Sentinel Bicycles

There's a guy I see about once a week at the thrift store riding a good looking red bicycle called a Sentinel. The head badge is a soldier. I've admired it and even asked him if I could take some photos of it - then last week I came across one for sale at a very good price and now I have a Sentinel Whisper. I'm not making this up. This is a real bike, from a real bike company. They were sold here by bicycle shops in beautiful NE Ohio and were quite popular. My thrift store guy says he bought his new 30 years ago at the bike store just up the street. From the looks I assumed these bikes were part of the Japanese influx of steel lugged frames from the late 1970's and in through the 1980s, but I've learned that is not quite the whole story.
Sheldon Kasower, founder and owner of the Sentinel Bicycle Manufacturing Company says they were the first company to produce quality lugged frames in the USA, until finally they couldn't compete with the Taiwan producers, sold the company to Bendix and it faded. The frames were built in Chatsworth California and/or in Kobe Japan by Shikamura, depending on the model. Mine has, and I've heard this is original, Shimano Tourney brakes - center pull in front and side pull on the rear; quick release front wheel and solid axle rear. Rigida rims. It sold for $160.00 new. Photos to follow.

Soma Japan Bicycles

There's a new Soma in the world of bicycles - Soma Fabrications started in 2001 and they make absolutely gorgeous products so check them out. But long ago in the 1980's there was another Soma Bicycle Company, during the boom of Japanese built "10 and 12 speeds". Sheldon Brown mentions the original Soma Company as, " A short-lived brand of decent-quality bikes. " And they indeed were just that.

Soma is the name of a city in Japan that translates roughly as Wild Horse. You can still find Soma bikes, some in very good condition. They are steel lugged frames. I have photos of a nice tall one I had and I just got a 24" one which is in excellent condition. Photos to follow. It will make a handsome singlespeed for someone 5' tall or less. It is so easy to find tall steel bikes from the 1980's and so difficult to find good quality smaller bikes, because there just were not a lot built.

Detel Bikes

Detel Bikes were made in the USA for less than a year in 1985 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They went out of business about seven months after production began when they did not have the cash promised to start up, or as some say, an investor backed out. Once the company went out of business the bikes were mostly given away as bonuses by companies selling autos or appliances, although quite a few were sold in real bicycle stores. I've found them with Ohio bicycle store labels on them.

Only two models were made, the higher-end Marathon (Ishiwata 022) and the more standard Legend (Ishiwata 024). There was also a numeric designation (either 6000 or 4000) added to the model name to indicate the grade of the componentry. I have found Suntour components. They seem well made and are excellent candidates for a steel lugged road bike or conversion to a fixie or singlespeed.

Mosh bikes

Mosh bikes were made by Giant. Giant started as a builder in Taiwan manufacturing bikes for Schwinn. Then it started making bikes for a lot of companies and it grew huge.
Mosh brand bikes were only built for 6 years, so you won't find a lot of them. This chrome one - an XL Pro is a nice example of a well built bike.
Some folks think Giant is not a great bike company. I was asking my boss one day about mountain bikes - I wanted a new front fork. He said, well what bike is it for. I could have said a lot of things - GT Zaskar, Trek 6500, but I was honest that it was for my Giant mt bike that I love because it is so small and light. He scoffed, which was a foolish thing to do. Giant has made frames for a lot of very high end bicycles. Nonetheless, Mosh is worth watching for. Since 2003 Mosh is just BMX parts, no more frames under that name.

Girls' bikes stories 1

One time when I didn't have a car and just rode my bike(s) I went to the bike store to get some new bearings for the bottom bracket of my mountain bike. I rode my bike, parked it outside the store and locked it up, and went inside.

Let me put in an aside - remember I was riding my bike, and probably was wearing old sneakers and cut off jeans and a t shirt. It was the middle of summer. So I did not look really uptown. OK?

I asked the young guy at the counter for bearings for a Shimano Deore XT bottom bracket. He looked at me. I waited. Then he said, "XT?"

"Yep, xt ."

"You don't have XT." He told me.

Aside --- this was long ago, just after the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and Deore xt were the top of the line mountain bike components.

I stared at the guy, amazed. Then managed to say, "but I do."

"What kind of bike do you have?" He snapped.

"Come see it - it's right outside," I walked to the door and pointed at my Univega Pro. He got me the bearings, but was not nice about it. I pulled apart the bottom bracket that night and installed them. It was an interesting, but alas, not unusual, event. Things are getting better, but being female in the many subcultures of bicycles has its challenges and challengers. But bikes are so rewarding, I never consider quitting.

Assembling my bicycle

Hooray! the new or used bike arrived, nicely packed in a big old bike box. Now what? How to put it back together?

I ship several bicycles a week around the USA and sometimes to Europe. Here are some of my personal opinions of how to put them back together when they arrive. Also, I've bought a lot of used bicycles on Ebay and have seen them arrive in all conditions. I have opened a bicycle box to find the bike with 3 sheets of wadded up newspaper as the only packing material, but I try to do a better job than that.

