The Viscount is head of the badges.

So after an epic break in posting, here's a little something to keep the gears spinning, the pedals turning and all moving parts well greased. I only keep this blog for fun and to share the cool stuff, so when my work load goes crazy, I don't want it to become another chore.

But here's a Viscount head badge!

Neat neat neat! Normal posting will resume soon, with the usual mix of retro, vintage and weird bikes, as well as three new bike builds and details of an exciting pan-European bike trip!

Ride old bikes forever!

Yeoman Envoy is diplomatic about its job

Continuing the never ending trawl through the world of obscure bicycle brands, today we have a Yeoman Envoy to take a look at!

Super clean design on the headbadge logo. Quite unlike most of the other much busier old bicycle logos of the 70s and 80s.

This particular one is a 20 inch wheeled, folding shopper bike. This were strangely popular back in the day in Britain, I guess because of their low cost and ability to tuck away in an awkward place.

Whoever owns this one certainly seems to want to hold on to it judging by the big lock on a small bike!

A neat little vintage bike!

Classic Triumph Racing Bike

Here's a nice slice of classic British racing bicycle for you today. It's an old Triumph, looking resplendent in red!

Awesome old fashioned head badge up front.

Some nicely ageing vintage lettering on the down tube.

A very nicely looked after bike!

With some graphics that look like they're spanning the gap between the classic striped graphics of the 60s and 70s and pushing into the more fluid abstraction of the 80s and 90s! Thanks to some recent good weather here in Nottingham, the bike racks are filling up with interesting steel, dragged from people's sheds. So expect some more good bikes soon!

The P.T. Helleberg Trygg from Lillehammer

Here's a bit of a mouthful for the non Nordic readers of The Bicycle Safari. The Trygg bicycle by P.T. Helleberg from Lillehammer!

One reader in Sweden sent this classic Norwegian steel bike in to The Safari.

Founded in 1897 P.T. Helleberg made these kind of bikes and bike accessories up in Lillehammer in Norway.

Lots of nice details, like the great badge on the font, and this nice little 'flying' emblem on the front fender! If you see a nice classic bike you like, why not send it into the Bicycle Safari?

Hercules from Nottingham with retro bicycle logos

Hercules is another old British bicycle brand that started off well, allegedly producing bicycles strong enough to deserve to bear the name!

With the dominance of Raleigh in the 20th century though, the brand eventually got bought out and it became one of the many brands being made in Raleigh's enormous Nottingham factory, which at the time was the largest bicycle factory in the world.

With the decline of the British bicycle industry though, came the end of Hercules for a while. But through the brand has now been revived by an Indian manufacturer who seem to have applied it to a highly customizable mountain bike.

So to round off these photos of a nice vintage Hercules with some rad old logos. Here is the opposite.

Taken from: http://www.bsahercules.com/cycle-customiser.asp

Vintage Dawes has a sparkle in it's wheel nuts

Something this bicycle has surprised me with, is that it's the first Dawes I've inducted into the Bicycle Safari hunting cabinet. Dawes is a pretty massive brand here in Britain, and from taking a look at the ever lengthening list of bike brands over on the right, you'd presume it'd be up there with the Monarks, Peugeots, Raleighs and Husqvarna bicycles that have been featured here before.

But it's not! So here's the first Dawes, with a nice embossed head badge, stuck to the classic lugged steel frame, in this case finished in perhaps a questionable shade of brown.

But I think the nicest little touch on it is the starred wheel nuts. Quite a nice vintage touch, which you from time to time.

Vintage Triumph Racing Bicycle Badge

Classic, standard, everyday vintage bicycle logo post for you today. This is what I'm finding a million of sitting around the streets of Nottingham. These older vintage racing or city bikes that were made in the city back when it had a manufacturing industry. Relentlessly classy logos abound.

In this case, Triumph have been doing their thing. You can see the decline though. What would have used to have been an enamelled badge, now a sticker on the head tube. Nottingham really lost its way back in the day.

Some of the Triumph bicycle lettering on the down tube.

And this is the whole deal. I feel like I should really explore the old bicycle industry here in Nottingham. How an industry can go from sending bicycles out of the city, to countries around the world (like this Raleigh I saw in Denmark) to just being the administrative headquarters, organizing the plants more recently in Vietnam and Cambodia and that now churn out the bikes with the minimum of labour regulations and industrial safety. A sad story of the prioritization of short term profits over long term corporate sustainability, as demonstrated by the decline and fall of every old Nottingham bicycle company.

