Where'd You Ride Today?
 

Hey gang, I thought it might be fun for us to share some pics of where we like to ride our Classic/Vintage bikes...

I try to do this one a couple times a week. 38 miles round trip up to the Griffith Observatory & back home again... A good workout for me right now, and my average speed's getting a little better each time (though I'm still bloody slow uphill). I stop in Travel Town to refill the water bottle, then on up the old Mount Hollywood Drive to sweat...! By the time I reach the gate at the highest point I feel pretty beat, but once over the top I recover fast now.... (we'll see if I still do when the temp's around 100F...) Then downhill to the Observatory (lower than the peak of the mountain), passing that famous sign along the way. Too bad the Observatory is under construction right now; it should be open again next year.

Since nearly everyone has a digital these days (or at least access to a scanner), let's see your ride pics...!

I am predominately an urban commuter kinda cyclist, though I do a couple of longer rides a week. Favorite thing locally is crossing the James-- it's a bit of a pain, as it is illegal to ride a bike on may of the bridges here so you have to dismount and walk on the sidewalk, but the river is Richmond's best feature and the view is worth it. Here's today's little ride, into the arts center I teach at.

First photo is one of my fave things on the ride, the Sauer's Vanilla sign on Meadow and Broad. Lights up at night, and the cook stirs his bowl and pours Vanilla into it. Second photo is the clay room at the Hand Workshop, where I took a class today (i teach animation and cartooning in the same building). They let me bring my ride in. Probably because I've made bikes for several of the staff. And last, no tour thru Richmond would be complete without passing by some dead confederate's statue left over from the Civil War. Here's R.E. Lee, from Loser's lane, oops, I mean Monument Ave..

Took the mountain bike on a local state park trail this morning, though I didn't snap any pictures. I'll try to bring the camera next trip. Ya'lls rides look even more fun (and longer too!)

Aaahhh, both you guys stink. I haven't had a chance to ride all week until today, and then it was only to the LBS for some cable casings for a bike I'm working on.

I had a wedding to do so riding was only in my dreams. Monday is coming, though.

My favorite ride is the open road. We have good space on the shoulders for a small margin of safety. Though we have a topnotch bike path system around the Bay I'd rather ride the open road and not deal with the crowds....but there are times the bike path whispers my name and I heed.



Olds

Just missed you Other Guy, took kids to Travel Town to ride TRAINS. A weekly event it appears. Lots of cyclists use Travel Town parking lot as a ride start point, the typcal bike there is a Lightspeed with a woman of ample hind quarters astride it. Nice to see a "Hellenic" bike out there.

be seeing you

Ha! There are some women riding in these hills with solid muscle hind quarters...! I don't feel too bad when they pass me....;)
I sometimes park at Travel Town as well, ride up to the Observatory, down the other side (on Ferndell), then back up again... A good hill climb day. Not as much saddle time as when I ride from home, but more climbing, and I have more pep up the hills.

I'd been wanting a Hetchins Hellenic for a long while now, and it's unlikely I'll ever find one my size and have the $ in my pocket at the same time... That bike's my new-ish Colin Laing (not quite vintage though the components are), which was recently assembled to look like a Hellenic might have, only a bit different. Here's a closer pic:

I'm with mswantak...I tore a hamstring muscle and haven't been on a bike in four days. and life kinda sucks when I can't ride. And I had to replumb a bathtub valve and faucet. and I hate to plumb. Got mountain bike rides planned for next week, though, and I'll try to remember to pack a camera then...life's little ups and downs, I suppose.

and your ride is...a '79 Trek 520 or so?

Good eye, lurker. That particular Trek is a 1980 410, the low end of the Trek frames from that time... like there was really a low end to the first seven years or so of Trek :D... Ishiwata 022 frameset, retrofitted with Shimano 600 Arabesque grouppo and Campagnolo Gran Record/Rigada wheelset. Phenomenal ride.

I just rode to the gym today. Still trying to master the new clipless. Took my first fall when I tried starting out on an uphill grade and couldn't get enough speed up to clip in.

nah...get out... that's gotta be older than that...they had top tube cable guides brazed on by '80. I agree, though, there was no low end for the early Treks. I have an 022 bike and it rides just like the 531, (imho...)

I rode today for the first time in about a week. I had the rear derailleur start hopping between 2nd and 3rd cog on a steeeeep hill and I came so close to falling over - track standing whilst yer chain skips...

Well, it should be a 77 according to the serial number, but vintage trek contains this tidbit:

"2. Some other serial numbers, beginning with M or N, have date codes of 7,8 and 9. The remaining part of the SNs seems normal. According to the brochures, Trek did not make 41X and 61X bikes or frames during 77, 78, and 79 (also not in 87, 88, or 89). Either these serial numbers do not follow the convention used in the other numbers (likely), or Trek did make 41x and 61X bikes earlier than shown in the brochures (unlikely). A former Trek employee (during 1977-78) says: "There were no 400 nor 600 models at the time, although these could have been introduced in late 1978 after I left." If the TREK letters on the seatpost have no colorwrap behind, the bike is from 1980 or perhaps 1981."

which corresponds to my serial number. The bike also has a glued on headbadge, not screwed on, I think these came in in 1980, and the decals are correct (though I've often wondered about the seat-tube decals on the downtube and how they got there, I don't think I've seen this in other Treks of this vintage). The cats on the v-trek site don't have a picture from the model year. The bike is definitely a bit odd, between the serial number and the decals.

So I kinda figured 1980 as the model year for this one. I'm open to re-adjustment, though, as in dealing with Peugeots I have found dating can be a most inexact science at times. And what info I have is from the v-trek site.

