Classics or monuments?

A couple of years ago I mentioned Nalini's Le Classiche collection.

(As before, we borrowed this picture from Wielerjargon. Hope that's OK!)

From Italian cyclewear company Nalini, a collection of five really good looking bicycle jerseys (or at least four good looking, we're not entirely into the red one), celebrating five Classic bicycle races. Liège Bastogne Liège (or Liegi Bastogne Liegi, as Italians would spell it), started in 1892; Amstel Gold Race, started in 1966; Ronde van Vlaanderen (or Giro Delle Fiandre, in Italian), started in 1912; Milano San Remo, started in 1907; and Paris Roubaix (Parigi Roubaix in Italian), started in 1896. I have to say that I was a little wondering over the selection, what races Nalini considered to be Classics. Couldn't La Flèche Wallonne, first run in 1936, be considered a more Classic race, than Amstel Gold? Or Omloop Het Niewsblad? (OK, Omloop Het Niewsblad was first held in 2009, but its predecessor Omloop van Vlaanderen was first held in 1945.) But anyway it's a great collection, as well as celebrating the bicycle races, the jerseys are also made of recycled PET bottles. Good lookin and eco friendly, that's awesome. Unfortunately though, not available anymore.

And right here I just want to mention the Italian word "giro". If you say "giro" in Sweden, if they know at all what you're talking about, they will think that you're talking about the Giro d'Italia. But "giro" is just Italian for "round". For example, my Italian neighbour Rolando always refers to Tour de France as "Giro di Francia". But then he also see Tour de France as slightly inferior to Giro d'Italia... Which I, until the announcement of Giro d'Italia 2018, would agree upon. Giro d'Italia was a better looking, more exciting, more monumental race, filled with heroic efforts, drama and passion. (In short, the race was more Italian.) But I am most disappointed that the 2018 Giro d'Italia will start in Israel, as well as the weak attitude shown by the Giro d'Italia organisation towards the force politics and demands of the Israeli state. I will write more about this in the future, because I can't just stay quiet as the Israeli state continue to oppress the Palestinians and Palestine, while now trying to get goodwill and publicity by hosting the first three stages of Giro d'Italia.

But right now, let me get back to the cycling jerseys. Nalini released their Le Classiche jerseys a couple of years ago, and this year Swedish sportswear company Craft released three bicycle jerseys, celebrating three Classic bicycle races. Or Monuments. Craft's definition of Classics, Monuments are Milano San Remo, Paris Roubaix and Ronde van Vlaanderen, which made me wonder which races are considered Classics and/or Monuments. According to wikipedia, there is a problem with the definitions, since there is no consencus about what a Classic bicycle race is. And so the term "Monument" was introduced, and the Monuments (in cycling) are Milano San Remo, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris Roubaix, Liège Bastogne Liège and Giro di Lombardia. Was Nalini opting for Amstel Gold Race and omitting Giro di Lombardia because one of Giro di Lombardias official sponsors is Castelli? I mean, why else would an Italian company not consider an Italian race a Classic?

Anyway, the jerseys from Craft (with a pair of bib shorts matcing the Ronde van Vlaanderen jersey) are really good looking as well. Check out for yourself:

(The Milano San Remo, or La Primavera jersey)

(The Paris Roubaix, or L'enfer du Nord jersey)

(The Ronde van Vlaanderen, or De Ronde jersey)

(We borrowed the pictures from Craft. Hope that's OK!)

What's especially cool about the Craft jerseys is that they also have the pet names of the races on their jerseys (on the sleeves). Just a couple of questions. Will Craft release Liège Bastogne Liège (La Doyenne) and Giro di Lombardia (Classica delle foglie morte) jerseys as well? And if so, why not now? Or doesn't Craft want to intrude on a race sponsored by Castelli? As far as I can tell Ronde van Vlaanderen is (among other) sponsored by sportswear company Doltcini, if Paris Roubaix is sponsored by any sportswear I can't tell, because I can't find any sponsors page on their pretty messy web site, and lastly Giro di Lombardia is sponsored, again, by Castelli. And lastly, shouldn't the Milano San Remo jersey really be pink? Well, you could write to Craft and ask them. (I really am too busy to do it myself.) If not I suppose time will tell.

Anyway the jerseys Craft have made are sold in with really good looking photos on their web site:

 (Milano San Remo)

(Paris Roubaix)

(Ronde van Vlaanderen)

(Again, we borrowed the pictures from Craft. Hope that's OK!)

Ride safe!

