Old Man, (me) my Old Thorn Nomad, Trees and Peninsula (from a film)

[Procyon]

I haven't posted for about 12 years.....  I feel bad about not staying in touch.
i notice my original Gallery postings of my Thorn Nomad go to dead links, so i will
revive or repost those of the bike when i bought it, used, some 12 or more years ago...

here's some images of it from a rather stream of consciousness documentary film being made
by a very very good film maker on me and a group of artists that i work with all of whom have
been homeless and many i started working with when they were homeless in Los Angeles' intense
Skid Row district.

the movie, although about Skid Row (extreme inner city and not on the coast), nevertheless opens
with me riding my bike out on a craggy point between two old trees, which is a peninsula of land jutting
out into the ocean at the sourthernmost tip of L.A. (los angeles, california, usa)

one theme in the film is me working on a drawing then painting of the two trees on the point, interwoven
with the Skid Row scenes...     so i grabbed some related images and put them together here.... 

in the one image that is four images combined you can see where i began drawing using the bicycle seat
as my easel....   though i drew quite a bit sitting out on the point, painted out on the point, but then would
also work on the painting and the drawing in my studio...

have never ever seen one Thorn out here, and know there used to be a north american thorn owners (nato )
group, but don't think so now.   does anyone know of any u.s.a. based thorn owners forums or groups?

not sure if it matters, this forum is plenty comprehensive, and i'm glad it's here, and glad to post again after
12 year hiatus...   

[jags]

nice artwork 
yeah 12 years is a tad long right enough.

jags.

[Procyon]

not sure why i stopped posting... still rode my Thorn Nomad everyday, and still do to this day...
but i'm going to start staying in touch again.... it was such an unexpected thing that
the director wanted to chronicle me riding my bike on that point in the film, and to give
my trusty old Thorn Nomad some publicity        

[Danneaux]

Hi Rory and welcome back!

I surely remember you and your posts. 

Best,

Dan.

[Procyon]

Thank you so much Dan!!!   I thought it serendipitous that in this
documentary film they wanted to include my habit of biking, and then
realized it was nice to have my beloved Nomad, no matter how unnoticeable
to the viewing public in general, get to "be a star, was a very nice thing.   

(it's not a film on bicycling whatsoever, but
one can actually see the THORN decal on it.... and the unusual geometry is clear
also)

Did you look at the pictures i posted?   i wasn't sure if i was using the right format or not,
and not sure if they open easily.  i do all my own photoshop so i can upload in any format
whatsoever, is there a best size and resolution?

Thanks again for your graciousness and kindness to welcome me back!!!   ...means a lot.   

Rory

[John Saxby]

Welcome back, Rory, and your trusty Nomad.  Thank you for your fine photos and artwork. Are you still in L.A.? From this Forum, I know of a handful of Thorn owners in N. America, some in the States and a few in Canada.  Not an "association" as such, maybe a "caucus" on the Forum :-)   Cheers, John

[Procyon]

Thanks so much John for the welcome and encouraging comments!!

it means a lot to me, actually....

yes it would be great to hear what form of even an assortment of north american
thorn owners because, sometimes, one needs something available in the country
especially due to shipping costs from England, etc.  and other reasons too...

at your own convenient time if you got any such info to me it would be great but,
number one, thanks yet again for the welcome and the encouragement on the
art work...  i like the oddness of how the Nomad has intermixed with my art life,
being my significant source of transportation during large periods of time i ran
the art project in Skid Row (one of the highest concentrations of homeless people in
the world), carrying tons of art supplies back and forth, and then this unexpected
way it entered this strange documentary film on us.... all kinda magical.

thanks so much!!!!
rory   (procyon)

[Danneaux]

PM awaits you, Rory.
 
Best,

Dan.

[mickeg]

I am also in USA, there are several of us plus a few Canadians that read and comment on this forum.  I bought a used Thorn Sherpa frame in 2010 and a new Thorn Nomad frame in 2013.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no Thorn dealers in USA.  At times I have found SJS to be expensive for shipping, but at other times I have found them to be quite reasonable.  I will be building up a new bike soon, I bought a new frame this past Saturday.  For that new bike, I need a lot of parts and I found that even though I am in USA, SJS was quite cost effective for some of the components so I placed a fairly large order with SJS for a lot of the parts that I will be needing.

A bit of history.  Your Thorn Nomad is a derailleur bike, I do not know if it was made in the UK or if the frame was welded in Taiwan.  But several years ago Thorn started having their frames made in Taiwan.  Both of my Thorns were welded construction from Taiwan.  Another big change is that the current Nomad model (Nomad Mk II) is officially called the Raven Nomad Mk II (there was a Mk I before the Mk II) but every body calls it the Nomad and leaves out the word Raven.

The Nomad Mk I and Nomad Mk II use the Rohloff rear hub instead of derailleur gearing.  There are 14 gears in the Rohloff hub.  A derailleur gearing system like you have can't even be installed on the new Nomads.  Your derailleur geared Nomad is more like my Sherpa (it uses derailleurs too) than it is to my Nomad.  So, if you saw a new Nomad, other than the name on it you might not even recognize it as being a Thorn Nomad.

So, the Thorn Nomad world has changed a bit.  But, you have proven that there is nothing wrong with your old Nomad, any bike that can keep running after that long proves that you got a great bike that is still a great bike.

