Which vintage bike to take to Portland, Maine?
 

I will be heading to Portland, Maine to hang with the two kids who moved away from Kentucky during the first week of July. My wife has been up there a few times but I have not. I don't have a clue what the riding is like. Which vintage bike should I take (keeping the vintage content)? The 79 Raleigh Super Course which is set up for my version of fast riding (not fast at all), the 82 Trek 61x which is set up for meandering road rides, the 94 Diamond Back Apex which is set up with Schwalbe Big Apples for all rounding or the 93 Paramount Series R50 set up as a mountain bike. Riding won't be the main focus of the trip as we will also be sitting on the beach and sailing.

I have no clue what the tell you other than to suggest finding out what the terrain is like and let that (and the gearing, tire and road or trail surface variables) be your guide. If that doesn't answer the question, my completely uneducated guess would be to take all-rounder. That should get you through this trip and, based on the experience, you can fine tune on future trips.

And remember, this opinion is worth exactly what you are paying for it..

There's plenty of relatively flat riding in Portland, usually around or across a body of water. You have to head pretty far inland to encounter hills, so I wouldn't worry about low gears unless riding will be a primary focus. It's a great city with really good food and beverage options.

Take the Trek 6-series, particularly if it has gears and you enjoy riding the bike. Two-lane roads go all over the place there, particularly in South Portland.

You might consider the Apex if you'll be doing mainly riding in Portland itself.

I agree with @kunsunoke, take the Trek. There are a few nice bike shops but none seemed to have any C&V rentals.

I ended up renting a carbon Canondale SuperSix with brifters from Cyclomania, it was fine but a complete departure from what I like and am used to. The girlfriend was able to rent a LeMond Alp D'Huez also from Cyclomania.

They had a really nice old Bob Jackson high up on a wall for display that was not for sale :(

Otherwise, everything else was very modern.

One of the bike shops (Port City Bikes) had free Portland bike maps.

We hope to keep bikes with friends next time for future visits. In Portland, we rode around the Back Cove, the Eastern Promenade, over the bridge to S. Portland and on the Greenbelt Walkway, to various other places between, and to Fort Williams (where you can buy a lobster roll out of a truck).

We did around 26 miles. It was great. I feel like we only scratched the surface.

Portland, Maine?

One hand-made from lobster chitin?

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Those are all steel, they will instantaneously start rusting in Portland's sea air miasma (I know, my location is Kansas, but I got theya from heya a few times HAHA Pepperidge Farm). Bum a friend's Cannondale.

I might be able to build one from the pile of lobster shells left behind by my wife. She loves it and it is cheap up there. The kids buy it right off the boat.

FWIW - have ridden there myself - many times, in fact. I used to have customers up in Maine, and I brought the Dahon 7 in the usual briefcase.

Thanks for the suggestion. All my bikes have gears. I live in the foothills of the Appalachians and, while I love the idea and the look of single speeds, I have no plans to get strong enough to ride a single speed around here.

I don't associate with people who have aluminum bikes.

J/K I have one currently and have had two others over the years. The current aluminum bike is a fatbike so it did not make the list.

I was going to suggest taking one with gears you like because much of New England is hilly even near the coast. Then I read @nlerner 's reply about flat areas around Portland; he's ridden there so he knows the specifics. And if you can ride Berea then you can ride Portland. Bottom line - any bike you are comfortable with. Don't worry about the air unless you are going to be storing the bike for years in a damp basement. Anywhere on the east coast can be humid but New England's air is often quite dry too.

Even these?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...47da073819.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...88844e9c04.jpg

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Oh, I could be persuaded.

Its been a more than a coons age since I've lived in Portland, so my reviews of the best happy hour free pizza is probably past due.. But as far as riding in the vicinity of Portland, there are "country road" suburbs in all directions out from the city, which can be a wonderful excursion, but its best to avoid them during rush hour because the road infrastructure is totally overloaded by the volume of commuter traffic.

I'll just wait out the rush hour traffic on the beach or in a bar or something.