Darkness is upon us!

If there's something we're good at up here in the North it's darkness. From Tove Jansson's books (some of them, and there's always a light in the dark ones too) to death metal (OK, technically death metal wasn't invented in the Nordic countries, but you can't say that were not good at it) we excel at darkness. And as we're heading into midwinter it's literally dark outside as well. Just today I heard on the radio that parts of Sweden got their last share of sunlight today until some time in January... That's harsh! Down here in the South (of the North!) it's not that bad, the sun is still there in winter, it just comes up later and goes down earlier. As I'm writing this it's 3PM and it's already getting dark. It's pretty cold and it's raining too. And to top it all off I've had a cold for about three weeks now and yesterday I got lumbago. Good times...

Actually, though, it could be worse. If I would have had a cold and lumbago during the summer season... now that would have really sucked. As it's dark and cold and raining or snowing (or both) outside I pretty much consider the cycling season 2017 over. Instead I focus on some of my projects. I have three frames (bicycle frames, obviously) up in the attic: a Mongoose Tyax 29 Comp and no less than two Peugeot Aubisque. If I'm lucky the Mongoose is my size and then it will become my new hard tail mountain bike, but the two Peugeots are actually the exact same size and they are too big for me so I will simply fix up and sell them. I hate seeing good bikes go to waste, and while the Peugeot Aubisque may not be a great bike (for example the groupsets were pretty crappy) it is an OK bike and the retro 1980's paintwork is just awesome. (Check it out here and here!) If you're tall, at least 185 cm, you can buy one from me right now, before I have even started on any of them.

But before I start working on the above mentioned three bikes I have a couple of other projects. First there's a wheel that I'm building for a sort of guest bike (for anyone visiting) and then there's the misery.

(The misery)

I have started working on a fifth cut through the seat post, but it's just hard, tedious work. I have been really close to just scrapping the bike and go out and buy a brand new cheap bike, but other than the bloody seat post it's the perfect subject for building a winter bike. You know, a bike that you can use in the winter, it gets dirty and rusty and you don't have to mind. It's perfect because it' so ugly. I mean, I really like Kona, "Lava Dome" is a super cool name for a bike, and I have even seen really cool examples of this model, but this bike is just really effing ugly. I'm pretty meticulous about my three bikes (a road bike, a mountain bike and a standard bike), I keep them clean and in as good a running order as I can but this Lava Dome I would just simply mistreat. I wouldn't even mind too much if someone stole it, since it's so ugly.

And after those two project I will give my road bike a winter cleaning, when I go through it completely, and after that it's time for the last (?) upgrade. I will change some components, give it a new seat post, a new stem and a new handlebar, all from Deda Elementi. After that almost everything else on the bike will be either Finnish - the frame and fork - or Italian - the wheels, inner tubes and tyres, the stem, handle bar and handlebar tape, the saddle and seat post and the groupset. It will look fab.

(This stem, handlebar and seat post are from the awesome looking Ventisei series. And I borrowed these pictures from Deda Elementi. Hope that's OK!)

Talking about groupsets, I read that FSA is to realease a completely new groupset, the WE (or possibly We), an electronic, wireless and connected solution. It sounds exciting! Actually I'm not that into electronic groupsets, I prefer my bike to be completely mechanical (I do have a wireless bike computer though, I'm not a taliban), but quite possibly all new advances in the electronic groupsets will mean advances in the mechanical ones as well, so these really are exciting times. It also means that we now have:

- Campagnolo
- Shimano
- SRAM
- Rotor
- FSA

all making groupsets. Have I forgotten someone? And no, I don't mean anyone like Simplex or Sachs-Huret. (For Pete's sake, it's 2017, not 1977.) I only use Campagnolo and Shimano, and they work just fine. And anyone following this blog know that I love Campagnolo and my Campagnolo products (groupsets and wheels). I doubt that either SRAM, Rotor or FSA will give me a bike with a complete groupset to try and test (but if you're thinking about it, please do!), so there will be no future product reviews here, but since I am rather curious myself I will try to read up on them, and if I find anything interesting I promise to share it with you. And I am really good at having opinions on the aesthetic part of things! So keep your eyes open, and we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, ride safe!

Postgirot Open 1984

So... Now that I am up and if not running, then at least walking (slowly) with this blog again, why not continue with our series about Postgirot Open memorabilia? (If you want, you can check out the previous posts by clicking in the list just to the right, or click here.) We have now arrived in 1984, the third time the race was held. Does it show in the memorabilia from this year? Well... Um, no. Or judge for yourselves.

