Recent content by FiveAlpha

According to that advert, they also seem to have invented the word 'inperfection'?!?

+1 on this. I have both aero and non-aero 1050s, and the latter seem even smaller. I don't have small hands, but like riding that bike because of small and comfortable these levers are. Only problem - they are quite hard to find.

Cable guides for a rear gear, but no hanger on the dropouts? Usually, it's only very cheap bikes that lack a gear hanger - the rest of the fittings look better than that, so could it have had a hub gear? Mountain 'shaped' bikes with Nexus hubs are common here in Denmark?

Okay, so I chatted with a neighbour, who used to own a bike shop - he said that it is almost certainly an early 80s Centurion Super Le Mans, and the down tube double cable guides were for the Suntour BarCon shifters that were specced then. So, it was a drop bar sports bike, made of Tange 2...

It weighs 2.100g which is not bad for a 58cm ‘dad bike’ at that time.

Possibly - it’s not a fancy frame, but it’s not gas pipe either. I was curious about the choice of frame fittings (70s and 80s) rather than the quality.

It is a catalogue of contradictions - it's not a touring bike - clearance and geometry suggest road/training frame. I don't know what tubing it is, but Danish Centurions were normally made with Tange tubing - Champion #2, Tange 2 and Tange 3, and latterly, Tange Infinity. The BB shell looks...

That makes a lot of sense - this was in Nørrebro, hipster central, where it's not uncommon to see crimes such as vintage Colnago's turned into singlespeed basket bikes with 20cm wide handlebars!

As you can see, it's not a hub gear frame, and the rear derailleur cable goes under the chainstay, which is more modern, and not what I would expect with a frame with no brake cable guides. My guess is that it had stem mounted shifters (Suntour?), but the 120mm rear spacing is just weird.

I just got a frame and fork from the recycling centre ('the tip' in British parlance). The VIN (we have these for bikes here in Denmark, since the 40s) suggests it is a Centurion (the Danish brand, not Japanese one) from 1987. BUT...it has 120mm rear spacing; fittings for nutted brakes; and no...

Have a look here for the original spec, if you want to return it to factory set-up: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/Manufacturer+Archive/Raleigh/Catalogues/1993/SPD/Page+6.jpg.html Mavic Open 4 CD rims have been replaced by Open Pro - you can by some Open Pro and swap the decals for...

Seems we were both wrong: // FOUNDED IN 1972 WHEELER was founded in 1972 by CH Yang, one of the future pioneers of the Taiwanese bicycle industry, without any prior knowledge of the industry or technology. Mr. Yang, a visionary who was then working in advertising, realized that the bicycle...

Denmark is more civilised, even Copenhagen.

This is my equivalent - better than a ‘beater’, but not fancy. Can lock it up outside the shops/pub but still makes me smile when riding it. (It’s a Centurion Radius - Tange Inifinity, which seems to be Japanese for ‘501’. With a Suntour Radius groupset, just because it’s different).