My Bikes

I am buried in bikes. Like Norman Maclean wrote; "I am haunted by rivers", I am freaking buried in old steel frame bikes.


Back when I was married, and things more conventional, I kept two bikes in the garage, and it wasn't such a big deal. Now They're all crammed into my "transitional space" , a small apartment on the edge of town. The number has grown to ten.

They are my children, having been rescued from various fates. I truly believe these things are alive in some way, having taken on the energy of their previous owners. I know that sounds insane, but when you ride a lot, the bike becomes an extension of your body, and there is a certain level of give and take, as well as trust issues.


They all lead a pretty good life now, as it's nice and warm in here, and I play good music to them on a quad stereo. They get fed and watered, and can jump on the couch if they want to, no big deal. There is a huge advantage of being stored in a heated, dry space, much less corrosion to worry about, opposed to a damp garage.

These are all decent bikes, nothing show-worthy, or hoidy toidy fancy Nervex lugs, but having a bunch of them, versus one or two "jewelry bikes" greatly reduces my anxiety. I have always preferred ten pairs of faded, ripped jeans to wearing expensive chinos and polo shirts.

I think most Americans don't have the riding skills to properly handle fast bicycles in traffic, especially the latest high tech carbon fiber bikes so popular in the racing community. The latest fix-gear trend among the young hipsters is confusing to me, many smoke cigarettes, disobey traffic laws, and use the bikes to bar-hop, dressed in Gothic black with no lights or reflectors.

Some, however, do ride responsibly. I am trying here, I really am.

I also read that building a carbon fiber frame requires lots more toxic compounds than a steel or alloy frame. Most carbon frames are built in China, and so this stuff is dumped immediately into the nearest river. China has very little EPA regulations.

If you want to ride and say you are being "green", you must consider the whole picture.

I have raved here endlessly about "Squeaky" my favorite. Brutal Russian drug dealers tried to throw him in a dumpster after getting evicted ten years ago. the bike was so filthy it took three weeks to clean him. The black gook and oil prevented rust, though.

The stuff is like creosote on a telephone pole. There is actually a term for this gook, I forget what they call it. Slagnast or something like that.

He's definitely the most comfortable bike I've ever ridden, and yes this one is a male. Built in 1972 in Nottingham England. Back then, the entire bike was assembled in one factory. These days they are built with the click of a mouse, and everything is sub-contracted.

You just have to look at him to understand this. At 28 pounds, He runs on momentum. You can go plenty fast, you just can't accelerate as fast as a lighter bike. It also means slower climbing. But I can still ride him up Talcott mountain day and night. It's not about the bike anyway.

I should rename him, because he doesn't squeak anymore, and I know I'm not the first to use that name on a bike. His right pedal, a gorgeous french Lyotard, finally failed. I had to use white lithium grease, as nothing else would stop the annoying squeaking that sounded like small furry animals in a cave. I once attracted a wild turkey gobbler at roadside with this racket.

I spent two whole days of my life finding a replacement fork for him. Again, I'm not married anymore, so I can do this. The fork is a Raleigh, very nice fork, but it's Taiwanese. It will have to do. 15 bucks.

Wierd things also happen on training rides, like the solid rear axle fails, snapped right in half, but still stays in the drops, and I can still ride home. Or recently I had a blow-out, a firecracker " ker-pow" come from the rear wheel, however, the tire stayed inflated for the rest of the ride. Climbing, hard sprinting, the whole deal.

The next morning, though, it was flat.

Wierd.


Usually, tires go flat in seconds with a loud blowout. It's almost like this bike is looking out for me in some way, and just won't give up.


To my left is a new addition, a 1991 Bridgestone MB-4 Mountain Bike, converted to drop bar with a short stem. Soon it will have bar- end shifters. It has dual racks and fenders. It sat in various garages for 19 years, the bottom bracket hopelessly rusting away. I replaced the bearings.

This old girl is quite cooperative and carried me, fully loaded, all the way to Ossining NY and back, a full 240 miles. I crossed the steep Taconic mountains, some of the most intense climbing I've ever done, never mind the extra baggage weight. The ride was to see my dying Uncle in the hospital. I was glad I made the trip in time.


She is very stable on the descents, a trade off for being slow on the climbs. She was donated to me by a kind 35 year old woman who wanted to get back into cycle commuting after battling breast cancer. She ended up buying a modern hybrid for the 25 mile task.

Years ago, her evil little brother left her personal girlie-bike on the train tracks to get run over, which it did. So she stole this mountain- bike from him in retaliation, but never really rode it, as she soon moved away and got married. The bike was transferred to various garages and basements. I suspect it was in a flooded basement at one point, hence the bottom bracket rust. She said the bike only has about 500 miles on it.


