Anyone heard of the snell expidition bicycle?

I saw one on hwy 395 in california. It is a lugged touring bike with
mountain bike wheels and oversized tubes. I would like to buy one.

On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:27:31 -0700 (PDT),
" wrote:

I saw one on hwy 395 in california. It is a lugged touring bike with
mountain bike wheels and oversized tubes. I would like to buy one.

Dear CR,

Snells were early and undistinguished bicycles:

Snell-(M) Snell Cycle Company, Toledo OH, 1903
Snell-(M) Snell Cycle Fittings Company, Toledo OH, 1895-1899
Snell-(M) Snell Cycle Manufacturing Company, Toledo OH, 1899-1900

http://www.thewheelmen.org/sections/...&alphachar= S

A ~1890 Snell lamp:

http://www.prices4antiques.com/trans...l-D9949956.asp

A ~1897 Snell poster:
http://sellwoodcycle.com/posters/pages/snell.htm

When the bike boom collapsed, Snell was gobbled up by Consolidated,
which soon went bankrupt:

http://books.google.com/books?id=D8b...cover#PPA26,M1

Even the modern WWII-era Huffman Snells disappeared half a century
ago, despite their avante-garde front suspension and aerodynamic
chain-guard:
http://www.nostalgic.net/bicycle178.htm
http://www.thecabe.com/vbulletin/arc...hp?t-2215.html

:-)

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On 25 sep, 14:27, "
wrote:
I saw one on hwy 395 in california. It is a lugged touring bike with
mountain bike wheels and *oversized tubes. I would like to buy one.

Snel (with one l) is a Dutch company which makes very nice (custom
made) touringbikes, as you saw.
link (in Dutch):

http://www.sneltweewielers.nl/fietsen/toer/26inch.php

Lou

wrote:
On 25 sep, 14:27, "
wrote:
I saw one on hwy 395 in california. It is a lugged touring bike with
mountain bike wheels and oversized tubes. I would like to buy one.

Snel (with one l) is a Dutch company which makes very nice (custom
made) touringbikes, as you saw.
link (in Dutch):

http://www.sneltweewielers.nl/fietsen/toer/26inch.php

Lou

Those look similar to the Koga-Miyata bikes.
"http://www.koga.com/uk/segment.asp?collection=9&segment=72"

The Koga bikes might be available in the U.S., see
"http://www.koga.com/us/dealers.asp" though the Harris site says
otherwise "http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/koga/index.html".

On Sep 25, 10:27*pm, "
wrote:
I saw one on hwy 395 in california. It is a lugged touring bike with
mountain bike wheels and *oversized tubes. I would like to buy one.

I've never actually seen a Snel, which means the same in Dutch as
snell does in English, and in this case is probably someone's name as
well. But they appear to be handmade bikes and that should put them a
cut above the Gazelle/Koga/Raleigh/a bunch smaller brands from down
the road (in The Netherlands, not California), which all share the
same frames in different degrees of finish (Koga and Cove alu frames
are smooth-welded...), different colours with different trim packages,
of course at different prices. Unfortunately the photographs on the
Snel site were not good enough for me to see if the frames are lugged.

Andre Jute
Roadrunner

André Jute wrote:
On Sep 25, 10:27 pm, "
wrote:
I saw one on hwy 395 in california. It is a lugged touring bike with
mountain bike wheels and oversized tubes. I would like to buy one.

I've never actually seen a Snel, which means the same in Dutch as
snell does in English,

Snell = hell-mutt testing?

and in this case is probably someone's name as
well. But they appear to be handmade bikes and that should put them a
cut above the Gazelle/Koga/Raleigh/a bunch smaller brands from down
the road (in The Netherlands, not California), which all share the
same frames in different degrees of finish (Koga and Cove alu frames
are smooth-welded...), different colours with different trim packages,
of course at different prices. Unfortunately the photographs on the
Snel site were not good enough for me to see if the frames are lugged.

I prefer to the look of a good weld to fancy lugs. The former
demonstrates proper technique [1], while the latter have useless
fake-baroque styling.

[1] My old Trek 6000 from back in the day when Trek still made all but
the lowest end frames here in Spotted Cow land has excellent TIG welds
for such an inexpensive bicycle.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
“the bacteria people tuned in-as to bioengineering at the correct wave
Point” - gene daniels

On Sep 27, 11:32*am, Tom Sherman
wrote:
André Jute wrote:
On Sep 25, 10:27 pm, "
wrote:
I saw one on hwy 395 in california. It is a lugged touring bike with
mountain bike wheels and *oversized tubes. I would like to buy one.

I've never actually seen a Snel, which means the same in Dutch as
snell does in English,

Snell = hell-mutt testing?

Middle English, of course. I thought you'd know. That reminds me, a
chum of mine, a specialist in Middle English, was arrested by a
Cambridge bobby for being drunk in charge of a bicycle. In retaliation
I stole the bobby's hat off his head, and proudly wore it for years on
occasions when the rest of the hooligans wore bowlers they stole at
the House of Lords. (I had one of those too, but they were too common
for words. Years later I ran into the owner of "my" bowler at his club
and sheepishly promised to send his hat back. "I quite understand," he
said. "I liberated two bowlers from that very hatrack when I was an
undergraduate.")

and in this case is probably someone's name as
well. But they appear to be handmade bikes and that should put them a
cut above the Gazelle/Koga/Raleigh/a bunch smaller brands from down
the road (in The Netherlands, not California), which all share the
same frames in different degrees of finish (Koga and Cove alu frames
are smooth-welded...), different colours with different trim packages,
of course at different prices. Unfortunately the photographs on the
Snel site were not good enough for me to see if the frames are lugged.

