Show your bicycles, sans engines!

[pflaming]

We all like vehicles with wheels, we grew up on tricycles and plastic Big Wheels. So show us your bicycles. Stock or otherwise. 

[1950 Special Deluxe]

Vintage Off Shore folding bike.

350 watts, 36 volts.

Had to rebuild the control system.

[cheesy]

I have quite a few bikes but I'll just start with this one. It's a 1973 Raleigh Super Course frame built by Carlton of Worksop. A buddy gave me the frame after I got hit from behind while on another bike. Totaled the bike and damn near totaled me. Anyway, built up with Super Champ Blue Label rims, Nervar crank with a Viscount chain wheel, and a Sturmey Archer FW 4 speed rear hub modified to a 3 Speed fixed gear hub by moi.

 

This pic shows shows it after it slid down the bike rack and dragged the rear tire on the road before I could stop. Ruined both the tire and the rim. To say I was pissed would be an understatement. It's all better now. I split my riding this past year on this one and my 99 Trek 820 AL mountain bike.

[cheesy]

Seriously, I can quit any time. And this ain't all of them.

 

[Veemoney]

res a Schwin Continental I picked up as a teen. If you look at the front neck it is a lot longer than most so I assumed it to be an extra large frame ball buster. I few years back I modified the vertical post tube, dropped the top bar down in the rear and added the pogo spring for the seat to smooth out the ride. 

 

The yellow bike is a Bianchi chrome-moly 

[cheesy]

I had a Bianchi in the 80's. Light, fast, and as stiff as a sewer pipe. Rode it as a daylight bike in 24 hour time trials with 19mm tires pumped to 120psi.

I got this bike new in 1970. A Robin Hood Lenton Sports. Basically, a Raleigh Sports 3 Speed frame made into a 10 speed at the factory. Currently, a 9 speed using a Sturmey Archer AM 3 speed hub and a Cyclo triple cog. The chain gets moved over by a low end Campy Victory. Handle bar, stem, and seat post are original.

[Veemoney]

My friend had a Raleigh, was a good ride. Bianchi is as you noted fast and great for smooth roads, it came 12 speed from the factory and I have all the stock parts. The Schwinn is still a great all around road bike but back in the day it went off road often.  I still ride it or my newest and only other bike below. Specialized 21 speed set up with Gator road tires, fishing rod holders at the rear tire and tackle bag. Probably should look into some fenders

[Merle Coggins]

These are our Aventon Pace 500 e-bikes in front of Ben Bikin’ in Sparta, WI. We were riding the Elroy-Sparta trail, the first ever railroad converted to recreational trail 

[cheesy]

Myself and a couple of buddies rode the Elroy-Sparta trail end to end several years ago. Late fall and the temp dropped fast on the ride back. The older guy was struggling because of the cold for the last few miles, so we rode on either side of him and kind of guided him along to my van. 

 

Down here in Illannoy, I'm not too far from the Fox River/McHenry County Prairie Trail, that runs from Oswego, IL to the WI state line at Genoa City, the Great Western Trail runs between St. Charles and Sycamore, and the Illinois Prairie Path runs between Chicago and western Kane county.

 

The first bike I ever spent more than $400 on. More like $4000. Also, the only bike I had built for me. Rivendell Bleriot. Smooth riding if somewhat on the porky side with generator/drum brake in the front and a seven speed gearhub/drum brake in the rear. Set up that way, it's a great all weather bike.

 

[keithb7]

My wife and I like to get out. Spring, summer and fall. 

Winter the bikes get put away.

[cheesy]

'nother one. Even though it's been over 10 years since my butt hit the saddle on this one, I keep it for sentimental reasons. In 1991, I participated in the 100th anniversary of the Paris-Brest-Paris Randonee in France. Not a race, per se, but more like a multi-day Time Trial for touring bikes. 1200km/745mi with a 90 hr time limit. Participate in the Prologue, throw in some wrong turns and missed turns, and that 1200km becomes 1500km. Two things that have stuck with me after that experience are that I have never been so tired in my life and I never expected to be in a small French town at 3am, pounding on a screwdriver with a rock to tighten a lock ring. 

 

The bike is a 1990 Miyata 600 GT frame and fork that I hung my own parts on. Hubs are Sturmey Archer drum brakes laced to Araya rims. The drive train is all SunTour. The saddle came off the Robin Hood, so it's over 50 years old. Quick story about the drum brake hubs. I was riding with some friends in Nanterre, a few days before the ride. I was flying down at least a 12% grade at about 50 mph. The traffic light turned red a couple hundred yards ahead and I grabbed two handfuls of brake and slid my butt over the rear wheel so not to skid. I came to a shuddering stop at the light. One of my buddies sniffed and said that it smelled like someone burned their clutch. I said it was probably me and squirted my water bottle on the front hub. The water sizzled.

