Monday, 21 April 2008

Raleigh'ing to the cause


Some good progress over the weekend. Thanks to a nice man on Freecycle (thanks Keith!), I've been given a broken down Raleigh Pioneer to use for parts. So I now have a functioning front wheel, stem and set of brakes and brake levers.

The Raleigh Pioneer was the first ever generation of hybrid bike. Though it was fairly low-budget in its day, the parts that still work seem to be fine. And on a heavy old steel frame I'm not too worried about minimising weight. But the huge, awkward riser handlebars have got to go... I'm just not the hybrid kind of guy. I'll be dropping them off to the Oxford Cycle Workshop along with the frame, which hopefully they can find some use for.

The weekend also saw my first major mechanical cock-up of the project. In trying to remove the cranks and chainring from the old Raleigh, I completely stripped the threads, meaning that there's no way of getting the chainring off. I'd like to think that maybe it wasn't my fault - the threads had been exposed to the weather and were maybe a bit rusty - but let's face it, it probably was. Next time I'll try making sure I've got a solid fit.

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

the Vindec wishlist

The project started with a frame, with bottom bracket, headset and forks usefully already attached. Tom from Oxford Uni Cycling Club very kindly gave me a couple of tyres that look in decent nick. I've got an old leather saddle coming my way from some bloke on the internet.

Here's what I reckon the Vindec Project still needs:
  • Stem (quill type – 1”)
  • Handlebars
  • Handlebar tape
  • brake lever
  • Brake cable & housings
  • Front brake (possibly a rear one too if I'm feeling cautious) and pads
  • seatpost (sizing somewhere between 26 & 27mm)
  • chainset (cranks and chainring)
  • pedals (spd or beartrap)
  • chain
  • fixed rear wheel (700c)
  • sproket
  • front wheel (700c)
  • tubes
  • possibly a new fork (1”, for 700c wheel)
  • elbow grease
Hopefully lots of these bits are things that people have got lying around cluttering up their garage and would want a new home for. It's time to start putting the word out.

Donations, sage advice and sarcastic comments all gratefully received.

A potted history of Vindec



The internet, which knows almost everything, is a bit light on the history of Vindec.

According to the badge on the bike, Vindec bikes are made by Brown Brothers Limited, of Great Eastern Street, London EC2. All very Shoreditch: down the road from Favela Chic and the Foundry, and only 2k from the Duke of York, which must have the highest concentration of fixies outside of any pub in the country.

An advert from the 1950s suggests that they had already been going for 60 years by that point - which places them in the 1890s. Looks like they used to make motorcycles, too, as the second-place finisher in the 1907 Isle of Man time trial did so on a Vindec. Now there's a pub quiz question.

By the 1970s, Vindec had branched out into making the High Riser, a funked-up copy of the Raleigh Chopper.

The last reference I could find to Vindec was from a Competition Commission report in 1981, which notes that by then Vindec were made by the Comrade Cycle Company.

Then nothing else. The premises at 20-34 Great Eastern Street - post deindustrialisation - now appears to be an office block, with Network Rail as tenants.


As for the age of the frame? I've got no idea. From the style and weight I'd guess anywhere from 1950s to 1970s. Some bike companies numbered their bikes with the last two digits of the year followed by a serial number. Mine is 55301X. That would make it the 301st bike made in 1955 - but other companies just have serial numbers.

Tuesday, 15 April 2008

The backstory



The project started almost unintentionally. I went to Oxford Cycle Workshop down Cowley because a spoke nipple on my racer somehow got trapped inside the rim and I couldn't figure out how to get it out.

But while there I found myself looking at some of the resprayed frames hanging up, which led to going into a back room to have a look at some others, which led to chatting to one of the blokes there who told me about a frame he had just brought in after keeping in his attic for a few months. "It was built on Great Eastern Street".

And under a cardboard box, there it was in all its scruffy gleaming glory. The Vindec Speedwing. From the moment I saw it I knew it was going to be a long and complicated relationship.

I've fiddled round with bikes before, usually doing cack-handed things like accidentally draining disc brake fluid or spraying degreaser where it definitely doesn't want to go, but I've never built one up before. It'll be challenging, to say the least. And I've ridden a fixie, but only once, for about an hour, on the Velodrome in Herne Hill. But I like the pared-down simplicity of the fixed gear, the solidity and understated style of old racing bikes, and the 'cradle to cradle' circularity of building a new bike out of old stuff. So it had to be done.

£30 changed hands plus a tenner for the bottom bracket, then it was frame over the shoulder for a precarious ride home, and the beginning of The Vindec Project.

It started with a frame...


So this is where it starts.

The Vindec Project.

Aim: build a dream fixed gear bike, mostly from used bits of other bikes that people don't want anymore.

Timescale: uncertain.

Commitment: definitely.

Taking stock, I've got a beautiful, battered old steel Vindec 'Speedwing' frame, with a slightly clunky bottom bracket, a headset that could use some work, and a fork built for the wrong-size wheels.

I've also got a few cheap bike tools (from Lidl), very little in the way of mechanical know-how, not much time on my hands and a miniscule budget.

The Vindec Project is going to be a good one. I'll post updates to let people know how I get on. Meanwhile, old bike bits for the project gratefully received...