[RiderZone]

A few weeks ago my tooth started hurting. It wasn't too painful, but it was the kind of painful that makes you believe it's really gonna get painful soon, like it's on the edge of explosion. I tried to see a dentist here in Germany, but nobody had an appointment, for weeks.

While I waited in pain to be seen by a doctor, a pain that could've been fixed within hours in India, I noticed that distracting myself helped ease the pain. If I sat down, the thoughts spiraled towards the pain, and the anticipation of it getting worse made me more anxious, which increased the sensation of pain. If I kept myself busy, the pain went away, almost.

So naturally I bought a second hand bicycle from 40 years ago. Say hello to my 1982 Bertin C220.



Why?
A lot of people have asked me why I'm not taking advantage of my time here in Europe by driving cars and riding motorcycles on some of the best roads in the world, why I'm wasting it on cycling. There are a number of reasons for this, in a previous article I mentioned the most obvious one, that it's very expensive to get a license here, and so are the insurance costs.

But that's not all. I once drove a car around Scotland, and although the views were nice the drive was rather boring. Being on the road in India is a very intense experience, you never know what the next turn is going to turn up. Without that constant fear of imminent death, in a place where everyone is following the rules of the road, where you don't have to dodge cows and dogs and humans, it feels like a job, and I already have a couple of those.

More importantly, I want to do things in Europe that I can't do in India. I can't cycle in India for hundreds of kilometers without crossing paths with a single car. I can't cycle in India behind a woman in a sundress who is carrying a baby in a basket in front of her bike and two dogs in the basket behind. I can't cycle in India on a vintage French machine that's older than I am.

Why not new?
I already have a Decathlon RC500 cycle that I bought new, and if I wanted to distract myself some more I could've bought something new from Decathlon or anywhere else. But I have come to hate the unnecessary overcomplication and consumerism of the cycling culture, and I didn't want to fuel the dumpster fire.

Cycling is supposed to be the simplest form of transport, two wheels with a bit of metal in between and a way to put energy from the food you ate last night into the tires. However, over the last few months I've explored the world of cycling as it exists on the internet, and I find it to be ugly and stupid.

Maybe it's a natural part of any online community where people take their hobbies too seriously, but cycling to me seems like the worst of the bunch, even worse than car or bike internet. People spending thousands of Euros to shave off a few grams, idiotic obsession based on an incorrect understanding of aerodynamics, and most annoying of all this tendency to follow trends with no rhyme or reason.

This attitude is so common that if you search for anything bicycle adjacent on Youtube, your entire timeline will be taken over by gravel racers, nutrition experts, and GCN. Over time you find yourself slowly being absorbed by this bubble of FTP and carbon and Zwift, a universe where people talk about the watts they put out today as if they're toasters, and you actually listen to them rather than laughing in their face.

I found myself being interested in bikes that cost more than my Interceptor, bikes with electronic shifting, bikes with power meters, bikes that are more computer than bike. I found myself browsing the Canyon website one day and realized I was genuinely considering buying a bicycle that cost 3500 Euros, and that's when it hit me. I was about to join the cult, it was time to run away.

How?
There's a huge culture in Europe around buying second hand things, far bigger than it is in India. Ebay died years ago there, but here it's alive and thriving. My friends introduced me to something called Kleinanzeigen in Germany, and I was in love.

I started looking for used bicycles online, and the first problem was, as in life in general, deciding what the hell I wanted. Again I followed the same principle, I can buy practical bicycles in India too, bikes that'll take me from point A to B in most comfort, so I should get something impractical and stupid here. I live in an apartment so I wanted something light that I could carry up and down easily. I've already experienced MTBs, and I already have a modern road bike, so the only real available option was a vintage.

The more I looked at vintage road bikes, the more I fell in love. That shape with the completely horizontal top tube felt so right to me, so beautiful. These things look like the definition of a cycle, the shape anybody would use on a road sign.

To keep things spicy, I did no real research, just dove head first into the available vintage bikes near me. As with buying anything second hand the process is painful and annoying, you gotta be quick, you gotta negotiate, and you gotta be alert against scams. It was hard work filtering options for hours everyday, hounding people in my terrible German, and watching the bikes I liked being sold away.

But one fine day this Bertin showed up on my timeline, it was the right size and it looked gorgeous. It was priced rather modestly at 170 Euros, it looked in great condition, and it was walking distance away from me. I had never heard of the Bertin brand before, but the classic shape was what I wanted, and that's all I cared for.



