Posted on 10/01/2003 6:49:41 AM PDT by Hatteras
My first derailleured machine was a Raleigh Super Course with a B-15. I bought it in 1969 with paper route money. It was 129 dollars and I still have both the bike and that saddle.
They are like shoes, uncomfortable until you break them in. If you regularly use Brook's Proof hide, cover it in wet weather, and keep it tensioned right, there is no saddle in the world that hold a candle to it for comfort and duribility.
Like many things in our culture, people don't maintain their brooks and the chap and degrade. I have saddles from 1974 that have been heavily used and hardly look it. If someone has the patience to ovehaul free bearings in the four main bearing components of a bike, maintaining a Books saddle is something one does without much though to it.
I am a journeyman bicycle mechanic and keep my machines in preventive care mode. I rarely ever suffer neglect wear on my equipment. I had an expensive mountain bike stolen some years ago, and it took me almost two years, but I got it back. I spent more then it was worth to do so, but it was MY bicycle.
It's a long story, but one outcome was the current crop of sleaseballs stealing
If you looked at my collection you would see right off the bat that my taste in bicycles is extremely conservative. I am just as at home and happy on my Austro-Daimler Superleicht with a Campy Super Record Groppo, friction shifting from the downtube, 7 cog cluster and all as the above mentioned Bridgestone, that bike was also the last machine I raced on.
Sounds like you have a nice machine, I had an Alan Carbino for a while, but I saw someone do a 6 Million Dollar Man Show grade disintergration at high sprint...man, that was ugly. I sold it to a woman who weighs much less then me to keep it and me alive.
This was unusual because usually I am far too attached to any bike to sell it.
Your bike is newer and stronger then the Carbino, so don't lose sleep over it. I have an Aluminum Allez with a carbon forkset that is newer with Shimano 105 stuff, and I would swap it for a simular sized model like yours in a minute.
It pays to watch garage sales, Goodwill, and other outlets of second hand stuff, because I have found astounding bikes and equipment at a very cheap price.
Most people don't know a Raleigh Record from a Raleigh Competition, Professional, or an International. If it is grungy, it goes for cheap, and I have the patience to overhaul, clean and refit fine old machines.
It is a fun hunt and hobby I am really into. And when I find a Campy equipped Flying Dutcheman with dirt and a lousy repaint job for 25 dollars, it pays off too.
Keep your eyes open, good stuff for cheap is out there if you've the eye and patience to look for it.
If it is grungy, it goes for cheap, and I have the patience to overhaul, clean and refit fine old machines.
I always see the opposite, some piece of crap with cheap Suntour parts rusted frozen that the guy wants $500 for. Personally, my dream find is an old Raleigh or other Brit-make 3-speed Tourist style.
Oh, those are common here. It is quite easy to find Raleigh Sports, and other 3 speeds cheap here. I must have 8 Sturmey Archer hubsets, and know of three machines in great shape that are quite cheap. Blue Heron Bicycles on E13th St specializes in old bikes and has several upstairs in the loft, and Revolution used bicycle Shop on Blair Blvd has some of those and some more rare three speeds.
I guess I am spoiled because this city has five percent of commuters going to work on bicycles, and a long history of deep bicycle empathy and use. It's the main reason I stay here, I've ridden in metro areas where I felt I deserved combat pay the road system and bike situation was so horrible.
I only have one myself, a Puch with Austrian rear hub I came across abandoned because of a blown tire in the Burnside District of Portland. I brought it home and use it if I am just going around the immediate area. It is bulletproof, and thieves don't covet it.
As for your shifting problem, there are screw on cable stops and barcons (at the end of the handlebars plug style shifters) that would give you more convenient shifting. I would use SIS cable and housing though, as that setup is longer, and longer means stretching.
Ratchet barcons are popular and show up often on E bay. I have a couple of sets of those too as I try to upgrate to SIS barcons on my touring bikes.
Well, you don't cite why you feel that way,but off the top of my head, I never talked of hurting or attacking anyone. As you see by my posts regarding my general reaction to the few bad things that happened to me on a bike, I generally retreated rather then precipitate violence out of the bad behavior shown me.
Now if you can make a case to back yourself up, have at it. I am intensely curious as to how you could prove your assertation.
Hey, thanks for the amusing comment. I am indeed very intese when I talk about engaging political topics. But even then, I have done way more reading then posting since I signed up here, and jumped into this thread on all fours for the first time because it is a major interest and influence in my life.
You have a good day John, and by all means explain yourself better. Because otherwise all you are is puzzling to me.
