Angles & Poise, a bike blog focused on the high-end and boutique end of cycling, put together a neat infographic tracing the history of the New England frame building world. The timeline starts back in 1972 with Witcomb and Serotta and goes all the way to present day with companies like Firefly, Tomii, and Chapman. Click the picture above to see the full version. Fingers crossed they give the same treatment to other regions of the country with a high concentration of frame builders!
America’s first six-day was held at Madison Square Garden. Photo from Bike Barings.
At modern six-day races, track cyclists perform impressive physical feats racing a variety of events such as keirins, madisons, and sprints over the course of nearly a week. Any cyclist who’s raced back to back days can attest to the extra challenge of racing with tired legs. But even with six consecutive days of racing, today’s six-day events pale compared to the turn-of-the-20th century races from which they evolved. Those early races were quite literally six days long, running 146 consecutive hours, pushing racers to their absolute breaking point (and often beyond).
Last week, writing for The Classical, Rob Mitchum took an in-depth look at the history of American six-day racing in the wake of 1930s six-day racer Erwin “Erv†Pesek’s death.
Mitchum writes:
In early days, a single cyclist would ride for as many hours as his body and mind would allow, prompting a delirium by the end that drew the scorn of an 1897 New York Times editorial—“An athletic contest in which the participants ‘go queer’ in their heads, and strain their powers until their faces become hideous with the tortures that rack them, is not sport, it is brutality.â€
The growing outcry against the dangers of a solo six-day race prompted New York City and Chicago laws in 1899 forbidding cyclists from racing for more than 12 hours a day. To circumvent those rules, promoters paired up riders into two-man teams, at least one of whom was required to be on the track at all times while the other man rested or ate in small, square huts set up on the inside of the bowl. The winners were determined by the number of laps completed by each team at the end of the week, combined with a separate tally of points accumulated in two-mile sprints during peak times to spice up the proceedings.
Erv Pesek reflecting on his sport:
“As far as I’m concerned this is the roughest sport and the toughest sport because you had to train so hard,†Pesek said at his Cicero home in 2008. “When you’re riding against foreigners up there, they’re out to get you and you’re out to get them. You can do anything you want if you don’t get caught.â€
Read the whole thing here.
Alex Singer was a French frame builder in the post-war “Golden Age” of constructeur bicycles. Focused mostly on building touring and randonneuring bicycles, the constructeurs considered bikes a holistic unit and built racks, fenders, and lights to complement their framesets as such.
Though Alex Singer himself has long since passed away, his grand nephew Olivier Csuka continues to carry on his legacy at the Alex Singer shop outside of Paris. A Belgian filmmaker put together a short video tour of the shop set to music. Sadly, it doesn’t show any frame building (they don’t build on Saturdays so that they can accommodate all the customers coming to visit the shop), but it is nonetheless a neat look into an important landmark in cycling history.
Alex Singer Cycles from hanckxlife on Vimeo.
Eddie Roman’s 1995 mountain bike and BMX video Hammertime is an amazing period piece. Punk rock and metal soundtrack, Hi8 video, choppy transitions between short clips of trick after trick; all staples of the skateboard and BMX videos of the era. Hammertime features big name riders like Brian Lopes, Hans Rey, Fuzzy Hall, and Mat Hoffman jumping dirt jumps, riding their mountain bikes like BMX bikes on the street, and shredding single track.
Posted in Everything Else, History, Mountain Biking
Tagged bmx, brian lopes, eddie roman, fuzzy hall, GT bikes, hammertime, mat hoffman, mountain biking
Brothers Jack, Norman, and Ken Taylor were professional cyclists in Britain in the 1930s and 40s. Dissatisfied with the equipment available to them, they began  hand building their own frames. That humble start laid the foundation for Jack Taylor Bicycles, the deeply-influential bicycle company the three brothers ran together for nearly seven decades.
In 1986, BBC produced a short documentary about the brothers, their history, and their work. It provides a terrific look into their craft, their attention to detail, and dedication to doing things by hand and doing them properly. In addition, the brothers speak fondly of their racing days and share their views on the changing world and industry around them. It is a fantastic way to spend 25 minutes.