This is Charlie enjoying his morning soy cortado from the ERC whilst on his way to work….

Charlie's morning cortado

But besides being fabulous and blue and my longtime companion (7,500mi and counting), Charlie has been a little shy and mysterious.

I wrote this: http://tourdewhatyouwill.blogs

pot.com/2010/10/charlies-post.html awhile back, to record what I do know.  But besides that, didn’t know much…

But we’ve learned a little more!

My glorious cycling roommate came home with this book:

Cyclopedia

Authors and credits and such

And inside this book there are many entries on many kinds of bicycles (to state the obvious)…

On page 136 one finds the Austro-Daimler Vent Noir:

Vent Noir, p 136

which Charlie obviously is not. However, most interestingly, on the facing page one finds this bit of information:

page 137 excerpt

The interesting and new part, for me anyway, reads:

“Although sold in Austria under the name Puch, the bicycles were renamed for export markets as Steyr-Daimler-Puch or Austro-Daimler….”

And when you look at Charlie, I mean really look you see a Steyr headbadge

head badge

Tube art that’s a little different:

Tube Art

Down-tube reads Puch Bergmeister…. no mention of Austro-Daimler

Down tube

His sticker says “Made in Austria”, he is lugged steel. Lack of Austro-Daimler branding suggests Charlie is an expat, that somehow he came here from Europe but not through manufacturing and export lines, that somebody brought him here. Who are you, lost boy?

Charlie went fixie in October, we went through a cog in 5 months….

….that meant replacing half the drive train after 1,700 miles.

the new and never used freewheel

New Dura-Ace cog

SRAM chain

Charlie showing off his shiny Origin-8 rear hub, back when things were still shiny and new at the beginning of March, right after the tune-up….

shiny new

Still have yet to use the freewheel on this flip-flop hub. Still rocking the same old chain-ring, over seven thousand miles with that thing, but the rapid development of chain stretch each and every time we replace the chain says, it’s almost time…. Maybe when this cog wears out in a couple months (or less b.c I’m riding more), we’ll replace the entire drive train.

Just like our bicycles we have to adjust to changes, reinvent ourselves from time to time.  Doesn’t mean we have to reinvent the wheel; but to invite new adventures, new growth, new chances for happiness, we might need to change up what used to drive us.

Dreaming of Campy parts….

We’ve now gone over 7,500 miles together, Charlie and I….

….here’s to ten thousand!