saddlesores

Freds of the world, unite!
You have nothing to fear but fashion itself!

No, this is NOT about racing Fred.
racing fred is the butthole that buys a $5000 Ultralight crabon
Italian-ish branded bike, but only drives it to club rides strapped
to the top of his prius. Always wears the latest covered in
marketing logo’d bib shorts, with color-coordinated sunscreen
stripes on his cheeks. You know, the guy that can never finish
a ride, but is always there to tell you you’re doing it wrong.

This is about TOURING Fred.
The dorky (in a studly way!) guy that doesn’t care about fashion.
The guy with a dependable 12-year old bike with tens of thousands
of miles of touring on it. The guy that doesn’t replace components
that work perfectly well just because of some write-up in a trendy
magazine. The guy that still uses paper maps but somehow manages
to cross continents.

Anyhoo, this thread is to post your personal Fred photos.

To start off, this here is my first tour. Back in college, needed to get
to southern Austria. Decided to take icelandair to Luxembourg and
travel by bicycle, staying in youth hostels along the way. No real
cycling experience beforehand, other than toodling around campus
on a $89 western auto 10-speed.

Bought a second-hand 21-speed Schwinn Paramount with rear rack.
Bike came with a set of Kirtland panniers and a metal rod mounted
handlebar bag. Added fenders and lowrider w/panniers, which were
mailed home after one week.

Here our fashionista is wearing a bell golfball helmet, eyeglass frame
clip-on mirror, cotton khaki cycling shorts, pigskin gloves w/crochet
mesh back, high-rise athaletical socks, and cannondale flat cycling
shoes. Is that sexy, or what!

Who’s next?

andrewclaus

Man, you just wrote my biography.

My 1996 REI Novarra 3x7 still works perfectly well, after crossing the continent a couple of times and more commuting and day trip miles than I can count. I just salvaged another "new" middle chain ring from the non-profit shop I volunteer at. Frame and shifters are original and I'll be really upset when one of those fails. I've never paid more than $50 for a salvaged wheel, with cassette. I wouldn't hesitate to ride anywhere with it, tomorrow.

When cyclists meet up and praise each others' rides, nobody says anything to me. "Steel is real, baby," I silently say to myself.

I tried clipless pedals and shoes for a decade or so, but it turns out my days are better with platform pedals and straps and trail runners. I'm a scrawny, weathered sixty years old and I know Lycra is not my friend. MTB fashion is more my style, or maybe the other way around.

First tour was 1000 miles around Lake Michigan from home in Chicago (1975). I packed my high school gym duffel on top of an old spring-loaded book rack on a borrowed Schwinn Continental and wore cut-off jeans. That ride set the tone for my touring life.

PS: Friends call me retrogrouch.

TimothyH

I find this to be very insulting.

If you want to post photos of yourself in some specific context then go ahead but pitting one group of cyclists against another, calling people buttholes and stereotyping is just childish.


-Tim-

alan s 

-1

jefnvk

Working on it, get back to me in a couple years when I've built up those tens of thousands of touring miles!

mdilthey

I do my own thing. The only parts I've bought for the Pugs in the last year are tires and cogs.

How much do I need to not care about fashion before I start posting pictures of myself and detailing the outfit?

Cougrrcj

I guess I missed any posts in this thread with the name-calling and stereotyping. None are marked as edited, so maybe the 'offensive' post was deleted.

Anyway, back to the OP...
Yes, my beginnings of riding in the '70s looked much like your original picture. Long striped tube socks, short hiking shorts, glasses-mounted rearview mirror, crochet-back cycling gloves and 'tennis shoes' - before I got my Bata Bikers! I never wore sleeveless shirts though, and rarely wore a helmet unless required to do so on organized Centuries. AND for bonus points, I still have that same bike that I bought back then, and yes, it has a spring-trap rear Pletscher rack!

indyfabz

I do care about the appearance of my clothing and about colors matching where possible (I can control the color of my water bottles, saddle bag and panniers but not the color of the tent bag). I also like to keep my set up clean looking, but I am with you on the other things, especially the PGS (Paper Guidance System) device also known as a cue sheet holder. Guess that makes me a "Fr" or "Fre" or something.


BTW...****.

indyfabz

-2

saddlesores

hi tim,

i won't bother to explain it all....just a lighthearted attempt to chat
about something other than the eternal i hate carbon, i hate steel
argument and the heavy vs. light weight trolling.

why not reread the original post? it's not saying what you think
it's saying. then perhaps you might choose to edit your post,
tell us something about when you started touring, and maybe post
an old photo we can all enjoy.

mdilthey

Carbon is steelier than aluminum.

indyfabz

+1.

Tourist in MSN

I was not insulted or offended by this posting.

I had the same helmet except mine was black and not white. The high flange hubs and chrome tipped forks really show how vintage that bike is. Fortunately there are no photos in existence of me on my bike back then, I was wearing jeans and sneakers.

BigAura

Check out bikepacker.net. Whiteblaze.net for light camping gear.

jefnvk

Whatever happened to high flange hubs? I love the styling of them, if I ever ditch the steel wheels on my Le Tour I'll probably just replace the rims, because I want to keep the hubs.

Was there some sort of actual issue that led to their demise, or was it simply a factor of wheel offering following pro racing trends?

