AngeLog

Bridgestone + Nitto + Brooks + more

Firstly, if anyone is restoring one of these bikes from scratch you might want to check out the old catalogues on the Sheldon Brown site.

While at Citizen Chain I collected a few random pieces for the bike. The Brooks standard B17 saddle (honey and men’s…. couldn’t see that I needed a specific women’s one), the MKS GR-9 platform pedals and MKS toe clips with brown leather trim.

So that still left a surprising number of parts to order online from Australia. With the generous help of Nick and Naomi I ordered the majority of the parts from Wiggle, Chain Reaction Cycles, Rivendell and Velo Orange.

The parts that didn’t fit…

Shimano BR-550 cantilever brakes. The original bike had cantis so I thought these would work. Turns out none of the newly made cantis will fit old bikes.

The beautiful Dia Compe brake levers from Velo Orange. The change in brakes meant that I had to change the brake levers too.

VO headset. I can’t remember why, but there was something non-standard about what the frame required. The frame is particularly short at the front so it may have been to do with the thread length.

The bits that did work…

The Nitto Randonneur drop bars, bought from Nick as they weren’t the right size for him.

The Nitto tall stem (26/70mm). A hard one to track down but worth it so that I didn’t go from a standard hybrid height to a super-low drop bar height. Also needed a shim to make the stem fit the 25.4mm bars.

The seat post is new-old-stock of the original Kalloy brand and was found on eBay. It’s 27mm rather than the more standard 26.2mm.

Dura Ace 9-speed bar end shifters. These are so nice to use. Indexed to click on the right but not for the three on the left.

Stronglight crankset (Impact Triple chainset 28/38/48 170mm). I was deciding between a double and triple. I rarely use the three cogs in my city commuting but I figured there was no harm in having the triple for the occasional country ride I might do. I was also looking at Sugino cranksets but this one is now discontinued so I got it for the super-cheap price of $45.

I ended up going for v-brakes when the cantilevers weren’t going to work. That meant the Cane Creek brake levers were my only option. At first this was a little disappointing, but now I appreciate that I have top quality brakes which stop really well. They give the bike a sportier look than I was originally going for with the brown but it works nicely.

The brakes I have are Avid Single Digit SL V Brakes with Kool Stop salmon pads.

SRAM 9-speed cassette. Went for the 9-speed to fit the bar end shifters. 11-32 was the spec… for reasons I can’t remember.

Jack Brown (green) tyres. These feel amazing. Well, it’s probably the combination of rims and hubs too, but they bounce so nicely.

Mavic Open Sport Pros spoked at Cheeky Monkey in Newtown (the people who also assembled the bike).

Ultegra front and rear hubs 32 hole

Tiagra front derailleur.

Shimano rear derailleur.

SRAM 9 chain.

Chromoplastic fenders. Despite being plastic, these look great. They also have the advantage of being lighter, cheaper and quieter than the very nice looking Honjos.

After all that I also bought a New York Kryptonite lock but it’s heavier than I anticipated so I only use it when leaving the bike in dodgy areas.

Bridgestone RB-T build

Last November when we were in the states I had a plan to bring home a bike. This grand idea came to me last October when I saw a nice bike at the traffic lights on Broadway and Jones St in Sydney after following her from my work. A few corners later we were still neck and neck and so got talking about the subject of her nice bike. Turns out the bike was bought from Citizen Chain in San Francisco, the city I was flying to only a few weeks later. Recounting this story to Sasha in the shop he told me how the bike was snapped up the day after it went into the window display so there was hardly time to show off his work.

I didn’t find my perfect bike that day but I instead found a frame – a Bridgestone RB-T. At the time I wasn’t aware of its historical significance, but I liked the look of it, how it could work for me and it was my size so I bought it. “Much easier to take a frame to Australia than a bike,” as a visitor hanging out in the shop told me.

Since then I’ve been learning what all the parts are called and what bits would be best for me, all thanks to the generous help of some clued in friends. I’m only just at the stage of understanding how all the parts work together so I definitely won’t be building it myself, no, that task will be left to Cheeky Transport in Newtown.

So here’s a photo of the frame, and next will be a list of all the parts followed by the built bike itself. Exciting stuff… for bike nerds at least.

Into the Oregon woods

Driving through the Oregon woods is the scary stuff of fairy tales. Scary in a good way. It’s damp, dark and misty. Slimey, slippery and quiet. Tread carefully for Mulder or Scully might be hiding behind a tree. On the road west from Eugene to Florence there’s a forest of young fir trees (Siuslaw National Park) with moss so thick it drips from the branches. The damp roads must never have a chance to dry and the fog hangs in the tree tops like carefully placed Halloween decorations.

