Fairy Retro Bicycle Works

31/12/2018

While going through our warehouse the other week we found this over-size and slightly run-down Mixte. We tossed it over to our apprentice fairies and told them not to spend any money on it, just restore it to factory values and then sell it off to someone who'd possibly like to decorate his pub.
The result was somewhat unforeseen: A real beauty, fast and elegant, and despite all our intentions in a much better shape than when she once left the factory. That’s why the apprentices nicknamed her Cinderella.
Our sales department was so fascinated that they organized a promo tour to China just to confront this somewhat more everyday French lady with all that everyday crap today leaving Chinese factories and flooding the world markets. Unfortunately our marketing coup ended up in a disaster: Our one and only 180 cm tall fairy able to ride Cinderella and therefore chosen to accompany her to the Far Eastern shooting, necessarily wanted to see what’s on the other side of that Great Wall and was immediately detained by Chinese security forces, leaving the bike alone with the photographer...

21/12/2018

Finally it is here, though pretty much delayed: The "Fairy Retro Bicycle Works 2019" wall calendar! Of course it is based on our picture stories here, its size is A4 and right now it is available for Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and Hungary in the respective languages. But adding other destination countries is no problem and it's free.
So if you share our fate and almost have missed Christmas, no problem, you can still order your copy here for 29,– EUR including shipping and you'll have your most original gift ready for New Year's Eve!

16/12/2018

Having a bicycle blog there is no way to avoid Queen's Bicycle Race from 1978. It is the No.1 bike hymn up to this day. Our factory walls know the vibration when the volume is cranked up and our fairies go wild. However, much lesser known is the video which went with it. 50 naked girls on way too large men's bikes. On the one hand there is a certain feel of hippie craze, on the other hand there is diehard sexism. Brian May is probably right stating at the end that today he wouldn't do it again... Our blue-collar fairies have a more down-to-earth approach: "They could at least have given the girls bikes that fit. Like the ones we make."

The official music video followed by a short behind the scenes clip

29/10/2018

All our fairies were out on a sabbatical year, gaining new experience worldwide in mechanical engineering, design and marketing. Now they are finally back at work and their very first action was finishing off Rose-Red and taking her for a heavy duty testride with various forms of baggage...

14/01/2018

Last Sunday saw the passing away of France Gall, RIP. The whole week our works have been echoing with this 1987 world hit so perfectly matching the spirit and the beauty of our French bikes...

Clip officiel du titre "Ella, elle l'a" de France Gall (1987) Ecoutez "Evidemment", le best of complet de France Gall regroupant ses meilleurs titres ici : h...

09/01/2018

There is hardly anything more cumbersome to a new bike than the question which lock to get. They are expensive, ugly and won't fit into your handbag. So just the right kind of problem for our Fairy Works to solve. For Snow-White and Rose-Red we got a pair of colour-matching Kryptonite Kryptolok Series 2 Mini 7s, probably the most beautifully made U-lock out there and secure enough for mid-crime areas. The "FlexFrame" holder that comes with it is totally unusable, though... Thus we first crafted a special aluminium bracket to fit the Swiss Plätscher racks, then we modded parts of the FlexFrame thing to fit the brackets. The result was pretty stunning, almost looks like it was meant to be this way.
Now Snow-White is finally complete and finished, ready to ride and roll. The guys from the sales department will take over, and we blue-collar fairies have to wave her good-bye...
By the way, wouldn't you like those keys? If yes just press the "like"button!

28/12/2017

Happy holidays to all our fans and followers :D Stay tuned with Fairy Works in 2018, there are new projects in the pipeline!
Meanwhile, Rose-Red is staring out the rainy window waiting for her maiden ride...

The Weather Girls' official music video for 'It's Raining Men'. Click to listen to The Weather Girls on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/WeatherGirlsSpotify?IQid=...

20/12/2017

Thoroughly checking the test reports we understood that we had to change the crankset. However nice and sturdy the 40 year old Stronglight TS was, it showed some slight misbehaviour we could not accept. Moreover, it needed an old style French crank puller tool, something most workshops today will not have at hand… Finally, we took to restoring the beautiful Peugeot-branded Solida crankset the bike originally came with. There was only one problem, the left crank arm was missing… It took some time but now everything is complete and as good as new. Featuring the looks of the famous Stronglight 104 crankset the Solida is as sleek as decorative and has definitely a more feminin feel than the old TS.

19/10/2017

Snow-White is finally ready to hit the street! Time for our testing fairy to take her for a maiden ride. Mercilessly pushed to the limits no deficiencies will go undetected... Last tweaks will be applied, every component thoroughly checked. We're crazy to see the report...

10/09/2017

Snow-White's and Rose-Red's favourite song... just check the dresses :D

Music video by Eurythmics, Aretha Franklin performing Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves. (C) 1985 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (UK) Limited

20/08/2017

After an extended summer break our fairies are slowly returning to work... Just to find Rose-Red comparing lipsticks to go with the deep metallic red of her bike frame, using the custom painted rims as reference...

30/06/2017

That wardrobe was just too much (apart from the wheels, of course). So chaste, so innocent, almost catholic... Frank Zappa knows all about it.

https://youtu.be/YMdhWRO4-dQ

Catholic girls With a tiny little mustache Catholic girls Do you know how they go? Catholic girls In the rectory basement Father rileys a fairy But it don't ...