and STILL They Roll In!

I had come to the conclusion that perhaps I needed to stop bringing bikes home...Good Luck with THAT one!

I have not one, but 4 folders come in over the winter months. The latest being a pair of Dahon Classic III folders. My lovely bride found them at a thrift shop, sent cellphone pictures. Of course the question was..."how much?" "They don't know, make an offer." I told her I would have to go down and see them first. She shows up at the house an hour later with them, the manager told her to just take them home and if we didn't want them to bring them back later or bring the money. Got both for $100, parts are a bit difficult to find, but not totally impossible. They apparently were made for two different markets or in two different factories. The red one has a Sturmey-Archer AW 3speed and a full chain guard, the blue one has a Sachs Torpedo 3 speed and a bash guard, there are several other differences too. I have already put new fenders and a rack on the red one so I can use it when I travel, I think of it as a poor man's Brompton. :-D

The other pair are from my LBS, someone brought them in for a repair estimate and decided to pass on the repairs and asked if anyone would buy them...yup, this sucker right here. :-P

The red one is a Rixe made in Germany, the gold one is an Atala made in Italy. Both  have some interesting features and I will have to go a bit more in depth in a future post. For what it is worth the Atala is a better built bike than the Rixe. Both of them are single speed, Rixe has a coaster brake, the Atala a free wheel.

Boxes on the Back Porch...

means BIKE PARTS!

Just got home from a week on the road to several boxes waiting for me. This is a good thing. Hubs are here for the Raleigh Record build. New Brooks Flyer for my expedition bike build/tour bike. The hubs I ended up ordering are Sturmey Archer. Ordered an X-RD5 for the rear and an XL-FDD for the front. I would have liked to have the 90mm drum for the rear, but apparently they aren't available state side at this point.

More parts have been ordered and will be trickling in over the next few weeks. Hopefully a complete bike or two will be coming out of the shop in a few weeks.

Pictures...forthcoming.

Aaron

Devil is in the Details!

When I get a new to me bike, one of the first things I do is a quick and dirty ride around the block just to see what works and what doesn't. Next thing up is usually a complete tear down, cleaning and parts inspection.

Most of the bikes I buy are in need of TLC, some are worse than others. One thing I enjoy doing is bringing old dull parts back to life, in most cases, especially with the old heavy chrome a bit of cleaning and polishing is all it needs. These are the brakes off of the AMF Hercules that I am rebuilding for my sister to ride. The brakes themselves are fine, they just need new pads and cables. It is amazing how much nicer they look.

The AMF Hercules is progressing, I am almost done with the clean up of the parts, and have started reassembling things. Repacked the headset and the bottom bracket yesterday.

On another note: The Staiger has gone to live with my DD in Western Massachusetts as a commuter bike, if all goes well it will travel with her to Keene, NH as she returns to grad school.

Aaron

Madame comes a calling

Another lost bicycle has come home to roost...

This lady is a late 70's early 80' Peugeot Gran Sport Mixte. My sister bought this bike around 1989 to use for college, I seem to recall having had a hand in it. It has been in storage since the mid 90's apparently at one of my brothers' houses. He is in the midst of a remodel and needed the room so "home" she came. I asked my sister if she wanted cleaned up or? But she is waiting on the AMF/Hercules, the feeling being it will better suit her needs at this point in time.

According to Retro Peugeot catalog archives the bikes is a U18E an "all weather touring 10 speed...for touring under all conditions." But further research is proving otherwise.

Not sure what the future holds, it is a desirable Mixte frame in the large size (57cm) I am toying with the idea of a few upgrades and keeping it for Sunday afternoon pleasure rides...like I need another bike!

Aaron

Double the Fun!

Received my new to me Twenty from Ebay today!

It is a 1972 model and is complete and in great shape. Only thing missing is the head light bracket. It will need a new set of grips, the old ones are cracked. Other than that a complete and thorough cleaning and we are good to go.

These things are addictive!

Aaron

There is a Bike in there...HONEST!

