State of the Fleet during a crazy bike market

 I currently have six bikes, which for one guy seems like too many and since we are at the vortex of a crazy bike market and about 5 weeks left of summer if I was going to sell something now would be the time.  Does any arrow in my quiver really need to get sold???

1989 Specialized Allez.

For many reasons the Allez isn't going anywhere.   I just got the shifting sorted so I can ride it.  I have been wanting one for years and the guy who gave me such a great deal on the bike in the first place hasn't had a chance to ride it yet due to the Pandemic.  I am guessing I could get some nice $$ for it but have no desire to sell it.

1978 Motobecane Grand Touring.

On the one hand this bike really only gets ridden to the French bakery, as it was above.  On the other hand I looked for years for a Grand Touring in my size and spent allot of time and effort refurbishing the bike and it is my most stock vintage bike.   Cold logic says I should sell it but I am sure I would regret it immediately so it is staying for now.  

1987 Nishiki Cresta GT

I spent so much $$ and time on this bike I see no way I could get my $$ back even in this crazy market and I like it and want to ride it more.  In addition with the replacement fork I could never advertise it as stock.  I just need to ride this one as its not going anywhere.   And I have a set of fenders to put on it.

2009 Handsome Devil

This is the workhorse, you can't sell the workhorse can you?  I mean there is allot of overlap with the HD and other bikes but I am just not sure I could get enough for it to feel good about selling it.  And I have some ideas that with a set of new tires, bar tape, a wolfs tooth for the derailleur hanger and a 11-40t 9 speed cassette this bike would have a new lease on life.

1987 Trek 520 Cirrus

Ok, this bike I did actually try to sell at the I don't really want to sell it price of $400.  No one came up with that but I did have interest in the $300 to $350 range.  Also with its current 28t cog FW its not a great climber.  I do have a scheme where I could put on a Shimano LX RD I have in the stash and I think that would work with the mega range 34t FW it came with.  That would make it a great climber again and it is so smooth and fits so well.  When will I ever find another 520 for $75 in my size?  On the other hand it duplicates the Nishiki so I am on the fence about the 520.

1993 Univega Via Montega

I have been enjoying riding this bike on the clunker challenge as I did this morning for 20 km.  I do find it gives me hand numbness on the long rides and while it would be fun to make a gravel grinder out of it I do not really need a hybrid.  Also I have a barista friend who expressed interest in having a bike and I think at my current costs of about $100, minus the Ergon grips which I will keep, it would be in his budget.  So plan A is to pass this one along at cost.

I do still look at ads with the idea of finding something inexpensive and in need of a bit of TLC to turn around in the market for a bit of cash but I have been thinking of getting down to maybe 4 bikes.  If, god forbid, I have to move in the next 6 months what am I going to do with 4 bikes let alone 6! lol.

Oh well first world problems.  For now I shall....

Ride. Smile. Repeat.

Riding the Fleet

In the past month or so as I thought about how much walking I was doing I would lament " I should be riding more"  and it occurred to me recently I just shut up about it and in the words of Nike; Just Do It.

So this week I decided that instead of starting the day with a walk I would instead ride my bike, and then I edited that thought to ride all my bikes.

Monday.  I had to take this bike out the work stand to ride it but I couldn't resist getting in a ride before tearing it down.  Impressions:  Fun!  this is my most racy bike and it felt like it, it was a blast to ride and a great way to start the week.

Tuesday.  I could see rain in the forecast so I went with my work horse.  Impressions: I couldn't have chosen better for my wettest ride of the week.  The 700 x 47c tires handle wet roads with ease.

Wednesday.  It had been so long since the last ride I  had to get air in the tires the night before.  The MotoGT is my oldest and most stock bike in the fleet.  I am always a bit surprised I don't ride it more.  Impressions:  As I have been riding more 80s and early 90s bikes this one feels a bit dated sometimes, but that is part of its charm and riding this French bike compels me to visit my local French bakery...

.....hmm pastries,

Thursday.  I wanted to ride the recently completed 520 before possibly putting it on Craigslist to test the market.  Impressions: I was not as done with this bike as I thought, namely the shifting to the low gears that works fine in the work stand, grinds under load on road and some other minor complaints.  I guess the lesson is I need to do longer test rides before proclaiming I am done.  I was also struck by just how smooth this 531 frame rides.