As with all other things, there's a whole overpriced market for vintage bicycles made by fancy Italian companies. There's Bianchi, Colnago, Cinelli, and anything from them cost well over 500 Euros, thousands in some cases. I didn't want to buy any of these, not just because of the initial cost but the cost of parts if anything went wrong. Italian stuff in general looks great, but I wanted to ride the damn thing too.

So I offered 140 to the guy, he said 160, and I bought it for 150. Did I overpay? Almost certainly. I really liked the bike so I didn't negotiate too hard, but for a complete noob like me it's very hard to judge the cost of a vintage bike. I looked at some of the parts on it, and if I stripped the bike and sold them separately they'll go for maybe 200 Euros total, so I don't understand how the complete bike sold for less, but I'm not complaining.

I walked over and picked it up the next morning, the guy was nice and didn't mind my terrible German. Back home I put it up on the stand and inspected it, not too shabby overall! The tires were in bad shape, the rear wheel bearings made a clicking noise, but the frame was straight as an arrow and it came with this exquisite Shimano 105 Golden Arrow groupset, with this beautiful gold pattern on all the components, front/rear mech and brakes. Even the seat looks fantastic, someone took real good care of this thing, and because I had no background story to the bike at all, the mystery added to the charm.





The friction hilarity
Even though the tires had a visible gash in them, I couldn't stop myself from taking it for a spin. I was immediately surprised at how light it felt compared to my 650 Euro RC500, and so much more comfortable. The Bertin weights about 9 kgs, a kilo less than my modern road bike. I had heard that steel frames were more compliant than aluminum, but I hadn't expected the difference to be this much, especially with its lower weight.



And then there are the friction shifters, I had heard of their existence but of course had never used them before. All bikes come with indexed shifters nowadays, just like your car with a gear knob that has 1 through 5 on it, and each gear has a specific spot that you slot into. Friction shifters are this absolutely hilarious "technology" where there's no indexing, you shift by feel.

Think of it like if your car had a wooden pole in place of the gear knob and no clutch, and this pole can be moved forward to get to a higher gear, and back for lower. When you want to change gears, you move the pole and listen for the horrible crunching noises as the engine and the transmission mesh together, when the noises are at their minimum, you are in the right gear. But because it's all by feel, you're never really in the perfect position, and it's always noisy.

Friction shifters change the entire dynamic of riding a bike. First off they're mounted on the downtube between your legs, so you have to take a hand off from the bars to change gears. Second, it takes a while to slot into a gear, it's not like the click of a normal bike, so you have to plan your gear changes well in advance.

What this translates to is a very intense riding experience, you have to focus a lot more on what you're going to do, and you dare not go too fast, which is kinda good because it gives you time to smile back at people who look at your old steel and grin at you.

The tubular hilarity
Most normal people know that two types of tires exist, tubeless and those with tubes. I was also normal before I bought this thing, now I know that tubular tires exist. Tubular tires are this ancient thing where the tubes are attached directly into the tire, they are one single unit. This means that the wheels that accept tubular tires can be extremely simple, basically just a round strip of metal with a tiny depression in the middle. Unlike modern wheels there's no bend on the side to hook onto the bead of the tire.

But of course this simplicity comes at a cost, you need to attach the tubular tire to the wheel, as in with glue and stuff. If you don't, the tire can just slip off the wheel during sharp turns etc. That's something I noticed when I came back from my first ride on the Bertin, the rear tire was not centered anymore on the wheel. Turns out the bike had some very old tires on it, and all the glue holding it to the wheel had degraded. With the gashes and the lack of glue it was rather dangerous to ride this thing, I didn't want another brush with the German healthcare system.



The satisfying fixes
Ordered a whole bunch of tools and parts, stole my wife's kitchen apron, and started fixing the few things that were wrong with this bike. First up were the rear wheel bearings, and fixing them was the first time in my life that I had a satisfying mechanical experience. Some of you may have read my nightmare trying to "restore (How NOT to restore your old motorcycle)" my Pulsar 150, this was the complete opposite of that. I have always believed that I have no mechanical feel at all and must have been a stripper in a previous life, but this experience made me feel better about my tinkering abilities.



The whole drivetrain of the bike was smeared with grease, it was old grease but it was what had kept the bike alive for so long, so I didn't mind. I researched online what the possible problem could be, figured out it's most likely the bearings, planned out what I need to do, and did it. It helps that this is a very simple machine, I can look at it and kinda imagine each individual part of it in exploded view. What also helped was careful planning, pictures taken throughout the process, and a lack of overconfidence.