Then there's the amazing 1978 Univega Supra Sport, soon to become a mid range fast trainer. The frame is triple- butted Chromoly, and tighter geometry for maneuverability. It's more "squirrely" handling, but that's just the way it is, it's like a Honda Ninja motorcycle. The trade off for increased neck pain, road vibration, is speed. This bike absolutely rips. It climbs hills very well. It needs a double walled rear wheel to really ride well, however.

Ben Lawee was a legend in the bike MFG community, many raves about Univegas, which were actually built by Miyata corp. They pioneered robotics in frame construction. The lugwork is perfection.

Yard sale, 25 bucks. rescued from the top of a shed, lying on its side next to a crappy old rabbit cage. I think the bike was involved in a minor crash, I suspect a car door opening, because the right brake lever doesn't match the left one. All the upgrades I've done so far have cost nothing because I have been patient and resourceful. Otherwise, so far it would be around 250.00.

Then there's the 1985 Peugeot Corbier, Canadian built. Still qualifies as French. Longer wheelbase, double walled Rigida rims from a different bike, French Sachs Huret componentry.

I ride this bike on bright sunny days when I'm feeling good, at peace. The bike is very graceful in turns, I can do pirouettes on a tight radius. It has been crashed, think. The fork is off by 3/32" of an inch, The bike pulls slightly to the right. No big deal, unless you try to be cool and ride no hands, toking on your water bottle.

The frame is Haute Limite Elastique, translates to "High Limit Elastic" of course, and it's a mysterious blend of steel, and alloys like Molybednum, selenium, etc.

Recently, I got my first taste of what "headset indexing" is. Tiny notches appear in your headset races, which causes a "notching" effect when you steer. I fixed it, but it was quite scary on fast descents, the bike jumped around erratically. If this happens, replace your headset. Your bike won't explode, but it's kinda freaky.

As we all know, the french have a great reputation in bikes, and they built a pretty damn good biplane in aviation's heyday. Let's not forget they bailed our asses out in the Revolutionary War, and gave us a pretty cool statue in NY harbor. Lately I have noticed, though that there aren't any French bikes in recent copies of Velonews. I wonder if this is because of the recent politics in racing and the doping scandals.

I can't find a single Peugeot ad. Wierd.



The ferrari-bike is a 1999 Trek 2200, bought during the era of Lance's US Postal reign. This one's all black, though. All alloy, very light, Shimano 105 componentry. It's about as scary-fast as I could possibly need.

By today's carbon-fiber standards, though, it's a tank. I used to ride it regularly in the steep Berkshires, but ride it a lot less now, because it's just not as comfortable as the older steel bikes.

Fast racing bikes will beat the shit out of your body. I think I've said this a thousand times, and so have others. You will become numb afterwards from "road shock vibration", especially with aluminum frame materials. Carbon fiber is supposed to be more comfortable, but it will never have the tensile strength of good old steel.

Recently I found out that it would cost 189.00 to replace the shift lever, known in slang as a "brifter". When you get into the high end market, you must accept the consequences. The internal mechanism of a "brifter" is just too complex. Micro springs and tiny doo-dads. But you can now shift without even moving your hand from the brake lever hoods.


This year, Shimano brought out electronic shifting in the Tour. It got rave reviews, but I shudder to think what would happen if the battery failed. Or a micro-chip malfunctioned. I wonder if the system is wireless.


Occasionally, I will rip this Trek off the wall if I'm fueled by anger, which ironically I don't feel as much of these days because I ride more. Not having 3 screaming kids also helps....

Look at the guy's faces on the cover of the racing mags. Do they ever look happy? To me they always look like their left quad is about to explode, and I guess it's not cool or macho anyway to grin serenely into the camera upon crossing the finish line, the sponsors might take that as a weak sign.

Other Miscellaneous bikes: My USA Built 1987 Trek 930 Mountain bike, which was my wedding present from my wife. I put a zillion miles on it in Harriman State Park in NY, then I put a 49 CC two stroke motor on it two years ago. Almost all the components wore out and were replaced. The down tube cracked, so we welded it, redneck style, with a piece of fencepost.

For awhile, I flew through town at 35 MPH. This freaked out little kids, and mothers were stunned in horror.

"No Billy, you can't have one!!!"

I took the motor off a couple days ago, I just got tired of smelling gas. getting the thing started sometimes took herculean pedalling effort, especially in cold weather.