Friday.  I actually rode this bike last Saturday to escape West Seattle, but I was happy to ride it again on my short, slightly hilly, 4 mile morning ride.  Impressions:  Why do I ride this bike so little after I did so much work on it!  Its hitting its stride but I am still not sure about the cambium Brooks saddle, guess I will need to ride it more.

Saturday.  And finally the last bike in the fleet, the Miyata 112 which I bought to be my trainer ride but since I am without a deck (where I do trainer rides) right now its off the trainer.  This bike has only a front brake so for the first time I deviated my daily ride and just rode the local streets with no long downhills.  Impressions: while in some ways it is obviously an entry level bike (heft, components) it still has many great touches, lugs, maker engraved fork crown and I love the ice blue paint color.  A great example of 1980s Japanese craftsmanship.

I am not going to ride the fleet every week but it is good to be reminded of each bikes strengths and to give them all a turn on the road.  Wow, I just realized half of the fleet is from 1987! and 4 of 6 are from the late 1980s

Ride a lot of bikes. Smile. Repeat

European style Sunday

I rode my sturdy steel practical workhorse bike to...

...the local farmers market.  Where I did my shopping with a ..

A string bag.  As I wandered the booths I sampled...

Fresh made Greek yogurt, lemon curd in this case.  This booth has been tempting me for weeks and I finally decided to try some.

I needed a place to sit down and eat my yogurt so I guess I could have a 4oz sampler of beer, right?  Party of five Imperial IPA by Cloudburst in Seattle.

And back at my practical bike with rack and panniers I loaded up my goods.

My string bag yields the following.....

I have been juicing this week in and effort to get healthier and lose some weight.  After the 3rd day of juicing, however, I was getting hangry on just juice.  So I decided to add in some oven roasted veggies to supplement things.  We'll see how it works out.

NOTE:  In this age of Instagram I have had a increasing number of blog posts over the last few years and have now hit 100 posts in a year for the first time ever!  I am such a Luddite lol

Ride. Do practical stuff. Smile. Repeat.

Eight is Great: Coffeeneuring 2019 extra credit

In honor of it being the 8th year of the Coffeeneuring challenge there is an optional Eight is Great ride that you can do this year.  I figured what the heck.  Although the HD is not vintage it is vintage inspired with its: steel frame, lugged fork, bar end shifters in friction mode, Nitto bars and Brooks B.17 saddle.  It is also the 8th different bike I rode in the challenge this year.  If I hadn't sold 3 of the bikes I used in this years challenge my apartment would be overrun with bikes!

I decided for ride #8 to treat myself to Bakery Nouveau a local, award winning French bakery that has spoiled me for croissants.

But that isn't all they have, the above is just one of the cases in the shop and there are no bad choices.  I went with something I hadn't had before but have noticed on my last few trips

It sounded like Queen Aman when they pronouced it and it didn't disappoint.

I had a latte to go with my pastry and it was decent but not as good as the other places I have been this challenge, however you don't come here for the coffee and the pastry was excellent.  I also remembered my patches this time!

Parking was decent but there is nothing right out front, the store is down where those white tables and chairs on the sidewalk are.  It wasn't sunny but it did not rain. 

The data:

1. Where: Bakery Nouveau, 4737 California Ave SW, Seattle WA 98116
2. Date: November 14th  at 10:20 am.
3. Consumed:  latte and Kouign Amann pastry
4. Details:  Cloudy, 50 degrees, bike parking down the block from entrance
5. Mileage: 2. miles
6. Bike Used: 2009 Handsome Devil

Ride. Caffeinate for extra credit. Smile. Repeat

Weekend odds and ends

I had a goal this weekend to ride my bikes, nothing long or epic just getting out and riding.  On Friday I rode the Cresta GT to the local French bakery for a baguette my contribution to a group dinner.  It was nice to get some saddle time on the GT again.

On Saturday I choose the Handsome Devil as transport to a neighborhood BBQ with a pannier for the Six pack of IPA I was contributing. 

And today the Moto_GT got the call for a ride to the Farmers market.  A pannier allowed me to bring back a bounty, but first of course I had to make a stop at the pub...

where I got an Entire wood aged stout from Pike, in Seattle WA.

From the market I got smoked salmon, a fresh peach and black berries, what is August without fresh black berries? and a loaf of German Rye from the bakery. It made for a nice little feast.