This is why I need a folding bike! You can just barely see the Twenty right at the tailgate of the pickup. When I went up to this job site we orignially had scheduled a truck to come and haul at least two loads of equipment and job related items back to the office. Somewhere along the way the first truck got canceled, the foreman wrecked his pickup and was driving a crew van instead, so lets load up my truck...

Aaron

Loaded and Locked

Here is one of the reasons I wanted a Twenty. It is locked down in the truck and I am headed out for a couple/three weeks at an out of town job site. It takes up a lot less space than a full sized bike and can be locked in the cab if necessary. So far all I have done to it is general cleaning. I have a new set of alloy rim wheels being built up for it. Plenty more pictures to follow.

Aaron

Hat Trick

The alternate post title was a "Field of Green"...Raleighs. I just got the Twenty (the one in the middle) a couple of weeks ago. I have been trying to win one on ebay for quite some time, and finally did. Fun little bike and I have great plans for it. Sheldon Brown was a huge fan of the Raleigh Twenty. It lends itself very well to upgrades and is a very stable bike to ride. Not to ruin the hat trick, but I do have a ladies Raleigh Sports in the green also, but it is still in parts for the time being.

The bikes in order from smallest to largest are: 1968 Raleigh Compact RSW, 1971 Raleigh Twenty, and 1972 Raleigh Superbe. I will post more on the Twenty as it evolves.

Aaron

Learn a New Language?

Buy a bicycle that isn't sold in the US and have to translate a German website.

Bought this bike off the used bike rack at my LBS . Someone apparently had brought it from Germany and traded it in on a new bike. It is a Staiger Florida. I find it interesting that Staiger would choose to name it's entire line of bikes using names from North America...undoubtedly one of the least cycle transportation oriented countries in the world.

The Florida was from their Trekking line, and comes well equipped, with fenders, generator hub, B&M lights, chain guard and bell (typical in the countries it is sold in, but not in the US). I bought it with the original intent of stripping the components for use on a different bike, but got to riding it around and decided to keep if for a beater/grocery getter bike.

The only items I have added to it have been: the Wald folding rear baskets and the Euro style Wald front basket I also swapped out the suspension seat post for a slightly longer non suspension one. The bike came with a plastic/lexan chain guard, but it broke at the mounting points and has not be repaired/replaced yet.

This bike, with it's 27 speed Shimano drive train, shies away from my normal IGH bikes but has been well worth the $175 that I paid for it. As best I can determine it is a 2002-3 model, and apparently sold originally for ~$650usd

Aaron

Eye Candy for the Redline!

I posted earlier on my Redline R530. Finally got some parts in for it. I had my LBS build up the wheel due to lack of time on my part. The front hub was sourced from WorkCycles in the Netherlands (many thanks Richard!) after unsuccessful attempts to get Shimano USA to even admit that such a hub existed! Headlight is a gorgeous IQ Fly from B&M. Got every thing hooked up and waiting on night fall. For beam pictures see Peter White's page. I wish these things were easier to source in the US. Next will be a basket, panniers, pedals and probably a generator powered tailight with stand light.

Aaron

Solution

Sorry about the delay...again. Anybody have an application for Procrastinators Anonymous...send it to me, when you get around to it. :-D

David Hembrow was the closest, it is actually for grooves on shoulder. I call them rumble strips, the idea being that they are supposed to wake a driver up before they run completely off the road. Why anyone would be riding bicycle that far off the main part of the road I have no idea. This is a very monotonus stretch of road in the middle of nowhere South Carolina in the years I have driven this road I have seen only small number of cyclists, none riding on the shoulder.

Aaron

Queen of Fleet Street (well my street!)

I had long wanted a Raleigh Superbe in my size. Tall framed Raleigh bikes are hard to come by, especially in the Walmart infested part of the country I live in. We had a small Raleigh dealership here for a few years back in the early to mid 70's, but they were expensive bikes in comparison to the ones available at the department stores, so not many were sold in this area. I listed it as one of my dream bikes on a thread at Bike Forums. A generous member contacted me and offered one he had just picked up for what he paid for it along with the cost of shipping. The rest is history, I have my dream bike and ride it every chance I get. I am loath to leave it parked anywhere I can't keep an eye on it...it took over 20 years to find it!