markk900

Simply stunning

markk900

My contribution: some Canadian content - CCM stem from the pre-war era....I just love the blending of the joints....

The Golden Boy 

The SR Royal post is cool- It's successor, the Four'Sir, is decidedly much less elegant and ostentatious.

The TRP RRL levers... I think they're really cool, I think they're eminently comfortable and the best levers I've ever used. But I do not find them elegant or graceful in the least. When they first came out, someone said something to the effect of "someone asked a millennial to draw a brake lever from the 70s." The first several dozen times seeing them, I was shocked- horrified... and then as I got used to seeing them they got less horrifying- and then kind of quirky cool, and then I got a set and I LOVE them.

That fish mouth stay end is really cool.

The Golden Boy 

There's a whole lot of "stuff I think is cool I also think is pretty" which probably weights things for me...


The Phil Wood "Rivvy" front hub

IMG_0079 by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr


The Dura Ace 7703 and 7803 RDs

620 Build Derailleurs by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr


Suntour XC Pro cantilever brakes

Superbe Pro Brakes by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr


Suntour Superbe Pro RD. I recall someone saying "it's like jewelry for your bike."

Superbe Pro RD by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr


Spooky cable hangers- in the center. (between the Dia Compe QR roller hangers and the Avid Tri-Dangle hangers)

Straddle Cable Yokes by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr


The Avocet (Ofmega) touring crankset (the drilled Rino rings set it off)


1986 Trek 400 Elance by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr



Suntour Superbe Pro hidden spring brakes

Superbe Pro Brakes by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr


Suntour XC Pro RD

Suntour XC Pro Medium and Long Cage by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr


And because I can't count- M900 XTR RD.

1990 Miyata 1000LT- Rear Derailleur by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr

alcjphil

Mavic starfish crank

​​​​​​
Mavic headset

crank_addict

OK now, I'm using two more of my seven picks. Things we don't get to see in a bike such as square taper ends titanium bottom brackets and with cool names. Sampson and Boone.

sheddle

I'll put in a shout for the Cinelli 1R


​And it's cousin from the east​​​​​, the Dura-Ace quill stem.

Last ride 76 

The Brooks Professional saddle is iconic beyond words, granted. My racing days were spent on Unicanitor saddles... The saddle below, was love at first sight for me, though I didn't get to ride one until decades later. The moment I saw it, I understood. A saddle designed to enhance the ability to leverage one's strength, to go faster. Elegant Italian curves, a perfect expression of form following function.
(Yeah. Baby)
.
Like the mid-eighties funny bike (also banned by the UCI) it's sitting on , the reason behind the design was obvious, and elegant as well.

76SLT 

One more added to my list.

Maillard 700 Professional Team Issue high flange

Bianchigirll 

I agree the Monoplanor brakes introduced in the original Chorus group were the most beautiful and graceful brakes ever. As I understand it the design of the brakes was intended to modulate your speed rather than make you stop on a dime. You really need a death grip on the lever to lock the rear wheel.

bulgie 

Thanks! It was a lot of work compared to most other stay end treatments, so I only did it on a few frames. BTW that stay has a thin Cr-Mo cap on it, not a solid plug like so many other frames, so it's hollow right out to about 1 mm short of the end. Light weight!

I also did that shape at the bottom end, at the dropouts, here on my wife's 2.5 lb superlight frame, circa '88:

Even more work than at the seatstay top, because I had to make those caps both on the inside and outside of the dropout, and on the forkblades and chainstays too.
The stays are filed to that shape, tubing caps are made and brazed to both sides with brass, and filed flush. Then the stays are slotted for the dropout, which is silver brazed so the brass from the previous step doesn't melt. Fun!

I don't think of them as fishmouth, I prefer Star Trek logo!

Mark B in Seattle

repechage

That stay end is an impressive treatment.
Your description is what I thought of how to make... and that is a considerable amount of work!
Top notch.

seypat

Awesome!

Cougrrcj

1st gen SunTour Cyclone



Nitto forged hi-crown stem



Shimano Dura-Ace high flange hub, 1st gen (actually I like all high flange hubs! )



SunTour SuperbePro brake levers

Cougrrcj

My ALE cage was slightly different in that it was a handlebar mount. Two clamps around the bars on either side of the stem, and anther clamp around the stem captured the strut...

thinktubes 

Pic asst. beautiful cranks

Slightspeed

I've already used up my seven, but on a ride today, I saw this post on a friend's new build Tommasini. Never seen one like it before.

Dfrost 

Gilles Berthoud Aspin/Aravis saddles seem to have the “just right” shape to my eye, and my rear end agrees. That old version of VO long setback seatpost holding it up gets lots of compliments for looks and it feels really neat in the fingers when pushing the bike by hand, too.


Ritchey Logic hidden arm crank:


Sachs New Success RD:


Nitto Pearl stem:


Dura Ace 7403 dual pivot calipers. My fabricated headlight mount is effective but not as elegant.


King Iris bottle cage:

iab

Miche Supertype.

alcjphil

Thanks for the assist. I own a beautiful Limongi with a full Mavic groupset, cranks, derailleurs shifters headset and hubs

bulgie 

That 631 crank makes a pretty good-looking triple (if you're into that), if you use the Stronglight brand triplizer:


Mavic's own triplizer is kinda ugly by comparison:

OK not ugly exactly (it does hide behind the crank) but less elegant because it's bigger/heavier for no real advantage, and it makes places that trap dirt and are really hard to clean behind. Gimme the Stronglight any time.

Unfortunately I don't think that Stronglight triplizer is made anymore. Check out (in the first pic) how they milled the edges to a rounded shape, a somewhat expensive machining step for a part that gets hidden behind the crank in use. You have to look close to see it. That triplizer is 7075-T6 also, the strongest, longest-wearing Al alloy I know of.

Note also how the Stronglight triplizer doesn't have slots for the shelves that are on the spider arms of most double cranks. The Mavic doesn't have those shelves, but to use this triplizer on say a Dura-Ace crank, you have to remove the shelves, basically making your Strada crank into a Pista. Most people won't want to do that surgery on their crank, or don't have the tools/skills to do it, so most triplizers have a way to go around the existing shelves. But all such methods of going around the shelves make the resulting shape less elegant, like this one:


or this:

Not bad, but not as elegant to me because they don't "hide" behind the spider arms, so they make for a more "busy" look, and they block your view of the frame's BB shell workmanship. Of course some frames look better if you can't see the workmanship... <cat noise>

I put a Stronglight triplizer on the DA 7400 crank on my wife's road bike, and it's prettier than most triplizers, but I did have to saw off the 5 shelves.


Note this doesn't hurt the function of the crank one bit, even if you revert to regular double-chainring use later. Those shelves do almost nothing for you.

Mark B in Seattle

dddd

Between it's knee-action design (that magically follows the convex profile of a 28t-sized freewheel) to the ability of this 1950's relic to (with mods) handle a usefully-sized standard 6s freewheel, I nominate the Allvit to the top seven, despite (and also because of?) it's perhaps humble and decades-long, utilitarian/egalitarian history.

Last ride 76 

Time to fly...

A wheel, Campy rim

Detail

The Hi-e hi-lo Rear, (which should only be paired with the original amazing low flange front). I don't have one anymore.

kingsting

Had to swipe this image from the interwebs but I really love these:

BluePx10

Not retrofrictions but one of my favorite levers...