Category Archives: Musings

Celebrating classic Italian bike heritage

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cropped-epoca-header.jpgThis is the first of my Christmas holiday posts where I catch up on some of the missing subjects I promised myself I would write about at the time and never quite got round to. Some reflections, maybe a few thanks, but above all else the things I can catch up on when the rain is howling in horizontally across the countryside and it is time for another piece of cake.

Among this year’s new discoveries that I wanted to share were some of Europe’s communities of vintage racing bike enthusiasts. I had frequently marveled at the massive queues for what I could only characterised as a “load of old scrap” when I visited some of the popular bike rallies in the UK but the scale of the sector had passed me by.

However I do know that I always enjoyed seeing a restored classic and this year I have learned so much more about the community and culture behind the world of classic bikes.

GB, WeinmannFirstly I started a rather urgent mission to reduce the volume of cycling stuff I was going to relocate to Belgium. I knew I had a couple of nice classic bikes that needed a good home because I was never going to give them due respect. But I had no idea that when I delved into my old bits box I would be uncovering the items that power a whole community of collectors and restorers.

Crossed flad head badge Freddie Grubb FixieSecondly I began the long drawn out process of restoring my own period classic.  I conceived the project over a year ago on my 50th birthday because the bike itself is of a similar vintage and frankly at fifty there are not so many toys you can buy a bloke. But it was only this year that I got the frame refurbed and started to think properly about the parts.

In both cases I have been hugely impressed by the community over on www.retrobike.co.uk , there just doesn’t seem to be anything that they don’t know about bike bits. And the ability to identify a part or a bike from just a single photo or a clumsy description is only matched by their ability to conjure up just the missing part from a secret store, often in mint condition.

I had carried a bit of a prejudice that this was a mainly British community of eccentrics with some similar enthusiasts in North America. The tribe runs on a diet of old English handmade frames and the period components that go with them.  However it hasn’t taken long in my travels this year to discover that there is an alternative theme that runs across Europe, one that runs on pure Italian vintage, with Colnago and Bianchi at its head. Just goes to show how little I really know about anything when I make assumptions about national character.

First I found the amazing Bikelager in Vienna – café, galley and homage to the finest Italian frames and bikes which I mentioned in one of my Vienna posts in May.  I am looking forward to paying them another visit next year for one of the coolest coffees in town.

Bikelager Wien

Then I in September my newest discovery was Bici D’Epoca, (“Bikes of the ages”) the period bike exhibition at the Padua Cycle Show. As with everything Italian and cycling from this period the twin gods of Coppi and Bartali looked down on everything. I guess it is a form of insurance for the company that they have to give equal billing to both.

It was a feast of Campagnolo, Bianchi, clothing and parts stretching over more than 50 years. Coppi’s 1954 World Championship winning bike as star, but I enjoyed just as much bikes with local histories such as the tandem from the local Padova club which was used to win an Italian national championship, complete with black and white photos of its riders. Coppi's 1954 Bianchi

Vintage Cinelli TandemSo despite being surrounded by some of the most exciting modern bikes on the planet I kept sneaking back to their stall at the Padua fair to soak up some of the legends.

Bici D'Epoca Bici D'Epoca Classic Italian Cycling Tops

The spiritual home of this stuff and one of the drivers of the rediscovery of the era has become the classic ride L’Eroica (“the heroic one”)  which has spawned a whole generation of spinoff rides including a Giro d’Italia d’Epoca. These rides only allow riders to compete on classic bikes with period clothing to preserve the classic images of the sport. L’Eroica itself was created to draw attention to the paving over of the legendary white dirt roads of Tuscany. It can be credited with the decision by the organisers of the Giro D’Italia to take one of the monuments of cycling over little known dirt tracks, days which have changed the destiny of the race. And a professional version of the L’Eroica in the spring is fast becoming a classic. Together they have rehabilitated both the strada bianchi and the classic bikes of Italy.

I almost imagined I had a small part in the original Eroica this year because one of the participants was credited in the event reports with wearing “some natty punched leather Gianni Motta shoes”,   the ones I had sold him just a few weeks before just for the occasion. Now I know that this is a proper missing link in my cycling CV, one for the bucket list to be sure.

So when I could be putting up more blog posts, riding my bike or restoring my own bike I seem to be able click around for ages www.bicidepoca.com for their events, parts, accessories, clothing, historical articles and some great photos of the bikes including the story about that Coppi championship winning bike. And if not I will be sneaking my regular look at www.retrobike.co.uk to see if anyone really does need some of my old tat, for say the price of a cup of coffee?

