I've been inspired by [MENTION=45088]nlerner[/MENTION]'s thread 14 in 15; and then the weatherman in Seattle gives a dry forecast for 2 days, followed by a bunch of days full of sun......
So, I can't promise they are all vintage, nor that they are classic - but what the hay!
Ride the Fleet
Day 1.
Sightseeing Renton WA on the Cedar River Trail. Start at the community's water park, past the Memorial Stadium with excellent track and field facilities, past the Boeing 737 plant (lots of aircraft for refurb) and out to the Renton Rowing Club dock (where i can put in my kayak) on Lk Washington. The city's library straddles the Cedar River.

Outside the city proper, it turns into a low traffic multi use trail.

Here's a blurb about the Day1 bike.
1981/82 AustroDaimler Olympian, 531 (butted) frame and fork, serves as the rain bike - or more accurately the 'wet day' bike. Was acquired years ago as a frame and fork with BB and Nervar crank. Currently with Sachs/Huret derailleurs and shifters. This is a bike that generally rolls clinchers and Araya Red Label rims on Campy hubs. Handsome fenders, hammered, and only running a 23mm on the rear. Old worn Belt saddle

The catalogue lists this as the fast touring frame similar to the more desirable Vent Noire. It does have braze-ons for the fender mounts and TT guides, but none at BB, nor for bottle bracket, or shifters. The 20cm headtube makes for easy riding in th drops.

Outstanding first rollout! Continue please.

Nice! Glad you could find the time to rollout.

Get a haircut, ya dam hippie. 😁 That bike looks about tall enough for me. 😉

For my Day 2 ride I had been previously invited to ride the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, starting in N.Bend. On a gravel trail I need to pay attention more so the pics are fewer. Also, by the end was a bit more tired and didn't photo document the town or our post meal food. Thanks to Jeff (@Drillium Dude) for the pleasure of his company.


My ride pictured with the top of Snoqualmie Falls, signs for equestrians means dung ahead, 2 crazy guys on bikes, the trail with Mr. Dude, shaking down his ride.

A short blurb about the Day 2 bike.
1982 Harding/Holdsworth Special. 531 butted frame, not positive on fork, but original to the bike as evidenced by matching serial numbers. The duel name I assign is because an Irishman, George Harding, built a few custom bikes in his shop, but enjoyed riding and racing more than brazing so began to buy from Holdsworth. The only difference i have detected from a Holdsworth on this model (other than the name on the downtube and headbadge) is mine has no eyelets on the 1010 dropouts or forkends.

Purchased by me as a frame and fork thru a shop in Colorado (near Boulder) from an obscure reference to a shipment of frames, given on this Forum. Built with Campy derailleurs/shifters, but to diversify the road bikes, the Harding was built to be a mild off-roadie. Running Schwalbe 30mm S-Ones tubies for today and has run 33 knobbies on another wheelset. The crankset is from VeloOrange and has 46/30 rings. Needs an upgrade to Campy brakes. The bike took me through Cino Heroica last year on knobbies. 59 X 57 and feels a little small under me, don't know why, 17.5cm headtube?. maybe jump stem from 12 to 13cms. Brooks B15.

Love the contrast between the brown wrap and the white paint on the Day 1 bike. Looks awesome!

OH boy, 2 daily ride threads going at once.

The Harding is beautiful.

Here's a pic or two from today's SVT ride:







Nice riding with you, too, Stuart - and thanks for lunch

DD

Styleman.

"Post meal food," eh? Glad you weren't so tired you couldn't eat

I definitely need to ride with you two more often.

I enjoy reading these threads of people becoming reacquainted with their bikes, along with the details of the builds...nice bikes

For me, it's a matter of Ride the Fleet on consecutive days.
Not enough in my fleet for anyone to get bypassed for too long.
The 14 of 15 thread inspired, the weatherman cooperated.

After the Day2 ride, my body woke up feeling a bit gravelly - so decided on a smooth ride on a large framed SLX cush. Maybe my favorite ride is into Mt Rainier Natl Park to the Carbon River Entrance, uphill going in, cruise back to your start. It's a low traffic rural ride that takes me to my happy place.


Start in Buckley for a 32 mile ride. I go from the parking area at the Veteran's Memorial and being a Navy family "Anchors" took first billing but was wearing a Ranger t-shirt from brother-in-law so Army gets a squeeze - as do all vets from all wars. The mileage marker is a couple of miles from the start. Wilkeson has a few older storefronts like the Saloon

Keep I'm coming. I'm working on the same sorta thing to get the old juices going this years. Trying to work through all my bikes once before repeating. I'm up to 10 different bikes. I didn't have the sense though to take pictures, LOL!

Past Wilkeson the road climbs to Carbonado, without a shoulder = no pics til Carbonado.
The row houses in a coal mining town remind me of Tenn Ernie Ford's song 16 Tons of #9 Coal, I owe my soul (and mortgage) to the Company Store.

Beyond Carbonado the pics speak for themselves. Almost zero cars, 3 motorcycles. The pavement is good = smooth in some spots, worn chipseal in others - but NO broken pavement or grooves, important on parts of the eye tearing descent (but only a couple of spots). More than once the sound of a stream or creek near roadside surprised me. Foliage is growing but not yet flowered.


edit = love big trees, glacial fed rivers - and the fact that Rainier is highly monitored for seismic activity. This route (Carbon River) is the primary lahar path, should the mount blow out toward the northwest.


I encourage all locals to go overnight backpacking in this area with me. Sometime later - like summer.

Blurp about Day 3 bike - to follow


1985 Merckx Corsa Extra, SLX f/f - 60 X 58.25 with 18.25 HT. Aside from the larger AD frame (Day1), the Merckx has the longest front center @ 60.8cm, which I think makes it Merckx 'Century geometry' for stable handling for the lightweight material. Chainstays kept relatively short @ 41.25cm.
Pics from today (in post above) show it wearing 22mm Conti Sprinters, tubulars on Mavic GL330s, Cinelli stem, CdMonde bars. I like C's aero posts. Campy NR derailleurs/shifters. For this build I wanted a 'bike for the hills' and the VO 48/34 w/ drilled rings works delightfully, and keeps the rear cog count to a minimum.


I am 3rd owner. First owner raced it 1 or 2 seasons, bought by a man in Colorado Springs who rode it about 8 years let it sit, but then had it repainted by CycleArt. I saw it on ebay as a complete bike for a long time, price was high; he finally parted it out and sold the f/f to me reasonably. Future plan is to put 25mm Veloflex when the Sprinters wear out. It already rides like a cloud on decent pavement, I expect the Veloflex 25s to make it cloudlike on chipseal. Otherwise, it's about perfect. The saddle is pretty and it's well worn and is not my century saddle. Wish the frame+fork had more chrome.


And thanks to any and all of you locals who may have assisted me in the build. I'm a terrible mechanic most of the time.

You say fortnight up in them there parts, like we do in the auld country?

That ride looks inviting. Let me know next time you get out there. I note your close-ratio FW; is the ride fairly flat?

DD

Elevation @ Buckley is about 700', Carbonado about 1200', about 2000' near Park boundary. The steeper pitches are short, so not too hard -- or as hard as you wish to ride it.

Oh Geeze, I love that Merckx, even though it's tricky to spell. 😎 That's an unusual frame isn't it, being SLX and that tall? Cool pics, altogether, keep 'em coming. 🙂

I'll address that ??? (sort of) with today's ride bike, if i can get my rear in gear and go.

That Merkx is outstanding. .I have veloflex 23 front/25 back on one of my bikes...they are a good tire.