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.

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

New Technology?

Met up with a buddy of mine today for a ride about town. He has a sharp looking little Trek F600 quite the contrast to my nearly 40 year old Raleigh Twenty. But both bikes serve their purpose and got us where we wanted to go in comfort and more importantly got us back!

The Twenty has been undergoing some upgrades, it has new rims and spokes, Koolstop brake pads and a Kalloy 400mm seat post. I am still riding on the original tires...they were new when Nixon was in office, but new Schwalbe Marathons are on the way. Along with lights and a Brooks B67.

This is a good example of how the Twenty is paying off for me, I am riding a bike with a friend in a town over 1000 miles from my home. I had wanted to bring one of my full sized bikes with me, but due to space constraints the Twenty was my only choice.

Aaron

What the...IS THAT!?

That is the typical reaction when people see this bike *big grin*
In reality it is a 1968 Raleigh Compact RSW 3 speed. It was Raleigh's answer to the Moulton after they had turned Alec Moulton's design down back in 1961. Alec Moulton secured funding and was quite successful.

Raleigh's answer was the Compact RSW you see above, they began production in 1965 and stopped around 1974 producing some 100,000 units. It was also made in a non folding version known as the Shopper Mk I,II, or III. It is a fun little bike to ride, but bloody heavy. It weighs almost as much as a full sized Raleigh Sports! The kids around my area refer to it as my clown bike...I wonder why. ;-) And yes at 6'-2" and 200# I can ride it just fine. I snagged this one off of Ebay after being tipped off by a buddy of mine.

For the tech specs: It has a Sturmey Archer AW 3speed hub, 16" Dunlop tires. Original tires were completely White as was the original Brooks Mattress saddle. The seat post and saddle are not OEM. The tires are Dunlop Redlines and were a suitable replacement. They also came with an optional dyno hub and fender mounted headlight.