Today’s music to ride bikes by: “Slip sliding away”. Must change that tyre!

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I haven’t updated my “Music to ride bikes by” blog page in ages, I think my head has been too full of other stuff for songs to sneak in and take over.

Not today!

Within minutes of starting to pick my way through the fresh fallen snow even my intense concentration was taken over by Paul Simon’s “Slip sliding away”.

There is little doubt that it was prompted by my two wheeled behaviour. The Belgian schoolboys trudging alongside the road were highly entertained by the chap doing a 180 degree spin in front of them and wobbling off down the hill sliping from side to side.

No real risk, a friend has given me an almost car free back route to the station. But I am a victim of my own complacency. I am a huge fan of the puncture proof Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, over 10 years since I first reviewed them for the CTC magazine and still puncture free. But this does mean I put them on the bike and completely ignore them until the carcass completely falls apart. This is exposed at some point each year when the bike becomes mysteriously unstable on mud, snow or ice and I finally look down to discover the rear is completely bald.

Today appears to have been that day, thus Paul Simon is now in my head for the rest of the day.

Over to you Paul.

What else would today’s Belgian train be made of other than chocolate?

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Brussels Midi stationBrussels Midi stationBrussels MidiJust walking through the main Brussels station, not really paying attention because it was early in the morning and I was off to the Netherlands.

So I did an almightly double-take when my path was crossed by a huge model train, in fact two model trains with absolutely wonderful detailing. Made of chocolate! And a world record apparently, over a tonne in weight and 30 metres long.Brussels Midi station

Now that is how to celebrate your national obsession with chocolate. I’ll have one of these for Christmas please Santa.

Mysteriously fewer cyclists at the station yesterday morning?

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Rixensart station December 2012This platform normally full at this time – and the bike shed too!

First snows of the winter – probably would not have put off the Danes or the Dutch. But I made it down from the country lanes, although not without a few wobbly moments.

Beryl: A Love Story on Two Wheels – radio play about the greatest cyclist of an era, possibly ever

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So at last Maxine Peake’s play about Beryl Burton made the airwaves this afternoon.

I was traveling so I have had to listen to it myself in my hotel room on the i-player this evening – link here.

Followers of my blog know I have been building up the Beryl story since May (Click tab “Beryl Burton” for other posts and material). I had this horrible moment about a week ago when I read the synopsis on line and I thought it might just be terrible and a bit twee, focussing on a manufactured love story between Beryl and Charlie and my buildup would be in vain.

But what made it work for me were the recordings of Charlie and daughter Denise chatting about Beryl as if she was just round the corner and had popped out for a ride, almost like the day she died. It brings that authenticity and honesty I can respect, bringing to life some of the stories from the book “Personal Best” on which it is based.

Such a dominant figure in the cycling history of the period, but spoken of which such affection by the two people who knew her best, even if it is clear she was far from easy to live with. Yes it was a love story.

Aficionados will be cross at some of the corny sound effects to make radio drama accessible and I can assure you that there weren’t crowds, loudspeakers and commentators at 1960s time trials, if there had been maybe Beryl would have been the star she should have been. But I am forgiving, they were needed for the narrative to work and it is hard to portray a superstar at a sport that was invented for its anonymity! If I have one complaint it would be that her achievements still didn’t really come across, she really was such an athlete she is so hard to sum up.

But all in all a really good effort and its placement on Radio 4 will have gone a long way to telling the world about our hidden heroine. I have only seen feedback on twitter so far tonight, but overall it is really positive.

Please give it a listen, and if you can get a copy of “Personal Best” do so, it fills out the rest.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

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Autumn skyBeautiful skies on Sunday’s walk.

And the temptation – because the tiny sign to the left of the trees means there is a path up there. One I haven’t walked or ridden yet. One for the future.

Promise you won’t tell anyone?

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BerkshireI wanted to publish a small gallery of favourite photos from the Berkshire village where I have lived for the last ten years as a farewell and a memento.

I had never heard of Finchampstead when I got a job in Guildford but friends encouraged us to consider Wokingham as a place to live because of its environment and its schools. Quite by chance my wife found a house and a school place for our son out in Finchampstead. It was formerly a tiny village with origins as a hamlet in the Royal Windsor hunting forests. But in the 20th century it grew rapidly as housing was carved out of the woods but there is a real legacy of woodland with its country parks and National Trust woodland, not to mention the remaining Crown estates which provide the magnificent mountain biking at Swinley Forest, just a few miles away.

