NOW AVAILABLE!  Independent Fabrication Planet X cyclocross frame and fork.  54cm seat tube, center-to-center, 56cm to top of seat tube.  Top tube is 55.5cm center-to-center.  Custom tri-color paint.  This frame was never raced, and has actually seen very little use.  It is in outstanding, nearly pristine, condition.  Black Chris King headset, front cable hanger, seat-post clamp and all cable adjusters are installed and included with the frame.  A new IF Planet Cross steel frame and fork is now $2250.  Click on the image to see additional pictures.         Offered for sale on eBay.

Small Vid of PreciRay in action.  More step by step usage coming soon.

Snagged this “Wheel Building Machine” at Copake swap meet.  Cleaned up pretty well and is fully functional.  VAR still distributes these machines.

Everybody who is anybody will be are Le Cirque du Cyclisme this weekend in Leesburg, Virginia.

http://www.cirqueducyclisme.com/

Here’s something I managed to finish up late last night, and took her for a spin early this morning.  A sweet ride and a nice make-over for the old girl. Just a peek for now, she’s still a little shy.   Come see her “coming out” party at the shop tomorrow and the Cirque for the weekend.

We have some samples of ALE vintage style water bottles made in Italy by Allara.  These bottles are essentially the same as the bottles Allara has been making for many years.  We think it would be really cool to have an option to most of the water bottles currently available.  These bottles are available in three sizes, including the 550cc bottles that are so classic looking, and that almost nobody makes anymore.  The bottles are available in white, black, red blue and yellow.  There are also three types of caps available, a separate little tethered spout cap (the most classic looking), more common snap plunger type or full snap-over cover.  All of these attach with the ring around the throat of the bottle, so they are actually changeable and/or replaceable .  There is a fairly high minimum quantity for ordering these, so we have not yet decided to commit, but we are certainly thinking about it.

Below are some pix of the two smaller sized bottles  There is a larger 850cc bottle available too.  There are also pix of the three types of caps, and a group of caps showing the colors.  We have no idea why we got a green sample bottle when that color is no listed as one of the available colors.

Stay tuned!  We might just decide to pull the trigger on getting these because we really like them.

So, you want an accurate hand-held tire pressure gauge for those high pressure tires on your classic bike, but don’t want to chance the wrong mojo that might be conjured up by using some digital read-out thing?  Well, here’s the real deal.  Vintage  Silca tire pressure gauges.  I can envision a pro race mechanic in 1973 with one of these hanging around his neck, having just checked that the tire pressure on Gimondi’s bike was just right!These are new old stock, made in Italy by Silca and the lanyards are either red or blue.  There’s only a few of them, so please call for price and availability.

Ran across some great Gitane items in the warehouse and took a few shots.  NOS Tour de France forks and a number of great stickers and Bernard Hinault w/team postcards.

Spent some time yesterday tweaking the old Raleigh for tomorrow’s Tweed Ride.  She’s a ’73 Super Tourer that’s been “hot rodded” a bit.  Seemed like just the thing for a jaunty roll through DC on a Fall afternoon.  Looks like it will be a beautiful day, after several days of rain.  In fact, 70 degree tempetures are predicted, which is actually warmer than I had hoped because I wanted to wear lots of wool and, well, tweed.

For the ride, the Raleigh got new leather grips, real TA clamps for the bar-mounted bottle cage, and my cool flask and cage I got from Joseph Ahearne .  I think she’s all ready to go.  Now all I have to do is fill the flask with some of that Lagavulin 16 year old that’s here in the shop!

Hey, just learned about this.  Here at Velo Classique, we have been kicking around the idea of trying to organizing a Tweed Ride in DC for a while now.  We’ve always been a fan of the Tweed Rides in San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, London, etc., and, quite frankly,  jealous that there wasn’t one here locally.  So, we sat around and talked about it a lot (there was probably beer involved), and actually had the framework of a plan, thinking Spring would be a good time.  Well, it now looks like we’ve been beaten-to-the-punch on this one.  That’s cool, ’cause we’re happy to have someone else do the leg-work so we can just don our dandiest dudes and enjoy the ride!

More info about the event can be found by going here:

http://dandiesandquaintrelles.blogspot.com/

To summarize, the ride happens on November 15th (that’s 9 days from today!) and will begin at 11:00 AM on 8th & H Street N.E. “behind the big bank”.  That’s in the immediate neighborhood where the “old” 9:30 club used to be (for those that remember that sort of thing).  The Velo Classique crew will definitely be there, so come out and join us.  BTW, Velo Classique also still has a small supply of wool jerseys and even a few pair of vintage wool-blend knichers, just in case your tweed knickers are at the cleaners.  Now, where did I put my wool argyle knee sox?

This is a vintage bike project we are working on for a local client.  It’s a 1968 Bottecchia Professional.  The frame was purchased at the Cirque du Cyclisme swap meet back in June.  We are outfitting it with an eclectic mix of vintage components, and a few “modern classic” bits too.  This Bottecchia is meant to be a “rider” not a show bike, and the parts were chosen to best suit the owner and the way he intends to use the bike.  At the same time, parts were chosen to create a bike that still maintains the original vintage spirit, and a bike that might be something like what the original owner had riden and upgraded over time.

As you can see by the size of the frame (63cm), our client is tall, and needs the right complement of components to get proper fit and function.  We’ve chosen a Stronglight 93 crank set (not shown) with 175mm arms, because we can use the desired 52/39 chain ring combination.

We are using a Cinelli 1A stem and 64-42 bars.  Brake levers are Modolo Professional, pulling CLB brake calipers.  Campagnolo Nuovo Record front and rear derailleurs and shifters are installed.  All the components came from our inventory.

Hard to believe that this frame is more than 40 years old!  The fact that it is nickle plated under the paint went a long way toward preserving it.  It has a few “battle scars” that needed to be touched-up, but nothing that will detract from the overall character and image of the bike.  The chrome still shines, the decals are intact, and the paint still gleams with a good cleaning and a simple coat of wax.

We’ll post more pictures of the finished project, and then go for a ride with the owner!

Cheers!