Re-Run

Readers may remember my write-up of last year´s Miele meet in Gütersloh. As I found the event very much to my liking, I went again today for this year´s issue riding the recently restored 60cm framed bike, and accompanied by my son who was on his 1952 Sports. Both bikes are covered extensively on this blog. I´m sorry if this all sounds a bit sparse, but I´ll be snowed under with work as from tomorrow until mid-June, and anything not covered by today will have to wait until then.

So we set off at five to seven this morning, having decided to ride to Gütersloh and back, just like last year, in spite of the fact that this year´s group ride would take us the the South of Gütersloh, thus adding another 15 km to our ride, but the weather was just to our liking, no sun, no rain, no wind, 15 deg cent. In all we covered 155 km in just under eleven and a half hours, including over four hours of meeting, very leisurely group ride and lunchbreak, the food and drinks again being sponsored by Gütersloh City Marketing. As there was no entry fee or other cost of any sort, we had a great day out with not more than tire wear to pay for.

The company was friendly again, with Michael Patz, a Miele bike expert, giving comments to the roughly 50 attendants on some of the nicer bikes, and those were there in great numbers. The wonderful thing this year was that there was a great deal of the surviving twenties Miele bikes present. Miele only started building bikes in the early twenties, so this is something.

Look at this, for instance:

This will thrill most Miele collectors as it means that the bike is mid to late thirties.

Now this frame number

will have them rave, as it belongs to a very original 1928 bike. Many will say that it won´t get much earlier than that, but

this one has people on their knees because it´s the earliest known frame number. Beat this.

And these were not the only twenties Mieles in the ride. Here´s a few pics of the beautiful 1928 one, as an example. Respendent in Nickle plating, it has internal lugs, narrow mudguards and a number of very old style details, among them the front mudguard ending behind the front fork, giving no room for a mudguard mascot.

Of course over lunch there was another round of the never ending discussion about restoring or preserving. If i look at this thirties bike

with chrome over rust pores and added kickstand, and then compare it to the much less sightly ladies here

with the few scraps of original paint preserved and the rusty parts oiled, I know which one to chose. The restored one is just not as authentic being decked out in modern paint and the flawed chrome.

Lastly, here´s a few impressions collected at random.

Here´s a beautiful ladies with a Doppeltorpedo two speed and a watch/speedo combination. My son´s bike sporting a modern, but practical bottle which was definitively needed today.

Very nice and original late twenties bike which had been in storage since the thirties and was discovered ony recently. And sorry, I don´t know what happened – this is no hyperlink.

Rather untypical headbadge.

Same venue as last year: the picturesque Stadtmuseum (municipal museum) in Gütersloh´s town centre.So, a great day out in all respects, and if at all possible I´ll be back next year.