All of that was to be found on or near Marten´s latest edition of Tubes and Coffee, which was really nice again despite taking place on a day on which there was a lot of black ice on the roads, and so sadly not too many people attended. We had our usual three people in the car
and it took us more than two hours to cover the 180 kms to Marten´s place. Suffice to say that the turbo engine wasn´t asked too much on the German Autobahn that morning.
However, once there, we were very well rewarded by Marten´s hospitality. His traditional apple crumble
looked like this minutes after our arrival:
And what was that simmering on the wood stove?
Indeed, the rightfully famous vegetarian groentesoep, vegetable soup.
But really we hadn´t come for neither cars not soup, but to marvel at more machines, in and outside the workshop. One is the Phil spoke machine, which cuts too long spokes and rolls new threads in them in one go. Marten says that its the single most expensive piece of machinery in his workshop, but well worth it. Here it is:
You insert the spoke into a little hole
crank the lever
and the machine cuts the spoke to the pre-set length and rolls a new thread in seconds.
But this marvel also contains the smoking gun: Who believes that Phil is US made?
Me no longer 🙂
And some more bits and pieces:
Like this candlestick cleverly made from wrecked SON parts:
Or other SON items like this demonstrator or special new equipment:
It´s all quite fascinating, but with Marten being the SON importer for the Netherlands, he´s just the chap to ask for viewing things like that.
More nice items, like this derailleur demonstrator use in sleutelcursussen, repair classes for members of a long distance cycling club. Marten made the demonstrator himself, and I just love it.
You can take the lever and the cable off in seconds, and everything is super well made and clear for beginners.
However, Marten is also involved in the history of great bicycles, and here we had the opportunity to scrutinize an early and famous titanium frameset:
Books – there were some quite exciting ones to be leafed through.
And of course visitors brought some rather nice bikes. The Copenhagen Pedersen is Marten´s, but the Koga was ridden from Groningen:
As M-Gineering also sell Airnimals, there was a very nice specimen on display too.
More examples of Marten´s raw materials and what he makes of them:
One last look at a really, really nice bike a customer brought, the one with the USB plug, actually,
and then we had to take our leave for another year, driving along the straight canal, drawn with a ruler into the flat landscape.
On the way back we chanced upon this apparatus:
Here´s the car with the cycle bell. And: Does anyone have any idea what the flap in the bonnet is for?
So here we are, stuck with another year´s worth of waiting for the 2018 edition of Tubes and Coffee.
starostneradost 