Growing up with a small patch of Australian bush up the road I never understood why the woods were supposed to be scary. The bush has always been a place of adventure, discovery and good times. Warm, dry and bright with a strong eucalypt scent and the comforting buzz of insects. I never once found a trail of breadcrumbs or scary bears looking for porridge.

Back in Siuslaw, the road through the forest curved on and on – even tunnelling through a mountain – before ending up by streams, rivers and finally the coast. We drove through small towns which were variations on a theme with a few quirks thrown in. One town had an eBay shopfront where a power seller (TM) was dispersing to the world the goods of computer-illiterate locals.

We spent our first night of the road trip in the seaside town of Port Orford. It was remarkably smaller and darker than Google Maps told us (things always look bright and easy on Google Maps). Despite arriving at our B&B at 5.15pm it was well and truly pitch black. Being from the city, I can’t remember the last time I saw this much darkness, however it fitted in nicely with the wood fire and the home-made cookies at the beautiful Compass Rose B&B.

We headed straight out to dinner (“restaurants close at 8pm around here”) at Griff’s On The Dock, a slightly kooky place recommended on the Thorntree forum (“ask them what’s fresh and order it”), and by the B&B owner. The place reminded me of a tiny truck-stop – all red and white tablecloths, busy walls and a waitress with all the charm of your no-nonsense school canteen lady. Our table quickly filled with clam chowder, salads, calamari, halibut, steamed clams, garlic bread and beer from nearby city of Bend. The place really was right on the dock, a shack amongst boats, although we were oblivious to them as we curved down the ramp towards the sea. Like going through digital camera photos the morning after a party, we drove back to the dock to see just what we had done the night before.

Arriving to a town in darkness – especially one too small for a walkable strip or streetlights – means you need to wait til morning for it to reveal itself. We woke to see sunshine streaming through the forest and a view through to the marshes and a lake. It was a beautiful and secluded spot. Walking around the forest on a sunny day was nothing like the scary misty forest of the previous day. The ground felt like thick Persian carpet and there were soft textures in all directions. There were birds, salamanders, and deer hoof prints, although it wasn’t until we were leaving that we saw actual deer frolicking by the side of the road.

The dramatic coast of Oregon and the beaches of Port Orford are best left to photos – even my amateur ones.

Come as you are – to Seattle

As some people say, go to Seattle and you’ll know why Kurt Cobain killed himself. It really is a very grey city. Our entire stay was shrouded in a mist which would be more at home in the UK, and the streets have a certain quietness that goes with such weather.

But I think it’s fairer to say you’ll know why Nirvana wrote the music they did. It’s a city for book reading, movie watching, music making and discussions over coffee. Whenever the weather got too much for us – too cold or too drizzly – it was an excuse to stop at a cafe for chilli soup, for crumpets, or for coffee and a cookie; or an excuse to pop into the wonderful Elliot Bay Books to buy heavy hardcover things we never realised we needed; or an excuse to pop into yet another record store over-flowing with new and used CDs in all imaginable genres.

So I can imagine it would be a good place to hang out in a shed with a few mates and make some melancholy rock music. Although this grey weather = melancholy music theory doesn’t stack up when you think about Glasgow’s twee pop masters, Belle & Sebastian.

My list of things to check out in Seattle:

Georgetown. Unless you’re into Fantagraphics Comics there’s no real reason to come here, but this area known as the wild west has an abandoned industrial town feel to it – and in a good way. Cute cafes and bars are popping up around here too.

Capitol Hill. I think this is the swankier part of town. Suddenly there were people dressed in coats rather than in waterproof North Face jackets and sneakers (the uniform for the rest of the city). Pike Fish Fry is an excellent place for all your deep fried needs – even the vegetables are fried. The fish and chips were the best I can remember but there’s also pulled pork and hanger steak for the non-fish lovers out there.

Pioneer Square. Pretty area of downtown where Elliot Bay Books is located.

Pike Place Market. The tourist epi-centre. Buy some donuts because you want something warm and comforting then regret it later. On 1st Ave but still part of the markets is The Crumpet Shop. It’s probably the only place to go for decent tea, not to mention home-made crumpets.

Seattle Centre. More touristy-ness which is probably an equivalent to Sydney’s Darling Harbour but the lack of sunshine gives it an abandoned theme park feel, in a good way though (I’ve really got a soft spot for neon signs glowing in the mist now).

The Experience Music Project is in the Seattle Centre Park. Go there to check out more garishly shiny work of Frank Gehry and then stay to learn how to play the chord progression from Nirvana’s ‘Come As You Are’.

