Behold the glorious Raleigh Twenty: a famous and handsome ancestor of the current generation of folding bikes. I spotted this bicycle outside of Bicycle Bill in Allston, MA and could not resist stopping by to try it. It is in excellent cosmetic condition and the price they are asking for it is very fair. Had I come across it a couple of months ago, the bike would probably have been mine, but at the moment I can't afford it. Still, we had a good time together while it lasted.
The Raleigh Twenty was produced between 1968 and 1984, reaching its height of popularity in the mid-1970s. It was Raleigh's answer to the more complicated and expensive Moulton. The name "Twenty" comes from the 20" wheel size, and it existed in both folding and non-folding versions. These bikes came in a range of colours, but the classic Raleigh green is my favourite. This particular model was produced in 1972 (according to the hub) and is a 3-speed with the typical Sturmey Archer AW hub and caliper brakes.
As you can see, this one is the folding version. The lever on the horizontal tube is used to fold the bike in half. The levers on the seat tube and head tube are used to retract the seat post and handlebar stem. I did not try to fold it up in the store, but you can see some images of it folded here.
I had seen Raleigh Twenties in person before, but this was the first time I examined one closely and rode one. As first impressions go, it is certainly a charming bicycle: The handlebars look like antlers and somehow the bike seems to be always smiling. Just a friendly little reindeer, waiting for you to ride it... The Twenty is large compared to current notions of a "folding bike". To me it felt more like a children's bike or a bike for a very short person. It is also quite heavy, and so I don't think it would really be functional as a folder in the sense that you could easily carry it around on your person after folding it up. However, I think it would be functional for travel: When folded, it could easily fit into the back seat of any car or, I imagine, into a large suitcase for airplane travel. It will also take up considerably less space in your home than a full sized bike. You could store it in a closet or behind some large piece of furniture.
What the Raleigh Twenty lacks in compactness, it makes up for in performance. Sheldon Brown described it as a bike with 20" wheels that performs like a 26" wheel Raleigh Sports. I agree with this assessment. Had I kept my eyes closed, I would not have been able to tell the difference between the ride on my formerly owned Lucy Threespeed and this bike. Somehow the small wheels do not feel small once you are riding the bicycle.
But what really makes the Raleigh Twenty functional as a "regular bike" are the extras: It is fitted with fenders and a large, sturdy rear rack. It was popular to affix baskets and panniers to this bike and to use it as a grocery-getter. It accommodates both front and rear loads comfortably and was even marketed as "The Shopper". All in all, I would recommend the Raleigh Twenty as a fun, simple and useful town bike, especially if you are on the shorter side and are having trouble finding bicycles that fit you. The fact that it can be folded up for travel is an extra bonus. Of course in addition to its practical benefits, the Raleigh Twenty is quickly becoming a cult collector's item. However, don't let that stop you from riding it!
Gibson's Crack
Adam on Dogleg Crack
With my horrible sense of balance, I did not think I'd be able to ride a "real" road bike, with drop bars and narrow tires -- but apparently I can do it! A complete review of 
Dani glissading.
Wipeout!
On Sunday, we had a truly beautiful winter day. Because the blizzard hit Boston on a weekend, the snowplows were not as active as they would have been during the working week. For the first half of Sunday, the entire neighborhood lay covered in a blanket of pristine white snow, and only around lunchtime did people begin emerging from their houses to reluctantly shovel their driveways.
Despite being down with a minor cold, Velouria could not sit still in the blizzard. Stir-crazy in our small apartment and desperate to feel the fresh snow under her tires, she begged me to come out just for a bit, at least to give it a try. How could I resist her charms?
She posed for me next to the fence while I photographed her this way and that. A kickstand was not necessary, because the foot-deep snow enveloped her wheels and functioned as a bicycle rack. With her black frame and cream tires, Velouria was stunning in the snow. The aesthetic experience of seeing her thus even made up for carrying her down the front stairs - which had been semi-visible when the Co-Habitant left for work several hours earlier, but were now completely buried in snow. With the bike in my arms, I slowly extended my toe and felt each step under the snow before proceeding onto it. With the 40lb DL-1 this was doable, but I would not have been able to execute the same maneuver with the heavier Pashley.
The snow was still falling as we prepared to head out, quickly covering the saddle with a thin layer of powder.
Upon Velouria's advice, the voyage I chose was an easy and safe one: a trip to a grocery store that is just a 6 minute walk (3 minute ride under normal conditions) from our house via a secret route through dead-end back streets. There would hardly be any cars there, and if I found myself unable to ride I could just walk the bicycle the rest of the way to the store and back.
