Bonk bags, bunches of bananas and other not so old nostalgia

[bigjim]

Richard's Bicycle Book... the Pan paperback edition with him wearing an icelandic sweater whilst tinkering with his F.W Evans touring bike.

I've still got that.

[keyboardmonkey]

Richard's Bicycle Book... the Pan paperback edition with him wearing an icelandic sweater whilst tinkering with his F.W Evans touring bike.

I've still got that.

So have I (in fact I've got two copies).

Anyone ever have a Stop Block? (If you've only had bikes with brifters you've missed out.)



Anyway, here I am on my Raleigh Road Ace about to pick up a cage for my Torino Sport water bottle:



Who said nostalgia aint what it used to be?

http://cycleseven.org/raleigh-roadace-shimano-600

[thirdcrank]

keyboardmonkey

Some nice modern stuff there.

[Colin63]

I used to have one of those Jim Blackburn brake lever wedge thingys. It would clip onto the cable when not in use. I can't remember how effective it was.

[thirdcrank]

Up the League!

Not mine, I hasten to add. The BCF was formed in the year I started cycling (1958) I inherited that from my dear old dad but I'm pretty sure he had no connection with the League.

[eltonioni]

If we're doing badges I'd like permission for a small indulgence.


That was a lovely frame and I had a Shimano 600 chainset bought from Tony Butterworth with saved up pocket money. I felt 10 feet tall that day.

[snibgo]

Anyone ever have a Stop Block?

Brilliant idea! I've been trying to figure out parking brakes, so when my broken hip heals I can get on and off more easily/safely. I've been experimenting with rubber bands, but jamming something into the brake levers is the obvious way. Many thanks.

[keyboardmonkey]

I used to have one of those Jim Blackburn brake lever wedge thingys. It would clip onto the cable when not in use. I can't remember how effective it was.

Very effective, especially when carrying a bit of a load:



Apologies for the poor quality picture - it was getting dark this day on my short tour of Yorkshire last October. Note the Ever Ready Night Rider rear lamp and forkblade-mounted bracket for the front one I couldn't find, sadly. (This bracket is one of the jazzier newer ones. It had a sticky-out bit that slotted into a hole in the top of the grove in the lamp's body to stop the light from leaping out when you went over a bump.)

[Colin63]

Ah... Night Riders seemed so stylish and modern compared to the bricks they replaced, but the battery compartment was still explosive when they jumped out of the bracket. They did double up as a hanging tent lights very effectively due to the way their weight distribution made them hang.
I thought that they were getting quite funky when they introduced the red version with the notched bracket. Very flash indeed!

[thirdcrank]

I'd agree that Nightriders were a big improvement on what they replaced. I used to use NiCads in them. To try to get round the sudden loss of light when the battery went flat, I used to carry a spare pair of lamps, one in each side pocket of the Carradice Camper. Even that risked the back light going out without my noticing so I used to try to ensure the most fully-charge batteries were in the back.

The barckets were also excellent compared with what had gone before, and they were designed for British use ie seatstay fitting and a vesrion of the front bracket which went on a fork boss.

As always, the contacts tended to need attention from time to time but a lot less than their predecessors.

[drossall]

Or a clothes peg and a cigarette packet (empty), carefully arranged so that the cigarette packet hits the spokes and makes a noise supposedly like a motorbike, well for a minute or two anyway.

An arrangement like that, with cardboard taped to the forks and stays, caused my first ever bike accident, when I was a kid. Came out of the front wheel, so I tried to put it back with my foot while still riding. Cyclists can fly.

I'm pretty sure that when I was a lad, the problems caused by not eating enough when cycling were called 'knock' or more precisely 'hunger knock'.

Variously called the hunger knock, the bonk or the sags, according I think to Richard's Bicycle Book (could check that; I too still have a copy).

I still have my CTC musette (bonk bag):

So, I'll add massed-start caps to the nostalgia list, although I rarely found one to fit my 60cm bonce. (Heaven knows what drossall did.)

I ordered (quite recently) three specials from the ever-helpful Impsport, of course. Did the same 30 years ago, with a clubman's winter cap in South Lancashire Road Club colours (not sure whether that was Impsport). In both cases, I asked for 25% larger than "one size fits all". [The latter description is a plain lie, and should, I would have thought, lay the manufacturer open to prosecution for an obvious breach of the Trades Descriptions Act.]

Anyway, I still wear both. A certain Sudbury CC member relies on my green winter hat to identify me, and is completely confused in summer Audaxes when I turn up without it.

No-one has yet mentioned suicide levers, as on Ash28's Europa.

During an unsuccessful search of my stores today for something else, I came across a sprint carrier.

Still got those too: