Missoni For Target Bicycle - Completed, With My Thoughts.

Since my blog is now steadily making about two cents a day from clicks on the ads (retirement, here I come) I thought I 'd give you two of my own since I completed the Missoni for Target "build". The bike itself is a solid machine, though it came out of the box with a few dings; the fender had a small ding, and the basket had a cut in the rubber it was dipped in. The paint on the bike is solid, and very attractive. However, there is a seam in the paint running down the top of the top tube - the zigzags don't line up. It's not a big deal, but it's one of two things that, in my opinion, are out of place on such a limited edition bike. The other thing is the "limited editionness" of the bike. I showed you the sticker headbadge in an earlier post - number 696. The only other notation of the number on this bike is in the following photo.

Number 696 and thumbnail. Does your thumbnail have ridges? 

That is the cardboard packing paper that was intended to be thrown away. I then found the serial number on the bottom bracket of the bike - and it has no relation to the number 696 at all. At no place in the 11 digit serial number stamped into the frame is the number of the bike. You would think that since they made less than three thousand of these bicycles, they might want to put some sort of notation on something other than a sticker. Granted, it's a solid sticker, but nothing lasts forever, and someday the bike could end up looking like this:

1949 Schwinn Majestic

Long forgotten in some suburban shed, only to be found by some "picker " who knocked on the door on a misty Monday morning. And what will the picker find? A rusty old frame that is very rare, but since the stickers rotted away and the serial number is just a random assortment of numbers and letters, seems like just  another mass production department store frame. I might be overthinking this here but I think that if something is limited, and people pay a premium for that limitedness, it should be permanently marked on the item itself.

As a bicycle it is a nice bike, with a Nexus 3 speed hub. I don't care for a coaster brake, but it does stop the bike, and works better than any coaster brake I've had in my possession over the past few years. For the price paid ($400) I think it's a fine bike. Claire, the owner, told me that she hadn't ridden in 15 years and that  this bike is bringing her back on two wheels, which is certainly a good thing. The assembly was pretty straightforward, so if you are buying this bike (as Claire did) and having it delivered to your house, it should be fairly easy for a novice to assemble. Everything fit very well together, aside from the basket support, and all I had to do there was bend it back into shape a little. The pedals came out of the box a little gritty, but I assume that that is just a standard department store level pedal. 

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the bike to anyone that wants to ride, it's fun and comfortable, and I'm sure will look great with some tall boots and a long skirt. Dress it up with a baguette, flowers, and a little dog and you will be the talk of the Critical Mass! I would also caution anyone who wants to buy this because it is limited to avoid paying a premium; much more than the MSRP of $400 is money poorly spent, in my opinion. You can get a nice Linus Mixte for $600 and that would be a much nicer bicycle, though not as limited.  

There will be a longer review and better photos of this bike on Biking in Dallas soon, but I promised you guys an exclusive, so here it is. 

Missoni for Target

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Pose for me darling!

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Yes, Yes! 

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Saucy! 

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Show me something real!

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Missoni - you devil! 

Limited Edition Missoni for Target and Headbadges

I finally got the Missoni for Target bike up on the repair stand to start assembly and I took a snap of the "headbadge" sticker on the front. I didn't know that these bikes are limited editions, which is kind of a neat thing, even if it is manufactured rarity. That being said, I have several Death of Superman watches that I bought in the '90's, and I'm not sneering at their manufactured rarity today. This bike is number 696 of 2984, which is both a low total production number and a low number on bike, which is pretty cool.

0696/2984

Taking this picture started me contemplating headbadges in general - I love headbadges, and if I had some extra scratch I'd probably collect them on their own. I had a couple of thoughts about the Missoni for Target headbadge; first, that if this bike is such a limited edition, why didn't they use a real headbadge instead of a sticker? Second, that the Missoni for Target headbadge looks a lot like the 1970's Schwinn headbadge.

1974 Suburban 574000/2000000

The Missoni for Target bicycle badge is a little longer, but it was obviously designed by someone that is familiar with the Schwinn headbadge. The oval headbadge wasn't the only one that Schwinn used - or the only one in my garage.

1987 Schwinn High Sierra

I'm not sure when the switch was made to the round badge, but a good way to know if you have a "high end" Schwinn from the eighties is to check the headbadge for the model name. If it is there, it's a better model.
Schwinn isn't the only company whose headbadge will help you determine the relative "worth" of the bicycle. Raleigh used several headbadges over the years, and the basic design remained the same, but the wording under the heron changed over the years.

This is a bad picture. Come on upgrade time/Phone 4S

You can't read it very well, due to the crappy photo, but it says "Nottingham England" under the headbadge on my 1973 International. If you are at a garage sale and you find a Raleigh with this lettering, pay the ten dollars that they are asking. Less than a decade after this badge was riveted to my bike, Raleigh had sold part of its name to Huffy, and had outsourced most of its production to Taiwan, like everyone else. While I love the Raleigh Heron badge, my favorite badge is on my Falcon.

1968 Falcon San Remo

As you can see, the badge on my Falcon wasn't removed when I had it powdercoated, and it got a little overspray on it. In addition, the high heat required to bake the coat altered the original colors in the badge. I've been considering repainting the badge, but I would guess that the only person bothered by the badge's appearance is me. I do think it's an awesome badge with the Falcon, the Olympic rings, and the flame on top.

The final headbadge in my garage is on my Suteki. the Suteki bicycle was the nicest bike sold by Sears, with a high ten frame and Shimano 600 gruppo. While not a 'high end" bike, it was nice, and it does have a very cool headbadge. 

Suteki Headbadge

All of the rest of my bikes have a decal for a headbadge, like the Missoni for Target bicycle. I don't mind the decals, but I do love the way a 3-d headbadge looks on a bike; they remind me of the figurehead on a ship, and make even a pedestrian bike seem classier. The Missoni bike is certainly going to stand out with the paintjob they gave it, but as a bike guy, not a fashion guy, I'm a little disappointed with the choice of a sticker on a bike with such a low production run.

Do you have a favorite headbadge on your bike? If you want to participate in the blog, I'd love to have you send me your favorite headbadge photos, and I will get a few and put up a post with all of your photos. I'm going to hazard a guess that I get zero - but we will see!

Missoni for Target Bicycle

Claire, who offered to let my other blog, Biking in Dallas review her new Missoni for Target bicycle, brought it by the house late last night so I could assemble it for her. So far, all I have done is unload it from her car. Since the hits on this blog go crazy whenever I make a post about the Missoni for Target bicycles, I thought I'd boost my ego by posting some pictures to drive my hits up.

Seatpost binder

I wonder if Missoni is making fashion helmets as well - because they are certainly concerned about safety. 

Is it safety first or fashion first? 

I'll be building the bike this week, so I'll snap some photos as I do so. Missoni for Target.