ALAN Bicycle

"History — ALAN was founded in 1972 by Falconi Lodovico, an engineer who had worked for bicycle manufacturer Torpado. The name ALAN comes from the first two letters of the Lodovico's children, Alberto and Annamaria. It was the first company to introduce an all aluminum bicycle frame made from aerospace grade aluminum." 

(ALAN was also the first company to make a carbon-fiber frame.)

I have been playing with this early 1970s ALAN bicycle for a while. This bike doesn't know what it wants to be - a road bike? track bike? hipster city bike? It is as the Brits would say, a bit of a "dog's breakfast" of parts. A little of this and a little of that. I bought it as a frame, fork, headset and seatpost, and pretty much built it up with what I had on hand, primarily 1970s vintage components plus some gold anodized titanium bolts and pedals from our friends in China, and ALAN "stickers" from England. 

My game was to try to build up as light a rideable bicycle as I could without breaking the bank. Gears? Derailleurs? Rear brakes? All unnecessary excess weight ;-).  I ended up at 17.54 pounds including the water bottle, which I couldn't resist because I had the uber cool lightweight ALE bottle cage. I suppose I could reduce the weight with a titanium bottom bracket and and a lighter crankset set, but at some point we start talking about real money - probably more additional money than I have invested in total, which doesn't seem to make sense.

And a shout-out thank you to my friend Dan Lestrud who (as always) built my wheelset - turning some aluminum hoops, hubs, a pile of stiff wires and fidgety fasteners into wheels that run straight and true virtually forever.

- Gunnar