My 850 is a 1995. A few years before my son had handed up a Huffy mtn bike he did not want. That bike ended my multi decade hiatus from cycling. After I wore that out and learned that parts would not or could not respond to maintenance I started shopping via CL. Bought the 850 for only $50 as the shifters did not work and the big ring seemed to be mangled (several teeth ground down lower than the rest). I got the shifters working by flushing them with solvent and learned that the big ring was made that way to improve shifting. I did call the PO to explain and apologize .

Its been a great bike. I'm riding it the morning before work at the LBS (my one day per week). It now has 9 "stable mates" but has not been bumped out of the rotation. Drop bar conversion, thumbie said, r rack, Power Grips, kids bike clown horn. I like it.

"Lotta Freaks"

Hahaha! Thanks for the reminder.
How many here might remember this?

I can remember getting "buzzed" and seeing the movie with my buddies.

Good lord! That brought back memories. And yes, I knew the words and the refrains, but the prelude story I'd forgotten except for the mention of the Group W bench. Thanks for posting the link, and bringing back a memento from my early teen years in California. Best time best place anywhere to be a teen during that era. It was a trip!

I always carried a water bottle with a bleach mixture and used it on a couple occasions with aggressive canines. Never had a problem with either of those dogs a second time. 👍

Just out of interest, how many guys here ride a lowstep or step-through bike or would consider one? A friend and I were discussing a new bike I'm considering and when I told him I'd get the standard diamond frame, he asked why and I couldn't give him an answer other than that it just "wouldn't be the thing to do." And I'll admit that it is difficult for me to kick a leg over my bikes without leaning them way over. My standard way of mounting is to put my left foot on the pedal, push off, and swing my right leg over, but I know that one of these days I'll catch my shoe on my rear rack or bag and take and embarrassing if not painful fall!

So what do you think? Are we still hung up on a step-thru bike being a "girl's bike"? FWIW, my friend has one of those "Day Six" step-thru cruiser bikes that he's converted into an e-bike with a wide seat and seatback. It handles like crap as far as I'm concerned, but certainly a different approach to cycling.

Black and white...

Seemed to work out for me... the top of the bars was badly worn but the drops were just dirty and and then cork tape never seems long enough to do the job especially with gel pads.

I do. When my daughter took off with my Cannondale Adventure bike ( with my permission ) I knew I had to get something. I tried a couple “girl’s” bikes but they still seemed pretty hard to get on/off of. I looked around for something even lower and also decided a IGH would eliminate almost all maintenance issues.

So I bought one of these:
Biria easy boarding 8

I’m on my fifth year riding it and still going strong. I got new slick tires after 2 years and lubed the hub then too. It’s quite comfortable for 25 miles which is about as far as I go. I’m 67. Oh, I see it’s out of stock. Bummer, maybe you can find one somewhere. Good luck.

Is Frankie passing Deadhead a number at the 50 second mark**********
'

"Alice's Restaurant" I own a copy of the album on vinyl. The 1st time I heard it was in a barracks at Ft Sam Houston,
texas in 1969 which added to the experience! I've seen a live performance by Arlo a couple of times.

It would appear so, at the 57 second mark to be exact.

Actually the 52 second mark. LOL

Hard to tell, because Candy`s dancing distracts me! LOL

I understand the embarrassment, but I would get one when the time comes, which it will as my hip arthritis advances. At 70 I do what works if I want to keep going.

-
I wouldn't hesitate to ride one. Think it's becoming more "acceptable" (for lack of a better term) for a male to ride one. Mfr's are getting away from calling them "girl's or women's bikes"-looks like people are waking up to the fact that lowstep bikes have a place for riders, other than being female. Noone thinks twice about a woman riding a triangle "men's" frame, shouldn't be any different for a man riding a lowstep frame. At least you're out there riding-if one is needed, go for it!

Why did they make a different frames for females in the early days anyway? Because they wore the ankle length skirts?

Just thought I would put my post #8888 here in 65+.



Not to be morbid,
but
I once had a strong vision that when 88, it would be my year to check out.
20 years to party!

We’re supposed to be too old to care what people think. Agree with bargeon - do what works best for you.

Actually, women wore fashionable cycling "bloomers", not skirts. Reason for the "ladies" bike design was because it was "unseemly" (read this as "sexually suggestive") for a woman to "throw a leg over" a horse - which is why women rode sidesaddle - and that followed through to the mounting of bikes as well. Thus the step through was born (ie: to discourage a gentlemen from get all hot and bothered seeing a lady mount up.)

And now you know.

I like ladies step through frame design more and more now that my gimpy hip is beginning to bother me. Too many skiing tumbles as well as bike miles are slowly telling me I'm finally growing up. Giggle.

I am 67 and thought I had been accepting getting older with grace. However, the past one and a half years I have really noticed a decline in my visual perception, balance, reflexes, coordination, dexterity and mental acuity; especially memory. I am ok with the aches and pains and I know that I am very fortunate to still be in pretty good health., but some of the above mentioned issues really get to me. I have depended on exceptional coordination and reflexes, and dexterity, and have found it very difficult to accept the degradation of them, even more so than the mental degradation. I just hope that I will get to where I can be OK with it and keep moving through life's stages.

I'm 73 and ditto to all of the above, so thanks for summarizing what I'm pretty sure all of us are experiencing. To that I'd add general loss of strength and endurance, but I'm sure most of us are still in the top 10% of our age group.

Some of this was brought home to me the other day when I happened to take my hybrid-style bike onto a section of single-track to take a look at something. I'm not an MTBer and am not familiar with how to handle typical MTB-specific challenges, but I was surprised how shaky I was on one particular place that required threading a narrow off-camber line and going up a short slope with exposed tree roots. I made it, but wouldn't want to repeat the experience. Contrast this with my younger self who used to rip through the woods on a 250cc Husqvarna enduro bike, jumping logs, going off jumps, etc. at speed and not thinking anything of it!

By the way, age-related degradation of my skills is one reason why I gave up riding motorcycles 10 years ago and have not looked back.

I'm 68 years young and i love riding my n=vintage steel bikes. the only problem I had with them was buying another one because it was something I'd like to have had thirty or forty years ago.

A few years ago I came across a bicycle shop out in the country. They had a lot od NOS stuff from the early to mid 1980s. I bought a number of NOS Uniglide cassettes, Dura Ace AX brake shoes, Shimano 600 pedal cleats, gum rubber hoods for my Shimano 600 Arabesque brake levers, and some other items. I have a pretty good stash of old school Deore components too including a complete Deore Deerhead groupset. I think I'm all set for parts for most of my bicycles until I go to that Great Bicycling Nirvana in the Sky. My gran dad live to be well over 100 years of age and thus I have a lot more years of bicycling ahead of me if I'm as long lived as he was,.

Cheers

And I understand exactly what you said here, but for me, this applies to a lot of different things. I too am 68.