Thursday 30 September 2010

The Aerospace Contour - Raleigh Pulsar

This 'aerospace contour' sticker is living on an oldish Raleigh Pulsar, I don't know the story behind it, but wow do I suddenly want a space shuttle graphic on my own bike.
It comes with the usual guarantees of supposedly quality tubing, in this case 18 - 23 controlled carbon.
Regular viewers will notice this has been locked up in exactly the same place as that classic Raleigh town bike I posted the other day. That's one thing I'm noticing that's different between Nottingham and Lund. Whereas in Lund there was a mass of locked bikes that sat indefinitely in the racks around the town, bikes in Nottingham move. After a certain time in the evening, most bikes have disappeared off with their owner (well you hope with their owner). Perhaps it is just a prevalence of bike theft that keeps the locked bike population down?

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Raleigh Vogue is hardly posing

Raleigh Vogue could have been a name for some super stylish bike...

and perhaps this was when it first came out. But the passage of time hasn't been very kind to the style of these graphics.



So perhaps less vogue, more retro.

Monday 27 September 2010

The Classic Nottingham Raleigh Bike

I've been talking about the kind of bikes that you find in Nottingham. The old Raleigh factory works means that there's this huge amount of classic British steel sitting around in the local bike racks. I spotted this one, and just thought, what a great example of the breed!
This little detail on the front fender is great. I've seen a few examples of brands putting little mascots or emblems on the front fender and this has that same feel.
This era of Raleigh's all carry the Made in Nottingham badge somewhere. Even if it wasn't always 100% true!
A very golden version of the Raleigh head tube logo.
From Nottingham, this bike was taken to London to be sold by E.Q. Bates cycles, and then later brought back up to it's place of origin haha.
Some casual pinstriping.
And there we have it, classic British Nottingham Raleigh.

Friday 24 September 2010

The Marlboro Stiletto is neither smoke nor shoe

Another day, another bicycle manufacturer. Today's spot is this Marlboro Stiletto which ticks some new boxes for me. Seems to be following a pretty classic British bicycle design which is always made a little better when it's presented in black.
Here's the Marlboro head badge, the addition of the front reflector seems a modern after-thought.
A simple chain guard.
And here's that strange name, the Stiletto. Maybe it'd make more sense if this was a women's framed bike?

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Moulton and Land Rover collaboration

Ok well maybe not a full on collaboration, but a little more in the cooperative spirit than the Bugatti and Pininfarina rip offs, that I've posted before. Land Rover has licensed their brand for use on bicycle quite a lot, but I hadn't heard of a Land Rover Moulton before I stumbled across this one in Nottingham.
The design of Moultons' is brilliant, the amount of thought that went into them was fantastic. Anyone interested in the work behind them should really take a look at this lecture that Alex Moulton gave a while back.

Here's that suprising Land Rover decal.
And here's that proud Moulton head badge. On a side note, you can see what the owner really values in life by the size of the small cable locking the front wheel, and the massive lock on the Brookes saddle haha.


Wednesday 15 September 2010

The Bicycle Safari travels north to Nottingham

I've been moving around quite a bit recently, from Lund, to Stockholm and then to London, and where I go, The Bicycle Safari comes with me! But now once again, I announce that bicycle hunting duties are being shifted on to their next somewhat more permanent home!

The Safari is off to Nottingham, England. Now this might not seem the most exciting place to take a Bicycle Safari, but the initial impressions of Robin Hood and a forest are a bit misleading. Nottingham was recently declared the least car dependent city in England, and part of this (as well as plentiful buses and trams) is because of the amount of people cycling around. Coming from Lund, Sweden where 45% of the inhabitants commute every day by bicycle it's hardly going to set the world on fire, but it's a good start.

The second reason why Nottingham is going to be interesting is it's historic role as a bicycle producing town. For nearly 100 years the Raleigh bicycle company produced bikes here, and quite a lot of them are still sitting around the streets! Even when The Safari was in Denmark, this Raleigh popped up with the 'Made in Nottingham' badge on it...

So this is what there is to be found in Nottingham by the bucket load. It should be good!

Sunday 12 September 2010

BSA blast from the past

Last week I posted this BSA Sport bicycle that I saw chained up in London. I mentioned the heritage of BSA as the Birmingham Small Arms company, but strangely it wasn't until a few days later that I remembered another BSA that I was familiar with. My BSA.
This was in fact the last bike of my childhood, that last mountain bike of your young teens that for a lot of people signals the end of the cycling life, but for me led to a transition into road bikes and other bits and pieces. This particular BSA isn't of any notable vintage though, it seems to come at a time when BSA had a become a subdivision of Raleigh bikes, although still being manufactured in England. The head badge is a sticker, and the whole experience is a bit underwhelming.

The local bike shop did include a nice badge of their own though.
So here it is, the last bike of my youth and a bit of a sad end to the BSA brand.

Friday 10 September 2010

Kalkhoff becomes an alkhof


Oh the problems of photographing tubes. This Kalkhoff vintage bicycle logo has become a bit less of an obvious brand.

Monday 6 September 2010

BSA Sport Bicycle

A company called the Birmingham Small Arms Company might not seem the most obvious manufacturer of bicycles and motorbikes, but they did used to be very good at it.

Maybe this large racing bike being ridden by a not quite so large rider isn't their crowning glory.
But they did sort the lettering out nicely.

Friday 3 September 2010

Beautiful Peugeot bicycles of the world

What better way to start The Bicycle Safari's stay in London than with the distant relative of a bike we saw back in Lund! The wonderfully green twin sitting on the streets of Sweden sported a fun little front rack and even stylish brakes, but this London version is a lot more straight forward.
I think the stuck on lug patterns are super kitsch, but they do add the bike. Especially with such a nice Peugeot badge up front.



The Peugeot lettering is doing better than the poor fender which seems to have suffered a fold!

'Record du Monde' , a world record... in, something?

A nice touch on this English cousin is the use of the classic Sturmey Archer three speed hub and shifter. These are everywhere in Britain, and makes the Peugeot a little more Anglified.

Living on the mean streets of London.

Thursday 2 September 2010

The Bicycle Safari is on the move again


When the Bicycle Safari first set up camp and started hunting old, interesting or gross bicycles found on the streets, the action was focused on the southern Swedish town of Lund. This was great, because it was full of rusting old heaps of bicycles.
Next up was a little trip to the Danish capital of Köpenhamn (Copenhagen) where we spotted an old English bicycle and that was pretty rad too. There were also a lot of super interesting modern urban bicycles, but I didn't take any pictures of those, so you'll just have to follow the link in the Copenhagen post if you want to look at those.
After a quick stop back in Lund again, The Safari ventured north to the Swedish capital of Stockholm, where this Bianchi was a nice spot, and this Husqvarna proved popular.

But now... now, we take to the sky and to a whole new island. The Bicycle Safari is setting up it's tents, unpacking it's rifles cameras and taking a look around the city of London.