[Procyon]

Thanks Mickeg!    all the information you shared, especially on the shipping, is of interest to me...

i know in the past certain people found it cost-effective to basically buy and have the frame, alone, shipped
from Thorn to the U.S. then buying all components here...

My Nomad, which was made in England, had that type of origin... A bicycle enthusiast (fanatic, in a positive sense
of the term, into many bikes, building them and riding them) imported the frame and built it here... Eventually
he de-accessioned it (as we grow older we often thin down our collections of things... i'm 68 yrs old and know this),
through a friendly used bicycle store he knew.   

At the time i bought it, Thorn was just beginning to offer the Taiwan built bike also, i believe so they could offer
more affordable editions, which sounded like a perfectly fine idea to me, and figured they'd keep their quality control
perfect in Taiwan as well as England.  Obviously, China can equal anyone's precision and technology, they've been
doing intricate jade carving with machines (water wheel driven) for thousands of years... and they have great modern
technology and craftmanship... it's up to the money people in charge if they want to pay for quality and quality control,
and not the inability of the Taiwanese....   so, i'm sure the Taiwan build Thorns are absolute top class.  just a different
"made in" label.... 

I just missed out, in acquiring mine, on the wonderful new growing commitment of Thorn to the
Rohloff hub, which interested me greatly...

i had occasion to exchange some communications with Robin Thorn on a different topic and asked
if i could convert my Nomad down the line and he said my model was not efficiently convertible to the Rohloff hub,
though i would have to check and see why.     couldn't afford to now anyway, and i certainly would have not been
able to afford my Nomad back then if it was a Rohloff model, and don't think the enthusiast would have deaccessioned
it either....     

i am not even remotely an expert on bicycles, and though in my youth, as a reaction against my more intellectual books-only
upbringing, i got into auto mechanics enough to rebuild some engines and do some engine transplants and study greener
energy alternatives (natural gas at the time)i am really totally inept and ignorant on the mechanical end of bicycles, and really
should take a class...

thanks for you kind response help and knowing more and more about Thorn bicycles in the u.s., the evolution
that has been going on, which i've been aware of, but not an expert in, and all other issues!!!!

Thanks!!!
Rory

P.S.  ATTACHED PHOTOS show the main area i was active with my Thorn Nomad:  L.A.'s Skid Row district in a master's level art project i ran,
and continue to run, for homeless and formerly homeless persons....  Actually, the homeless people there are VERY into bicycles, as one photo reflects...
Then a photo of my own Thorn Nomad when i lived for a short sabbatical period in Port Townsend, WA on the olympic peninsula,
the extreme northwestern tip of the u.s.    You can see Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada across the orca and whale filled waters between...
as often, i had no car, and the carrying capacity of the Nomad was indispensable!!!   no, i didn't carry that beam on the Thorn, but could have with
the right rig (maybe sorta like a surfboard rack they have on sides of bikes)...  but i went to the huge lumber supply place on the Nomad and everywhere
in the beautifully scenic port townsend area....

[mickeg]

Sometimes it is cost effective to build up a bike from scratch, but that is pretty rare.  Most often it is cheaper to buy a complete bike.  Bike companies can buy parts much cheaper than the general public in USA can.

The new bike I am building up (a non-Thorn) is costing me roughly $1000 USD for parts that I ordered during the past four days.  And that does not include the cost of the frame.  And a number of expensive parts that I will be using I have already owned for several years.  So, it often is not a money saver.

I worked in a bike shop before I went to college, I have the mechanical aptitude and skill necessary to build up a bike. Also, that allows me to have a bike that matches my eccentricities.  And I enjoy doing it.

[Procyon]

On one Note:   Yes, Mickeg, i realize building bikes from bottom up achieves personal goals but does not, normally, save money.

I wonder, for example, for those who ship the Thorn frames to, for example, the u.s.a., where they cannot otherwise
be found, and then build them up, to save on the shipping cost of the entire bike, are therefore, as i think you are well
pointing out, not necessarily saving over just biting the bullet and being willing to pay for the shipping and added vat on
buying a completed bike and having it shipped... I think there's data on the Thorn website on the shipping costs and VAT.

by the way, to continue my renewed postings, i shot some photos of my old Thorn Nomad, yesterday, on an evening
ride by the same two trees seen in my original posting of this thread....     

2nd NOTE: the bag on the front is NOT a
dedicated bike bag, whatsoever, but a very cheap under-protective camera bag, that i balance on the front rack
and throw its shoulder straps around it.... i've always done this sort of thing with my camera, but would love to find
a dedicated bike-camera bag, but to sit on my front rack top "platform", rather than hang from front handlebars, since i
have that platform on the front rack, and it seems to block the view less, a bit lower than right on the handlebar upon
which i also usually have lots of little inexpensive "headlights" attached.. 

in one photo you can notice that on one side i have one of my two back roller Ortlieb bags, which have served me
well over the years for hauling massive amounts of stuff... including in torrential rainstorms...   

on this very short ride (across the street from my abode basically)
i only have two bananas and a hex-head wrench in the Ortlieb bag.   

[RobertL]

Rory greetings from London, I really liked the photo of the two trees that pairs up with the original double exposure- also the fact your bicycle has been a positive part of life. Are you still giving your masters class in LA?

Please keep the posts coming.