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The Scaffolding Bike

(131 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by I were right about that saddle
  • Latest reply from I were right about that saddle

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  1. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    As in all the best tales its demise was prefigured. A certain vagueness in corners, the odd hard to locate creak. The tyres weren't flat and the cranks weren't loose - rather the down tube had cracked an inch from the head tube. Game over man, game over.

    Six thousand eight hundred and seventy nine days of service. Nineteen years of daily grind. Three forks, four saddles, three pairs of wheels, uncountable drive chains and still the frame ploughed on. Until today.

    Turned into a trail bike and hammered clear across the country a couple of times. Over the Corrieyairick and across endless bogs hitched to a week's food and shelter.

    No life should go unrecorded and my destrier will have its memorial. In an e-mail to Marin a week ago I noted that 'if the frame collapsed tomorrow it would owe me nothing'. This is not ultimate irony but simply proof that my subconscious had already understood and come to terms with the bike's impending end. It does indeed owe me nothing - I owe it - and I was not upset to see the crack, even knowing it to be fatal.

    The Scaffolding Bike is dead.

    So it goes. I'm glad its last mission was in aid of a tricycle for a special school and a special boy. Anybody got any ideas for a Viking bike funeral? I have begun the search for a host frame for the components, which I shall strip at the weekend.

    Long live the Scaffolding Bike.

    Born 12/02/2000 Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op
    Died 13/12/2018 St Crispin's School

    Posted 5 years ago #
  2. HankChief
    Member

    RIP Scaffolding Bike ;-(

    Posted 5 years ago #
  3. acsimpson
    Member

    That's the finest bike eulogy I have ever had the pleasure to read. Surely there is some way to select the finest parts of the frame and prepare them for wall mounting.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @acsimpson

    Thanks - I did wonder about getting it rolled flat by an engineer for the wall.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  5. Frenchy
    Member

    RIP Scaffolding Bike.

    Surely there is some way to select the finest parts of the frame

    Bear in mind that this would need to be done with just a micrometer ;)

    Posted 5 years ago #
  6. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Frenchy

    My full toolkit consists of a micrometer, a club hammer and a blowtorch.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  7. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Requiem...

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Flash Video

    Posted 5 years ago #
  8. unhurt
    Member

    Oh no. Do you need-- I was going to say a hug but obviously that would be out of keeping with your persona. A sympathetic nod of the head?

    Can you melt the frame down and use the metal to cast a memorial? Maybe a river course?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  9. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Nod of the head and beer both acceptable. Feels like an era ending.

    If I still had access to buckets of quicksilver I could have dissolved it and done an amalgam cast.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  10. steveo
    Member

    /sympathetic nod

    Cut the top tube where the decals are and mount that on the wall?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  11. dessert rat
    Member

    i can barely type through the tears, but I will soldier on.

    It kinda feels like the scaffolding bike was more than just a bike, more than just your bike, almost like it had transcended its component parts to become CCE's spiritual steed. So with that in mind it only seems appropriate that its replacement is chosen via CCE doodle poll.

    Think Boaty McBoatface.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  12. gembo
    Member

    @iwrats, could not comprehend the text earlier, sorry mate. Thought the ref to your bike was some other machine. Not The Invincible.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  13. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @steveo

    /downcast eyes, return nod

    @Iain McR

    Staunch mate, cheers. Seem to have passed the point of no return on adding a poll to this thread. Stand by.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  14. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @iwrats, could not comprehend the text earlier

    Bad patch - totally baffled a mate the other day by mixing up hyperspace and pudding bowls when all he'd done was wish me a merry Christmas.

    But alas yes the Invincible has been vanquished. Is there room for reference to breaches and St Crispin's Day?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  15. dessert rat
    Member

    /almost imperceptible nod. Tight lipped.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  16. algo
    Member

    @IWRATS - I'm very sorry to hear this - it is indeed sad news. I'm glad there is at least one epic photo to remember it by. Do you want to borrow my Claude Butler Regent in the mean time? Unlimited loan...

    Posted 5 years ago #
  17. acsimpson
    Member

    Careful. This is IWRATS, slayer of bike. Although it's too late to rescind your offer so Claude may also be subject to the quickening.

    P.s. where should one forward sympathy beers? I have some pallozis looking forward to an owner.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  18. gembo
    Member

    Marin have been in touch and they have a similar model they can export. They just have to get it out of the glass display case in their museum.

    Spesh offer 25 year warranty on their frames. I wonder if anyone ever claims?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  19. wingpig
    Member

    Have it welded whole again around your favourite sufficiently-narrow tree.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  20. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @algo

    What a wonderful offer. Knowing the place that bike has in your heart I shall see if I can't press Madame IWRATS' steed into service during the interregnum, but I shall bear this possibility in mind. I have an annual mud-plug to Pencaitland coming up. I couldn't do that to the Regent.

    @acsimpson

    I'm sure we could work something out. I hear the beer is more palatable than the eponymous artworks....

    @wingpig

    Oh. Excellent idea. My favourite named tree is the Fortingall Yew but I'm not so foolish as to mess with that entity.

    There's still a centimetre of metal holding the downtube together. Maybe hang it on a branch deep in the Black Wood of Rannoch? Our best-named forest.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  21. Morningsider
    Member

    An indestructible steed brought low by cracking around the head...surely a metaphor for our times.

    A sad day IWRATS.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  22. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Cheers Morningsider. Millennial brush-polished alloy frames, eh?

    Nice allegorical thinking too.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  23. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @gembo

    I got the warranty out. Covers the frame while with the original owner. Doesn't cover accident, abuse or neglect. Worth a pop for the giggles?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  24. chrisfl
    Member

    IWARTS - I would totally give the warranty s try.

    > Spesh offer 25 year warranty on their frames. I wonder if anyone ever claims?

    I did this, on my 1998 Rockhopper when the frame broke on one of the welds on the back triangle. Bike Co-op and Specialised replaced the frame and fitted new parts at cost price.

    This bike finally died in November 1994 - https://photos.app.goo.gl/YGVgWWs46ncd8XF59 after it turned out that somewhere along the line the bottom bracket had been misthreaded and could no longer be repaired :(

    Posted 5 years ago #
  25. dessert rat
    Member

    @ IWRATS - if you want to bury it and mark its spot with a tree of your choice (the way I want to go), then you/the bike would be most welcome here:

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19336

    Posted 5 years ago #
  26. Trixie
    Member

    Sad times, @Iwrats.

    Perhaps the Scaffolding Bike could become a gate?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  27. dessert rat
    Member

    @Trixie - that is awesome

    Posted 5 years ago #
  28. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Trixie

    <heart emoji>

    Posted 5 years ago #
  29. le_soigneur
    Member

    chrisfl>bottom bracket had been misthreaded and could no longer be repaired :(

    Did they not have those BB's for this that just clamp in to the shell back then?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  30. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Oft till the star that rose at ev'ning bright
    Toward heav'n's descent had slop'd his westering wheel

    To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

    Milton would have understood.

    Posted 5 years ago #

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