The post cards (and stickers, there were stickers made with the exact same motif) are a quite simple affair. It simply says "Postgirot Open - The biggest bicycle party in the Nordic countries, the 13th to 20th of June 1984", and then there's a picture of Tommy Prim. Tommy Prim was born in 1955 and was a professional road racer, who won a stage in the 1980 Giro d'Italia, came second in the 1981 and 1982 Giro d'Italia, won the 1983 Paris-Brussels and also won the Postgirot Open in 1982 and 1983. As far as I know he's retired now, and never used dope during his career. Respect to Tommy Prim. I think he looks pretty cool too, in that yellow Postgirot/Bianchi Piaggio jersey, riding a celeste Bianchi.

Other than that there's not much to say. The Postgirot Open really hadn't found their style or graphic design in in 1984, but it's not too bad. Just a bit boring. Ride safe!

Postgirot Open Jersey

Hello there! We're back!

It's been over a year since I published anything here. Things have changed, to put it mildly. I am no longer a student, I have a full time job, I have a good income (I don't want to brag, but it means that I have a bigger bike (parts) buying budget, I can afford things that were out of reach before... to a certain extent, at least.), I commute by train twelve hours a week and last but not least I have become a father. Oh, and to top it all off my computer crashed and my mobile phone was stolen.

Not to mention everything that has been and is going on around the world. China continues to buy the rest of the world, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and his surrounding clique seem to have went completely bonkers to the misfortune of the North Korean people and the rest of the world, Putin and his clique continue to bully all countries that share a border with Russia, right wing parties all over Europe seem to be on the rise (and, thankfully, so the resistance against these ideologies seem to be), the English people were duped into believing they did not want to be a part of the European Union (no, I think they were misinformed), a complete buffoon was elected president in the United States, earth quakes in Mexico, conflict in Venezuela... Well, and good things too. Bicycle-related things (after all, this is a bicycle blog) are that bicycling is on the rise, both as a way to commute and as sport, more bicycle lanes are being built around the world and it is being realised that we need to change our way of thinking and planning cities, traffic and cityskapes in the future. The biggest thing in Sweden right now, though, is of course the #metoo-campaign.

And let me just take a minute here and say that it really isn't that complicated, what it means isn't anything ludicrous or impossible, it simply means that women should be treated as humans. They should be able to go to school or to work and not be shouted at, called things, be grabbed or groped by men they don't want to be grabbed or groped by, receive unwanted sexual comments or worry about any of those things happpening. And men need to realise that a patriarchal society isn't just holding women back, it's actually bad for them too, since it means that we all get stuck in roles we don't benefit from (typically, men are not supposed to have feelings, not supposed to cry, supposed to be the one who caters for the family and might be struggling to do so et c). Being a douchebag in a sexist manner preserve the patriarchy. And yes, you can still flirt with women, just as someone said: If you can't tell the difference between flirting and sexual harassment, stop flirting. Or more tangible: If you are saying or doing things to women that you wouldn't want other men to say or do to your mother, your sister, your daughter, your girlfriend, wife or best friend, you are probably being a douchebag.

But again, this is a bicycle blog, and even if I haven't been blogging I'm still interested all things related to bicycles and cycling. But I started finding paid for stuff out there, which borrowed a little too much from my blog without giving me any credit for it. I don't make a dime on this blog, but it's not about the money (see above), I just don't think that it's cool taking ideas and texts without asking. And really, I'm cool with most things as long as you ask, as long as you don't run some weird Nazis-on-bicycles blog I won't object. (And I won't charge for it, either.) Anyway, that whole situation made me feel a bit tired. But I'll try to post more regularly in the future, and this is a great subject to start with:

A mid 1980's bicycle jersey, from the Postgirot Open professional staging bicycle race.

Really, I don't know much about this jersey. Obviously it's from the race, but the leader of the race wore a yellow jersey, the leader of sprint awards a green jersey, the leader of the points awards a purple jersey and the best amateur wore a white jersey, at least in 1983. (There really aren't any mountains in Sweden, so there was no best climber awards jersey.) So was it a commersial jersey, sold as merchandise? I have absolutely no idea. All I can tell is that it must be from the mid 1980's (the colour!), it's made in Italy, it's made by Castelli and it's super cool. That is, it's probably stifling hot to ride in, thanks to the 72% nylon and 28% acetate mix, but it's looks super cool

A nice and easy restart to the blog, isn't it? Ride safe!