anonymous

Speaking of boondockers, I'm looking for a little help re-finding a japanese site I came across a few weeks ago and promptly neglected to bookmark. It was a site selling WW2 reproduction stuff, including a really nice pair of roughout boots; I can't offer up more than that, but they had a lot of close-up comparison shots with their stuff and original items. Prices were around $300/pr - right in between the WW2 Impressions stuff and the Toys McCoys.

I recall seeing somewhere that APC offers (or at least offered?) the petit standard fit in an overdyed black selvage version... are these still available anywhere? Actually, I guess they would be black warp, black weft denim, not technically overdyed...

FWIW, I picked up a pair of the 'skinny guy' jeans in the black raw denim at a sale here in chicago. At 40% off, they seem like a good deal, though the lack of a felled inseam is a bit odd. The women's version does have a felled inseam.

The sizing on mine is MUCH different than what is posted on the BIG site. The smallest size they had in men's was a tagged 30, which fit well enough in the waist... not too snug, but definitely smaller than I was expecting. After wearing them around the house for a few days, I measured the waist out of curiosity and they're actually 14.5" laid flat (so around 29"). They're certainly nowhere near the 32" listed in the BIG size chart. Not sure if this is just an odd pair or what, but there you go.

If you have a good LBS, they might have loaners of a few different models that you can try out to get a sense of what you like/don't like. Finding the perfect saddle is something that can take a really long time and a lot of (unfortunately expensive) trial and error.

I've found Selle San Marco Regals, Brooks Team Pros, and Vetta SLs all to be quite comfy. You might hate them. Lots of people love Selle Italia Turbos, and I can't stand them (even though I love the way the stripey ones look). I've heard great things about the Fizik saddles (the Arione and Aliante Ti in particular) and the Ti Swift as well.

Most of those are well above your $60 price point, though. I've heard good things about some of the Specialized Body Geometry saddles - I think some of those will work within your budget.

I had a coiuple of questions, how is it that I can fiqure out what size of clamp would be on my bike? The other will probably sound stupid but I can't figure it out in my head, how does the amount of teeth on a cog affect the acceleration, and momentum of a ride? Thanks

By clamp do you mean stem diameter or seat post diameter? Seat post diameter is pretty easy to figure out - if you have the original, it might be marked on it. Also, many shops will have a post with graduated steps that increase 0.2mm each. It slides into the seat tube and will let you know what size post you need. Alternately, you can just try a bunch of seat posts until you find the one that fits. It shouldn't be too loose or too tight going in. It should slide in fairly easily but not slip down when you let go of it. Also, there are calipers designed to measure the inside diameters of tubes (they have little balls on the tips instead of the normal points), so your local shop might have a set of those kicking around.

As far as # of teeth goes, think of it like this: if you have a 1:1 ratio between your chainring and your cog, it means that every time you rotate the cranks 360°, the rear wheel will make one complete roatation. As the ratio changes and the cog gets smaller, the wheels will turn more times per rotation of the cranks. So if you're running a 20 tooth cog and a 40 tooth chainring, one rotation of the cranks will yield two rotations of the rear wheel. Essentially, moving 40 teeth in the front means moving 40 teeth in the back; since the cog has 20t, it has to fully rotate twice to equal 40t.

Because it's the ratio between the chainring and the cog that determines the relative stiffness or your gear, you can have the same qualitative gear with different combinations of chainrings and cogs. ie, a 38t chainring with a 19t cog will "feel" the same as a 40t chainring and 20t cog because both setups give you a ratio of 2:1.