I took my camera along and had grandiose plans to stop every so often and photograph Velouria against the backdrop of various winter scenes. However, the visibility was so poor and the snow so... snowy, that getting off the bicycle to pose it became the farthest thing from my mind once we were underway. Instead I offer you views of a few landmarks.
"No Outlet" - Hah! Perhaps not for cars, but for a bicycle the gaps between fences will do just fine.
Arriving to the grocery store via the back parking lot.
I did not experience a sense of slipping on the snow while going straight or while making turns, but again, I was intentionally cycling very slowly. The tires on my DL-1 are the Schwalbe Delta Cruisers, 28" x 1 1/2". By the time I returned home from the grocery store (having purchased a bag of raw cranberries and some chocolate), the snow had made its way into every single crevice of the wheels, covering the spaces between the spokes and dress-guard cords.
If you click to enlarge the picture above, you can see that the snow also made its way into the gaps around the brakes. This is a problem not just for bicycles with rod brakes, but for 
This short but beautiful winter adventure was more than enough for me and Velouria. We were happy to return to the warmth of our home - both of us trailing lots of snow. That snow on the saddle accumulated during the time it took me to drag the bicycle up the front stairs. If you don't want snow on your leather saddle, consider swapping it out for a vinyl one for the winter. For me, a little precipitation on the leather is okay though.
I did experience a panicked sense of remorse when I saw the extent of snow accumulation on the bicycle once we got home, and the next 30 minutes after this photo was taken were spent with a rag, frantically wiping off the moisture. I have been assured however, that the snow in itself is not bad for the bicycle; it is only the salt that is damaging. Thankfully, the roads had not been salted yet at the time of our ride. Velouria enjoyed the refreshing tour through our local Winter Wonderland. She is up for doing it all again - as long as I promise to go slowly, keeping her rod brakes in mind.
Officers elected were
Ta-da! Look what I found sprouting up amidst the grass after the snow melted. Okay, not really. But I thought this would be a good time to update on the progress of the Bella Ciao Superba. I've already been told how nice the new frame colour looks, but this is actually the same colour as before - it's still my bike, only with different components. The colour does look different with the cream tires and brown accessories; less beige and more green. The production frame colour will be one step further in this direction: Imagine a mix between the shade you see here and that of my Roya H. mixte.
Some aspects of the prototype are still in flux, but this is the basic idea of how I envisioned the bicycle: Fully equipped, yet classic and very simple - inasmuch as such a combination is possible.
As I had hoped, the Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub works nicely with the overall design. Not only do I prefer its functionality over Shimano's (just a personal preference), but visually it is more in sync with how I see this bicycle. One of my favourite parts of the Bella Ciaoframes are the elegant fork-ends with the chain tensioners. And to my eye, theSturmey Archer hub - with its glorious indicator chain - integrates perfectly with these elements. I think I drove everybody a little nuts making sure they order the specific version of this hub I wanted, but I am comfortable with that.
The classic trigger shifter frees up the handlebars for a larger gripping area and looks very natural here. For the brake levers, I decided to go with the retro city levers from Velo Orange. They are long, providing good leverage from a variety of gripping positions, and I find the curvy form to be delightfully ergonomic.
The grips pictured here are just placeholders to match the saddle; I am not sure yet what the grips on the production bike will be. It's a tricky one, because I know that no matter what I choose it is likely that the new owner will replace them anyway with their own grips of choice. Therefore I wonder whether it is even worth it to focus on this aspect too much. My personal choice would actually be a set of hard classic plastic grips. But the Portuguese natural cork grips from Rivendell may be a bigger crowdpleaser, so those are a possibility as well.
One aspect of the bicycle that I initially wanted to change, were the crank arms. The stock ones are not too bad, but I had hoped to find something more classic. Turns out that's not actually possible, as none of the retro-styled cranksets on the market are available with chain rings that are compatible with the Bella Ciao chaincase. I've put a lot of effort into researching this a few months back and short of extremely expensive options, it is just not feasible to get different cranks. At that point I had to ask myself: Will the ladies this bicycle is meant to appeal to be willing to pay $150 extra for this bike in order for it to have vintage looking crank arms? And I think the answer is "no," because even for me it would not be worth it. So fairly early into the project it was decided that the stock cranks would remain.