Oh yes, drive safely, and share the road. ;-)
Yeah. I'm sure it does. Especially in San Francisco.
Brave words, now if you go to the star finish line of a criterium or road race and repeat something simular to the large group of surely, competitive men in the best of shape I would be impressed. Yeah, that would really be something to watch. Especially if you threw in something about how vulgar shaved legs look on a man.
Bicycling clothes are the time tested and proven gear for the job. Pushing the envelope of distance on particular courses in 'X' amount of time and being the first of the group doing it means everything, you and your conditioning, the bicycle, what it is and how well it is maintained, and your clothing, how well it protects and lets you pass sweat and heat while not creating undue wind resistence.
If you ride on rollors or an exercise bicycle without a fan, the 'engine' overheats very quickly. By slamming the clothing, you are making the same argument as begrudging the fins on an air cooled motorcycle engine.
Or do you also take other sports to task if they show too much of the human body? They have their out of shape posers who often wear the clothing for those sports too.
Your browbeating about the clothes is pointless and serves only a mean spirited purpose. But, you already knew that.
Life is ferociously short, and many of us ride because we want to be out and as close to the real world as possible. To pass things in a way that let's us absorb them, see hear and smell the details.
I like riding back form Florence and to feel the 'back to the barn syndrome' hit at around milepost 45 and to feel myself quicken the pace more then I though I could.
To ride up from the thick atmosphere of a Western Oregon valley of tall thick trees to the colder, thin air of the spindly, smaller trees by lava beds and mountains and then to sail back down into the pregnant and humid warmth racing the water of the MacKenzie River heading into the home stretch.
He died while living life as fully as possible. I saw this happen before in a bike race without travelling road closure when a cyclist was hit by oncoming traffic. It was something I never will forget seeing.
Some of my friends have been hurt in recent years and have hung up their bikes. Russell Morton, coop member of Burley design, best local racer in the mid seventies, race promotor for many years of the Tour Willamette.
Robert Craft, (Crafty Craft) one of the smartest and most creative racers I ever met. He runs one of the Paul's Bike Shops in town.
I am very glad they lived. Seeing hurt and near death makes you really appreciate life all that much more.
Your friend lives on in the memories of you and his friends and family, especially when they remember what they shared with him when they do what they did with him.
Gitane is a French company, and they have imported bicycles for many years. Most garden variety Gitanes come with the plastic Simplex derailleur system, and if it has a three piece cotterless crank, the bevel on the axle only works with three pin cranks, and replacement involves the whole thing.
If it is old enough to have French threading, that is a major problem. There used to be Frence, Italian and English threading, and English became the standard over time.
That's some of the main reasons knowing the age, and model would help. Do that and I can tell you all you need to know about it. As I said, I am a journeyman mechanic. I work part time at Burley Design Coop as a trailer assembler, wheel builder, or bicycle assembler currently several months a year.
I have the contacts to get info where my knowlege fails me. The people at Blue Heron, Revolution Cycles, Pauls Bicycle Way of Life, the Center for Appropriate Transportation or CAT as it is called here all reprocess and make big bucks off old machines.
CAT has a large loft full of them, and it has a charter school to teach youngsters how to build frames, and do other manufacture work on bicycles.
My good friend and former fellow Eugene Cycle Club racer Dan has Co-Motion Bicycles. Green Gear, the Bike Friday Company is here.
There is no doubt Eugene, Oregon is a city with many bicycle resources. I have worked in several shops here in Eugene and Portland over the years, Including Bike Gallery on Eastside in PDX. I have a Schwinn LeTourLuxe in excellent shape. It is a stable reliable touring bike, with cantilever brakes, and a frameset that handles the full load well. It is my token Schwinn and I ride it periodically in the Winter if I have to use panniers or a trailer.
I can understand your sentiment - it's all in the perspective, isn't it?
Still, surely you'll concede that the image of black lycra with a large green spot on it is hilarious! (As long as you aren't the...ahem...target)
I had learned this more about myself in all areas...
.I have biked most of my life.. but found past 15 years or so I prefer kayaking, sailboarding over large morotorized craft.
would rather do ANYTHING outside (yes even love lawnmowing & gardening) than MOST THINGS inside.
Your discussions with several others re: bikes are fun to follow. I have had one bike with Litespeed - guess my best bike ever in most respects - .."modified full load" campy to the hilt, carbon fiber, titanium.....
I traded it for some green that was at the time needed a whole lot more than a 10th "good" bike..
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