The bike itself still runs, and will be used as a snow-bike this winter. The geometry of this bike is of the larger, more stable version, slower on the trails, and unresponsive, compared to the "compact" frame designs the manufacturers all introduced following year. Mountain bikes these days are more like miniature moto-cross bikes, and they even make them out of carbon fiber, which is insane.

1997 GT Karakoram Mountain bike, under development: Rock shock, nice 4130 tubing, excellent "triple triangle" frame design. Donated to me sans rear wheel. It took a long search to find a 28.2 MM seat post, and it will probably take 12 hours of tuning and tweaking to get it trail worthy. The right rear chainstay is bent a little, I might try bending it back with a 2 X 4. Then again, I might just leave that part alone.

I am just amazed at what technology some guys will spend just to take the bike out in the woods and beat the crap out of it. I stopped Mountain biking after I got tired of constantly cleaning the Trek 930 of layers of dried mud. Then again, with the motor it was dried mud and black oil.

I found out that "Karakoram" is the name for a mountain range in Tibet. In 1996, Mountaineer Goram Kropp rode through this range from Sweden, with 300 Lbs. of food on a towed trailer.
he then summited Everest without oxygen, then rode home. They threw rocks at him the whole way through Iran. So he threw rocks back, keeping a supply in his bar bag, ignoring the extra weight.

He died in 2002 in Washington State, when his anchors pulled out in a fall on a technical overhang. His book : "Ultimate High" is very good reading. He was also at Everest during the Rob Hall "into Thin Air" tragedy, and was part of the rescue effort. If you have not read at least "into Thin Air" please do so, you won't regret it.

I have two vintage ladies' cruisers, both proud Nottinghams. One is a 1973 Triumph, the other a 1969 Hercules.

They will be repainted on a custom basis, one bright neon green, the other purple and cerulean blue. Both these bikes have had hard past lives, but they deserve complete makeovers. One was forgotten, then rescued from Elizabeth Park in Hartford. So I named her Elizabeth, a properly British name.

Both companies were subsidiaries of Raleigh in Nottingham. British steel absolutely rules, and it's the best forgery work I've ever seen. These bikes will outlive you and me both.

I almost forgot, the Peugeot UO-8. Now up and running after various parts searches, It's a lovely ride. This model was one of the first to flood the American market in the early 1970's. This bike competed with the Raleigh Record. (AKA Squeaky) It will soon have fenders, wider tires, and maybe a rack. It will be a "rain bike" , or used when I'm feeling sluggish. The components were upgraded by the previous owner, fortunately he was an actual cyclist, so the bike was not abused. It looks great.

Both the UO-8 and the Raleigh get sniffed and scoffed at by square jawed American roadies, who think a thick walled frame is useless. "It robs me of my explosive snap" One rider blogged to me recently.

To be truly cool, you must have double- butted Chro-Moly tubing. Reynolds 531 is the most well known, but you will get nods if you have Columbus, Ishiwata, True Temper, etc.

I don't care about explosive snap. I don't race. Besides, what fun would riding be if you were snapping and exploding all the time?

Thicker walls also means you won't have a heart attack if the bike accidentally falls onto its side.
This type of tubing has been coined "gas pipe", "pig iron" , "Hi-Ten" or "2030 carbon steel". I think the stuff is great. I can make it go really fast.

The Europeans knew that the big fat Americans would abuse their new bikes, as they didn't know how to ride anyway. so they made a smart decision in durability to reduce damaged, abused bikes being returned to Europe. At the time, bike shops were in their nascent stages in the US, and mechanics could barely fix them. Many bike didn't even come with manuals. The Europeans had been riding drop bars since the turn of the century.

Many USA shops were out of business by 1978. If it weren't for the invention of the mountain bike, cycling in the US would be almost dead for the third time in history.

Occasionally, though, I'll get a compliment by some grey haired gent: "Hey, I remember my Raliegh, Peugeot, etc. !!!"

I usually respond with "yeah it keeps me young"...

Sidenote:

Prayers to the kid who almost hit me head-on last night coming out of the side street the wrong way onto Boulevard. I was about to make a right turn when he shot out from the side street to my right. He took the turn from the wrong lane, crossing two lanes of traffic, at high speed barely
glancing for clearance.

When the kid bolted out, swerved past me, and, as a result of that evasive maneuver, he almost got smashed by an SUV. It was almost like he just didn't care, running from something. He didn't strike me as a rebellious type, looked pretty clean cut.

I almost chased him down, but figured he'd just tell me to F-off. He probably had a fight with his dad, or broke up with his girlfriend.

Or his older brother just got killed in Afghanistan.

Good looking kid, looked like John Mayer, the rock artist.


Dude, Let's talk.

Peace out

Prayers to those in combat