M.Bonvicini Transfers

Among other vintage bicycles, I own a 1948 Italian road bicycle labeled as an "M.Bonvicini - Bologna" (differentiating it from another unrelated Bonvicini bicycle company from Torino). It has an M.Bonvicini brass headbadge, M.Bonvicini labeled crankarm and seatpost collar, even a B on the stem bolt.

It came to me with a painted front stub fender, but currently has a full set of reproduction fenders which required some modification of the stay lengths to fit the Cambio Corsa rear dropouts. Eventually they will be painted and pinstriped to match the original stub fender.

By dating the spokes, which are 1952+ vintage and the rims, it would appear that the wheelset was rebuilt in about '52, replacing the tubular tire rims with clincher rims. Other than that this bicycle is pretty much original except for the consumables - tires, bar tape, brake pads and cables.

1. What I know:

Marino (aka Mario) Bonvicini was a bicycle racer specializing in one-day races. In 1927 he was on the a Giro d'Italia team with Giovanni Brunero, Tullio Campagnolo, Alfredo Binda and brother Albino Binda. Marino placed second in the first stage and eventually Alfredo Binda won the overall, as he often did.
Within three years Marino Bonvicini had given up bicycle racing to race motorcycles. After the depression and WWII intervened he launched the BM Bonvicini motorcycle company, which from 1952 to 1970 manufactured elegant lightweight motorcycles and mass market mopeds.

BM Bonvicini Jaguarino

Marino Bonvicini died in 1984. 

2. What I suspect: 

This bicycle seems to be a one-off, at least I haven't been able find another and I have seriously scoured the internet searching for one or reference to one. I believe the frame was actually built by Francesco Galmozzi. I have owned three Ciclo Galmozzi bicycles, one of which was the same era. This has an identical seat cluster, lug style and thickness, and the distinctive Galmozzi signature cut and drilled fork crown.

Whether it was Bonvicini's personal vanity bicycle or a prototype for a line of bicycles that never came to be, we will likely never know. The clincher tires plus a rear reflector mounted on the brake caliper would seem to indicate that it eventually became a daily rider for someone. Whoever did own it, rode it and maintained it well. And misplaced the fenders in an Italian garage or basement ;-)

3. Decals:

It all began when I went looking for a rim decal to replace the one missing from the front rim. There are few people who make vintage bicycle decals, but none for this rather obscure rim. I was connected with Mr. Gustavo Salmon who had me photograph and measure the existing rear decal. Within a few days I had two new decals.

Then things started to get really serious. There was the ghost of a missing star decal on the seat tube and the remaining decals were seriously degraded.

How does one reproduce missing or degraded decals on a one-off bicycle? There are no others out there to copy to get it right. Gus drafted iterations of the star. While he had my poor photo to work with, I could actually see the vague outline. Eventually I sent him photos of the headbadge which had the same "B" on a chain-ring which was on the star ghost.

The game was on. Those degraded silver shield blob decals were also represented on the headbadge. I made a graphite rubbing of the headbadge and sent a photograph of it with careful measurements to Mr. Salmon, who was able to reproduce it.

The down-tube lettering was easier to reproduce. I took a decent photo and measured the lettering height and length. Gus seemed to embrace concept of conjuring something from the past out of almost nothing as a challenge.

This is a much abbreviated tale of the time and labor required on both ends. A thank you to Mr. Gustavo Salmon. Normally he could catalog a decal set for the potential next buyer. For this set he spent a lot of his time, sweat and skill on a set of decals that he will never sell again.
- Gunnar

Lorna and Gunnar's 50th Anniversary Celebration

The Hanson sisters: Linda, Anita and Lorna

The bride and attendants, Pam and Cheryl

Mother and daughter

Daughter Addy and her wife Nicole Berg 💗

Patti and Signe
(wearing an attendant's dress)

The fire attender, bro-in-law John Kes

Add, and Emily with daughter Leta

50 or 60 folks braved cold wind and snow. Thank you all. It was a good time.

