cudak888 

Well, I did. And I still ran out of room.









The Rudge isn't even a 24" variation of the DL-1, but it still takes up room like a beached whale. It also could do with a significant cleanup, but one thing at a time - finishing the room itself has led to the bikes getting the short end of the attention stick. There's hardly an inflated tire here (!)



The bit that they don't show you in Better Homes and Gardens. To make me feel better, I shall also blame everyone here for all the bike parts in boxes getting shipped, flipped, or generally thrown in a box and made to disappear. I'll also blame @nlerner too, "because 3-speeds."

Yes, I know the door isn't done, and yes, I still have an issue with concrete staining in one spot. No drywall here; it's all block.



Yea, less of that.

More IGH content, please.



My favorite part of this is that not a single one of these are anywhere near finished, save for the Schwinn Superior. Wall-mounting at least one of these beasts is next.

Side diversion into that light coming up.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Here's a closeup at the crown jewel lighting the room.

It took far too long to find it, cost far too much to get it, and I was far too indulgent in the execution of it's installation.




The light was never meant to be mounted on a ceiling minus drywall. I created a pair of all-chrome standoffs chopping a pair of old Buck Algonquin bronze deck flanges and bolting a pair of sloped ceiling pendant lamp adapters to it:



Yes, those are 10mm flanged axle bolts off Borg-azon.

This light was never meant to be mounted on an open ceiling, and - in my opinion - the gauge the steel used for the backplate wasn't sufficient...



...so I designed a plate in Adobe Illustrator and had it laser cut to support the existing plate. Bolts right to the factory piece and provides two holes for the strain reliefs as well.

Problem solved.



And for those of you freaking out about that obvious English 240V 6A remote switch, you can relax. I cored it out and put a UL-spec lamp switch in it.



-Kurt

jasoninohio

Nice; feels like you could get some hanging storage going to free up floor space, I'm sure you're not done yet

bulgie 

What's the blue Italian? Looks luscious. Stem and bars on it are modern, correct? But perfect classic vibe.

gugie 

That caught my eye as well. For some reason the hint of the head badge makes me think Lygie?

cudak888 

I considered hanging the Superior flat against the ceiling, but it would clash with the light - and the room.

That's Leo, a 1960's Bottecchia frameset with added braze-ons (it got @gugie'ed!), a CyclArt paint job, and it's also significantly abused under the paint job, in my humble opinion.

It's called Leo because it's wearing a headbadge by that name which MauriceMoss kindly managed to identify through an Italian patent, but there's no hint on the internet of any other examples.

The Leo thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...l#post21012744

Fun fact: The color of the room and choices of chrome fittings are directly influenced by this bike and the pattern of the Honjo fenders.



Indeed, that's a Velo-Orange stem and modern aluminum bars on it. The bars came from Ali Express and I've seen nobody else carry this specific shape bar; I'm lucky to have found it.

I plan to put a Shimano GC-100 crank on it, but have been a bit penny pinching about it.

-Kurt

Drillium Dude 

You know, my Spidey Sense tells me there's a mint pair of OMAS hubs somewhere in that pile, just waiting to be built up into a weight-weenie wheelset...

DD

cudak888 

Oh, mucho mas.

-Kurt

pastorbobnlnh 

Kurt, having visited your home several times, I'm having a difficult time imagining where the room is located on the house. Is it in the rear near the workshop?

In any case, the work is outstanding and the light is contesting for the crown jewel of the room--- with several other two-wheeled jewels!

tiger1964 

Nice room! Saltillo tiles on the floor?

I am jealous. In our small house, my wife has not been using her sewing & guitar room for a while, I was hinting it would make a great Bike Room (well, the pale rose paint would have to go). Not happening!

1989Pre 

Keep going with this, man! Put up some of those period-repro posters and get some benches put in against the wall, even if space is cramped.
You have a Superior built with a 3-speed hub?

DiegoFrogs

In the most technical sense, I believe what you've constructed here is actually a "gentlemen's cave." Or maybe "gentleman's cave." Ironically, the term both classes it up and makes it feel dirty.

Drillium Dude 

Thanks - now I have a keyboard to clean up!

DD

AdventureManCO 

Excellent work, my friend!

bikemig 

I always like seeing threads like this since I don't feel that bad with the bikes and parts I've collected. This is such a great site because you can nearly always find someone with more stuff than you own.

cudak888 

I think so. They were put over the original flooring in the 1970's. I despise them personally - and I also have a problem with any orange/red color mixed with blue - but this room already gnawed off enough of my life in the work it took to get it where it is now; was not about to rip up the floor. I did, however, remove the matching tiles that functioned as baseboard and replaced it with what you see here.

I'm taking it easy with the room. Too many projects at once and just wanted to get these in here. Still have to dig up curtain rods and curtains and finish work on both doors.

"Gentleman's club" also brings up the same mixed connotations unless you think of it in the English sense. Just tell an American that a Rover P5 is a "rolling gentleman's club" and they're going to imagine stripper poles in the back seat, not this love letter to white-haired men in suits smoking pipes at the Garrick Club:




Seeing as every bicycle here except two came from the Nottingham factory...it should be apropos. I need to carve out a seating arrangement somewhere here.

