Wanderings of an ebay troll

The troll’s on a short leash. An iconic image I have of 1970s Australia is the backyard Hill’s hoist (a stand-alone clothes line that characterised Australia as much as the outdoor dunny before Paul Hogan and "Crocodile Dundee" came along) with the toddler leashed to it by old stockings tied around his waist and secured to the upright of the hoist.

The classic Australian Hills hoist. In this current politically-correct-lest-you-be-regarded-as-a-moral-vacuum-come-pervert climate you will have to imagine the backyard with the child on the stockinged leash.

A dog barks in the distance.

The leash might be short but the troll has good vision. And the backyard fence is short. So the troll has been able to watch the passing ebay traffic.

3Rensho keirin track frameset. Sold USD $1,725 (13 Oct)

You have to admire the broad range of lug combinations used by San Rensho (3Rensho). This is perhaps a little frustrating for the focussed collector who has to confirm provenance but fascinating for the casual observer. This example sports the famous Ohtsuya “bent plate” bottom bracket shell and Yoshi’s “Superend” dropouts. The lugs have a single long point without cutouts (for a couple of other lug variations see my previous posts under single speed). Full chrome under the (original) 'Takizawa Blue' paint yet sharp enough the reveal the typically meticulous Japanese lugwork. Apparently built for Masamitsu Takizawa.

For comparison there was this ad which the Troll found fascinating (the Troll’s backyard is a little empty of things to play with):

offered for auction is one used steel track frameset MALI SPRINT. this frame rode to a Gold Medal in 1994 World championship in Palermo, Italy, by Galina Eniukhina. i got this frame by chance. the previous owner had told me that this frame is a real champion etc. but i had my doubts, so i had it repainted in color of my choice. then later this video footage (of this particular frame winning the 1994 world championship) surfaced on youtube... and i said: "...oh S#!T, what have i done!"

here's a video footage on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7SNAMWf08A

well, anyhow, this frame is now offered for auction here. it's way too small for me, and i need to make room for new projects. don't miss your chance to own a piece of cycling history.

this frame does not take anything larger than a 21c tire. please make note of that!

tires pictured here are 21cX700. this is a real professional track sprint frame without any provisions for brakes etc. bb threading is ENGLISH.

tubing is ORIA.

included in this auction are frame, fork, bb and headset. nothing else is included. the picture of a complete bike is here for reference purpose only. also, picture of frame in "before" condition is also for reference purpose.

i will update the rest of the info shortly.

here's a "before" picture

Mali track frameset. Starting bid USD $995 (no bids)

The ad comes across as frank, educational and entertaining as anyone with a fetish for bicycles could have made the same mistake. There are some among us that believe that old bikes should look and behave like old bikes while others are more progressive, replacing components that have worn out (or updating with newer technology that simply works better) and repainting when necessary (to protect the frame in some cases, or to freshen up a dated “colourway”). However, it is a sin to knowingly repaint a frame with significant provenance (the seller is excused but not forgiven by his failure to confirm provenance). Even worse if the frame build isn’t particularly exceptional (check out the overfill/ underfill in the struts at the admittedly tight BB junction, even the lugs haven’t had any refinement whatsoever).

And therein lies the Troll's fascination, nay admiration, of this frame and the sequence of events that has brought it onto the ebay market. Races are won by cyclists not bicycles - in this case a hardened and experienced cyclist trumps a younger rival on a fancy carbon frame. Her weapon of choice is customised to simply get the job done and nothing more. A great counterpoint for all those artisan bikes that get displayed rather than used for their intended purpose (my humble collection included). Then it got resprayed. And the statement lost its voice.

Speaking of collectible bicycles, quite a few made it through ebay (as usual, the Troll assumes all sales are prima facie)

Colnago C35 with Campagnolo Record groupset and Bora wheelset, NOS. Sold USD $4,450 (3 Oct)

Colnago Master with Campagnolo 50th anniversary groupset, mint. Sold USD $4,000 (18 Sep)

Campy 50th groups are getting harder to find so this appears to have been a good buy (even if the hubs were plain SR rather than having the privilege of Tullio's signature)

Gold-plated Pinarello with gold-plated ICS-modified 1984 Super Record groupset. Sold USD $6,100 (26 Sep)

This and the C35 and were sold by benotto69, who like speedbicycles, hails from Switzerland. How fabulously desirable road bikes cluster in a country renowned for its snow and precipitous alps is completely beyond the troll’s understanding.

Colnago Master Piu 35th anniversary Gold Edition, NOS. Reserve not met USD $7,300 (30 Sep).

Colnago Master with gold highlights and gold plated C Record group. Ad posted by radmatrose (haliling from Germany) who also sold the Master with 50th group.

