The Timeless Quality of Fredness

When I first reached out to Paul at Classic Cycle to grub an old-timey bike for my L'Eroica California new/old shootout,  one of the velocipedes he offered me was a 1950 Drysdale Special, made in New York, NY by one Alvin Drysdale:

I would have happily palped this bicycle for the ride, but while the Drysdale was indeed old it still fell short of the "Holy shit that's old!" status that was so crucial to the narrative, which is why I ended up going with the Mead.

Nevertheless, Paul was insistent that I experience the mid-century glory of the Drysdale in its native habitat, and so he was kind enough to ship it out this way.  The bike arrived on Friday in a hard case that I opened eagerly:

Though owing to parental responsibilities I was unable to ride it until yesterday.

Assembly was fairly straightforward, though I did send one neurotic email to Paul when the brake pads barely made contact with the front rim as something seemed to be out of alignment:

In response, Paul disabused me of my modern notions considering tolerances and advised me simply to set the wheel off-center as necessary, adding that "a hammer and lowered expectations just might be the right tools for adjustment."  (This also happens to be great parenting advice by the way.)

The hammer turned out not to be necessary, but I did remove all the spacers from beneath my overly heightened expectations and duly "slam" them as Paul had advised.  A few turns of the adjustable wrench later and the bike was together:

There it was, in my basement, a 1950 Drysdale Special:

Back home in the city of its birth:

And yesterday I finally got a chance to take it for a ride:

In addition to a couple of Classic Cycle t-shirts for the kiddies, Paul had also included both a hairnet and a pair of shoes:

Sadly, the hairnet doesn't even come close to fitting on my head and instead sits atop it like a padded yarmulke or a too-small diner waiter's hat.  The shoes however fit perfectly, though I did forego them for the inaugural ride in favor of sneakers.  While of course I've got plenty of toeclip experience (which is how I know they're stupid) I admit I've never used them with real cycling shoes complete with the notched cleat, so I figured I'd have more fun getting used to the bike if I were able to put my foot down relatively easily.

Rest assured that I'll wear the shoes complete with wool shorts and jersey (but sans tiny hairnet) in due course.

Speaking of what I do and don't have experience with, besides the pedals the two obvious equipment differences between the Drysdale and today's modern Fredding machines are the downtube shifters and the tubular tires.  (Though of course plenty of modern-day Freds still use tubular tires.)  Unlike some people who are raised into a life of Fredness from birth, I didn't start getting seriously interested into road bikes until my early 20s, which is to say around 1995.  By this time integrated shifting had taken over the high end and was making its way down to the midrange and even the entry level bikes, and indeed my first fancy (to me) road bike had STI shifters.  (7 speed if I remember correctly.)  I did however also own a bicycle with downtube shifters during my nascent Fredding years, and it was pretty much exactly the same as this one (though not actually this one):

This was a big milestone for me because with the purchase of this bike I officially became a two-bike roadie, which to my mind meant I was the real deal.  Also, I think I may have been flirting with a return to messengering and bought this with an eye towards using it in that capacity.  I ditched the Biopace for aesthetic reasons and equipped the bike with clipless pedals, but I enjoyed the downtube shifters for their simplicity and straightforward functionality.  (Though of course they were indexed.)  Eventually I sold the bike in a sidewalk moving sale on W. 22nd Street, probably for more than I paid for it, though I kind of regret that because in retrospect it's a pretty cool bike.

As for tubular tires, of course as an overzealous bike racer I used them for awhile, so while I've long since abandoned them I'm more than adequately versed in their care and feeding and don't find them intimidating.

Anyway, once I strapped a spare tire under the saddle (thoughtfully provided by Paul, which is a good thing because I recently threw away all my old tubular tires after years of holding onto them "just in case"), I set out be-sneakered and be-jorted and soon rolled up behind a fellow vintage vehicle enthusiast:

Mine's cooler.

While I love integrated shifting and have become addicted to Di2 despite my best efforts, I find something very enjoyable about operating downtube shifters.  Granted, it's a facile comparison, but they're satisfying in the way that manual car transmissions or motorcycle shifting is satisfying.  And of course the lack of indexing adds another element of rider involvement that's particularly fun and novel in today's precise pushbutton world.  (Dialing the rattling out after a gear change is like tuning in a radio station, which is something else you don't have to do anymore.)

Hey, I'd be lying if I said I wanted to ride that way all the time, but on this ride I was totally into it.

Also, they're pretty cool to look at:

Also cool to look at is the Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleur moving across a five-speed freewheel:

And of course the Stronglight cranks with close-ratio chainrings:

We're totally spoiled nowadays as far as gearing goes, but there's something to be said for making do with what you've got.

As for the feel of the bike, it fits me well and is smooth and comfortable.  Really, the only thing that truly sucks by todays standards is the braking.  Stops require some advance planning, and I realized just how much I take for granted the ability to slow down quickly with just the flick of a few fingers when a driver shoots out of a driveway.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that better braking is by far the single most important improvement in road bikes over the past century and is probably worth at least as much as wider gearing, integrated shifting, and clipless pedals combined.

I should also address something numerous people have remarked upon, which is the saddle angle:

Note that I have not adjusted the saddle angle since taking the bike out of the box, and I reserve the right to do so at any time.  However, note also that, while every perineum is different, Brooks saddles tend to be more comfortable with the nose angled up.  Also, as you can see, this saddle is quite old, and the cover is so flexible that at this point I imagine the saddle angle hardly matters anyway.  In any case, appearances aside, it felt totally fine while riding it.  Really, my only complaint is that the ancient leather stained my shorts brown, which as you can imagine is rather embarrassing--especially since I didn't realize it until at least eight hours later when my wife pointed it out.

I guess what I'm saying is that everyone should feel free to take their fit recommendations and shove them up their asses.

So there you go.  Things are a bit hectic here for the near future but I am very much for the opportunity to get all wooled up and take a good long ride.  Keep an eye out for me--or at least listen for the chattering.