Doug64

I've posted this picture at least 2 dozen times, but this is in a different context. During the 70s I was racing bikes (mediocre) and had the full kit: black wool shorts, wool jersey, cleated bike shoes. However, helmet requirements were just starting. So I used my hockey helmet (strapped to the back of the bike), because helmet standards were not established yet. I don't think the Bell "mushroom" came out until later. Bottom line is that I had all the kit.

P.S. Black short and white socks were a requirement.



I was lucky enough to start touring on a high quality bike. It was a Peugeot PX10 that had been upgraded by the shop that "sponsored" (breaks on parts etc.) me with a Spidel roller bearing headset, Simplex Super LJ front and rear derailleurs, an extra clincher wheel set to use for training rather than burn "expensive" and fragile tubular tires, 3 sets of freewheel clusters to match various terrain, plus an assortment of chainrings. The bike was a pleasure to ride. My first long trip on it was 1100 miles in 11 days, and I used a 14-28 freewheel with a 40-52 chainwheel setup. this was my lowest combination. Ah, to be young I guess I really was a touring poseur.

I wasn't a poseur or a fred to my young son.

indyfabz

I was hoping you would show up because seeing that photo never gets old.


BTW...What was on your feet. They almost look like the old school "cleats", as we used to call them.

Doug64

Yes, those were the old school cleated shoes. With the toe straps, the foot was really locked to the pedal. my running shoes are in a pannier.

Leebo

This is the touring forum. Freds live here. Racing? See the road forum. Did you see the photo? That there is funny. Very. Are you above the touring velomati level of B46?

Tourist in MSN

I do not think there was any problem with them, have no idea why they disappeared. But, more flange meant a heavier hub.

In the rear, there was a theory that you needed high flange for the torque on the wheel because the spokes that pulled harder on the rim when you pedaled would be under more tension when you pedaled, but the high flange lessened that extra tension. But that never really was that much of an issue. If that was important, we would still be using high flange today. I recall seeing photos of a rear Campy High/Low flange hub that never sold very well, the drive side was high flange for that extra torque but the tube in the middle of the hub carried so little torque (it could twist) that the non-drive side could be low flange to save weight. In this case, the non-drive side being a dished wheel had spokes under less tension than the drive side.
https://www.velobase.com/ViewComponen...=110&AbsPos=20

Also, there was a common perception that four cross high flange gave a stiffer wheel, but if that was the case we would still be using them.

I am guessing and this is only a guess, that the Aluminum alloys used then were weaker than those used today. And I suspect that the four cross pattern was less likely to have a spoke pull out the side of the flange. You can lace a high flange to four cross, but a four cross pattern on too small a flange will cause the spokes to cross the heads of other spokes, complicating lacing up a wheel. If my guess is correct, when hubs started using stronger alloys there was less need for four cross lacing and then the flanges could be made smaller.

Thus, I am guessing that there was a real engineering reason for them that was quite different from common perception.

Attached photo is of part of a four cross high flange hub, in this case a 1961 vintage Campy hub. I held some paper behind the flange to make it simpler to see. You can see that the spokes are very close to crossing over other spoke heads.

Jim from Boston

Back in 2009 soon after I joined BF and learned about Freds, I wrote a Fred Manifesto:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

…As I was riding this AM, contemplating these essential questions, I thought: certainly there are the roadies, who are indeed “Beautiful People” and are splendid in their spandex and peletons; and there are Freds, kind of clunky but sincere and loveable. But there is IMO, a large segment of noble cyclists, e.g. tourists and commuters who are neither BP’s nor Fred’s, but certainly serious cyclists.

I recalled how politicians in Massachusetts are derided as “hacks.” In a memorable speech to the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth, a former Speaker of the House proclaimed “I am not a hack, you are not a hack,we ought not be treated this way." Similarly,my manifesto is, "I am not a Fred you are not a Fred, we ought not be treated this way". So I propose a new name, currently applied to frequent business travelers—ROAD WARRIORS. I AM A ROAD WARRIOR—think Mel Gibson…

John Gardner once wrote: "An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” IMO, the society which exalts roadies and scorns road warriors will have roads only built for cars.

indyfabz

Sorry. I saw that after I posted and tried to edit but my Internet connection died.


Yeah. While I didn't tour back then, I had a pair of Duegi cleats. Had made in Italy with leather uppers and wooden soles. I cannot imagine touring with them the way the straps locked me into the pedals.

Jim from Boston

Back in the early ’70, my then-girlfriend-now-wife and I wanted really good bikes so we bought Merciers with sew-up tires which as I recall were approximate equivalents of Peugot PX10. We toured on them, fully self-supported, including a cross country trip.

Flat tires were our worst problem, about one every three days as the grease on our hands stuck by the glue wore off. We had to take three days off during the trip to stash the bikes in a motel and hitchhike into a city to buy more tires (started with six)...now that's a touring poseur.

We wore those rolled leather hairnet helmets...Ayup, we did.

BobG

Phil Wood hubs are still available in high flange. The rear has two different flange diameters resulting in the same spoke length with near equal tension both left and right on the rear and also the same spoke length as the front.

I think Campagnolo was always the trend setter. Back in the late '60s high flange hubs and center pull brakes were cool and marketed as better than low flange and side pulls. Then Campy introduced low flange hubs and side pull brakes. The others followed.



-photo by FredG

TimothyH

Your post would be an order of magnitude more classy if you simply deleted the racer fred paragraph.


-Tim-