Post by velolars on May 31, 2019 12:02:09 GMT 2
Dear Members,
Allow me, as a new member, to introduce myself.
I am 54 years old, father of two beautiful girls, father substitute to an orphan boy, and 3x grandfather. I live in Denmark.
My interest in bicycles started out as a child, where I practiced bicycle acrobatics. Later, as a teenager, when my interest in the opposite sex rose tremendously, I'd rather ride on fast and "smart" racing bikes. As an adult, the interest in bicycles disappeared until, approx. 15 years ago, when I found an old racing bike (1983)a scrap hill at the local scrap dealer. The bike was mounted with full Campagnolo Super Record, which turned out to be largely unused. Since then, I started looking for old lightweight bikes at rubbish/trash depots and scrap dealers, and the number of bikes in my shed grew while I didn't show what to use them for. I then started making bikes for orphans (young mostly boys).
One day I found the most beautifully crafted bicycle frame at the dump. The frame was provided with a frame number, and after some research I found that the frame was made in Denmark by a person with the family name Grønning, and sold under the brand "Skandsen". This was the start of small approx. 10 years of research, as it turned out that there was virtually no publicly available information about the cyclist ‘Skandsen’, and even in vintage cycling circles, Skandsen was largely an unknown name. I was surprised when, after all, I judged the frame be the finest Danish frame work I had ever seen. I found out that Skandsen was a Danish cycling business in Odense (the home town of fairytale writer H C Andersen), which had existed for generations since the late 1890s and well into the post-war period. Right from the start, Skandsen Cycles was engaged in cycling sport, and they built bikes for the country's leading riders and also foreign riders up to about 1960, when Leopold Grønning (the 3 gen.) died. Among other things. Rick Van Steenberger and Van Loy several other foreign ryders had some frames built at Skandsen Cycles. Skandsen was also behind the establishment of Odense bicycle track forum, which exists today, and finally several later known danish frame builders, such as Schrøder and Banani (built frames for Freddy Maertens, among others.) were taught at Leopold Grønning in Odense.
My research resulted in a website, skandsen.dk, which, however, was taken down last year, when I realized years pas quick, and I had spent some 1000, - EUR on general operation of the page. I thought it was too expensive. However, I plan to establish a new site ‘ danish steelclassics’, which includes some additional Danish ‘forgotten’ frame smiths / manufacturers.
In general, my drive to find and renovate the old "fine" bikes, is to keep alive the best best things/tools from our materialistic history. It is no secret that in the Western (capitalist world) we are living in a time where it is consumption that pulls the economy grows further up to the skys ... A buy-and-throw-away culture that I believe leads civilization to the abyss. We have to look back and stick to some of the things from our past history that were good. Today we throw out ‘the old gold’ to buy something new shit that loses its value almost as fast as it gets out of the store. As you know, there is no such thing as getting what you want, there is only wanting.
I do all the restoration work myself, except from chemical electrolytic work. For repaint, I mostly use old enamel paint from the ‘dump’, preferably from the same period as the project it concerns. Many of the old enamel paints were made on ‘natural’ pigments / not as modern base paints, and they have some properties/qualities that I find attractive for restoration work.
Please find a selection of pictures with some of my Skandsen projects.
AL4W6
Skandsen, 1962 by Velofiks, on Flickr
AL4W6714 by Velofiks, on Flickr
AL4W6770 by Velofiks, on Flickr
Skandsen frame, 1959. (In proces of restoration) by Velofiks, on Flickr
849 by Velofiks, on Flickr
04AL4W6640 by Velofiks, on Flickr
For additional pictures see :
Best regards,
Velolars
Allow me, as a new member, to introduce myself.
I am 54 years old, father of two beautiful girls, father substitute to an orphan boy, and 3x grandfather. I live in Denmark.
My interest in bicycles started out as a child, where I practiced bicycle acrobatics. Later, as a teenager, when my interest in the opposite sex rose tremendously, I'd rather ride on fast and "smart" racing bikes. As an adult, the interest in bicycles disappeared until, approx. 15 years ago, when I found an old racing bike (1983)a scrap hill at the local scrap dealer. The bike was mounted with full Campagnolo Super Record, which turned out to be largely unused. Since then, I started looking for old lightweight bikes at rubbish/trash depots and scrap dealers, and the number of bikes in my shed grew while I didn't show what to use them for. I then started making bikes for orphans (young mostly boys).
One day I found the most beautifully crafted bicycle frame at the dump. The frame was provided with a frame number, and after some research I found that the frame was made in Denmark by a person with the family name Grønning, and sold under the brand "Skandsen". This was the start of small approx. 10 years of research, as it turned out that there was virtually no publicly available information about the cyclist ‘Skandsen’, and even in vintage cycling circles, Skandsen was largely an unknown name. I was surprised when, after all, I judged the frame be the finest Danish frame work I had ever seen. I found out that Skandsen was a Danish cycling business in Odense (the home town of fairytale writer H C Andersen), which had existed for generations since the late 1890s and well into the post-war period. Right from the start, Skandsen Cycles was engaged in cycling sport, and they built bikes for the country's leading riders and also foreign riders up to about 1960, when Leopold Grønning (the 3 gen.) died. Among other things. Rick Van Steenberger and Van Loy several other foreign ryders had some frames built at Skandsen Cycles. Skandsen was also behind the establishment of Odense bicycle track forum, which exists today, and finally several later known danish frame builders, such as Schrøder and Banani (built frames for Freddy Maertens, among others.) were taught at Leopold Grønning in Odense.
My research resulted in a website, skandsen.dk, which, however, was taken down last year, when I realized years pas quick, and I had spent some 1000, - EUR on general operation of the page. I thought it was too expensive. However, I plan to establish a new site ‘ danish steelclassics’, which includes some additional Danish ‘forgotten’ frame smiths / manufacturers.
In general, my drive to find and renovate the old "fine" bikes, is to keep alive the best best things/tools from our materialistic history. It is no secret that in the Western (capitalist world) we are living in a time where it is consumption that pulls the economy grows further up to the skys ... A buy-and-throw-away culture that I believe leads civilization to the abyss. We have to look back and stick to some of the things from our past history that were good. Today we throw out ‘the old gold’ to buy something new shit that loses its value almost as fast as it gets out of the store. As you know, there is no such thing as getting what you want, there is only wanting.
I do all the restoration work myself, except from chemical electrolytic work. For repaint, I mostly use old enamel paint from the ‘dump’, preferably from the same period as the project it concerns. Many of the old enamel paints were made on ‘natural’ pigments / not as modern base paints, and they have some properties/qualities that I find attractive for restoration work.
Please find a selection of pictures with some of my Skandsen projects.
AL4W6
Skandsen, 1962 by Velofiks, on Flickr
AL4W6714 by Velofiks, on Flickr
AL4W6770 by Velofiks, on Flickr
Skandsen frame, 1959. (In proces of restoration) by Velofiks, on Flickr
849 by Velofiks, on Flickr
04AL4W6640 by Velofiks, on Flickr
For additional pictures see :
Best regards,
Velolars