The Troll understands that Mr Campagnolo never really liked Mr Granzotto of ICS (Italcicli Cycle Systems based in Zurich) modifying his components then chrome-plating or gold-plating them. If anyone has seen an ICS groupset (or, even better, adorning an ICS-made Magni Exclusiv) then they will understand the meaning of an immaculate "bright finish" (the Troll did once look upon an ICS group but scampered back into his burrow to rest his eyes - for a week). Maybe this was Mr Campagnolo's counter-attack, teaming up with his good mate Ernesto?

Clearly, in this current economic climate, many collectors, like their investor brethren (they may indeed be one and the same given the level of the playing field) are looking to the security of gold in place of the flagging American dollar. Screams style and money. Like putting a Mercedes-Benz emblem on your forehead.

Then there are those relatively rare bikes that never really made any sense to the Troll.

1983 Colnago Master "Equilateral" with Super Record groupset. Sold USD $3,500 (1 Oct)

Something appears to have been lost in the translation as there isn’t anything "equilateral" about this frame design. And if it was I suspect that anything written in the Paterek manual would have to be thrown out in the search of geometric accuracy. The Troll has heard various reports that such a design is meant to stiffen the rear triangle (by virtue of a smaller rear triangle) and soften the ride (by virtue of a longer unsupported seat tube). Even if this were true an Italian bike should never sport an industrial look at the expense of aesthetics. That is simply not the Italian way.

However, if it is made by GT, called a “triple triangle”, and looks likes this...

GT Zasker LE. Brash American with a shiny ball-burnished aluminium frame

... then the Troll will probably try and dry hump it.

Besides anything made of Italian steel should really look more like this:

Colnago Master Olympic frameset in good used condition. Sold USD $1,277 (16 Oct)

Preferably with a 53-54cm cc TT because that size just looks right with 700c wheels (and and just happens to be the Troll’s ideal size).

And not to forget C Record track componentry which continues to command high prices especially since fixed-gear riding hipsters have started to place them on their alter (read retro or retro-look track bike) for adulation and worship.

Campagnolo "sheriff star" pista hubset, NOS NIB. Sold USD $950 (5 Oct)

We all needs shiny iconography.

And for those that want brakes there is, of course, the delta brakeset.

Campagnolo C Record Delta brakset, NOS NIB. Sold USD $835 (18 Oct)

Yep, 4th generation delta’s still in the box. Not a bad price given what the Troll has seen over the past few of years. Especially since the 4th gens are probably the pinnacle of the delta brake evolution when Campagnolo was still in denial and thought they could make the concept work. By the 5th generation Campy accepted their failure to sell this beautiful but frightfully expensive bicycle decoration and focussed instead on their dual pivot brakeset.

And (with a sigh of finality) if you must have the ultimate in hand-stitched cow skin stretched over titanium rails there was this:

Brooks Swallow Limited Edition, NOS NIB. Sold GBP 330 (16 Oct)

There can be only one king.

(All photos and details taken directly off the ebay postings)

5 AM (or thereabouts)

Joy is...

Heading north into the mountains.

Eighties hits blaring in my left ear.

Sun rising over my right shoulder.

I’ve already ridden for an hour.

With the best yet to come.

Yep, I got an iphone yesterday. With easy access to a pocket multimedia device I can now take (mediocre) photos of my (mundane) life and post them on the internet. I will now allow myself to lull into a belief that someone (anyone) could give a rats about how I live my everyday life.

Tomorrow I will post about my bean and rice diet (with photos).

Phil Anderson's Eddy Merckx Max

Winning no.96 Dec 1991

Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra - Panasonic Team

1986. An Australian Giant.

Phil Anderson rode for the Panasonic team from 1984-1987. The last two years of this tenure on Eddy Merckx frames. This example has been fitted with Shimano Dura Ace 7400 with 7402 upgrades to take it to 8-speeds out the back. 7402 post-dates the frame by about 5 years and by then Phil was back on Merckx frames (with Dura Ace) albeit with Motorola team livery.

7400 was the breakthrough group for Shimano.

Hi-tech and innovative with that unmistakeable Japanese styling.

Clean cable routing.

Well, this rocks my boat.

My kind of computer. 22.6km/h standing still. Imagine how fast I could be once I start pedalling...

Shimano 7400 is recognised by many as the maturation of the fully-integrated, technologically-advanced group that the Japanese giant set as an industry standard. Index shifting was perfected with the incorporation of the slant parallelogram rear derailleur (after Suntour’s patent ran dry at the end of 1984) and the freehub cassette (a Shimano innovation from the 1970s - and a commercial failure at the time - quietly reintroduced with 7400 in 1985).

