I got back into bicycle riding about thirty years ago. Twenty years, or so, say the turn of the century, my interest shifted to vintage road bikes. During those years I took many pictures of many bikes - Raleigh, Peugeot, Bianchi and then the often forgotten Unusual Bike Finds way up here in Northwestern Ontario, Canada.

Automoto - sold long ago...


BeeKay trike (I am not a trike fan)...


A few Chiorda road bikes have come my way but only one step through that appeared to never been stepped through...


An E-Z Roll Regal that did not roll that easy but the speedo, horn and radio worked just fine...


The lady gave away this old roadster, her late husband's go to and from work bike. She hemmed and hawed at the last moment then gave me the bike. I was not into this style of bike and donated it to a local bike charity. That said, one of the two build projects for this year included a CCM balloon tire boat anchor - go figure...


A neighbor, at the lake cottage, gave me this folder and a set of his and her early seventies Raleighs just to get them out of his garage. Sold the folder and donated the Raleighs...


My one and only fixed gear. Bought it cheap at a yard sale only to discover it was NOT my cup of tea. I did get one more fixed gear, years later, a Trek T-1 or something like that...


This Gattardo was purchased new in Europe (Switzerland or Sweden???) used one time only to tour/ride the Gattordo Trail in the bike's country of origin and then put into storage for a sad reason. The bike was then brought to Canada and, again, stored. When I found it, the bike sported a patina, a serious patina, of dust mixed with saw dust. I donated this bike even though it was a treat to ride...


I had to toss this in also. I was hoping to repair the damaged rear wheel and keep it at the cottage for the grand kids and great grand kids to play with. Never did get it repaired and my wife insisted on returning it to the dump...


I have other unusual finds. We'll see if this sparks interest. If so, I will show some more.

How about the Cycleops.

We had a Berceau-frame Chiorda like that for years but I used it for something else right away, making an MTB (this was back in '83) for my then girlfriend (now wife). Got it as a frameset and pieced it together once I realized a 26x2.125 tire would fit the rear triangle. Used SA drum brakes and various bits to complete it, including a cruiser fork, BMX stem and MX bars. Pink and turquoise (her choice) paint and some braze-ons by Marinoni.


Also had a nifty 650B Helium velo de ville that someone gave us, but we had no space for it so I passed it along.


This little 500A Flandria was brought into the shop by a lady who wanted to fix it up for her grandson but decided she did not want to wait for tires to be found. She sold it to me instead. Turned out to be great wall hanger but a buddy of mine wanted to buy it for his nephew. I gave it to him.


That same buddy riding it. Don't know if the nephew ever got to.