If you're riding fixed, you'll probably hear a lot of talk about "gear inches" which is an odd sort of shorthand for talking about how relatively high or low a given gear ratio is. Gear inches = # of chainring teeth x 27 / # of cog teeth. The 27 is there for the nominal 27" diameter of a bike wheel. Ostensibly, the value in gear inches will tell you how far forward a rotation of the cranks will move you. Given that most bike wheels aren't 27" and that a whole mess of things can change how difficult it is to make that rotation of the cranks, it's not a very good measure of anything; again, it's useful shorthand for making comparisons, but it's at best a relative measure. Unless you're familiar with what one gear inch feels like, knowing how many gear inches another bike has won't really tell you much. Even then, things like tire width and crank length are going to have an impact on how high or low the gear feels to push and the gear inch value doesn't take that into account. There are other, more esoteric ways to measure (google "sheldon brown," which you should most definitely do anyway if you're interested in FG bikes), but most people use gear inches so it's helpful to know what they're talking about.

FWIW, lots of people find gears in the high 60s to mid 70s comfortable. You want to be able to get up hills without dying and get down hills without spinning out at 200rpm. Something like 46x17 is a nice place to be, IMO.

Sorry to ramble.

We're all geeked. I love it.

It's true. I spend way too much time thinking about, building and riding bikes.

Sorry if I came off like a dick.

Oh, if you're ever up in Harlem, Uptown Juice Bar is awesome for ital/vegan stuff. They make (or at least they used to) a mean pumpkin curry.

There also used to be one down on Church, but it closed shortly after 9/11.

I like that you had to go back and edit that.

Oh I get it - you're taking something I said and then putting it in italics and repeating it ad nauseum to trivialise it and (by extention) my entire post... that's very clever! Well, I'm terribly sorry that my rambling post about randonneuring rubbed you the wrong way.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand: your statement that "the bike pictured above is clearly described soley on the components attached to it" is perplexing to me, because what makes it a porteur's (porteuring?) bike and not a bike meant for randonneruing is the fact that it is - aside from the missing front rack - clearly set up in the porteur style. You said, "That looks about like a French touring bicycle, called a Randonneur," and my point was twofold: first, that the word "randonneur" refers to the rider, not the bike; and second, that the bike pictured above would probably not be the first choice of a serious randonneur.

Traditionally (see? I can be clever and use the italics button too!) the frames upon which porteuring and purpose-built randonneuring bikes are based around may have similar or even identical frame geometry (and traditionally this has been the case), but the way they are built up is very different. Taking the front rack off a porteuring bike doesn't change the fact that it has a sealed drivetrain, promenade bars, heavy fenders, and lacks derailleurs. If you want to stand your ground and take the position that the defining characteristic of a porteur bike is the front rack, that's fine. We can just agree to call it a "french city bike" or something equally charming and be done with it.

However, if I might belabour the point for a minute longer, I will point out one last time that the bikes traditionally used in brevets/randoneés are meant to carry a light load and go fast over variable terrain. This bike is not set up to do that. There's nothing saying you couldn't ride a bike set up for porteuring (or any bike, really) in a randonnée - just like you can ride any car you want to over the Paris-Dakkar course - but some will be better than others for the given application.

Anyway, snarking aside, the French bike shown above is lovely and looks like it would be a joy to ride (although I wouldn't want to carry it up any significant number of stairs). That's the important thing, right?

Dumpling House on Eldridge - a few blocks down from Trackstar - is insanely cheap and insanely delicious.

That looks about like a French touring bicycle, called a Randonneur. Fun. Look into it.

A randonneur is a bike set up for a specific kind of light touring - well, more specifically the randonneur is the person who rides the bike, and the rides are called randonnées. Randonnées are usually relatively faced-paced rides that don't involve camping or over-night stays. You usually have to participate in a series of increasingly longer qualifying events called brevets before you can participate in a major randonnée like the Paris-Brest-Paris. Randonneuring bikes usually have a lot of the features you'd find on a touring frame, but still with a consideration for speed. The geometry won't be quite as upright/relaxed, but they will generally have canti brakes, lots of room for saddle bags/fenders/panniers/etc. Which is all to say that the bike pictured above is clearly a porteur, and not a bike meant for randonneuring.

New Standards are selvedge, New Cures are not.