Prominent appearances of this distinctively Japanese groupset within the professional ranks heralded the end of Campagnolo’s monopoly of the pro peloton. Within a few years Shimano would bring out STI levers (prototypes as early as 1989 - Phil Anderson was an influential test pilot - with production models appearing in 1991) and dual-pivot brakes (popularized by Shimano in the 90s but the original concept dates back to Altenburger from the 1960s).

The 7402 brakeset. Last of an era of single pivot brakes.

Class and understatement.

The Knowledge

What does 50 picograms of Clenbuterol mean to you?

For Alberto Contador it could mean losing the yellow jersey from this year’s Tour de France. For professional road cycling in general it is yet another stench of drug doping on our already tainted sport.

This news was all over the cycling blogosphere and websites last night and even managed to hit the mainstream news (admittedly cycling hits the mainstream news in Australia for two reasons: 1. once a year to announce the winner of the Tour de France, and 2. for any news/ gossip/ hearsay/ twitterfeed that involves some form of drug use in cycling). Certainly there are many views and opinions out there all of which are more informed and enlightened than anything I have to offer. As usual, my indulgent ramble will continue its agenda of providing no useful information whatsoever.

There was a phase many of us went through when we thought highly of our abilities, and even more so about our potential. Depending on circumstance and perseverance these people are known to be “immature” (children), “losers” (I coulda and woulda if...) or “leaders in their field” (recognised by the enlightened and united by the fact that none of them feel the need to post blogs). In cycling, this belief is manifest by the conviction that, given the right conditions, we could have gone pro. For me that moment was (many years ago) when I strapped a number on my jersey and just before I got thrown out the back of C grade (about twenty minutes later). Like many of us, I fought to match what I thought of my ability and the reality check that is the Saturday club race. I got to a level where I did my turns at the front of B grade only to be spat out the back of A grade the following weekend. I got no further. And that was just club racing.

But I had my hero’s. They were legends of cycling like Coppi, Bartali, Merckx. Or more contemporary hard men like Hinault, Kelly, Jalabert, Tchmil. The poker-faced machine that was Miguel Indurain. The irrepressible but ultimately fragile Marco Pantani. The magnificent bravado of super Mario (Cippollini). And they all meant a lot to me.

Then came 1998. Now was that a significant year for the face of professional road cycling. It was the time when the general public (as well as the more naive club cyclist) woke up to the nasty smell of drug (and blood) cheats. And just how systematic and widespread the practice was. It started with the Festina affair with the ejection of Richard Virenque, Alex Zulle, Christophe Moreau, and the rest of the Festina team from the Tour. Then Marco Pantani is found to have suspiciously high testosterone levels, the remarkable but erratic Frank Vandenbrouke gets caught with amphetamines and EPO (and Clenbuterol), the great classics rider Johan Museeuw gets done for doping and trafficking, the stellar soloist that is David Millar gets done for EPO as does the remarkable climber, Roberto Heras. Then there was Dr Fuentes and Operacion Puerto. Then Floyd Landis gets done for testosterone after one of the most incredible solo stage victories in the Tour de France (stage 17 of the 2006 TdF). And the claims and allegations just keep going seemingly forever.

the call of the wild

Well I rode my Inbred SS again this morning. Having this much fun on a workday makes me feel like a truant child playing instead of attending to his lessons/ duties. A sense of guilt made more acute by the knowledge that I chose a slightly longer course with a distinct possibility that I might run late for work. And that would really piss off my secretary (a searing look from the redhead is enough to make skin peel). Yet the possibility that I may to get back in time and get away with it made the choice irresistible.

As I get older I don’t think as big as I used to. My heroes are closer to home. They are fellow bicycle riders who share the same pleasure of simply turning a pedal. And if they have pretensions they choose to keep it to themselves. Sure, some are racers such as the A grader that pulls his turn and still winds up a big sprint at the end. The sixteen year old who can jockey with the big boys while rolling on restricted gears. But also the sixty year old ex-sportsman returning back to form and riding because his knees are too arthritic to run. The casual group of 50-plus year olds who blow past me but welcome me into their slipstream. Any considerate commuting cyclist. And that large girl in a full pink outfit riding solo on a pink Pinarello Dogma who smiles in recognition as we ride past. She has the knowledge. We all share the knowledge.

What does 50 picograms of Clenbuterol mean to me? 

Not much.

Campagnolo C Record delta brake calipers

A flawed concept. But beautifully executed.

Nostalgia has a funny effect on how we choose to remember things. And, as I have said before, there are some things in this world that are so beautiful to behold that we forgive the fact that they didn't actually do their job all that well. In my nostalgic, cyclocentric world, Campagnolo delta brakes have been a shining example of this.

