Clunker Challenge 2018, whose it gonna be?

The Bike Forums Classic and Vintage group has a quasi annual Clunker challenge, long story short- find a bike and get it road worthy for $100 or less and ride said bike for a total 100 kilometers, all within 100 days.  The clock started on July 3rd,  I toyed with the idea last year but the Motobecane Mirage was too small for me, this year it occurred to me that I  ridden quite a ways on on the Specialized Allez that I paid $80 for but I replaced the tires and if that hadn't blown the budget, Paselas, I have been using my Brooks saddle and VO seat post not the ones the Allez came stock with, so that wasn't going to work.  Stuff from the parts bin, aside from grease, has to be assigned a cost, so you really want a functional bike as found or it had better be free if it needs consumables.

I have been passively looking for an 1980s MTB to replace the sadly departed 1986 Miyata Trail runner. so it occurred to me I might kill two birds with one stone.  With that in mind I started searching CL for mountain bikes under $100 and I found 4 likely candidates.

Contestant #1.

A Specialized Rock Hopper, can't tell if its lugged but it is the right size and has the top mounted thumb shifters I would like, and its only $50.  The downside is that it would be a 4 hour round trip to get this bike and I never got a response on my inquiry so no Rock Hopper.

Contestant #2.

A Sekai Mountaineer SL.  I know from my inquiry that it has the thumb shifters I want, and that the owner would take $40 for it.  Bad news its hi-ten steel frame (low end), not lugged and its about a 3 hour round trip to get it.  Hmmm.

Contestant #3.

A Univega Alpina Country,  I have not worked on a Univega yet so that is intriguing, good size and it has a rack.  According to the ad it has a new saddle, chain and pedals.  The downside, not lugged, not sure about the shifters and while the seller was willing to come down a bit its still $80 and its a 2.5 hour round trip to pick it up, if traffic isn't a bear.

And finally Contestant #4.

A 1990 (I think) Bianchi Ibex.  Its lugged!!! and its 10 minutes away and I have never worked on a Bianchi before.  It is $80 which doesn't give me much wiggle room, but it did have a tuneup in the last year, and it has trigger shifters which I am not wild about.







Whose is it going to be?

Yeah, I am a sucker for lugs and it was basically in my back yard so I went and got it tonight.  At first glance the tires, cables and chain look fine.  I did notice the wheels, tires and tubes (presta and shrader) are mismatched but otherwise it appears mostly stock.

Suntour components would indicate to me that its not much newer than early 1990s and I don't believe there were many lugged steel mountain bike past early 90s either.

Both front and rear derailleurs have cabling that runs along the top tube and then down which will be a first for me.

Seven speeds in back, haven't had the wheel off yet so I am not sure if its a FW or Cassette.

And as I said a Bianchi is a first for me, albeit made in Taiwan rather than Italy.

The dark blue paint gives off a real Purple vibe in person so I am going to name him Barney.

One good thing about this challenge is that I am essentially forced to ride the bike as is, so I can find out if I like it, if it fits, if it feels right before I go fill an Amazon cart full of tires, pedals, cables and chains etc.  100 kilometers ought to be far enough to figure out if the Ibex is a keeper.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.

And then there were three

Ok that isn't actually true yet but it's the goal, get down to three bikes in the whole apartment;

• The 2009 Handsome Devil
• The 1987 Nishiki Cresta GT
• The 1978 Motobecane Grand Touring

Those three will keep me plenty busy as the last two both need the complete overhaul/spa treatment, and even the HD needs new bar tape and a few tweaks.

The pictures above are from June of 2017 and chronicle the height of the bike zaniness,  it can be tough to see it all but there are; two complete mountain bikes, two complete road bikes and five frames, as well as various wheel-sets occupying my humble balcony.

The pictures above reflect how things look today, just a bit of a change.  What happened to all the stuff you ask?

• The 1978 Schwinn Traveler and one wheel set remain in the on deck circle- a project in waiting
• The 1980 Raleigh Rapide is completed and listed on CL for sale
• The Green 1973 Motobecane Mirage is in the work stand and is close (fingers crossed) to being done and will be sold on CL.
• The Yellow Motobecane Mirage frameset was sold along with a few french parts and a wheel-set.
• The 1960 something,Torpado Alpha Frameset and all its parts were sold as a project and I threw in a bunch of new consumables; tires, tubes, cotter pins, cables, etc.
• The 1984 Nishiki Cascade was sold with new tires as a project.
• The 1986 Miyata Trail runner was sold - the guy traveled 50 miles just to get the stock wheel-set.
• The wheelset from the 1974 Nishiki Professional with the sanshin high flange hubs got moved inside and if I am dumb enough to buy a frame only project down the road they will be ready.

