J.P. Weigle’s French Fender Day 2019 (some photos)
 

Early Sat. morning I drove from NYC up to Branford, CT where I met with @Sir_Name to begin our ride to Weigle’s location in Old Lyme. I on my PX10 and he on his International. This was our third year in a row and the event continues to be one of my favorites. About 35 miles there and we opted to hang out instead of joining the group rides. Another 40ish hill miles back to Branford after the copious amount of eye candy, food and drink. A great day.

Feel free to add.

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Fun thread. It makes me want to fix up an old French bike and go bike riding.

Hey hey! What a grand day out! I drove down from Boston in my old SAAB with my friend Kevin who's not on the forums. We brought my René Hubris Ron Cooper, his René Hubris Nice Nishiki, and my ratty work-in-progress Jack Taylor tandem, equipped with half-splash bar tape, so my stoker can remember which side to fall on. :lol:

We did the 20mile "long ride". It began innocently enough, with a slow noodle along a busy road, leaders-in-front. Once we got off the busy road, the leaders gave a little direction and told us to go wild. My buddy Kevin, who has the ACTN3 "sprinter's gene" blew forward off the front, as he often does on rides with me. But we endurance folk reeled him in soon enough, although he continued to surprise us with his attacks. By mid-ride, it was clear who would dominate: a duo on a S&S coupled Bilenky tandem, who really knew how to lug the engine and hold onto gears on climbs. Turns out they'd done PBP a few times. Figures. They set a blistering and increasing pace - we were hitting 50mph on some descents (and a car that passed us got quite a surprise that they had to go 75 to do so) - until only three of us hung on to their wheel, and then only barely. After I saw the cars parked along the road I knew we were close so I let myself get dropped and limped back to Weigle's in cool-down mode. Phew!! :speedy: Everybody was a really decent co-rider, nobody was stupid about things, and there were only two mechanical failures (one flat and one Honjo fender failure due to lack-of-washer under fork crown). What a cool group!

I didn't take many pictures on account of my phone camera being basically a potato. Here are the few I took.

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Looks like a fun event - sort of like the Coppi party but with fenders.

Thanks for the photos! I'm sorry I could not join....

Lower right corner -- is that the Velo Orange April Fools' bag?

HA, I think so!!! :lol:

I had no idea it was a joke until you pointed it out and I went and found the blog post. That's hilarious! I wish Jan had come with his René Herse quintuple cranks as well.

@scarlson, that Jack Taylor tandem was beautiful. The Ron Cooper as well.

Ogling bikes at FFD is like drinking from a firehose.

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Great photos, thanks!

I'm thinking of booking a flight for next year, or perhaps Amtrak. Looks like Milwaukee, WI to New London, CT on Amtrak would be about $140 and around 30 hours travel time, but no need to ship the bike(s) that way, as you can take them on the train with you, boxed or built. At this point my options for bikes to bring would be:

• B. Carre 700C sportif, Columbus-tubed (70s, not built up yet)
• Alps 650B randonneur, made by Toei (early 80s, not built up yet)
• Toei 650B randonneur (late 70s/early 80s, not built up yet and will need new decals)
• Cherubim 650B randonneur (70s, almost done with the build)

Anybody else from the midwest interested in an Amtrak trip to Connecticut next year for FFD?

Always at least one troublemaker in the bunch. :roflmao2:

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I’ll extend the invite to any folks here that would like to join on a ride next year from Branford, CT out to FFD. This was my fourth year riding out, third year with Greg. I’ll add a route profile in a bit. It’s always a good ride, and a beautiful time of year in New England. Figure for 75+ miles with some climbing. Shore Line East train stop close by.

I unfortunately did not take any bike pics this year, save for one of a ‘for sale’ that I tried to tempt another riding buddy with. It’s always cool-bike overload with plenty of pleasant like-minded folk to chat with.

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Very cool, found out about this later, wont miss it next year, Todd

mon Dieu! So many gorgeous bikes! thanks for sharing the photos. When I am mounting metal mudguards this winter on my Nishiki Cresta GT I know where I am coming for inspiration.

My friend Kevin's Nishiki that he brought to FFD is also a Cresta GT! Fits a 700x38 (true to size) Barlow Pass up front and 700x44 (also true to size) Snoqualmie Pass in the rear, with VO Zeppelin fenders. Clearances are a little tight, but it rides so nice with them tires.

Looks like Jamie Swan's Dossche Sport. Got to spend some time with him last year, great guy!

I'm already starting to pimp FFD 2020 with the PNW crew. @northbend will be hearing more from me as he fills out his post-retirement bicycling dance card, along with @Andy_K and a few others. Maybe we can hook up and add a few days of New England early fall touring?

Thanks for the info, I am running the 27 X 1 3/8 Sand canyons on my 87 Cresta GT and they come out to about 34mm and I have some Handsome Cycles 700 x 45 mm metal mud butlers I got a deal on so we'll see how that all works out. I'm expecting it will take alot of fussing, some cursing and a beer or two to get it sorted :D

I might be tempted to head to New England . . . .

There's plenty of fine riding on the east coast.

Went through this with some Honjos the other night. Fendering ain't easy.

East coast, west coast, pick one and we'll finally get that ride in!

Looks like it was FFD fun; sorry to miss seeing the BF crew this year. I'm glad to start the planning for a New England tour next year (though I often hear that the current year's FFD will be the last).

@nlerner I only hope that FFD continues for some time. I already am looking forward to next year and the people who will show up.

One thing I've learned after a bunch of the above... it's crucial to cold-set your fenders into the right shape early on so that you're not constantly forcing them into the desired position with your stays. Ideally, they should hang in the right spot before the stays are even connected. :)

I picked up a few back-copies of BQ recently. Vol 9 No 2 has some good tips from Jan and Peter about mounting fenders.