The following are what I understand to be the 5 standard incarnations of the Campagnolo C Record delta brake calipers. Missing from the lineup are the 2nd generation calipers with the Campagnolo logo etched into the faceplate (see my previous post).

1st generation

2nd generation (printed logo on faceplate has faded)

3rd generation

4th generation

5th generation

The first generation delta calipers appeared in 1984/5 but were soon pulled off the market after reported failures (in the interim, they were replaced by the Cobalto brakeset). Delta calipers then reappeared in 1986/7 and lasted until the end of the C Record era in 1994. More information in my first post (2008).

An iconic piece of cycling history.

Expectation

I rode my Inbred SS this morning. And although infrequent and often testing (it would be less testing if I rode it more often) I do enjoy our jaunts together. The circuit has a number of single-track options available but ultimately I have an expectation of how the ride should turn out. And the last section is always a steep and technical run. As indicated in my previous posts, this last run completes the ride.

Well today I was disappointed. The wonderful wood elves that do a great job of maintaining the trails (as well as creating new ones) have decided to manicure my last run. Yes I’m aware that other people (hikers, runners, other riders, and the occasional bush fireman) use the track. It is after-all meant to be a firebreak and would benefit from a smoother profile. Nonetheless instead of picking my way around the ruts and babyheads, bouncing through what I cannot avoid, and sliding a couple of turns at the edge of my limited ability, I found myself floating and frustrated on an undulating gravel road. There were a few loose patches but the occasional skid doesn’t quite make up for it.

I was once told by an ex-girlfriend that “expectation is the mother of disappointment.” And she’s right. Disappointment arises from a failure to deliver an expected outcome. In a more educational & less emotionally-charged environment I was given a good example of this: the two biggest complaints against McDonald’s (the fast food outlet) are 1. slow service and 2. the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of their toilets. The patron of McDonald’s does not expect gourmet food (although I am partial to any slab of cooked cow between two pieces of bread) but does expect that the service will be fast and that the toilets are clean. Complaints about food quality is the burden of the fancy, well-regarded restaurant. The circuitous statement that disappointment arises from expectation explains the counter-intuitive finding that places/ people/ products with the best reputations will generate the most complaints about their reputable quality. It’s all about the expectation. And, more importantly, how that expectation is managed.

But back to cycling. There is another word for small, gravel-like stones on a steep slope. It’s called “scree”. Rain is expected this weekend and should do a good job of washing out some of the loose landfill. Add to that the daily passage of slipping, sliding hiking boots and spinning bicycle tyres attempting to cut some traction into the dirt and we should start to get some exposure of the underlying pre-manicured terrain. Over the next couple of months I expect I will get my technical run back.

1992 road test: Roberts vs Regio vs Cannondale

In 1992 I spent a month's wages on a brand new Avanti Ridgeback - a steel TIG-welded MTB frame with mid-range Shimano componentry and rigid forks. Three months later I bounced my way into happiness (albeit with even less control) on a set of second-hand Manitou suspension forks with elastomer suspension (and no dampening). I was deeply attached to that bicycle.

But when darkness fell I was enraptured by magazine articles on bicycles and componentry that were outside my humble reach. Take what you will from product reviews be they objective, subjective or shameless marketing. They feed an inner desire. They make you aware of things that you never knew about, that you don't have in your possession, and now desperately need (without which Life would not be Complete).

"Bicycle" cycling magazine Midsummer 1992

1992 Campagnolo C Record Ergopower road test

"Bicycle" cycling magazine Midsummer 1992

When the old get back up

There appear to be two main hurdles in establishing a level of performance in endurance sports. The first is setting and maintaining a routine. This is often done in the company of others (the Wednesday morning group ride, the weekend club race etc). The second is getting back up after injury. This is often a solo ordeal.

The older cyclist doesn’t bounce well. More specifically, they don’t bounce back well. There are many reasons for this but at least two come to mind. The first is intrinsic. Older people simply do not have the same depth of physical reserve to take up any slack when one system takes a hit. Running with an injured knee can throw out the hip. Getting back in the saddle after missing a couple of weeks of riding taxes an already stretched cardiovascular system.

The second reason is extrinsic. In my age bracket (30-50 years old) work and family commitments form a large part of the daily routine. Sports like bicycle riding play a secondary role and have to fit around these core activities. If the recovering ride (run, paddle, etc) requires a further period of recovery on the sofa watching videos (or in front of the computer posting a blog) and violates these responsibilities then the ramifications can be profound. More often it is the anticipation of such outcomes that dampens the enthusiasm to return to the sport.

These are excuses. Let’s not forget the majestic words of Ronnie Johns