Payback for all your bikes and our ruined keyboards



-Kurt

tiger1964 

Wow, that's lovely; sadly the 2-door conversions (Panelcraft?), both hardtop and convertible, are frightfully rare and probably too $$$ anyway. Regardless, just like bikes, whether we're on two wheels or four, "vintage" so often confers some panache not seen in newer stuff (there are indeed exceptions!)

cudak888 

Good P5's don't exist for sale in the US. The stuff I've seen for $2,500 out there are $500 parts cars that even David Freiburger would walk away from (sandals and all).

-Kurt

Rabid Koala

Hey Kurt, I've been away for quite a while due to a lot of reasons. I still have most of my bikes, though the list under my handle isn't quite correct. I'm now retired and living in the greater Boise, ID area after moving from San Diego. Once I'm done getting my house in order, literally, I plan on getting my butt back on the saddles and getting more riding time in. Without the demands of self employment, I should be able to do a lot more riding and wrenching. I now have a 4 car garage, with two of those bays devoted to my stuff.

Anyway, I wanted to chime in on Rovers. Many years ago, I owned a P6, a 1970 3500S. It was pretty low mileage, about 54K, and was quite a looker. I sold it on in 1997, as I had two young kids and had just moved to a bigger fixer house that needed a new roof. I just didn't have the disposable income at the time to give it the care it deserved. I sold it to a guy who was going to ship it back to the UK and convert it to proper right hand drive. Between the time I got it and the time I sold it, I had a few mechanical adventures with it, including rebuilding the brake slave cylinder and messing with the SU float bowls. I did love the car, it got attention almost everywhere I went.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that you are still here!

David

Drillium Dude 

Yeah, sorry about that...

DD

cudak888 

You shall not be forgiven.

-Kurt

Drillium Dude 

In that case, I sincerely hope you're drinking something right now:





DD

pastorbobnlnh 

@Rabid Koala welcome back! Retirement is a blast. I pulled on my shorts and short sleeves the end of September 2021 and have been smiling more and more everyday since.

cudak888 

I shall hold off on drooling until you tell me whether it is propped up on a stick or self supporting on a certain pantographed piece of equipment.

David, it's a delight to see you back here, and - coincidentally - I'm on the precipice of picking up a '70 3500S myself from California that still carries its original blue/yellow plates and - coincidentally - San Diego dealer frames. It was stored in Washington State for a number of years but never tagged there; Cali plates are Sept '88. What color was yours? AC car with the unicorn water pump?

I'm not sure why anyone would RHD a NADA car, given that the novelty of the NADA P6 in the UK is the fact that it has all the oddball NADA adjustments, including the LHD factor. But that's just me.

-Kurt

Rabid Koala

Hi Pastor Bob! I'm glad you are living in a warmer place! Retirement is great, I had always wanted to go out a couple of years early, but Covid forced my hand. I was a general contractor. I had spent the last 40 years building out mostly industrial spaces for small businesses. One of my clients was a huge insurance company that owned a million square feet of property within a mile of my shop. My property manager there retired, her replacement was not someone I trusted as he purged every vendor except me. Then Covid hit, leasing stopped and so did any construction. My lease was coming up and I had to do something, so I decided that the time was now. My daughter and son in law couldn't get beyond their small condo in San Diego and wanted to go somewhere where they could live a better life, so we set about jointly to find a place that would meet all of our needs. With the expense of living in Southern CA, I didn't see a good path to full retirement. A friend of mine who is a retired Presbyterian pastor urged us to check out Carson City, NV where he lives. It was nice but housing was a bit too expensive and the opportunities for our daughter and son in law were minimal. We then took a trip together to Idaho, we all loved the scenery in Coeur d'Alene, but the situation was the same as Carson City. We drove south to the Boise/Meridian area, we liked it and while we were there our son in law interviewed for a job and was quickly hired. They moved up in early January of 2021. I had to sell our house, so I spent a few months making it perfect. We closed on a house in March of the same year, making trips back and forth. The house was to be a retirement investment, it would be a future rental. As we spent time in semi rural Kuna, south of Meridian, it really grew on us. We were able to get our dream house built in the same neighborhood. We love it here! It did take me some time to transition to retirement, after 40 years of being self employed, it was such a huge part of my identity. Having the house projects to focus on has been a great transition.

I still have my chrome 71 Paramount and the Opaque Blue 73 P15. I reluctantly sold my Gitane prior to leaving, also I sold my Litespeed Tuscany. I had acquired another older Holland titanium frameset, I built that with an Ultegra triple group. I also still have the Waterford Paramount and the Raleigh Professional. Once the work on the house and yard winds down, all of the bikes will get thoroughly serviced. I have already told some neighbors that I can do their tune ups and repairs. I also need to go through my parts boxes and thin them out a bit.

My pastor friend in Carson City was very helpful when moving the bikes. I got most of them in the back of my F150, along with a trailer load of stuff. Carson City was our overnight stopping point. He graciously allowed me to put the bikes in his garage overnight so I didn't have to drag them all into the hotel room. He was away and gave me his garage code. Getting the bikes up there was as worrisome to me as getting our dog and bird there safely.

I'll lurk around and try to catch up on things!