I am not into museuming perfectly functional bicycles. Ride them, service them, upgrade them, and turn even the most mainstream mass-produced Munimula frame into a one-its-a-kind machine through sweat and attrition. When it’s broken, bent, battered, cracked, and generally consumed, hang it up to rest above your mantel. Or, if it is a machine of particular provenance hand it over to Joe Breeze in Fairfax.
Yes, okay, fine, there are exceptions to every rule. You can display as many ’90s full-suspension bikes as you want, folks are better suited by hardtails anyway. Maybe there’s the odd bike that was built or used for some unique purpose worthy of hanging around fully fresh, though even that bike must be sad to be hung up with so much life left?
As I mark another trip around the sun nothing about this long-held and often espoused opinion has changed. It is not that I don’t have (too many) bits or this or that for bicycles around our place. Even a spare frame. But they are all meant to be put to use for the prime goal of riding bicycles.
So, especially for folks who know me, it is probably weird to see these photos of Steve’s Talbot. Or, more accurately, of Steve’s Talbot that belongs to me now even though I have decided to keep calling it ‘Steve’s Talbot.’ Needless to say, I have no plans to ride anywhere on deep classic drop bars (or any drop bars actually) and the same goes for 19mm tubular tires (or any glued-on tubular tires actually).
Still, before I partake in my summer project to ruin Steve’s Talbot but making it the nice-weather road and light-gravel bike I want to regularly ride, I thought I would share some photos since it is a beauty.
The custom Vancouver-made frame was built for Steve in 1981. These BC-born Talbots came out of the Carleton Cycles (now Carleton Rescue) on Kingsway. Chances are this frame was built by Rick Green, but it was possibly made by his brother Ken, or any number of a few frame builders who worked there at some point. The Green brothers owned the shop; Talbot was their grandfather’s last name.
Anyway, the gorgeous 1981 Campagnolo Nuovo Record shifting setup is destined for eBay as are the Campy tubular wheels. The brakes will clear 30c tires and work like new, and I bought a pair of used single-speed wheels that are a freewheel and some rubber away from this project getting started.
When I finish up the project and get out for a ride I will share some photos and we can all agree that the bike no longer looks anywhere near as beautiful as it does in these photographs. But I am sure the Talbot itself will not mind and, if anything, it’s going to stoked. After all, it is a bicycle’s purpose to be ridden.
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