decotriumph 

Over the spring and summer, I lost 20 pounds, felt better, slept better, etc. as I was riding almost everyday, much of it on my Trek road bike. Like a dumbbell, I sold it in the early fall to raise some funds for something else and my riding has curtailed significantly. I'm not sleeping as well, eating more, and have gained most of the weight back. The key for me to stay healthiest is to have a road bike. I ride more often, earlier, and further. I love going fast as much now as I did when I was 12 years old (and that was a very long time ago), so Merry Christmas to me. I'm picking this up Saturday:


I've also laid in some cold weather riding gear and I"ll be riding most of the time that the streets are not slick. Gotta get the tonnage off and that's the best way for me. I love to eat the wrong stuff, but if I'm exercising, I consciously eat better, too. So, here we go again. Having backslid and seen the results, I believe I'm motivated to keep it going. I'm 64 years old by the way, so a "Senior Clyde."

americanrecluse

Merry Christmas to you indeed! I'm hoping to have the same sort of Christmas myself.

dr_lha

Lovely looking bike that. Enjoy.

For me Xmas and Birthday come about 2.5 month apart, so I told my wife I want nothing for Xmas! She knows the score.

RaleighSport

Merry Christmas to you indeed!Keep up the great work and don't don't forget it's N+1 not N-1.

decotriumph 

Ha ha. I know that well. I have 3 modern bikes, 13 vintage bikes, and 4 vintage frame projects. Well, at least that's today's memory count.

RaleighSport

Wow your stable is most impressive! I'm right behind you in numbers, but definitely not significance! Do you mind if I ask how you like the ride of pre-war bikes?

jsigone

pretty bike, love them bianchis in red (i used to have a celeste one)

decotriumph 

RaleighSport,
The pre-war bikes were mostly not made for a guy my size (6'2", 275 pounds). The average man back then was 100 pounds lighter and a few inches shorter than I am. By the 1930s, bikes were mainly being marketed to (and built for) kids, so they stayed smaller. However, Schwinn and a couple other manufacturers built what they called "tall frame" versions of some of their men's bikes. They weren't shown in most catalogs because they were kind of ugly compared to the lower frame versions. That's what my '35 Excelsior is and it fits me pretty well and it's about the same size as my XL framed Cannondale hybrid.

The tubing was thicker then (mild steel rather than CrMo) so the bikes are heavy compared to modern ones. However, the turn-of-the-century and early 20th century ones were also heavy-duty built because they were used for daily transport on rough roads - rutted dirt, brick, cobblestones. I would equate riding a well tuned pre-war bike to riding a modern Worksman Heavy Duty.

RaleighSport

Thanks for the insight and very interesting, I've always got my eye out for a pre WWII bike of some sort or another but the oldest in my collection right now is mid 60's.

decotriumph 

Mine run from 1898 (ladies' Ariel) to 1973 (Mossberg road bike). I might sell a couple. PM me if you're looking for something in particular.

gjhsu

Pretty!

LGHT

Wow new bike looks good and that old bike doesn't seem all that different. I wonder with the bikes are going to look like in another 80 or so years!

decotriumph 

Other than materials, bikes haven't really changed much in the past 100+ years, since the "safety bike" replaced the highwheeler. This one is from 1900:

I doubt there will be much change in the next 100 years either.

LGHT

Wow that looks better than some bikes they have now!!

TrojanHorse

This one always struck me as a problem in search of a solution:



Nice collection of bikes decotriumph!

TrojanHorse

Actually, speaking of ugly bikes - this one was my second bike (found the image on the web) and MAN did I forget how fugly that thing was, especially in orange. I loved it though, until I sold it and bought a Peugeot 10-speed in about 8th grade. *sniff*

I mean... just LOOK at this thing. It had a Raleigh IGH, so 3 speeds and a sort of over drive. Apparently it was indestructible too.

decotriumph 

Thanks!

superdex

Congrats on the Christmas present!

This is mine; I'm patiently waiting to officially unwrap it to built it up--

Javelin Boca -- ti and cf

decotriumph 

That's a pretty frame, superdex. Congrats on that! What's the build going to consist of?

Wilfred Laurier

Your experience, decotriumph, that a nice road bike is a good motivator to do more riding, is something I tried to tell hundreds of people over the years...

So many people come into a bike shop thinking that a heavy or slow bike will be better because you get more exercise per mile - which is true, but because the bikes are heavy and slow, they are less fun and less rewarding to ride, and you are less likely to actually ride them. Usually I could explain this to people, but many had their heart set on doing crosstown commutes on 2.2" wide knobby tires, so there was not as much I could do. I am sure most of those intentionally slow bikes are hanging in a garage somewhere with the molding hairs still on the tires. (to be fair, probably half of all bikes sold never or seldom get ridden by the original owner)

dr_lha

This was my ride aged 10-13 (after that I got a Dawes Galaxy). I remember it unfondly as being extremely hard to ride (I mean, tiny wheel, huge crank), given the gears went: Hard *clunk* Harder *clunk* Impossible. Still for the time it looked cool. I probably would have loved it more if it wasn't a hand-me-down from my brother like everything else I got until I could afford to pay for my own bikes.

indyfabz

Looking at that makes me queasy.

Tomorrow I have my final fitting for an Engin. It should be ready at the end of March/early April.

LGHT

Ohh soo true!! I just sold mine for $75 on CL after it sat for 3 years and got a new bib!

jaxgtr

I saw a 5 speed version of this in the LBS this week. The owner was having it restored somewhat and is giving it to his son. It was hit bike from the 70's.

dr_lha

The 5-speed versions are pretty rare. Most Choppers came with a 3-speed Sturmey-Archer hub gear.