50 years of getting up every morning, just living our lives and trying not to do anything hurtful. And forgiving each other when we fail.

- Gunnar

Wood, Rocks, Water

Shots from the garden bench today. There are White-throated Sparrows migrating through right now. And of course the Chickadees; year in, year out the Chickees are ALWAYS here. They are so ubiquitous I don't take photos of them. My shortcoming.

Four years ago I began constructing a rock garden for the birds with a small recirculating stream and waterfall. Today I put white millet seed in a depression in large rock - about 18" across and 12" high. The White-throats really like to scratch around on the ground for seed, but they tolerate the rock feeder.

Still hoping for a few Yellow-rumped Warblers to pass through.      - Gunnar

When the Work's All Done This Fall

My mother learned this from her father, Mart Cassell. She said he had a wonderful deep, rough voice, but he was self-conscious about singing in public (I can really relate to that). As a little tagalong girl she was the only one who heard him singing as he worked in the barn and fields. ) It was the first song she learned and she passed it along to me. I think it was the first song I learned that wasn't a child's Sunday school song about how I was going to die and go to heaven someday. 

From Wiki: 

This was written as a poem by D. J. O'Malley (1867-1943). The work was first published in the Miles City Stock-Growers Journal in 1893, titled After the Roundup, over the pen name D. J. White. The lyrics and a melody were first collected from tradition and published by John Lomax in 1910 in Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. This poem, like many others of the day, was intended to be sung as lyrics to the melodies of other popular songs. Carl T. Sprague recorded When the Work's All Done This Fall in 1925. It sold over 900,000 copies, at a time when 5,000 was typical for a successful recording.

Colter Wall is 24. I bought his first CD when he was 21 and even then he was blessed with a mature voice - which lends itself well to this song.

John Moreland - "No Glory In Regret" [LIVE at The Music Hall Loft]

1410 Chaos and Birds

Our old house grew piecemeal around a 1907 12x16 hunting cabin. Five additions later the "new" foundation dates from the late 1920s or 30s. The ground level blocks are crumbling on the two lakeside corners. Modern builders no longer build concrete block basements. It took me a couple of years to find an old block layer with the skillset, equipment and crew to repair our home. I eventually got a bid and commitment from Steve Hamberg. This will involve beams to support the house and removing all the blocks from the top plate down to 5' below grade. Then pouring new footings and laying up new block walls. The thought of all this was a little scary when it is a quirky old home you love. One year later, this week our name finally came up on his list.

Front loader, backhoe, workers holling over jack hammers ... all on the same day as the first of Fall Warbler migration. I ran away, down the street to John Chesterman's to split, sample and critique a few IPAs as we regularly do. After the workers left and work day's dust settled, I returned, turned the water on. Lorna and I sat down on the Growlery bench to talk and wait for the birds. Damn surprising, a few actually showed up. 

Game on ! -Gunnar

Laced leather bars

These are for my Chris Kvale "gentleman's cruiser"  bicycle - custom frame made for me in 2011. Wood rims, wood fenders, custom leather trimmed bag by Ely Rodriguez.

Bicycle with previous "old" bars. 

I was never really happy with the old brake setup so I found a set of modern time trial brake levers on eBay about a year ago and I am getting around to reworking it. This required replacing the 7/8" diameter bars with 15/16" diameter. That doesn't sound like much, but in my opinion the bigger bars have much better hand feel. The brake cable routing is internal in the bars, keeping the whole set-up clean and uncluttered.

The leather was originally red which I dyed with a wine or burgundy aniline dye to match the Brooks Colt saddle which is on the bike. After I laced it up the original red shows in the holes, but I can live with that.    I think.

For anyone who might care that beautiful nickel plated stem was made for me by Vincent Dominguez with a faux front lug to match the frame. 

Next, strip the satin anodizing off the brake levers and buff them to a mirror polish. Then mount the bar assembly back on the bike.

Obsessively Yours,
Gunnar

Water system today

Trickle water in

tank concealment

tank access, overflow hose

overflow pipe

overflow evaporation "dry stream"