Nabeaquam
BoTM Winner
I posted this before, but here it is again as I found more photo details about the build. It made me realize how frustrating this build was. I supposedly got this frame, fork, seat post, stem and bb from the Bulgarian Bicycle Museum, if there is even such a thing. The story I got is that the museum had two and stripped this one for a restoration. They sent me a photo of the supposed museum restored specimen, complete with the cloth wheel covers. They said the bike belong to their nation sprint champion and 5th place Olympian, Dimo Angelov.
Performance back then was probably due more to steroids than bike quality, but that’s a guess. Seems like bike doping does back to the start of professional cycling with strychnine and wine being the drugs of choice in the early 1900s. The commies were just better at it back then.
The frame when I got it.
I painted it shiny battleship grey, so it looked like a morose commie utility device. Just my take on what the western image was of communist products.
The bb offset was a problem and the fork threading was metric. Replacement headsets wouldn’t thread on. Gave me fits as I thought it would be a straight up bolt together with replacement standard parts, ha. I had to rethread the fork to standard and chase and face the bb shell. Frustrating fun.
Weisner clamp on front brake that I rebuilt.
Performance back then was probably due more to steroids than bike quality, but that’s a guess. Seems like bike doping does back to the start of professional cycling with strychnine and wine being the drugs of choice in the early 1900s. The commies were just better at it back then.
The frame when I got it.
I painted it shiny battleship grey, so it looked like a morose commie utility device. Just my take on what the western image was of communist products.
The bb offset was a problem and the fork threading was metric. Replacement headsets wouldn’t thread on. Gave me fits as I thought it would be a straight up bolt together with replacement standard parts, ha. I had to rethread the fork to standard and chase and face the bb shell. Frustrating fun.
Weisner clamp on front brake that I rebuilt.
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