I put on some latex gloves, and quickly had them covered in decades old grease, but making progress. I disassembled the rear hub, kept all the parts separate and in order, cleaned the bearing surfaces, cleaned the bearings, regreased them all all, put it all together, adjusted it, and put it back on. The clicking noise went away, and I was a happy hamster.

Good thing that I did this, there was almost no grease in the bearings and they wouldn't have lived long without it. The whole process took a couple of hours, someone experienced could've done it in maybe 15 minutes, but I'm learnding.



Got some new tires from Vittoria, and fitting them on was a bit of a messy process. Cleaned out the old grime with some alcohol, put on some double sided tape, fit the new tires and very slowly peeled away the the tape to glue it to the tire, but it all worked out in the end. Took a lot of patience and a good couple hours, which someone experience could probably have done in less than half the time.

The not so satisfying fix
I have recently started waxing the chain of my RC500 rather than lubing it, only so that my hands won't get covered in black stuff when touching the chain. I thought I could do the same with the Bertin, but that didn't work out so well. I first removed the chain using the breaker tool, but pushed out the pin all the way because I wanted to install a quick link anyways. I degreased and cleaned the chain thoroughly, disassembled the cassette and did the same to it, put it all together, and ran into a wall.



I had bought quick links of different sizes to make sure at least one would fit on the chain, but nothing would. Turns out vintage chains aren't really compatible with quick links. This was not good, I had completely removed the pin from the chain when breaking it, and then had removed another pin to make space for the quick link. You're not supposed to do that, pins once pushed out aren't supposed to pushed in, at least not ideally.

My options were to either buy a new chain, or buy a tapered pin to fix the old chain, or find a way to push the old pins back into the old chain. It took a lot of researching and a whole lot of pain, but I managed to do it. It was an extremely fiddly process involving the chain breaker tool being used in reverse, a hammer, and a pin from a different chain I had around.



Although I put the chain back together, I think something's bent or scratched or something, because it keeps making this awful squealing noise. The bike rides just fine, and the friction shifters make everything sound horrible anyways, so it's no big deal. I'll keep riding until something goes terribly wrong, then I'll get a new chain and forget my blunder.

That's life
Now I have a beautiful vintage machine to ride on, something I have wrenched on myself, something that I understand on a mechanical level. I fit an old style bell on it and a couple of lights to make it street legal, and that's all it needs.



It's beautiful, it's quirky, and I love riding it around. People smile at me when I'm on it, which is a rare thing in East Germany and something to be deeply cherished. For about than 1/3rd the cost of my RC500 I have a bike that's lighter, looks better, and is more fun. I'm so glad I chose this path over buying something new that needs to be charged every week.



There's a certain satisfaction in using something that's this old, it feels like daily driving a museum piece, and every kilometer is an unmitigated pleasure.

[Jeroen]

Excellent write up. Gorgeous bicycle.
Good for you buying a 40 year old bicycle.
I have had many bicycle with friction shifters. You get used to them.

With respect to the chain still making some noise. There are different reasons to it making noises.
Did you check the chain moves easily after pushing the old pin back in? Often, even if you did not push the pin all the way out, the chain tends to bind a bit. Check that the pin sticks out an equal amount on both sides. Often using the breaker tool and pushing the pin back a fraction from the other side of the chain will break it free.

Did you put it back in its original orientation or backwards perhaps. Modern chains (I assume the chain has been replaced) often can be fitted only one way.

Check if you see letters, numbers on the side of the chain. They should be on the side towards you, on the upper part of the chain when standing on the right of the bicycle. Same with the front gear blades. They can be mounted differently as well. Look at the teeth of the blade, is the chain engaging on the worn side of the blade.

The other reason could be wear and tear. Funnily enough cleaning all the old muck off and a good lube oil often makes an old chafing/blade/cassette combination worse. I recently experienced the same.

Good luck

Jeroen

[Comskian]

Very nice write up friend, and enjoy exploring the fahrradweg in Germany! Envious of you and sad thinking about my old riding days in Germany.

I did something similar to my wife's ST100 at the start of corona, buying shimano parts from eBay and converting that to a respectable bicyle. Sold it to a friend when leaving Germany from whom it was stolen later . My first Cube was stolen from my home too.

