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R+E Cycles celebrates 50 years in Seattle

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R+E Cycles celebrates 50 years in Seattle

Old 03-01-23, 02:13 PM
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SurferRosa
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R+E Cycles celebrates 50 years in Seattle

Here's a comprehensive article on R+E's half century anniversary from The Radavist: https://theradavist.com/re-cycles-se...ry-shop-visit/



For its anniversary, the Bike and Pike (Brewing) party makes a comeback on March 4, 10am-5pm. (See article.)



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Old 03-01-23, 03:33 PM
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Thanks for the reminder, I will try to be there.

That first photo is named "1970s-team-rodriguezphoto.jpg" but I can tell ya for sure, it's early-'80s. I'm in that picture! We didn't have those jerseys in the '70s, and R+E didn't have the neon sign back then. Also being picky but it wasn't "Team Rodriguez", it was Team R+E, also known as L'Equipe. Angel Rodriguez was involved a bit, but the racing team was mostly his partner Glenn Erickson, who was a monster racer, many time state championship and Nationals medalist and magnetic personality. Angel was charming too, but everyone loved Glenn and wanted to ride with him. Angel isn't even in this team photo. He was a constructeur and bike tourist par excellence but I don't remember ever seeing him racing. NTTAWWT!

Good memories.

Mark B
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Old 03-01-23, 04:49 PM
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Is that at the top of "the Ave", almost to Ravenna Park? I used to go past that several times a week, somehow never went in. 🤔
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Old 03-01-23, 07:12 PM
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Originally Posted by stardognine
Is that at the top of "the Ave", almost to Ravenna Park?
Yep
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Old 03-01-23, 08:31 PM
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About a decade ago, I added a Rodriguez Tucan tadem to our stable of long bikes. This was an entry-level tandem they built for a few years in the 90's that had a straight-gauge, TIG-welded cromoly frame and budget components. Their thinking was to offer a price point bike that had a frame worth upgrading the components over time. I bought it because it has 26" wheels with lots of clearance, it was cheap, and I wanted a better dirt road tandem. I've upgraded most of the components, but it still wins the prize as our ugliest tandem, yet it has become the one my wife most often wants to ride. It's the low gear range and cushy tires that she likes the most, but it does have a very good, stable ride.
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Old 03-01-23, 09:09 PM
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This shop has definitely morphed over the years.
I was a customer in the 80's and it was a great shop.
I have friends with both Erikson and Rodriguez labels.
Satisfaction from owners of both bikes.
I did do an Alps tour with Glenn Erikson in 2001.
Only good things to say about Glenn and his son Galen.
I wish the new owners well for a bright future.
Glenn is the guy with white gloves with his left hand at the forward end of the front wheel.
Byron

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Old 03-02-23, 09:40 AM
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Haven't visited the shop in years.
I bought a Coicc San Cristobal frame set from Estelle at R+E after my first paycheck from Boeing in 1979.
More visits after successive paydays before I had all the components needed to build up the bike.
My first real nice race bike.

In 1981 I traded with a co-worker (aptly named Tony LaTour) - my Coicc for his Bruce Gordon.
I still have the Bruce Gordon and it wears a few of the components bought for the Coicc at R+E.
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Old 03-02-23, 10:24 AM
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A frame from the opening inventory
Survivor series, my brother was the second owner. He picked it up in 1978, he was done riding I got it from him circa 1983. Originally red with the tight white black and gold lacquer applied brand decals.

I still have the Rod tandem, that thing is a beast. I also have an Arrow from 1999.
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Old 03-02-23, 03:06 PM
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Originally Posted by Mr. 66
A frame from the opening inventory
Survivor series, my brother was the second owner. He picked it up in 1978, he was done riding I got it from him circa 1983. Originally red with the tight white black and gold lacquer applied brand decals.
Angel liked those crowns. Same crown as a Raleigh Competition, certain years early '70s, but not the same crown as the Raleigh Pro, which was also fully-sloping but a slightly different shape. Sometimes called "Cinelli style" but I disagree, it's too different from a Cinelli IMHO. Those crowns are really rough and crude as delivered and take a lot of work to make them look nice. Angel showed me his trick for trimming the crown down to match the outer dimensions of the fork blades without nicking/thinning the blades: he put two cut-off stubs of 531 blades onto the crown spigots and filed the crown down almost flush, leaving just a little shelf which is handy for brazing but easy to file off after. The stubs of blade were sacrificial so he could wail on it with a big coarse file to take the bulk of the excess material off quickly without hurting the "real" blades.

