Who Knew The Dutch Made Bikes?

I must have been living in some type of bicycle bubble, because once I started getting in to bicycles, I found out that the Dutch are a major bicycling country. :) It is definitely embarrassing to not know that they have one of the best infrastructures, and that a very high percentage of their commuting is done by bike. Somewhere in the 50% range! [ i think =P ]


Royal Holland / Holland Royal

In the initial days of amassing my current collection I came across a Royal Holland bike a few months back on Craigslist in Northern NJ. I am really not sure what the bike is called, so I will refer to it as a Royal Holland.

My previous bikes were all American made and about 10-15 years older than this one. When i saw this bike online I was a bit torn if I actually wanted it. I was just starting to get in to the collecting/restoring swing of things, but this wasn't a vintage American. This bike however has a great look to it. The red/white color scheme is nice and the front headlamp is really cool and granted at this point in time I had little to none historical bicycle knowledge, but I had never heard/seen one like this before. Funny thing is that I have been looking for information for the past 3 months and I have not found ANY information. Not even a possible lead.

This bike was offered as a pair with a woman's Dutch bike for I think $112 each. It was some weird number that I am assuming meant something to the seller. I should have asked him.

So after a bit of haggling I managed to get this 1957 bike for $60 which I thought was an uber score. As you can see from the pics to the left the white and red are great and the headbadge and decals say Royal Holland. 

In terms of the rust factor, it is pretty much ALL removable surface rust. Yes it looks bad in the pics, but from my short experience I am sure I can get 99.9% of it off with minimal issues.



Rusty handle bars and headlight. I love the headlight because it is just solid and massive. This is also the first time i have seen a generator on a bicycle. At the time of writing this I believe I have managed to get all of the rust off the handle bars and completely redid the front tire.

In terms of the overall condition of the bike, i would say is high fair to good. Like I mentioned there is surface rust, it is missing the original chain guard, the pedals are off[one of them is not original ], all wiring has to be redone in terms of electrical and the break and shifter and the paint is faded in spots. Nothing i can't do.

As for the good, it had one owner, the paint is fair, the bike is almost completely whole, the colors are nice and there are no bends in the fork etc. I am excited to get this guy running. Currently 3rd on the project list behind the RoadPuppy and fixing the wiring on the Bianchi

The best part of picking this up was speaking to the seller, who I will rename for protective reasons, lets call him Tom, and he was a 1st generation Dutchman. I didn't ask if he could fly. :P

He told me a story of lost Japanese love when he was a professor in a college I believe out in Colorado. She was about 27 and he had to be in his late 50s to early 60s! He sort of faded into old memories as he was talking about her. It was very sad to be honest. I said "that is just terrible" when he described her family shunning her when they found out and them having to break up. He replied "yes it is terrible. It is terrible." You could really see the heart breaking reality set it. I told him to send her an email, what could it hurt? I believe i have his email, I think in a few months I am going to send him this site so he can see his child hood bike all fixed up.

He also told me the story of how him and his sister got this and another Dutch bike as x-mas presents and how in his youth he "built his body" riding the bike. Was a little creepy, but I could tell he meant it in a sincere way.

Below are many pics of the bike ho I received it for historical record keeping of course. :)

Bicycle Website Compendium

3 months ago I started my quest into rust.

I am going to attempt to store/categorize/rate all of the bicycle related websites I can find and keep this as a "living" list to help all of the new joiners to the hobby.

FORUMS
The Cabe : http://www.thecabe.com
Mainly vintage American bikes. A lot of very knowledgeable members.

Bike Forums : http://www.bikeforums.net
A massive forum on any possible bike topic you can imagine. First few times I went on the site i was overwhelmed with the amount of information and forums. Global userbase which is nice if you like vintage foreign bicycles.

Ratrod Bikes : http://www.ratrodbikes.com
As the title suggests a lot of rat rodders and a nice amount of things for sale.

Schwinn Bike Forum : http://www.schwinnbikeforum.com
As the title suggests a Schwinn focused bike forum

Retro Bike Forum [ British ] : http://www.retrobike.co.uk
British hosted bike forum

Swap Meets & Bike Shows
Trexlertown, Pennsylvania : Trexlertown Swap Show
http://www.trexlertownantiquebicycleshow.com/Trexlertown.html


Copake, New York : Copake Bicycling Auction
http://www.copakeauction.com/bicycles/pages/home.html


Dallas, Georgia : 3rd Annual Classic and Antique Cycling Swap Meet 


Other
Home of Everything Bicycles: http://www.howiebikeman.com/
this is a collection page of a departed collector and bike enthusiast Howard Cohen. Very nice website.