I prefer to the look of a good weld to fancy lugs. The former
demonstrates proper technique [1], while the latter have useless
fake-baroque styling.

Why should anyone want to ride a crudely assembled industrial
artifact? I have two ali bikes and nothing grates me so much as
appearance of the welding on them, even the so-called smooth welding
on the Trek.

[1] My old Trek 6000 from back in the day when Trek still made all but
the lowest end frames here in Spotted Cow land has excellent TIG welds
for such an inexpensive bicycle.

Welded bikes, unless the welds can be and are ground smooth, are
suitable only for mountainbike or racing use. For everyday use welds,
especially on ali, are simply crude and ugly. Utility does not have to
be accompanied by ugliness.

Chalo's dropouts on that green bike are none the less functional for
being made with an artistic eye to material and proportion and finish.

Andre Jute
Never did anything in my life which wasn't art

André Jute wrote:
On Sep 27, 11:32 am, Tom Sherman
wrote:
André Jute wrote:
On Sep 25, 10:27 pm, "
wrote:
I saw one on hwy 395 in california. It is a lugged touring bike with
mountain bike wheels and oversized tubes. I would like to buy one.
I've never actually seen a Snel, which means the same in Dutch as
snell does in English,
Snell = hell-mutt testing?

Middle English, of course. I thought you'd know. [...]

Bicycle newsgroup related humor.

and in this case is probably someone's name as
well. But they appear to be handmade bikes and that should put them a
cut above the Gazelle/Koga/Raleigh/a bunch smaller brands from down
the road (in The Netherlands, not California), which all share the
same frames in different degrees of finish (Koga and Cove alu frames
are smooth-welded...), different colours with different trim packages,
of course at different prices. Unfortunately the photographs on the
Snel site were not good enough for me to see if the frames are lugged.
I prefer to the look of a good weld to fancy lugs. The former
demonstrates proper technique [1], while the latter have useless
fake-baroque styling.

Why should anyone want to ride a crudely assembled industrial
artifact? I have two ali bikes and nothing grates me so much as
appearance of the welding on them, even the so-called smooth welding
on the Trek.

Here is what a proper tube junction should look like (ignore the CFRP
stays): http://www.cunninghamcycles.com/imgs/photos/weld1.jpg. Another
one from the same site:
http://www.cunninghamcycles.com/imgs/photos/weld2.jpg.

A nice weld on a stem:
http://www.bikepro.com/products/stems/stems_jpg/bbb_atac_stem_weld_detail.jpg.

Polished is a nice look:
http://www.bikepro.com/products/stems/stems_jpg/ccc_answer_quill.jpg.

And proper TIG welds should NOT be ground smooth!

[1] My old Trek 6000 from back in the day when Trek still made all but
the lowest end frames here in Spotted Cow land has excellent TIG welds
for such an inexpensive bicycle.

Welded bikes, unless the welds can be and are ground smooth, are
suitable only for mountainbike or racing use. For everyday use welds,
especially on ali, are simply crude and ugly. Utility does not have to
be accompanied by ugliness.

Nonsense. An excellent weld can be appreciated for the skill that went
into making it.

Chalo's dropouts on that green bike are none the less functional for
being made with an artistic eye to material and proportion and finish.

URL? I see only one green bicycle here http://chalo.org/, and it has
single-sided hubs.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
“the bacteria people tuned in-as to bioengineering at the correct wave
Point” - gene daniels

Tom Sherman wrote:

André Jute wrote:

Chalo's dropouts on that green bike are none the less functional for
being made with an artistic eye to material and proportion and finish.

URL? I see only one green bicycle here http://chalo.org/, and it has
single-sided hubs.

These dropouts:
http://rideyourbike.com/images/rohlo...e/rohloff1.jpg

from this bike whose frame was made by David Bohm:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/chalo.colina/SB.../fattybohm.JPG

Other bikes made by Mr. Bohm have even more highly sculpted
dropouts.

http://bohemianbicycles.com/Images/i...20rohloff2.jpg
http://bohemianbicycles.com/Images/index/road/red6.jpg
Chalo

On Sep 27, 8:16*pm, Chalo wrote:
Tom Sherman wrote:

André Jute wrote:

Chalo's dropouts on that green bike are none the less functional for
being made with an artistic eye to material and proportion and finish..

URL? I see only one green bicycle here http://chalo.org/, and it has
single-sided hubs.

These dropouts:http://rideyourbike.com/images/rohlo...e/rohloff1.jpg

from this bike whose frame was made by David Bohm:http://lh5.ggpht.com/chalo.colina/SB...Gs/Nex__Hnqq-U...

Other bikes made by Mr. Bohm have even more highly sculpted
dropouts.

http://bohemianbicycles.com/Images/i.../road/red6.jpg
Chalo

Sorry about the misattribution, Chalo. I saw your Rohloff hub drilling
scheme on the site of a machine shop and they left me with the
impression the one they pictured was fitted in one of your bikes.
David Bohm does beautiful work. -- AJ