other owners

A seller on ebay.com.au has been ordered to downsize his bicycle collection, he had four NS22 bikes. I notice two have had the gear lever replaced. The lever broke on my NS22. None appear to have the pump present.

The owner of this Bernardo bike wrote to me a while ago:

"The story is this:  We bought "Bernardo" a couple of years ago in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.  We figured that a folding bike would be just the thing to throw into the van as we were preparing a Canada-Argentina PanAmerican voyage.

We spent a long time on Bernardo.  He was used by an  aboriginal man as his prime transport to get to  the bar (and then folded up for the taxi ride home).  Bernardo thus had had a tough time and was not well treated.  We got Bernardo for $50CAD.

We stripped him down to the bare frame and I then polished every nut and bolt, rim, spoke, chrome....I replaced all the cables - brakes and gear, replace the bungees on the front and rear rack, replaced the seat, hand grips (now color coded) and added a colorful bell.  We stripped the frame of paint and my wife went to work on her color scheme.

What we were missing was the rear fender (lost in time I suppose) and I removed the generator and the front light (rear missing as well).  Ultimately when we were ready to leave for our PanAm trip...we could NOT find tires in North America.

Two years later and we are finished our trip.  I packed Bernardo into a suitcase and we brought him back to France (my wife is Parisian, I am Canadian).  Last week we got the tires and the tubes, I tweaked a few things and now Bernardo is rolling.

Would have been much cheaper to buy a NEW folding bike for all the time and parts..."

I told him the seat clamp should be behind the post, to move the seat further back.

22 x 1&3/8" = 550A

I bought this nearby on ebay, $35, the same seller as the mini-me NS in the previous post.

The tyres, and alloy rims, are marked 22 x 1&3/8", a size I have not seen before. I see they happen to be the same, perhaps 1mm different to 550A. ( http://www.moruyabicycles.com.au/contents/en-uk/d969_22-inch-tyre.html )

The Nexus hub generator is neat for a child's bike.

This looks like a private import to me. It looks like a registration number down near the bottom bracket. Only the Japanese could be so well organised. The Woods/Dunlop valves are also unusual in Australia, not sold on new bikes probably since about 1980.

The chain ring has 32 teeth, the single sprocket 14. It seems to move along at a good pace.

I wrote about the NS22 (Dec 15 2010): "The chain ring has 48 teeth.  The five sprockets have 23, 20, 18, 16 and 14 teeth.  This gives wheel inches of 46.3 up to 76.1."

The gearing on this little bike is somewhere between the largest and second largest cog on the NS22.

The basket is just sitting there for the photo, I had a spare one.

The seat is up just about as high as it can go. The seat and post are one unit, the end of the post has a bracket welded to it, then bolted to the seat, not the two rails as is normal. On the chain guard is written: "Blueberry".

It looks a lot like this French bike, said to be from Lyon, 1940s or 50s:

The lock has a key that stays in place when the lock is open. No charge for the bird dropping.

I am told by a Japanese friend that this is an "Anti Theft Registration from Kagoshima-pref".

I fitted two new tyres, Vee-Rubber brand, made in Thailand, I bought them through ebay.fr. They are in fact 18 x 1&3/8", a few mm smaller diameter than 450A, and are quite a bit narrower than the originals. They seem to do the job, perhaps Michelins would have been more authentique.

Vee Rubber 450A

A pair of these arrived from France today. They are Vee Rubber brand, made in Thailand. 18 x 1&3/8   37-387 NL written on sides. I see at http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html  450A are meant to be 390mm. I'll see how they go.
They look OK, maybe I should have found some Michelin ones.

The NS22's little sister

It's been a while...

I left the NS22 in Tennant Creek, now I am back in Melbourne.

I bought the little brother/sister. In French un velo is masculine, une bicyclette is feminine. This has 450A rims (390 mm, 20" BMX rims are 406mm). The wheel base is 825mm, cranks are 130mm, it weighs about 10.5kg. It was $20 on ebay and close to home, it just seemed too good to refuse.

The rims are RIGIDA, I can't see any date on anything anywhere. One tube has a presta valve, the other is a Woods/Dunlop. The tyre treads don't have a lot of wear, but are badly perished.

I put the seat pole up as high as possible, maybe 30mm is in the seat tube.

The nuts/bolts that connect the carrier rack to the seat stays are missing. The bell is missing the thumb thingy, it has broken, it looks like it was plastic. The seat is moulded plastic, one piece.

I notice the bolts on the rear wheel stick out a mile, a good hazard for kids to bang their legs on.

NS600 with 600A wheels

On ebay.fr I see this, asking 140 euros:

Sheldon Brown's site says 24 x 1&3/8 used on wheelchairs is 540mm,

"French 600A is actually 541 mm, close enough".

I notice the frame (just behind the head) has a hole or lug to take a cable, I guess some of these had gears. I assume the rear brake cable is in through the other side. Yes indeed, it is a tres beau velo, solide...

Vélo Peugeot NS600 motobécane 1970 pneu neuf non pliant

Bonjour, voici ce vélo mini vélo vintage PEUGEOT NS600 pour adulte, avec panier, (grande roues de 600a) en très bon état. Pneu NEUF Michelin. Livraison possible Paris . Très beau vélo solide.

Test ride with 24" front wheel.

This seems OK, the steering feels a little different to how I remember it, it is nearly a year since I last used this bike. It does not actively seek to turn left or right all by itself, but doesn't seem like riding no-hands would be very easy, it seems about neutral. It is certainly nothing like the 26" mountain bike wheel and forks I tried, then it immediately wanted to turn away from straight ahead.

Both handbrake levers were broken in the crash.

The front wheel axle is about 15mm higher off the ground than is the rear axle. This could be reduced by using a 1.5" tyre instead of the 1.95" now fitted. I even think the front mudguard might be persuaded to fit with a narrower tyre on the 24" wheel.

With the 26" wheel, it had excessive "wheel flop":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_(bicycles)#Wheel_flop

Wheel flop refers to steering behavior in which a bicycle or motorcycle tends to turn more than expected due to the front wheel "flopping" over when the handlebars are rotated. Wheel flop is caused by the lowering of the front end of a bicycle or motorcycle as the handlebars are rotated away from the "straight ahead" position. This lowering phenomenon occurs according to the following equation:

Because wheel flop involves the lowering of the front end of a bicycle or motorcycle, the force due to gravity will tend to cause handlebar rotation to continue with increasing rotational velocity and without additional rider input on the handlebars. Once the handlebars are turned, the rider needs to apply torque to the handlebars to bring them back to the straight ahead position and bring the front end of the bicycle or motorcycle back up to the original height.