You probably know this already, but I cannot stress enough from my stolen bicycle experience in Germany that you must invest in a at least 2 good locks and always lock the bike to a post or something. My freestanding locked bike was stolen right in front of my eyes and the Hausmeister lady used to make fun of me for ignoring her advice and trusting in 'good Germans', although these are mostly east european gangs.

At least I salvaged my Cube Delhi Pro and riding to my office in Bangalore in it!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Comskian

trusting in 'good Germans', although these are mostly east european gangs.

Bicycle got stolen long before we had east European gangs.

A bit historical context about supposedly ‘good Germans’

A lot of bicycles got stolen by the Germans in the Netherlands, during the occupation 40-45. Till this very day when a Dutchman gets angry with a German, he/she will still call out: and I also want my bicycle back!

https://dirkdeklein.net/2018/03/26/g...e-netherlands/

Jeroen

[RiderZone]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

With respect to the chain still making some noise. There are different reasons to it making noises.

Hey Jeroen, yep it's likely that when I pushed the pins back in I didn't set them all the way. When I initially pushed them they were completely bound up, so I pushed them some more and then the links got free. I checked the amount of movement they had compared to the pins I didn't remove, and they felt about the same. Now I'm thinking maybe I didn't make it sure 100%, but the squeaky sound is rather low, so I can't isolate those pains I removed anymore to recheck The chain is in the right direction, I've now tried to clean it again and drown it in lube and see if that helps, maybe when I waxed it some wax mixed with oil and solidified and got stuck somewhere. No biggie in any case, just a tiny annoyance.

Originally Posted by Comskian

You probably know this already, but I cannot stress enough from my stolen bicycle experience in Germany that you must invest in a at least 2 good locks and always lock the bike to a post or something.

I live in a relatively small city, Magdeburg, and bicycle theft is surprisingly rare here. It's very common to see people locking their cycle with just the front wheel, or not locking it at all. I of course take no chances and always keep my bikes locked in the basement. I'm now planning to buy a beater single speed cycle so I can lock it basically anywhere and not be worried about it being stolen, it's just an excuse to buy another vintage and convert it to single speed

[ebonho]

Lovely looking bike. Friction shifting in fact gives you infinite adjustment of your gears. A preciseness and fine tuning not possible with index shifting, especially for the front. Where we get only a single half click trim position at either end.

[RiderZone]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Lovely looking bike. Friction shifting in fact gives you infinite adjustment of your gears. A preciseness and fine tuning not possible with index shifting, especially for the front. Where we get only a single half click trim position at either end.

Infinite indeed! Yesterday on a ride I got confused with the front mech and moved the lever in the wrong direction, and it happily tried to shift the chain into thin air and took it off the ring First time in decades I had to put a chain back on by the side of the road. Will need to tinker with the high/low screws methinks, something new to learn.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by RiderZone

Infinite indeed! Yesterday on a ride I got confused with the front mech and moved the lever in the wrong direction, and it happily tried to shift the chain into thin air and took it off the ring First time in decades I had to put a chain back on by the side of the road. Will need to tinker with the high/low screws methinks, something new to learn.

That's not the mistake of your shifter or mechanism at all , but your derailleur stop screws.

[amitoj]

Beautiful bike and a lovely writeup! There is something to said about the simplicity of a vintage bicycle. You've inspired me to take my vintage bike off the rack and give it some love and care! It's a Bianchi from the 80s with original Campagnolo shifters and derailleurs. Below is an old pic.

[ebonho]

Not fair guys! I also want a 9 kilo "steel is real" race bike.

Cheers, Doc

[RiderZone]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Beautiful bike and a lovely writeup! There is something to said about the simplicity of a vintage bicycle. You've inspired me to take my vintage bike off the rack and give it some love and care! It's a Bianchi from the 80s with original Campagnolo shifters and derailleurs. Below is an old pic.

Beauty! I want one in the Celeste Green, can't find anything under 350 Euros. How hard is it to work on that Campagnolo groupset? I heard the hub and the BB require special tools to disassemble.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by RiderZone

How hard is it to work on that Campagnolo groupset? I heard the hub and the BB require special tools to disassemble.

I wouldn't know because I have not touched it so far. I dont ride this bike too often and I am scared of opening it up, afraid that I wont be able to put it back together There is a guy at the local bike shop who is an expert at vintage bikes. I plan to see him one of these days.

[sandeepmohan]

Beautiful write up and lovely photos. Reminds me of the old BSA Mach series we had in India. Simple elegant bicycles. If memory serves right, those had the friction shifters too though gears were an optional extra, to keep cost in check.