When I first met my future wife in '79 she had a Holdsworth racer as her touring bike, which she built up herself from parts, and a lugless custom Erickson as her racing bike, but it was built by Angel. (Back then, all the racing bikes got called Erickson, tourers and tandems got called Rodriguez, tho there were probably exceptions). With that English full-sloping crown like yours, which I think goes awesome with lugless construction, though it's a bit heavy. I wouldn't have chosen it for a racing bike for such a petite rider, but I've always been a bit of a weight-weenie.

As I said, the Erickson was custom made for Laurie, but the TT was too long! Even with the shortest stem we could find, a 7 cm TTT, she was too stretched out — and yes she raced road/track/timetrial and had a real racer's position, she wasn't trying to sit up! As one of my first framebuilder jobs I did after arriving at R+E, at her request I chopped the head tube off and re-mitered the TT & DT 1.5 cm shorter and brazed on a new HT, and she still needed that 7 cm stem to fit right. (I also cleaned up all of Angel's lumpy fillets. I had recently moved there from Santana, where I smoothed miles of fillets, so I could do that in my sleep.)

Bad snapshots is all I have from back then, prolly circa '82-83, definitely after the TT got shortened. Skin-suit and Skid-lid!

I think she married me just so she'd have an in-house framebuilder at her beck and call.

40+ years later she still rides that bike, but it's been relegated to fender duty. A Davidson I built for her in about '88 replaced it as her go-fast bike. We're thinking of converting the Erickson to 650b for more of an all-road, comfy ride. That crown has nice wide clearance but the chainstays are a bit narrow, and they're 531 SL, a little scary to indent, being so thin. Might have to replace the chainstays.

Just one more thing to say about the racing team, we had 3 World Champions on it! Sorta. OK not really... Rebecca Twigg was on our team, but then left and was being coached by Eddie B when she finally won the Worlds. The other two were "Masters World Cup" winners — there was no World Championship of masters (age-graded) racing. Still, fastest in your age group in the entire world is something to be proud of. Maike Hall and Kay Henshaw were our World Cup winners.

Mark B
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Old 03-02-23, 03:31 PM
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Originally Posted by northbend
Haven't visited the shop in years.
I bought a Coicc San Cristobal frame set from Estelle at R+E after my first paycheck from Boeing in 1979.
More visits after successive paydays before I had all the components needed to build up the bike.
My first real nice race bike.

In 1981 I traded with a co-worker (aptly named Tony LaTour) - my Coicc for his Bruce Gordon.
I still have the Bruce Gordon and it wears a few of the components bought for the Coicc at R+E.
Team R+E had a rider who was insanely muscular, he was a body-builder before he got into bike racing. Despite hauling all that excess weight (the muscles that don't make the pedals go 'round), he quickly ascended to Cat 2 where he was always a threat in a flat crit. He bought a Ciöcc in Col. SL, and in hardly any time he'd managed to break it, fatigue crack in the DT near the HT. The distributor replaced it under warranty, and he broke the second one too, same place, also after not many miles. I may be remembering the story wrong but I think he got and broke a 3rd frame too (don't quote me on that, maybe it was only two), but then the distributor paid him his money back and told him to go ride someone else's frames, he was bad for business! Erickson made him a custom with tubing appropriate for his weight and strength, and it didn't break.

Sad to see those lovely Ciöcc frames broken. I wonder if they replaced the downtubes, but more likely they got trashed. Remember those uber-thin lug points? They were filed down to a long thin point, and that makes it hard to melt out the cracked tube without damaging the lug, which is super weak when it's red-hot. Later Ciöcc models went to a more normal-looking lug shape.

Best pic I could find on the web of the San Cristobal lug shape:

From an excellent Flickr album here, check it out.

Mark B
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Old 03-02-23, 06:11 PM
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Great stories, Thanks Mark.
Yes! Those long thin point lugs were my favorite detail on the Coicc. Almost the hint of a teardrop at the very end.
I loved the way that bike rode - springy and lively.
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