A “barn find” café racer, you might think when you look at this photograph. A dust covered classic forgotten for decades, abandoned in a carriage barn, at last rediscovered.
Original. Unrestored. Legendary. An artifact bridging today with some distant yesteryear. A time capsule inviting us to imagine, perhaps even to relive, the patinated past.
But it’s not a barn find café racer so much de rigueur during the late 1950s and 1960s. It’s a Vintage Electric Roadster, the newest addition to our Rosslyn menagerie.
My overzealous anticipation provoked for some unsubtle sneak-peaks in previous weeks. Sometimes my enthusiasm overfloweth!
Today was the day that I’d reserved to retrieve my new Vintage Electric Roadster, “the coolest fusion of vintage and 21st century locomotion to ride on two wheels” from Solace Cycles where it was being assembled.
But… rain, rain, rain!
… Now my new café racer-esque Roadster is resting easy in Rosslyn’s carriage barn ready for a sunny day. Maybe Sunday? (Source: Dandelion Days)
Like a thoroughbred restless in Rosslyn’s carriage barn, this breathtaking bicycle is ready to burst out into the sunlight, to roll free along our Adirondack Coast byways. Pure poetry in motion, this romantic roadster, when I clip helmet to head, push pedals, tickle throttle, and disappear down the driveway.
Even barn-bridled she is a thing of beauty, this electric café racer’s retro aesthetics are untouched by time. Her rebellious spirit and her appetite for velocity are abundantly, boldly evident. Do you feel the pull of the open road?
With several invigorating rides to justify my enthusiasm, I’m overdue for a gusher of gratitude. To Tyler Kepes at Solace Cycles in Elizabethtown, New York, a hardy handshake and a clap on the back. Thank you for assembling, testing, and fine tuning my Rosslyn Roadster. Well done! And I really appreciate all of the time you’ve taken answering my questions about the remarkable titanium innovation that Solace Cycles is incubating in the Adirondacks. I can’t wait to test ride a Solace MTB soon, especially if/when a dual suspension model makes it from concept to prototype. My conversations with you and Jeff Allot have been super exciting.
To Eddie Johnson, the charismatic Global Sales Manager at Vintage Electric (who just happens to have attended Camp Dudley some years after I did), I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our telephone and email conversations. Your above-and-beyond customer service has set a lofty bar, and your un-pushy and un-slick approach to sales is refreshing. It’s clear that you see the success of Vintage Electric not just as designing, manufacturing, and supporting 100% unique, traffic-stoppingly sexy 2-wheel transport. You understand that it’s all about building relationships and trust. It’s been a pleasure since our first contact. And your transport-through-assembly partnership with Solace Cycles has been smooth and professional. Thank you!
So, no, my Rosslyn Roadster isn’t a barn find café racer. It’s brand spankin’ new with cutting edge technology, exceptional fabrication, distinctive design, and a freshly inked warrantee. My Vintage Electric bike is from the future, not the past. And yet it captures the singularly evocative aesthetics of a bygone era in motorcycling. Bygone because styles and fashions hurtle onward. Bygone because my own personal motorcycle days have long since faded in distant, dusty decades of my life. What a privilege to bring back the soul of yesteryear with the heart and brains of tomorrow.
See you on the road…
What do you think?