My old hunting dog
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This is the story of the resurrection of my old racing bike. The frame broke from metal fatigue about two years ago. When it broke, it was like losing my old hunting dog. I wanted to get it fixed because this bike and I have a great history together.
I rode this bike for 29 years. I made Category 2 on it. I rode up Mt Washington on it. I even rode it through Death Valley. And I was on it for my greatest ride ever.
So here is the story of my old bike.
Back in 1977, I was a USCF Junior racer, and I rode with the North Jersey Bicycle Club. We had the good fortune to be coached for a year by Eddie Borysewicz. He had just moved to the U.S. the previous fall after coaching the Polish Olympic team in the ’76 Montreal Olympics. He was missing being involved in bike racing, so he asked a local bike shop where he could find a racing club, and he showed up at one of our meetings. He agreed to coach us for a year to get back into it, and it was a great experience for all of us.
In our early-season training camps, he noticed that I was sitting kind of strangely on my bike. He decided that because of my build, I should have a frame with a special geometry, and he sketched it out for our club’s framebuilder. At the time, most of the riders in our club rode frames built by Pepe Limongi, but I couldn’t afford his work. But he had an understudy who was learning framebuilding, and he fit my budget. His name was Cuevas, and he later went on to great acclaim as a framebuilder.
So I wanted to get my bike fixed. After some searching, I found Bill Rider, who is a framebuilder here in the L.A. area. I contacted him and inquired about fixing my frame. He said that he could do it, and he came and picked it up. The first photo shows the frame after I stripped it down. The second shows a closeup of the fatigue crack. Bill had to replace both the top and down tubes. The top tube was pitted with rust. The last photo shows the bike after I reassembled it. We tried to duplicate the original color. Overall, he did a very nice job.
So now I can ride Old School again.
June 3rd, 2007 at 9:33 am
I just came across your old bike while trying to research who made mine. It was originally a handmade frame labeled for Paris Sport (founding shop of the NJBC of which I was also a member in the 80’s). Interestingly I have noticed some similarities between yours and mine. It appears to use the same type of crown joints, seat stay joint and rear drop bars(?).
What is strange with mine is it is configured for a front brake, but not rear. It has fixed gear wheel slots, and only a braze on for one shifter. It has braze on’s for what would usually be the rear brake cable, but the brace on the rear has the hole going vertically instead of horizontally. It also has a polished chrome chain guard shaped like flames, that only goes back to the seat down tube, about half the length to the rear hub.
So far, it looks alot like a Cuevas, but also has some commonalities to an Alex Singer (who also built there), so I may never know. Either way, I can’t wait to finish it to ride! Oh, and it also appears to be the same or close color to your top 2 pictures, but the crown joints were black with hand painted gold trim. I am having it repainted to the original colors.
May 29th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
wow that bike is vintage! it may be pricey the next time you sell it… or maybe not coz it’s very memorable…