Velobase : http://www.velobase.com/default.aspx
A database of vintage bicycle parts. A lot of information.

Dave's Vintage Bicycles : http://www.nostalgic.net
Half blog / half info

Vintage Bicycle Blog : http://vintagebicycle.wordpress.com
Very nicely done blog. Something for me to aspire to. :)
Collectors Bicycle : http://collectorsbicycle.com
Nice site of historical information, forum and some ebay listings.

The Hoard Part 1 : My First Dip and the Tornado Spring Saddle

Over the past few months i have acquired about 15 vintage bicycles. The hobby kind of takes on a life of its own. As I have been researching forums, auction sites, for sale sites like Craigslist i have learned a lot about the bicycle fanatic culture, but we will cover that in an expanded post. This post is meant to take a look at all of the current rides in multiple parts.

My First 3
One day, after months and months, maybe years of thinking about picking up a bike and fixing it up, I finally found two rusty babies on Craigslist.  A Huffman La France, yes the name did put me off, and a Schwinn New World. I had no idea if the bikes were rare, working, restorable or worth the time and effort. All I knew is that they were up for sale at $125, in NJ and that I had to have them! This was my first 'pick' ( I kind of hate that term given how mainstream it is. People are 'picking' at pottery barn now. Don't get me started on 'barn fresh'. When did everyone in the 5 boroughs start having barns?? ) so like I said, I was tentative to go to a strangers house and load a couple of rusty bikes into the trunk of my Toyota. So I rolled up to the place which was in a nice neighborhood. The house was of an older design and definitely needed repairs. So the guy tells me to pull into the driveway which was all dirt and has seen better days. We head into the backyard under tree branches and I am thinking the guy seems nice enough, but if he tazes me I am going to end up as a lamp shade. :-\ The bikes are his and his brothers from when they were kids. Long story short he takes $120 because I don't have a $5 on me, but he did make a face, and I got them home in one piece.

Huffman to Huffy
The Huffman I discovered through the bike's serial number is from 1947. I didn't even know bikes had serial numbers! Huffman is the name of the company we know as Huffy. They changed it in the 50s.

The Schwinn New World I am told is from 1942 as Schwinn serial codes were lost in a Chicago factory fire. ( no computer backup?? ) :-)

So where is number 3 you ask? Before I acquired the two above I stopped in another area of NJ and picked up a circa 1970s banaseat girls bike for myself daughter. :-)  This one has a deadline of the spring to be polished, clean and ready for business.

Tornado Spring Seat

So I discovered through a number of purchase offers that this seat is kind of rare. I've seen a perfect version command upwards of $500! im tempted to let it go for some other pieces i need to complete my other bikes, but then on the other hand, it would be nice to restore, or turn it in to artwork that someone could mount on their wall.

Italy -> Bronx -> NJ -> Staten Island

You are probably thinking that all I do is derust folding bikes, and I guess if you look over the past 2 months you would be right. :)

My first ever folding bike is a blue Italian beauty.

1960/70s Bianchi Folding Bicycle
So yes this is my first folder. I was always curious about folding bikes and once I purchased this rusty one and cleaned it up a bit I was in love and that led me to the road puppy.

So the life of this folding Bianchi ... it was made in Italy, shipped to a bike store in the Bronx, made its way to NJ some how and then ended up at its present home in Staten Island. The best part of the deal was that it was delivered right to my house!

I have come across 1 duplicate of this bike [ in red ] at Village Bike Shop in Tuckerton NJ. same exact bike, much better condition than mine with the SAME exact ugly green seat. The bike comes with a generator, light, sturmey archer hub, hand breaks and a nice metallic blue paint job. The wheels are 20x1.75. The back rim is extremelly heavy, while the front i am thinking may be a replacement given the dimpling.

I found the serial number[82312], but no one has been able to tell me an age.

Here are some before pix where you can see A LOT of rust and the seat was mashed to the lowest spot on the post and this normally wouldnt be an issue, however it was wrapped under a nut and i had to really struggle to set it right.

I have derusted approximately 90% of the bike, put on new tubes and tires, added a rim tape which i made from cutting the old tube in to a strip of rubber and crazy gluing it at the other end when it overlapped [ it came out very nice, i should have taken a pic ], cleaned the grips, cleaned the chain - which was fun, adjusted the handlebars and seat fiasco. The below arent the best pix as it was night and these were taken with my blackberry. I'll take better ones and post an update.

SOOOO what is left you say? Lots! The brakes are disconnected, the rims have bends and need to be straightened and the shifter needs to be connected.

I promise the next post will have NOTHING to do with folding bikes! :)