Hugh flop-haired Whittingstall and his foraging bike. Love it!
https://www.bikeradar.com/features/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-bike/
Yeah, that's a bike I'd like to throw a leg over for sure.
For example, the twin downtubes of the step-through frame have been left raw (though highly polished)
Am I wrong in thinking that they're the top tube(s); they're almost step-through, but still above the downtube, no?
I read that and was confused too.
The reality is a lower frame height on a utility bike is great.
Bikeradar, there's a blast from the past. Is there a magazine ?
😀
Even more niche, go back about 30 years and he had a bike with a pedal powered stove fitted to it.
Looks like an electric Stooge with a lower TT.
really like that!
That's a thing of beauty, I'd love an excuse for something like that.
But yeah, a motor which is binned and sent to Ghana to be melted in a bucket by a child when the BB bearings wear out is very much the weak point in the green argument.
“I think it’s rather like that sort of slightly pretentious [Patek Philippe] watch advert – you don’t really own a whatever it is, you just look after it for the next generation.
He obviously has no idea how long a Shimano bike motor is expected to last....
Here you are son, have this bike. The motor broke 30 years ago and they don't make spare parts for this model anymore.
True about the motor, but would presumably be easy enough to install an old fashioned bottom bracket to de-e it if necessary. Or a motor with a different mounting arrangement. Proper steel frames are useful like that.
Flax mudguards?? but how?
His assumptions on longevity seem naive.
I have a Patek Phillipe shed that contains all manner of bike tat that my kids will one day inherit and wish I hadn't collected.
Looks like an ideal allotment bike!
Interesting. I saw that frame when it was in the jig and it originally had a Pinion gearbox mount.
"Flax mudguards?? but how?"
Flax is a very fibrous plant, and gives us linen. It's easy enough to use the fibres instead of carbon to make a mudguard. I would imagine the green credentials are severely compromised by the resin agent...
unless it's made from rabbit fur, or fish or something, in the same way glue has been made for hundreds of years, although , if so, they wouldn't exactly be water resistant...