crummy weather and other things taking up time but finally I now have a bicycle frame and some forks as separate elements. If the weather's nice tomorrow morning I might get some paint stripper and get the frame clean ready for sanding. Then I can decide whether to saw off the gear and rear brake cable guides to create a cleaner look.

And here is me with my new favourite toy. In order to get the headset off I needed a spanner that would open to at least 40mm and this was all they had: the biggest adjustable spanner in the shop. I may call him Harold; he is my friend.

From TIny Acorns

This is the state my bicycle was in when I got it. As I'm now on holiday for a month (working all those weekends adds up to quite a bit of TOIL after 8 months) I can start work on my projects. Today I've stripped part of the bike down, taken the wheels off, removed the rear brake and shawn it of gears and associated cabling. The frame now looks like this:

From here I need to get the rear drop-out un-bent as you can see:

Next I must remove the cranks and bottom bracket, plus the headset and forks before I can begin filing and sanding the frame clean ready for painting. Hopefully eBay will be able to furnish me with new hubs, saddle and Holdsworth decals for the painted frame... Let the fun, oil, grime and swearing begin.

Me And My Girlfriend Don't Wear No Shoes

It's a slightly strange time at the moment, in many ways it's a rather transitional phase in my life and yet the changes are ones I must allow to happen when it is time and cannot rush headlong into. As a naturally can-do, get-stuff-done type this is difficult. Now I'm done with Harry Potter (unless I end up working on No. 6 - ye gods) I have to begin work on another project. I am pretty much assigned to a small chunk of a large show for the next few months or so. After that it's all a bit vague but we'll see what transpires. I'm looking forward to tackling my new show as the chunk I'm working on is small enough to be done by a tiny team which will mean less bureaucracy and a greater variety of work for me to do; two things I felt were amiss with the last eighteen months. It's also a very pretty sequence and the director is known for having a good eye stylistically which gives me confidence.

All of that must come in June however. All of May is mine and Tinseltroos'. We can do what we like. The upside of working so many weekends for the last 8 months or so is that we have accrued enough TOIL to take a month off work and it cannot come soon enough. As well as holidaying in New York we also have the delightful task of finding a flat for us to live in together. My days living in a shared hose with friends are over, and I'm glad really. The times has come to get a "grown up" house and now is perfect. We're hoping to move into our place in late June so we'll be looking during May. I'm sure it should feel scarier than it does; as it stands it just feels like exactly the right thing to do.

I also have another couple of little projects to occupy my time. One is the previously mentioned bicycle project. Thanks to eBay I now have a 1978 Holdsworth Championship in a box in our back yard. It's present state is this:


It used to look like this 30 years ago:


And by June I'm hoping it will look like this:


First I need to get one of the rear drop-outs straightened and I need to clean all the old paintwork and rusty patches of before it can get enameled and the fun of rebuilding the chain line for fixed-gear, single-speed cycling can begin.

I also have my short film idea to work on. I'm storyboarding it at the moment, but the idea seems to be coalescing nicely now so I'll be able to begin shot-work in earnest pretty soon.

Things that are making me happy now are:

1. The martinis at Two Floors. They make them just right and with Plymouth Gin (a personal favourite).
2. The Proms booklet arrived so I can plan this summer's concert going.
3. Lorenzo Villoresi's "Uomo". I smell nice.
4. The sunshine and low twenties temperature in London now.
5. The prospect of dinner with my beloved at my favourite restaurant tonight.
6. The thought of re-reading "Three Men in a Boat" for the umpteenth time.
7. The full-length portrait of Catherine Parr in the National Portrait Gallery.
8. Greg Bear's "Blood Music" which I've just finished reading.
9. All the trees now have rich green leaves on them.

By the way, the title of this post is inspired by Churlita's use of song lyrics for post headings, an idea I like so much I've unashamedly stolen it. There's a prize for the first person to guess the song and band...

Everybody Gets Everything They Want

So my bicycle plans are starting to coalesce. After being patronised by the rude and unhelpful staff at Condor Cycles, where I will now not be buying a bicycle I have decided to see if I can get one of these single speed fixies on eBay instead:

To this I shall have to add some non-drop handlebars and I'm thinking that these Soma ones will fit the bill perfectly. I really like what this fellow has done with the Brooks brown handlebar tape and I think I might do likewise.


Finally, just to assuage my traditional instincts and love of tweedy and leathery goodness I don't think I shall be able to resist a lovely Brooks saddle like this. This is definitely an indulgence but one that's worth it; it's so pretty.


If anyone knows about cycling and thinks any part of this scheme is barmy then please let me know. I've done my research but it's quite possible I've missed something. With luck this'll be a fun mini-project to do during my month off following the completion of HPatOotP in May.