Sunday 12 February 2012

Pointing the way to Glorie ...

I was down at the railway station today, and look what I saw ...
... a "Pointer Glorie".
Pointer Glorie spotted at the railway station 

Pointer is a Dutch make of bike, based near Drachten, in the Netherlands. They have been producing bikes in their Dutch factory for almost 30 years, and currently make a variety of styles of bike, including some electric-assist bicycles. They make single-speed bikes as well as bikes with two, three, and seven speed hub gears from Sturmey Archer, Shimano and SRAM. There is not a single derailleur-equipped bike in their 2010/11 catalogue!

This one is one of the cheaper models in the Pointer range.
Notice the lack of brake and gear cables (and levers) - it has just a single brake - a rear "coaster" brake, operated by turning the pedals backwards, and just a single speed, too.
That's right, THERE IS NO FRONT BRAKE !
This is apparently not unusual in the Netherlands, but I would recommend two brakes unless you live in a fairly flat area and ride fairly slowly :-)

The full chaincase keeps the chain and one's clothes pretty clean, and notice the coatguard/skirtguard fitted (another feature popular in the Netherlands, but very unusual in Great Britain or the USA).

Originally, this model would have had a stand attached to the carrier that lifted the rear wheel, but that seems to have been lost (notice the damage/rust marks at the rear of the chaincase), and a "regular" sidestand has been fitted instead.

The rear mudguard in painted black, with a white lower section. This is the normal Dutch practice. The rear light mounted on the rear mudguard looks original, but the extra rear light mounted on the rack seems to be have been added later.
I suspect that this bike is not ridden at night much, given the "jaunty" angle of the front light.
Notice also the dynamo on the front wheel - another popular Dutch practice.

If you want a bike like this, then it costs 360 Euros (new) plus shipping ($475 US, plus shipping), although I would be tempted to go for the 525 Euro (about $700 US) "Glorie Retro Deluxe" model, equipped with a three-speed Sturmey Archer hub gear and 90mm front and rear drum brakes (yep, this one has a front brake!!!), although that model has battery lights rather than the (for me) more useful dynamo lights.
The "Glorie" is available in red, blue, green, and purple (!), as well as the black as shown in my picture.
The "Glorie Retro Deluxe" is, appropriately, only available in black.

For more info on Pointer, their website is here (in Dutch!)

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