The last two residents of the balcony along with some wheels and rims and various metal bits went to the scrap yard (sad trombone).

• The 1983 Raleigh Record (Junk Bike) had a trashed seat tube
• The 1974 Nishiki Professional had many issues and was more than I wanted to tackle

I did harvest many parts from both of the bikes above some of which have been sold on and some of which may appear again soon in a future project.  For the Nishiki Professional as an example, I kept the wheel-set, and the seat post and saddle, while the stem, shifters, and derailleurs got sold. The Sugino bottom bracket and crankset I may also clean up and sell.  I should have never bought that bike but I think I at least broke even.

Some of these projects have been lingering for 5 years and it was cathartic to clear them out.  It also didn't hurt to put some $$ in my pocket.  I still have two projects I want to complete before tacking the Nishiki Cresta GT,  and after that I have the long overdue MotoGT to give a well deserved overhaul, so I am far from out of the woods.  After I get through all that I hope to take more of a one at a time approach to my rehab projects.  We'll see how that works out... lol. 

in the workstand

Until next time. Ride.Smile.Don't hoard.Repeat.

Off season Coffeeneuring and a few goodbyes

been a while?

When there is a layer of dust on your saddle it might mean its time to go for a ride.  I have actually ridden in 2018, but its been the Gran Touring and the Passage, so it was time to brush the dust off of the Handsome Devil and take it out.

We've had a string of sunny days in Seattle and I couldn't let another slip by without a ride.  I have been avoiding carbs of late so my regular Sunday ride to the farmers Market and the Beer junction is on temporary hiatus.  I had an errand to run and a new coffee shop to check out so that was reason enough to go enjoy the sun.

I have been going to the post office allot lately, more on that later.  And I had a few things to drop off.

The thing I dread most about the PO is standing in line, however, in the lobby of my PO there is a chute for boxes that have already had postage applied ala ebay/paypal so I never have to stand in line which makes me smile every time.

After the errands it was time for Coffee, I wrote back during the fall Coffeeneuring that I wanted to go to Olympia Coffee, they were going to open in October but didn't, nor November, nor December, and not even in January.  Finally in February I drove by and the paper was off the windows! 

I had a lovely mocha and enjoyed the new space, it has a clean Scandinavian feel and the tall windows were letting lots of lovely sunlight in.  My one nit to pick was the bike parking.  You will notice in the picture above with the store front and sign that waaaaay down the block there is a realtor sign....

 Yep that is where I parked, I am mostly kidding but nearly every other coffee shop in West Seattle has a bike rack right outside their door.

As I walked toward the crosswalk I saw this lovely modern Raleigh Clubman; classic steel frame, TIG not Lugged, nice Brooks dyed dark blue, brifters and disc brakes, flat pedals.  Nice.

Some Good-byes

I have been thinking for nearly a year that I really need to de-clutter, especially on the bike front.  I like to joke that my apartment looks like an episode of Vintage Bike Hoarders, but there is more than a kernel of truth in that joke.

I have also been feeling a bit overwhelmed by half-completed and stagnating projects and perhaps most importantly I need some cold hard cash.  So I have been spending time on Craigslist, eBay and the Bike Forums sales page.

The first to go was the 1984 Nishiki Cascade, this was a pretty easy choice in that I originally got this bike for the bull moose bars, and didn't pay much.  The guy who bought it showed himself to be an experienced re-builder as he cast a critical eye over the box of parts and looked carefully to be sure of what was there.  He mentioned he was going to build a bike for his daughter so that made me smile as well.  One less project haunting my porch and it went to a good home and it put some cash in my pocket.

Then I said so long to the 1986 Miyata Trail Runner, sigh, I really would have liked to hang onto it but it really needed a complete tear down before it was ready to be a regular rider.  I had a guy about my age come from 80 miles away to get this bike, turns out he works at a bike shop, and is an old MTB enthusiast,  he actually wanted the bike just for the wheels!  I had a fun bike conversation with him.  While I was a bit sad to see it go, it's cash in hand and my daughter has one fewer bike cluttering up her room.  

The last, so far, was the Torpado Alpha, this frameset has been languishing on my porch for years and the box of parts was sitting forlornly in the laundry room, so I offered it up on CL as a project and threw in new; tires, tubes, rim-strips, brake pads, bar tape, toe straps cotter pins etc. and a nice young lady pinged me about it and actually followed up.  She was a bit taken aback by how many pieces there were (despite my CL description and pictures) but to her credit she bought it.  I swallowed my fatherly urge to ask "do you really want to take this on?" and figured hey she's an adult, she knew what Bike Works was when I was mentioning shops that might have old parts, and everyone has to start someplace.   Passing this on was a catharsis.