There is nothing as overpaying or under paying for something. You make a judgement call on what you wish to pay. What others think should be the least of your problems. What I value as expensive may not be expensive to you. You look at something, you like it and you pay what you think is worth for it. End of story.

Cycling has hit a new high among the community. I respect those who enjoy cycling. For me, it has never been about fitness. Cycling is always a past time and I want to keep it at that. I ain't going to be cycling for some marathon or endurance run. What I get pissed off the most is when we decide to build more cycle lanes by taking more of the road away from the user. I accept that there needs to be safe cycle path but don't take away from a road that is already narrow. Governments think that doing this will force people to cycle. Some will cycle. Some won't. Folks who love the comfort of their cars ain't going to give up on that. I can't see myself wear tight pants and cycle to work on a 5 degree winter morning. I won't survive that trip for more than a couple of days without falling ill. For those who can, good on you.

I've been exploring mountain biking and pump tracks a bit. Had two bad falls on the pump track so won't be doing that again. Mountain bike tracks of the medium grade seem to be okay. I don't have a full blown dual suspension bike so there are limitations to what I can do. Its coming back to that question of should I be spending big bucks for a pastime thing. I'll also end up with two cycles in the garage cause the mountain bike ones aren't really cut out for road use. Taking the second hand route might be cheaper way to getting a more suitable bike.

[amol4184]

Great read! I always look at vintage bikes and wander off towards something newer and shiny. One of these days I would definitely like to work on one.

Originally Posted by RiderZone

How hard is it to work on that Campagnolo groupset? I heard the hub and the BB require special tools to disassemble.

The hub and BB would be the very last items to service/disassemble. Even on old bikes these two may remain functional long after everything else has failed. While a Campy BB will probably need a special/proprietary tool, same cannot be said for hubs. Many bicycles even with Campy group need not come with Campy wheels/hubs at all and as such the disassembly would be dependent on wheels/hub manufacturer. The freehub body is often the simplest part of the hub system and easily replaceable in most cases. Its the bearings inside the hub that are painful. A bearing press with all attachments for commonly used bearing sizes and a rubber mallet would suffice for virtually any hub disassembly.

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by RiderZone

I have come to hate the unnecessary overcomplication and consumerism of the cycling culture... Cycling is supposed to be the simplest form of transport, two wheels with a bit of metal in between and a way to put energy from the food you ate last night into the tires. However... People spending thousands of Euros to shave off a few grams... tendency to follow trends with no rhyme or reason... Over time you find yourself slowly being absorbed by this bubble... a universe where people talk about the watts they put out today as if they're toasters, and you actually listen to them rather than laughing in their face.... I was genuinely considering buying a bicycle that cost 3500 Euros, and that's when it hit me. I was about to join the cult, it was time to run away...

...It's beautiful, it's quirky, and I love riding it around. People smile at me when I'm on it, which is a rare thing in East Germany and something to be deeply cherished. For about than 1/3rd the cost of my RC500 I have a bike that's lighter, looks better, and is more fun....

There's a certain satisfaction in using something that's this old, it feels like daily driving a museum piece, and every kilometer is an unmitigated pleasure.

I am 100% with you here, and judging by the number of "thanks" received, many others must also be. I work on bicycles as a sideline, and have told many of my customers that it is basically a big rip-off industry driven largely by trends and hype. Not much different at the local level, either. The cutting edge of competition is one thing, what most of us are doing is entirely different and doesn't require much. You've proved it by being able to ride a decades-old unit very pleasureably.

One of my big retrospective blunders was abandoning my 1970's Raleigh Record Ace in the basement of the apartment building Instayed in before coming to India. I'd paid $125 for it when in high school, it was just an aging 10-speed cycle of no great distinction then. Things have changed and I'd love to have it (or at least be able to sell it at current prices!) now.

Here in India I have since amassed a small collection of humble and not-very-new units that with some light and cost-effective mods actually ride well. Most were found in the scrapyards.

It is surprising to me to discover that a 15-20 year old Cannondale or even a lowly Hero Thunder MTB is actually lighter than a new carbon 29er Trek/ Polygon or what have you, costing easily a couple lakhs. Obviously the latter are going to be a good bit quicker down most trails, but there's a lot of fun to be had on humble old cycles too.

And yours looks really beautiful besides. I would never want to try and run any roadie around here, but the visual appeal of anything from that era is undeniable.

-Eric