A Raleigh Twenty aged 40

So here's a little Raleigh Twenty 20 inch wheeled shopping bike, which for the sake of argument I will suggest is from 1971, thus making it forty this year. What caught my eye on it, was the neat little rear fender with the integrated dynamo light, sooo much classier than most modern LED bike lights you can get. That was the inspiration behind my efforts to convert an old dynamo light into an led one, which you can read here.

This Twenty though is a little more rough and ready. All the bikes here are currently wearing a fairly unhealthy coat of winter dirt and grime.

Still, it's getting someone around Nottingham though!

And this blurry I-don't-really-want-to-stand-in-the-rain-and-take-pictures photo shows the neat Twenty graphic text on that super low top/cross bar.

Bicycle Safari Navigates to Nottingham

So after a couple of weeks taking in the sun, the sights and the bikes of Barcelona, The Bicycle Safari has once again packed its trunks and headed back up to cold old Nottingham England.

And what better way to celebrate being back in what used to be the centre of bicycle production in Britain than a classic Raleigh racing bike.

Nice vintage bicycle graphics on the seat tube.

Vintage lettering and the usual bicycle logos.

And a nice welcome back to blogging the old, interesting and rad bikes sitting around rusting up the streets!

Rabeneick vintage bicycle

Another day, another new brand. Rabeneick today who are a German firm. Raising ever more questions about the migration of national brands of bicycles around Europe.

Faded and damaged vintage logos.

A practical basket on the back.

Motoconfort is a classic French bicycle

For being in Barcelona, can't say I've spotted many Spanish bicycles. A new brand today, the Motoconfort of France.

Nice lugged frame.
The usual vintage bicycle logos.
Pretty tidy bike!

Peugeot Mirage in Barcelona

More from Barcelona! Here's a good old vintage Peugeot for you to sink your teeth into! The Peugeot Mirage.

Looks like it's been subtly modified by the owner, with a few stickers here and there.
Like these!
But the great old vintage bike logos are still there shining brightly in the Spanish sun. Also note the strangely square back tyre, very odd. A good old Peugeot bicycle anyway though.

Union Holland Flamingo 22 Vintage Bicycle Logos

So here's another dose of some vintage bicycle logos for you. Ironically for being in Barcelona at the moment, here's a dutch city bike! Made by Union Holland (I think) and called the Flamingo 22 it's a pretty standard small wheeled city shopper bike, but with some standard pretty graphics and bike logos.

Unionised bicycle production is the best bicycle production.

It's been maintained by the Vakhandel Service! Who for their love of spark plugs, are perhaps not the most appropriate people for the job.

Sweet little detail on the 20 inch fenders.

A little Dutch bike in Barcelona!

Carlton Racer is 'Race Proved' and proud

This is a vintage Carlton racing bike that I spotted on the streets of Nottingham. But now you're going to need to click on the picture below.

That's because it's rad. It's a really really great little logo. This Carlton is 'RACE PROVED' and it is proud, as it should be, about it. Awesome.

Throw in some classic lettering on the down tube.
A busy little headbadge.

Some little finishing touches like this cool little 'C' logo'd seat post clamp bolt, and the elegant brake cable mount, and then you've got a super stylish vintage racing bike. Bike designers take note, this is how it's done.

Beige Bicycle Logos by Triumph

So The Bicycle Safari has become a bit focused upon vintage bike graphics of late, but with these kind of vintage bicycle logos sitting around on the pavements it's hard to resist. Take a look at these I spotted on an old 'Triumph Traffic Master' bicycle made right here in Nottingham.

A rad badge up on the front.

Some suitably brown graphics on the down tube.

A pretty incomprehensible logo for the Traffic Master name on the seat tube.
But overall it's a classic bit of brown and beige bicycle heritage. Extremely practical and suitably simple, my only improvement might be some hub gears.

Harry Quinn Quality Logo Win

How's this for a quality logo! Let's see what's going on here then, we've got: a crown, the helmet from a suit of armour, a shield, some nice lettering, a scroll and some kind of plant in the background! Haha what a great logo from Harry Quinn.

Perfect lettering!

Some fun touches on the seat stays, and a nice seat post just sticking out of the frame there.

What an awesome bike!