More recently, I have also decided to keep the stock pedals. It is no problem at all to source a more classic rubber platform pedal and remain within budget, but here's the thing: After riding with the stock pedals since October, I find them to be functionally superior, so I think that replacing them would be a disservice to future owners of this bicycle. The pedals have been tenaciously grippy with all of my shoes in the rain and snow, and they are light. Rather than replace them, I think I'd like to get a couple of more sets from Bella Ciao for personal use on some of my other bikes.
The Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tires are a perfect match for the bicycle, and I decided to go with the version with reflective sidewalls for additional visibility after dark. The dynamo lighting system currently installed is passably elegant, but needs some tweaking - I don't like it that the headlight partially obscures the headbadge and sits so close to the headtube. The simplest and least expensive solution would be to place the headbadge higher - I think there is room to raise it maybe another inch without it looking too weird. I am also trying to find a mounting bracket for the headlight that would place it further forward. Looking at other Italian city bikes, I see that many of them have the headlight installed higher up, mounted above the headset. However, this presents the additional problem of routing the wires for the dynamo lighting. Yet another possibility would be to ask the framebuilder to add a braze-on to one of the fork blades and mount the headlight there, but this would increase production costs, and might look a little bulky on this particular bicycle. So... I am still thinking about this one.
And finally, the rear rack. To be honest, this has been a more challenging endeavor than anticipated, and I do not as of yet have a finished prototype that is financially feasible for the production bikes. I thought carefully about whether I should even post pictures of the rack, lest it be a disappointment if in the end it proves impossible to offer the one shown in the pictures. But I decided to go ahead, because I would like to document the experience of working on this bike - including instances where "Plan A" ends up not panning out. I will eventually write a separate post about the challenges of rack design and production, but for now I am trying my best to get it done while fitting into the timeline and into the budget I have to work with.
It's funny, because I have been warned against taking this project too personally - but have been unable to heed that advice. I do take things personally when I am passionately involved in something; it's just how I am. As with everything, this experience has both highs and lows, and perhaps I take both to heart more than I should. But when I walk past this bicycle in our apartment now, I pause every time and think "Oh my God, this is my dream bike!" - so I think overall that's a good sign. More progress reports to follow, and if you have questions regarding availability please contact elton[at]harriscyclery[dot]net.
From the Crest of the Sandias you can see Albuquerque but can look off to the northeast also.
One of our dinners at Restaurante Malatesta, an Italian restaurant in Gendarmenmarkt. We shared a spinach salad doused in balsamico vinegar and showered with roasted pine nuts. Dutchman had homemade ravioli with buffalo milk and ricotta cheese filling while I had seafood risotto which was quite salty. For dessert, see next picture. Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5.
We shared our dessert: Creme caramel at Restaurante Malatesta. 3 stars out of 5... Bonne Maman's creme caramel at Albert Heijn is much better. I must add that the older Italian waiter who attended to us was a such a sweet gentleman. He thinks the Dutchman is American because he ordered Coke, haha!
Mini cars are so easy to park in the city.
I was speechless to see the massive Nespresso shop in Berlin! Wow, look at the variety and the inventory, and how do they stock all of them so high up? This one is located on Friedrichstrasse.
Nespresso capsules.
Beer bikes even go late into the night in Berlin. If I am not mistaken this concept started in the Netherlands, I blogged about this 5-7 years ago, but this has since been banned here. I can understand why because Amsterdam and Utrecht for example where these beer bikes started are full of canals. When the boys get rowdy and intoxicated with alcohol they might find themselves drowning in the canals! Scary.
The Berlin MINI.
Some random architectural interest, building bridge and sculptures. In Budapest, they have similar statues guarding doorways.
Berlin has a Galeries Lafayette but it does not come close to its Parisian sister. It embodies the same style though, the atrium and the dome.
Das Sachsenhaus, proud of its 'Made in Germany' stuff.
We also had dinner at the Spanish restaurant chain called Maredo. We had high hopes of this restaurant but our experience was summed up into a 3 stars out of 5 rating. My salmon was OK and the scampis as well but it lacked the ooomph. I even forgot what Dutchman had. The dinner was saved by the dessert: Appelstrudel with ice cream and whipped cream. This is 4.25 stars out of 5.
I cannot help it but I am attracted to the green colour.
At Alexanderplatz, some (cheap) Don Lucas Brut (cava sparkling wine). 
A small protest rally on Alexanderplatz.
The 17th of June Avenue (Strasse de 17 juni).
Grosse Stern (Great Star), is the central square of the Grosser Tiergarten on the 17th of June Avenue.
As we drove out of Berlin, we followed the Polizei =)