Well, today was my first opportunity to actually take my old Hercules for a first ride. A few weeks back I started a thread (http://goo.gl/rRWme) after I found and bought it off of Craigslist. It's been sitting in my basement since then waiting for a set of serviceable wheels and some other work to get it road worthy. Last week, a set of wheels which RobbieTunes gifted to me (Thanks again Robbie!) arrived, so I finally got around to putting the wheels on the bike today and took her for a spin. The old Hercules is a small-framed bike, but will be good for riding on the C&O Canal towpath and short rides around where I live. The bike definitely has character and I plan to do some more work on her over the winter with the possibility of taking the bike on the 3-Speed Tour in May 2012.

You may notice the chainguard from the original pictures has been removed. I may put that one back on later or buy one that is supposed to be on the bike. I'm undecided at this point. Also, note the big cog on the rear of the bike. That's a 24t SRAM cog that I bought from an eBay seller in Germany. I bought several because where I live we have hills that I'd like to ride up and without changing the front chainring, that's about the only way to get appropriate gearing for a SA AW hub.

Without any further ado here are some pics.


Hercules First Ride - 1 by Sallad Rialb, on Flickr


Hercules First Ride - 2 by Sallad Rialb, on Flickr


Hercules First Ride - 3 by Sallad Rialb, on Flickr