As well as all the great things that go with family life I found one really unexpected thing in Finchampstead. Don’t tell anyone but I actually started enjoying walking. The environment has a lot to do with it but of course the most important stimulant was my furry sidekick. So just a few seasonal favourites from the last five years of walks , culminating with the leading actor himself in the autumn’s leaves, our last walk before we packed the car.

Finchampstead, Wokingham BerkshireBerkshire AutumnBerkshire, Wokingham

California Country Park, FinchampsteadCalifornia Country Park WokinghamBerkshire, EnglandDog California Country Park Finchampstead Wokingham Berkshire

A long and winding Belgian road starts here

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Wallon BrabantInternet access has finally arrived chez Mayne so I can begin to blog again. And it allows time for some musings about where we might be going, just as we and our dog Murphy explore the landscapes of our new home.

So it’s time for a new category of posts to go alongside the cycling and travel that have made up most of the year so far.  Until now I have been blogging about Belgium from the perspective of a visitor, a bit of a tourist in Brussels.

And now, at last, I am suddenly catapulted into the life of a Belgian resident after a year of talking about it. Perhaps we are a bit conservative because we have decided to live about 20 kilometres south of central Brussels, just as we lived 50km from London in England. We know it’s not Berkshire, but there are some comparisons in its relationship to the big city up the road. We considered very seriously living in the city and going for the metropolitan life but we fell for the network of small towns and villages to the south of Brussels in the province of Wallon-Brabant (Walloon Brabant), the French speaking area closest to the capital.

But it is very different from the city of Brussels and it is very much part of country life in Wallonia, or at least we hope so.

So alongside the cycling and travel posts that have featured in the blog to date I will be  embarking on some new “Life in Belgium” posts which I hope readers will enjoy and if nothing else they will add to the diary element of the blog. Click on categories to choose similar posts, or indeed to ignore them and stick to the regular material. And there will be lots of cycling mixed in as I go exploring.

Author Peter Mayle set the standard for this sort of writing years ago with his brilliant “Year in Provence” books. I hope I don’t fall into the trap of offering detached amusement about local personalities and contractors just because they do things in a different way and we are in a rural area, but we did enjoy the fact that the chap delivering the wood turned up yesterday in his tractor to dump a huge pile on the drive. That’s how it should be in the country.

So in the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”* welcome to the first of many posts from Wallon-Brabant. (*Keats)

Trees in countryside, BelgiumMist, trees and moon, evening in Belgium

Cannot beat cycling to work on a forest road with a layer of golden beech leaves #magiccarpet

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Brussels Belgium Chemin Des Tumulii

The middle of one of my new commuting routes, before I hit the roads of Brussels (sigh)

Blogging in temporary suspense

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Belgian telecoms companies being a law unto themselves I have no internet at home at the moment. It seems it takes as many technicians to get a line to a rural spot as it does cyclists to fix a puncture.

Haven’t quite mastered posting via my Blackberry so I am stuck with the dilemma – start blogging after work or go home to my wife who is struggling to put together a new house?

Hardly a choice is it, but I am building up some nice material for the dark winter nights!

Follow me on twitter @maynekevin but otherwise a cheery holding photo from Brussels – great street art!Mural Rue de Bon Secours

 

Quirky hotel in Stockholm deserves a mention

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Gamla Stan Stockholm Old TownI have been very rude about some hotels encountered on my travels this year (click hotels tag below for more!) but to be fair I have had a good run lately.

All credit to the Hotel Sienna in Verona and the Dream House Hostel in Kiev which were excellent and really cyclist friendly.

However I just had to write about the Lord Nelson in Stockholm.

It is a tall narrow building in the old city fitted out with maritime themed antiques, especially those linked to the 19th century British navy. Yes that is a ship’s wheel on the first floor and the corridor to the rooms feels like a ship’s deck with its blue and brass theme and portholes.Gamla Stan Stockholm Old Town

Gamla Stan Stockholm Old TownBreakfast should have been served on deck, but actually was in a blue and wood panelled based on a cruise liner’s bar.Gamla Stan, Old Town Stockholm Sweden

Each room is designed as a cabin, which is a neat trick for disguising that the rooms are tiny, but I thought it was great.