Coffee places other than Starbucks. I’m confused that Starbucks (the worst coffee in the world) comes from a place known for having good coffee. Did Starbucks once make good coffee but the standards went down as they expanded across the globe? It’s the white elephant in the room so I didn’t dare ask but instead found some places with a menu I recognised and espresso machines rather than drip coffee sitting bitter in the corner. A tiny hole in the wall, Cafe Bambino in Ballard just down from The Sneakery, served the real stuff, and the cafe underneath Elliot Bay Books did too.

Toronto, north of the border

From the back seat of a cab en route to the hotel I was reminded of Sydney. The shops made of glass and steel with their bright signs showed that it was a clean and capable city, but it hardly told me much about the character. Is this what international tourists think of Sydney? Lucky we have that harbour to keep them happy. Further afield from Yonge St it was easier to see what makes Toronto different from the next city. Tree lined streets covered with autumn leaves, Victorian houses, streetcars and radical contemporary additions to early 20th century buildings

The next day we set off on foot to the western side of the city. Past the Art Gallery of Ontario with its bulging submarine-like facade, a recent addition by Frank Gehry; past the Royal Ontario Museum, an old stone building which has been attacked by a contemporary steel with pleasing results; then to our destination Kensington Market. This is an open air market where the stalls all have shop fronts, more akin to shanty-town markets I’ve seen in South East Asia than to something like Paddy’s market in Sydney. Colourful fruit and vegie displays, smelly fish shops, European delis and Middle Eastern stalls of dried fruit and nuts sat amiably next to signs of gentrification.

The area around Nassau St is one place to find the work of local designers. There’s Hardboiled printing t-shirts with designs from locals, and across the road is Kid Icarus, a stationary shop with pretty cards, paper and actual prints from locals. Can we have one of these in Sydney please?

The area has a laid back hippy vibe, helped by the shops being more like converted houses with front yards. Like stumbling into a tea party you’re not invited to, I was on my best behaviour and decided against whipping out the camera. In front of the bookshop, This Ain’t The Rosedale Library, two guys solemnly tinkered on their clarinet and guitar as if they were sitting in their own lounge room with no one else around. Girls in beanies stood around with coffee in cups and saucers, presumably from the cafe next door.

Further south and a couple of days later we would welcome more of this hippie vibe. Want soy bacon with your French toast and maple syrup? Sadie’s Diner is known as one of the few places in the city to get a decent vegan breakfast. We met a couple of ex-pat vegans there who had recently relocated to Toronto with much ease, commenting on just how pleasant the customs people were.

We also met up some some “Irish” relatives while in town. I say “Irish” because, like my Mum, this cousin of hers left Belfast some decades ago. Being chauffered along the scenic route to Missisauga showed us more than we could cover on foot. The site of the yearly fair, leafy inner suburbs, High Park, a Polish neighbourhood and a strip known for its gigs. Despite having never met these relatives before, a common history and some similar interests – music, theatre, online media – gave us plenty to talk about. And we were of course pleased to have a wonderful home cooked meal after many nights eating out. Can anyone make mashed potato as well as the Irish? I think not.

Two other great things I must mention about Toronto: shoe shops and the Art Gallery of Toronto.

The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto is dedicated to the history of the shoe. Yes, it sounds frivolous but the best bits were thoroughly educational from the oldest known footprints (found in volcanic ash) to early shoes from different continents and religions.

So given there is a shoe museum it makes sense that there are also many great shoe shops, particularly boots. If you’re going to spend half the year wearing boots you want to have a few to choose from. Gum boots are taken to a new level, and apres ski-boots are just as fashionable as regular boots. Even Camper and Nike make snow boots.

The Art Gallery of Ontario with its $18 entry fee almost didn’t make the cut. The special exhibitions weren’t that exciting and we’d just been to plenty of museums and galleries in NY and DC. But with nineteen Canadian dollars left in my purse and a few hours before our bus left I decided it was meant to be. The stars must’ve aligned because it was the best gallery experience I can remember. The Gehry extension to the gallery made a smooth transition from looking in the gallery to looking through the windows to the park and street below. The elevator had a video installation work which went for as long as your ride (“You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to”). There was a whole room of Henry Moore sculptures naturally lit by skylights at the request of his daughter. Canadian art was well represented and its significance explained. There were two floors of contemporary art, many rooms of drawings and a room crammed from floor to ceiling with paintings minus labels to demonstrate how women’s art used to be exhibited. I peaked around a corner from the drawings to look out the window and was invited to have a look at their study room and adjoining print archive where they store 60,000 works. They had a few works out on the tables for closer inspection, including The Vampire by Edvard Munch. The only disappointing bit was not being able to find postcards of the Gehry building in the shop!