I have also sold a number of parts lately:

• Two Brooks saddles that were on bikes that weren't getting ridden and/or I was thinking of selling
• New in packing bike planet SpeedEZ fenders
• Some RSX100 downtube shifters that I have no idea where/when/why I got them
• Some touring bike shoes that had never made it out of the box
• A set of mismatched but functional and sturdy 700c wheels with an 8 speed cassette that have been collecting dust in my laundry room for 6 years - when you don't bike commute you don't need a back up wheel-set!
• A Carradice saddle bag that was still in the packaging, ironically this the second time in 4 years I've done this with a barley bag (sad trombone).

One eye opener for me in going through boxes and drawers and closets is all the things I FORGOT I EVEN HAD!  Its pretty easy to sell on things you haven't used or looked at in so long that you have forgotten about them.

I started with the easy stuff, so now I need to do some actual work to put a few more bikes on the market.  More to come.  In the meantime, cherish those sunny winter days!  

Ride. Smile. Repeat.

2017 Bike year in review

Its that time of the year when folks are looking back over the year that is almost over and I am doing the same.

I spent the winter months tearing down and building back up my 1986 Schwinn Passage including many upgrades.  It has been my favorite bike to ride and I am very happy with how it turned out.  I have had occasion recently to think about which one bike I would keep if I could only keep one, it might just be the Passage.

Part of the reason for building up this 80's Japanese touring bike was to use it for the Tour De Lopez in April.  It was a ride I have been thinking about doing for a decade and it almost didn't happen because of back issues so actually getting to ride it on my freshly rebuilt bike was especially rewarding.  Did I mention there was beer at the end?

June ended up being vintage Mountain bike month.  I had wanted to find a lugged steel 80s Mt. bike for a while and for a total outlay of about $50 I found two, a 1984 Nishiki Cascade and a 1986 Miyata Trail runner respectively.  I have made some progress on the Miyata and got the Nishiki down to the frame and conquered a stuck seat post.

I also accomplished my goal of riding to a baseball game this year in June, they even won!

July was just about my "bikeyest" month ever, just a few highlights:

• Felt like I blogged just about every day (19 posts)
• One week I rode four different bikes
• Had a fun ride in Portland on my birthday and there was beer!
• Finished working on the Ritchey Project
• Capped off the month with a gravel ride on the John Wayne trail

October featured getting to ride on the Willapa river trail on an upgraded, but not finished, Miyata Trail Runner on a beautiful fall day and also kicked off my 2nd consecutive Coffeeneuring season.

There are plenty of projects in the queue so we'll see what happens in 2018.  Happy Holidays all and remember to Ride.Smile.Repeat. 

Willapa River Trail

One of my goals for this summer was to ride the Willapa river trail, I had considered riding it at the end of July but did the John Wayne trail instead.   My job didn't end up working out so I am back to square one in my search, which sucks but does give me a flexible schedule.  I was driving to Portland anyway to visit my Mom so I decided to get in a quick ride on the way down.

I wasn't exactly sure where to access the trail and as it turned out I drove right over it as I was looking for an access point.  I have noticed on long trips that my mileage is noticeably affected when I have a bike rack on the trunk and especially if I have a bike hanging on it.

So for this trip I decided to transport the bike in the car, which required a bit of disassembly.  Putting a trunk bike rack on and off the car isn't quick, but neither is disassembly and reassembly of the bike, but I did get great mileage!

In order to get the bike to fit in the car I needed to remover the seat and seatpost and the non drive pedal.

And of course the wheels.

Once I had the bike back together it was time to hit the trail.  I had a bit of rain on the drive down but I lucked out on my ride and it was like I had stolen a bit of summer on October 1st.

The total trail is about 60 miles long but it's not entirely built up, however for today I was only going to ride about 45 minutes total out and back.  The trail is a mix of pavement and gravel but I had almost entirely pavement on my ride.

On my short and flat ride I passed over rivers on trestles.

by cut corn fields

and alfalfa fields

A swampy area - this is a low lying valley that gets a lot of rain.

And cows, a few smells brought back my days visiting my grandparents ranch when I was a kid.

In a few more weeks I expect all the trees along the trail will be giving a spectacular show of fall leaves.

In late September I failed to take advantage of riding on a few lovely days so I was grateful to get a second chance at riding in lovely weather.  October tends to be a transitional month in the PNW, you might get 2 weeks of Indian summer or it might start raining tomorrow and not stop for 6 months.

I have plenty of bike projects to work on and might need to thin the herd a bit to raise some cash, I just need to find the motivation.  Hope you all get a chance to ride before the rains come.