Open the top of the box. Longways. You can pull the bike out and lay it down. Cut the zip ties. Get the small box and any other parts out of the box. In the small box will be the pedals, maybe reflectors and the front wheel quick release skewer if your bike has one.

Pedals are easy to put on. If you have any grease, like for autos, you can put a little bit on the threads of the pedals. The pedals will say L and R, left and right ususally on the flat end of the threaded part. The left pedal is the one that your left foot will be on when you ride... if you are facing the left side of the bike the left pedal will thread backwards from regular threading - turn it counterclockwise and hand tighten it. You can use a wrench or channel locks when it is nearly on, but when you pedal you will continue to tighten it. Right side will turn clockwise.

If your bike has a front fender, it goes on before the front wheel, the tab on the fender goes just under the fork - there is a bolt just waiting for it.

The front wheel goes on the axle. If there is a skewer then the flipper side goes on the side left side of the bike.

The stem goes into the top of the headset. It will tighten with an allen wrench or a wrench, generally - line up the front wheel between your knees and square the stem. Then center and tighten up the handlebars. Sometimes the cables have made a crazy knot and you have to follow them but I try to keep them as untangled as possible.

The seat post can be lubricated with grease if you have it. This will help when you are riding in rain to keep water from hanging out inside the frame, and it will help you remove the seatpost when you need to. There is a line that will tell you if it is not in far enough. You can adjust the angle of the seat as well as how far forward or back the seat is, based on your own reach and what is comfortable.

Pedals, wheel, stem, bars, seat. If your bike has reflectors you can put them on now. I will generally leave notes about reflectors. If you have fenders the front one will go on before the front wheel. Rear racks are pretty much specific to each bike and often common sense helps.

Women specific geometry bicycle

In 1986 I bought a Terry Despatch road bike. I had no intention of buying it, but I went on a test ride and I was totally amazed at how comfortable it was. My toes did not hit the front wheel when I rounded a corner. My shoulders didn't hurt from handlebars that were built for someone with shoulders like a linebacker. I'm 5'4" (and shrinking) which seems a fairly average female height, but I could not believe that blue Terry bike experience. I just sold that bike a couple months ago after converting it into a singlespeed. I sold it to a woman who seems to love it as much as I have, and while lots of things in my life have changed since 1986, I stayed together with that Terry bike.

That bike - and you can go to the Terry Bicycle website and learn specifics - was important. I have met Georgina Terry and even ridden bikes with her, and a dozen other folks. There were more bikes produced in the the 80's that tried the idea of women specific, as well as bicycles for anyone who was not 5'8 or taller. Most were not around long, but sometimes you can find one with a 24" front wheel and a 700cm or 27" rear wheel. I believe Nishiki and Fuji each had a model.

Now we are seeing a new wave of women specific bikes and some seem to mostly be Pink or sporting a fancy paint job, but lacking any other changes. Some, mt bike and road bike, do consider narrower handlebars, shorter cranks, and a shorter top tube. If you see one, do try to find out what really makes it women specific. It is said often that the women's bikes are designed to address the fact that women have longer legs and shorter torsos proportionally than men. Some do. Some don't.

While working in a bicycle store, I sold a wonderful bike to a fellow who had bought 2 bikes and returned each one, because neither was quite right. Then he saw a white bike in the rack, fell in love and bought it. He loved that bike. At least until someone pointed out to him that is said, in tiny letters, women specific geometry. He brought that back in a flash. Kinda sad, really.

Still getting the bike ready to travel...

A couple asides: even if you print a label ( UPS, FedEx, USPS etc) on your own computer, write on the actual box somewhere as well the address where the box is going. Labels, even taped on severely, sometimes escape.

Use some sort of spacers to keep the bike box mostly square and to keep the bike from being squished. Styrofoam from Staples dumpsters works great! It comes in just the right widths.

Take out quick release skewers. You can put them in a box with the pedals - remember the left pedal threads backwards! and with the reflectors if you have them.

Pack Your Bike

Sometimes you need to send a bicycle somewhere far away, on its own. That calls for shipping it. UPS, FedEx, DHL, Post office are the main choices for most of us. But how to pack the bike into a box and create the best odds that it will arrive safely is a skill most of us don't learn in day to day life.

I have shipped a lot of bikes, and they are all different, but then I've made a lot of mistakes too. I've also received bikes that were destroyed because they were poorly packed - not because the carriers did anything terrible to crush them. Here are some suggestions.

Get a bicycle box from a bike store or a department store. Call around, generally these are thrown away, and often if you ask the bike store will also save the packing materials of new bikes that they assemble. This is a big step up for you.
If you absolutely cannot get a bike box, look for BIG cardboard like appliance boxes, because you will have to build your own box to fit.

Bikes come in all shapes and sizes and here I 'll take a middle road and start with an adult 2 wheel bike that is not XL. Extra tall bikes are a challenge. Here's why -you have to find a balance of weight and size. If you go over the size limit by 1 inch, then suddenly shipping costs that were $32.00 are $115.00. It is a close thing, so you need to be very accurate in measuring and packing