Agreed on the quality of the 022. IMHO, Ishiwata tubing is on a par with anything else, and though it may lack the cachet of some Euro stuff, both the bikes I have made from Ishiwata Tubes-- this Trek and a Bridgestone RB2 (Ishiwata EX)-- are superb rides. I'd grab another if it happened my way.

Don't have many ride pictures but I'll try to get some this weekend. This one was taken last month in Oro Valley near Tucson while we were visiting my in-laws. Tucson is a favorite place to ride, just to far from home & my kids/grandkids to live there. Don

I have a '77 with no cable guides and screwed head badge. I have a '78 with no cable guides and screwed head badge. My wife has a '79 (900) with cable guides and a glued head badge. The '77 is a fastback TX900; doesn't need documents because they only made a few. The '78 came with an original receipt (TX930). Patti's bike was dated from the serial number and we have a reasonably good match on that. On the other hand...Skip's site has many examples from 80 and '81 that don't have cable guides...so patti's bike was a repaint with additional braze-ons or a custom order, I guess. They did some custom orders on various models...

I've gotten to like those cool little cable clamps around the top tube. Do you have additional pictures somewhere?

Maybe we should start an old Trek thread since they're sooo popular.

Like that moto. Grand Jubilee? Grand Record? Mid seventies? Very cool anyway, and riding in the desert with mudflaps and mudguards is tres cool. Assume they are for rainy Washington. Could wish for either Arizona or Washington; heat index here climbed above a miserable 100, rode an old Panasonic tourer to work today, mostly because it has a nice big basket on the back and needed to haul art supplies.

I'll post some pictures on the classics ride thread in the next couple days (Lurker, you should to, I'd like to see your Treks). When I first built this bike up, I had a thread about it, but it seems to have been dustbinned; I can't find it. The bike was bought via ebay, I got tired of finding Treks of this vintage that weren't my size, so I basically traded them for this bike in that special ebay way.

And yeah, I've grown to love those cable clips too. The ones on this bike are Huret, a take-off from an old Motobecane; but I found some Dura-ace ones on a damaged Ross Professional, they'd go better with the 600, so maybe I'll change it. The bike had (shudder) plastic cable clips on it when I got it. They barely did the job and looked hideous, so off they went.

EDIT: Here's the thread on this bike, w/more pictures. Have since added the bag and bar mount bottle cage.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...highlight=trek

Pogue,

Did you e-mail Skip? I have on a few occaisions concerning anomolies
in the serial number charts (hey Luker good job on that I know you
worked on it extensively), such things as bikes brazed in one year
serialized in another (my 84 770 is an 83 bike) team bikes and specials
for some shops.

Marty

"Did you e-mail Skip?"

Lotek, I thought about it, but the site (seems) to cover my exception. Perhaps I should.

Its a Gran Jubile frame I got on e-bay: bar/stem came off a Grand Record, Mavic sealed bearing hubs with Araya semi aero rims & Shimano 600 Arabesque shifters, d.r. & crankset, loosely based on the pictures in a 1978 owner's manual. Mudflaps & SS fenders were a nice touch when 3 guys on Carbon frame Colnagos chased me for a mile or 2 over rolling terrain then caughtup while I was waiting for a red light (Chasing an antique: me & the bike heh!). Even in May I generally rode early mornings to avoid the afternoon heat. don

Today's vintage ride was fine and necessary, more rewarding than completing a tour stage in the Alps, sweeter than the feel of a broken in Brooks, finer than finding a mint Rene Herse in a dumpster. Here are the exciting action photos, brought to us by the most daring of cameramen, to inspire and thrill you all:

If I may continue this thread ...

I did a little post-tropical storm sightseeing today on the Raleigh. This first picture is around the block from my house, where a tree fell on a car. (At least it wasn't a vintage bicycle, I told myself.)

The second is from City Park, which is one of the largest parks in the U.S. It has massive, ancient live oak trees throughout it, although many are infested with termites. This pic was snapped just outside Tad Gormley Stadium, where Tulane plays its football games. You can see some flooding the background.

As I was riding past, a man working in his yard asked if I had a pump for presta valves. Naturally, I did, so I stopped while he brought his bicycle out of the garage. (His own pump stopped working; I gave him some advice on how to service it.) Anyway, his ride was a Raleigh from late in the downtube friction shifter era. It was lugged, red, and appeared to have chrome underneath the peeling paint. It looked like a good rider. He said he also had a Motobecane in the garage. Shoulda photographed the bikes, but I was intent on shooting some storm pics.

First off, I vote that this thread gets made sticky, so it doesn't get buried. I really enjoy seeing where other folks are riding around.

Second, attached is a photo from the "Bike for Breath" metric century I did last Saturday. It was a beautiful day for a ride, and the SF Bay Area penninsula is an outstandingly great place for biking. Nice scenery, pleasant weather, good roads, and friendly traffic.

The photo is Canada Road, going south. I'd been chasing this fellow for a while, and finally caught up with and passed him as he gassed out on that little hill you see on the horizon. It felt good to breeze by a new fangled carbon fiber whiz-bang rig on my lowly 1988 Miyata. :D

Some of these pics remind me of the traveling ceramic elf commercials. You know the ones, with the elf in front of the statue of liberty and the eiffel tower, etc.

That's kind of why I think it should be made "sticky".

Cultural tip o' the day -

To discover the origin of the "traveling garden gnome", rent and enjoy a delightful french film entitled "Emile".

Well, at least I liked it...... :D

John D.