Just to capture the mood here it is in black and white, feels really period apart from the TV. Apparently their chain in Stockholm called the Collector’s Hotels and Apartments; if you go there I recommend them. Actually I doubt they have room to store a bike, but in this case they are forgiven.Gamla Stan, Stockholm Old Town

Not despairing in Stockholm

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SwedenI have only cycled once before in Sweden, and that was three years ago after Velo-city Copenhagen when my son and I took our bikes across the strait to Malmo. It was clear to see that there has been an extension of Copenhagen riding culture across the bridge because cycling levels were really high and well catered for.

So I was very interested to see what the capital city was like away from that influence, especially as I was doing an evening talk with the Dutch Cycling Embassy to a group of municipalities from the Stockholm region. It certainly helps to have ridden just a little bit before speaking to a cycling audience, if only to see where we have things in common, I am always reminded of the famous situation when the Beatles landed in the US and as they got off the plane a reporter said “So what do you think of America?”

Sweden cyclingFirst discovery was yet another design of bike in use for the public bike sharing, a rather odd looking beast with a small front wheel, and what turned out to be horribly uncomfortable saddles.

Throughout the two days I saw consistent streams of riders, obviously higher numbers than many places I know in the UK or Belgium, up there with parts of Germany but not quite reaching the critical mass of the Netherlands or Denmark. I was quite pleased with myself when I guessed a mode share of 10% as that turns out to be about right, I think I am starting to tune in now as I increase my exposure to different cycling environments. Swedish cycling

I was told that this is actually well behind many other Swedish cities and Stockholm may be holding the country back. It certainly was a mixed culture full of contradictions.

Encouragingly high numbers of women cycling which is always an indicator that cycling has been normalised and taken back from us macho types, but then more helmets than I have seen anywhere that doesn’t have a compulsion policy.

As we rode around we encountered every kind of cycling facility, without any rhyme or reason as to which would come next.  On road, on paint, segregated and shared use all in a small area and without any apparent strategy, or if there was I missed it. And almost no car free areas except a few streets in the touristy part of the old city, that really is a bit of a rarity now in forward-looking cities now.

Swedish cycling

Quality of the cycling facilities was pretty good when they existed, often wide and smooth, but there were some totally chaotic and confusing junctions to a newcomer.

SwedenI am glad I was following Christian on my first day. The routes around the waterfront were lovely, the sort of ride that makes me want to get up in the morning.

And that’s a point – did I mention mornings? I had my usual hotel problem of waking up really early so I went out for a walk around 6.30. Big shock to the system, pitch dark without a hint of dawn and a wicked wind cutting through the buildings, suddenly you know you have come a long way north.

But as I wandered out of the old city towards the main roads I became aware of lots of traffic noise and discovered that rush hour seemed to be well underway, not just for cars and trains but for cyclists. I was later told that Sweden has quite a long-hours culture; or one where people like to start early so they can get home early. Whatever it was I don’t think I have seen quite so many early riders anywhere. I guess if you get used to cycling through a Scandinavian winter you are used to doing a lot of riding in the dark, but this was quite striking.Morning rush hour

Given that I see no cyclists on the roads in Brussels before 8am it was encouraging to see them out there.

Another nice feeling came around the Dutch Embassy, which conveniently happens to be on the busiest cycle route in Stockholm. As the street outside is car free and mingles bikes and pedestrians it could almost be home for the staff. Although the hill is a bit bigger than many of them would ever encounter! Great thing the embassy has in common with any Dutch organisation: When the ambassador talks about cycling in his welcome speech at least he hasn’t been handed the notes on a piece of paper, he has actually ridden a bike around most of his life, as they all have. Gives them enormous credibility as hosts and ambassadors for cycling culture.Netherlands Embassy Sweden

I’m looking forward to further invitations, this Dutch – Swedish relationship could go well and I hope to be back to see the results.

Bicycle dog basket designed in a wind tunnel?

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Spotted in Stockholm.

A most unusual attachment for a sporty road bike. Speculation as to purpose welcomed.

 

 

 

A cyclists view of Stockholm in autumn

Gallery

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Sweden

This gallery contains 16 photos.

I went to Stockholm a few times in my business career. I can honestly say I don’t remember anything except an amazing boozy harbour cruise at mid-summer. But charging into meetings and dashing around in cabs left me with no sense … Continue reading →