I have also been fiddling with getting the shifting on the Rock Hopper to work.  Plan A) was to get the existing Deore LX shifter to work but none of the tricks I learned in the videos I found worked so I went to Plan B) which was getting a new shifter pod, I found a used Deore XT at bike works.  So far, however, plan B has gotten no farther than plan A, I haven't abandoned it yet but I am going to put it aside for now.  I have a Plan C but that will be more work so I will save that for a separate post if it comes to that.

I put the Trek 420 in the stand with the hopes of getting it torn down this week and getting a fair bit of work done on it this month.  When I picked up the 520 that made the 420 a bit redundant to the idea is to fix it up and sell it on.  I will be doing a few twists with this bike I haven't done on a vintage rebuild yet but mostly it will be stock.

Ride your bike(s). Smile. Repeat.

Back in the Saddle again

Que the Gene Autry,  I am back in the saddle.  I took a short ride to the farmers market today just to get back on the horse so to speak.  My left wrist is still a bit sore and I have a bit of a lump on my right shin, but I'm much improved from Wednesday.

I also got some work done on the Novara.

I drank beer and got a mini pie but my camera is dead so this post is a bit dry until my phone comes back.

Update

I was able to revive my phone and got the pictures off it.  I have a new one on order but the crash survivor needs to hang in until Tuesday.

The HD sunning himself before our ride to the market on this 60 degree spring day.

Erin go Bragh

I got a dry Irish Stout to drink to himself, St Patrick.  I also got a mini apple pie with cheese and a bit of Bushmills but that mysteriously disappeared before I could snap a picture.

Novara

I needed to address the rust on the seat tube before I could do much else with the rebuild of the Randonee.

A few doses of naval jelly and some dremel work with a brass wire brush took care of the rust and I added some blue nail polish to protect the metal- not a half bad match.

The new seat tube binder bolt seems to work, although the real test will come with riding the bike.

I got the seat post cleaned up and mounted the new VO saddle and got them on the bike.

I got the headset bits cleaned up, installed new bearings and grease and got the fork connected back to the frame.

Starting to look like a bike I can hang stuff on but I need to wax it first and there is the matter of the bottom bracket.

After getting the cups a sonic bath and cleaning them up I found they were pitted and gritty for lack of a better word so a cheap cartridge bb is going on the amazon list along with consumables and a bottle cage.  This probably explains why the crank wasn't turning smoothly.

Cresta GT

I may have found someone through bike forums that can help with the fork on the cresta.

It will involve some bendage to get it back to where it was.  If all goes well I will travel to Portland at the end of the month with the Cresta and we shall see.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.

Coffeeneuring Challenge 2018: Ride 7 Ampersand Cafe

Sunday dawned clear and cold and I knew it would be a good day to get to the finish line for Coffeeneruing 2018.  It was going to require some gear like full finger gloves, base layer and wool cycling cap to combat the 40 degree temps but I have all that stuff , I just had to dig it out.

Ampersand Cafe on Alki was my destination today, I have been here many times and it has even featured in a few blog posts but I had never done an official coffee ride here.

A hazelnut latte and snicker-doodle was my choice for ride #7 and I finally remembered both of my patches from previous years.   It was a pretty crowded shop as people were getting out to enjoy the sun but wanted to be someplace warm after feeling the wind.

I did not see many other casual riders today but I did see plenty of roadies in winter kit out taking advantage of the sunny weather.

After slogging into the wind for a mile or so I couldn't resist stopping for a quick shot of the Seattle skyline.  Once I got around the point I had a tail wind and actually felt "fast".

The wide range 1x9 of the Handsome devil is versatile but the riders' fitness and the low gear of the HD meant the last hill was going to be a grind, I didn't feel like ending on a grind so I went mult-modal and caught the bus home for the last leg.  Three years running now for Coffeeneuring and I completed both my themes of 1) all new coffee shops and 2) a different bike every ride.  I actually hope I don't have six bikes in my apartment next year lol.

The data:

1. Where: Ampersand Cafe, 2530 Alki Avenue Southwest. West Seattle.
2. Date: November 11th   at 11:30 am.
3. Consumed:  Hazelnut Latte and Snicker Doodle cookie.
4. Details:  Clear and cold -low 40s, good bike parking.
5. Mileage: 6.41 miles
6. Bike Used: The workhorse Handsome Devil.

Ride. Dress warn.Smile.Repeat.