Suddenly Siegfried!
You may have gathered that I got a new bike.
It’s a Pashley Roadster Sovereign.
That’s not a photo of my actual bike, but one just like it. I’m waiting for a decent sunrise over the sea to take my own photos and scoop the EcoVelo photograph prize. After much agonising, I’ve gone with my first choice of name - Siegfried. As in Siegfried Sassoon, and as in the dragon-slayer of myth, and as in could-be-abreviated to Ziggy [Stardust].
I’ve only done a few miles . . . so here are my initial thoughts:
- That bottom bracket is HIGH! At first I thought I’d spent a sack of cash on a bike that was too big for me, until I read this in the owner’s manual: “Roadster models are built to a traditional pattern with a high bottom bracket, so you will need to slip off the saddle when you come to a halt“. And actually, I can put a toe down. But it’s definitely high.
- The riding position is just fantastic. I love being able to look down at drivers of Range Rovers - physically as well as metaphorically now.
- The bike’s handling is superb. Something about the riding position makes cornering feel more like that of a motorbike, and the big wheels & long wheelbase soak up the road beautifully.
- The five-speed Sturmey Archer gearing has ratios spread a little wide, but not too much so. But then given that it’s ‘only’ got five gears, it has a enough range for most city terrain.
- My only gripe is the rack. Well actually, not the rack, but the integrated stand. Basically this gets in the way of any pannier bag that you hang on the rack (like, say, the Ortlieb Office Bag I use as my briefcase). So I’m making an extension to the rack that’ll mean I can hang whatever I want on it, without fouling the stand.
- Oh, actually, I do have another gripe. I’m accustomed to slouching over the handlebars on a bike. The sitting up straight position is new to me, and as a result I’ve just discovered the muscles in my lower back. But I’m sure that’ll pass fairly quickly.
So anyway, why did I go for this sort of bike?
Four reasons really. Firstly, I need a bike that’s good for commuting in all weathers, and ideally in regular clothes - that means mudguards, a chain case, rack, hub gears & brakes, and lights. I’ve also been getting hassle with my left shoulder and neck from the pervasive leaning forward riding posture - I mean at times, really bad pain, lasting for several days. I also perceive the sitting-up straight position as safer - it makes it far easier for me to eyeball drivers of cars, and easier for me to keep my eyes up & aware of everything going on around me. Finally, I am a total fashion victim. As a regular reader of Amsterdamize.com, A View From The Cycle Path, and Copenhagenize.com (& CopanhagenCycleChic.com too), I wanted to ride looking as chic as the riders on the other side of the North Sea.
Whatever my reasons, the question now is, would I recommend the Sovereign? So far . . . hell yes!
I love Pashelys.
For the next four weeks, I’ll be riding a similar bike - a Strike Bike. It’s just on loan, but I’m loving the few short rides I’ve done on it so far.
You could fit a basket onto the rack and just drop your bag in there, rather than extending the rack?
The rack extension’s pretty simple, and means I can use both sides of the rack, plus the top. It’s ~900mm of 15mm dia. steel pipe bent into a rectangle, with a cut-out for the rack’s sprung part. Not sure whether to weld, or just cable-tie it on . . .
. . . it helps that I work with a whole lot of metal-bashing companies who can knock this sort of thing up for me in a matter of minutes!
Very slick steed, Karl.
It certainly does look comfy.
I love my Pashley Sovereign Roadster. Here is a photo of it:
http://store.curbside.on.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4_109_114&products_id=131
I had the same issue with the stand interfering wih the panniers. My solution is to just take an extra second to hold the panniers out of the way.
I am very tall at two metres on the nose. This is the first bike in my life that fits perfectly.
I forgot to say, “my” bike is called Fern. It’s one of the bikes in the DarloVelo scheme, a long-term-loan of “Dutch-style” bikes scheme , which has grown out of a film called Beauty and The Bike (http://bikebeauty.mediaworkshop.org.uk/), comparing the attitudes to cycling of teenage girls in Darlington, UK and Bremmen, Germany. Each bike is to be named after the first girl to borrow it, and this one is destined for a girl called Fern in a month or so.
Hmm. How does it handle hills? I’m tempted by something similar for many of the same reasons - particularly the slouching and the neck and shoulder pain. Would you use it for a 20+ mile ride through rolling country? or is it just for looking stylish over 5 or so miles?
Oh and how are the high heels
My feeling is that the bottom range of the gearing is pretty similar to my old Sturdy Commuting Bike - certainly seemed like it on the couple of gentle hills I’ve done. I’ll be doing a couple of commuting trips this week, that involve some more serious hills and ~15 miles each way, so I’ll let you know.
As for the heels . . . those I can cope with. But this boned corsetry is little short of murder.
Love the old roadsters and roadster style. Unfortunately they are all but impossible to get in my part of the US. So I faked my own
It doesn’t have the massive feel of a real Roaster but the ride posture is close enough for me for the time being.
Enjoy your regal ride.
Aaron
Is Siegfried Sassoon that guy from All Creatures Great & Small?
No. You’re thinking of Donald Sinclair.
Siegfried Sassoon is a war poet who, among other things, wrote “Counter-attack”
Captain Kevin C. Love, CD
We’d gained our first objective hours before
While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,
Pallid, unshaved and thirsty, blind with smoke.
Things seemed all right at first. We held their line,
With bombers posted, Lewis guns well placed,
And clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench.
The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs
High-booted, sprawled and grovelled along the saps
And trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud,
Wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely filled;
And naked sodden buttocks, mats of hair,
Bulged, clotted heads slept in the plastering slime.
And then the rain began,— the jolly old rain!
Beautiful bike Karl.
Just please don’t start looking down on the rest of us as “recreational” cyclists, or mocking our lycra
Don’t worry - I have my fair share of Lycra too. But not for wearing with THIS bike!
Do you feel an urge to wear tweed while riding it? I rode ‘Fern’ to work today and my Endura waterproof top just felt wrong.
I can’t afford another bike, but if I were to trade in my Trek hybrid, I would love a Retrovelo Max, a Cactus 10 BiGBOY or a Velorbis Scrap Deluxe (I blame that Mikael, making it look so wonderful in the Copenhagen sunshine).
It seems you can’t buy the Scrap in the UK, though, which is a shame.
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