new bike day

last Sunday was another new (old) bike day.

I bought a pre-loved RIH track bike, built in Amsterdam many years ago. RIH was one of the top framebuilders in the Netherlands, named after a horse in a novel that was popular in the 1920's. They still exist today and maintain a database of all the bikes they ever built, so i can find out what year and who it was made for and with what materials, via the stamped code on the headtube.

They all have a beautiful brass headtube badge painted in white and blue, all the blue has disappeared off mine, but most of the white (negative of the writing) remains.

The frame was repaired by Paconi, with the downtube replaced due to a melbourne courier named Pip riding it into a car door.