Just to clarify - both styles are made from the same denim, it's just that the cut of the Cures and New Cures results in the selvage being lost.

matrix: There's an eBay seller (angelfish_1) from Hong Kong that tends to sell a lot of APC overstock stuff from past seasons, including the black Cures.

someone posted about this on another board.

That was 100% me.

And thanks, onemancult, for the confirmation.

Hi,

I know I've seen a thread about this before, but my search attempts yielded nothing. I remember someone on the board mentioning that there were a few places in the LES in NYC where a person could pick up American Apparel stuff for wholesale (or close to wholesale) prices. I'm going to be in NYC next week and would like to buy some clean t-shirts, so some further details on this would be much obliged.

For some reason, I remember something about the place being run by Hasidic Jews... I might be making that part up, though.

Thanks.

they do do it in brown

heh heh...

remember when apc made jeans tagged 29 and were probably measured less?

Yes I do. I had a pair of APC bootcuts... insanely high waisted, iirc.

anon, you should really measure yourself. If you look through some of the pics you can tell that people are getting a range of fits. but for reference i've got a 28 hipster, which are now a size or two too big. I got a 28 in the 5010xx one-wash, which is a size down cause i wanted a very-slim fit.

Thanks, that's quite helpful. I did measure myself, but it's always good to hear what's worked out for others. I'll probably go with a 29 in the raw.

I'm interested in picking up a pair of Skulls. I'm just curious about people's experience with the sizing. I usually wear a 27 or 28 in APC (Hipsters and Cures), which is not crushingly tight on me. I'm thinking I'd need a 29 or 30 in the Skulls? Does anyone have any first-hand experience going from APCs to Skulls?

Shinichi-san sent me the sizing chart, but some anecdotal information would be helpful as well. Thanks.

How do you get such good wear on the thighs?

I'm not really sure - I don't do anything to them other than wear them (no starching or sanding or whatever other shenanigans you crazy kids get up to). I think I might've mentioned that I ride a bike a lot - that might have something to do with it?

More Pictures Of Those Hipsterrsss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yargh...

can you take pics of you with your 27's and another with your 31's?

that would help a lot:)

lol hear so many ppl say to size down, you actually sized up on the 31's...gotta see that

I'm not sure if I still have any 31s still around. They'd be 8 or 9 years old at this point, probably living in a box somewhere in my parents' basement. All that are handy are a pair of 27s and a pair of 28s:

As you can see, there's no real difference in waist size between the size 28 hipsters (on top, about 1.5yrs old) and the size 27 cures (about 6 or so months old).

that makes sense, so in then end, all of them were the same as ur 31's?

As far as the waist/ass area and the knees go, yeah - they all end up about the same size. I ride a bike a lot, so I might stress those areas more than someone who doesn't, but either way, the denim will only stretch if there is something causing it to stretch. Conversely, if you have a 30" waist and you buy 36" jeans, they're not going to stretch out.

Personally, I like a slimmer fit through the thighs/calves, so I tend to buy the smallest size that I can *comfortably* fit into and go with that.

The whole stretching thing is just plain common sense. The tighter you buy them, the more they are going to stretch. If your natural waist is 32", you'll probably stretch out whatever size APCs you go with (within reason) to about 33" or 34," depending on how active you are in them.

I've been wearing APCs daily for about 8 years now and I've bought them in sizes from 27" - 31", despite the fact that I've remained about the same size (around a 29 or 30" waist). They all end up stretching to about 32" or 33". If you like a really tight fit in the thighs/calves (those being the places least likely to get stretched out by general wear), buy them smaller; If you don't, don't. Rocket science it ain't.

Johnny Depp was name checking APCs in magazines at least 10 or 12 years ago. It's hardly an obscure brand at this point: there are APC boutiques in major cities all over the world; APC denim turns up in major, mainstream fashion magazines with no small degree of regularity; and "APC" is tacked on to eBay auction titles to attract buyers. If you like the pants, wear them. Who gives a hoot if other people like them too?