 

The number plate is from Durban, South Africa. I found it in the dirt while working there.

Edited December 26, 2021 by cheesy

[Furylee2]

This is my 65 Schwinn.

[cheesy]

Last ones and I'll stop.

Green 1968 Raleigh Superbe. What makes it a Superbe instead of your basic Raleigh Sports is the front Dynohub generator, lights, and a locking front fork. This was my Rehab bike. After getting hit from behind on another bike and getting banged up pretty bad, one of my riding buddies took me to a bike swap meet to get me out of the house. While moving around on crutches, I found this beat up Superbe for fifteen bucks. I worked on it while standing with crutches. I had it ready to ride before I was. The day I could swing a leg over it and ride to the end of my driveway meant I was recovering.

I've covered thousands of miles on this one. I replaced the extra heavy Raleigh steel rims with Sun aluminum rims and that made it a completely new bike. Also tossed the 18t rear cog for a 22t which civilized it even more. The seat bag was made from a beat up Boy Scout Yucca pack and the brass thing behind the seat is the tank for a kerosene stove.

The black thing is known by many of my cohorts as The Mighty Dunelt or The Tetanus Express. It's a 1964-ish Dunelt Sports, same thing as a Raleigh Sports but has a Dunelt badge on it. I found it in a dumpster without wheels. It was the test mule while I was working on a 2 speed fixed gear hub conversion. I added a brake after the first hub design failed at the end of my driveway. I lived on top of a hill at that time, too. Once I got the design down and working, this was my main commuter bike for nearly eight years. At 50, I raced several Alley Cats on it and had my ass handed to me every time by kids in their teens and early twenties but I had a ball doing it.

[plymjim]

My old Ross 3 speed. From the 60's maybe?

[cheesy]

Interesting bike. The frame doesn't look American made because it's lugged and brazed. Except for the French built Ross Lions of the 60s and the super expensive hand built Ross Signature series of the 80s, Ross built frames were lugless and welded. It looks like it may be a Raleigh frame, which isn't unusual because they made bikes for just about everybody. The 3 speed hub looks like a Shimano 3.3.3 which could have been spec'd by Ross or it's a replacement.

 

 

[plymjim]

On 1/1/2022 at 8:40 PM, cheesy said:

Interesting bike. The frame doesn't look American made because it's lugged and brazed. Except for the French built Ross Lions of the 60s and the super expensive hand built Ross Signature series of the 80s, Ross built frames were lugless and welded. It looks like it may be a Raleigh frame, which isn't unusual because they made bikes for just about everybody. The 3 speed hub looks like a Shimano 3.3.3 which could have been spec'd by Ross or it's a replacement.

 

 

Cheesy, thanks for all that info. I'll probably take better care of the

old girl now. Pretty sure it was given to me many years ago but 

I can't remember by whom.

[cheesy]

I went to the annual Chicago Winter Bike Swap yesterday and did not come out empty handed. I scored an early 70s high end French Gitane track frame with some darn nice components on it for fairly cheap. The bottom bracket is a Campagnolo, headset and fork are Tange, and seat post is Sugino. The second fork is the original one but if I want to use it, I'll need to find a headset with French threading. I priced some on the bay of evil last night and most were more than I paid for the frame. The French didn't get with BSC standardized threading until the 80s.

 

I plan one building this one up as single speed fixed gear for local bumming. I have another bicycle project in front of this one, though.

[59bisquik]

Here is my old Raleigh...

[cheesy]

Very nice DL-1. Most popular style bicycle ever. 26” or 28” wheels?

[59bisquik]

Cheesy... it has 28" wheels. It is a very tall and heavy bicycle. My favorite part is the linkage brakes.

My neighbor was in the military and brought it home from when he was in Korea. The rear hub dates her as a 1969. I was guessing a bit older due to the linkages and style. 

Edited February 15, 2022 by 59bisquik

[cheesy]

Raleigh made the DL-1 from the teens to the eighties and it was basically unchanged in that time. It’s still being made under license in many Asian countries. I’ve had two different copies from India, an Atlas single speed from the early sixties and a 2012 Eastman that I threw a 3 speed hub on with a 22 tooth cog. That lowered the gearing enough to make long rides tolerable.

 

 I’ve heard a lot of comments of how poor the rod brakes were at stopping all that mass. Poor adjustment or worn pivots in the linkage is usually the cause. In the case of my Eastman, it was sloppy tolerances. After bushing all the pivots and readjusting, I could lock the rear wheel.

 

 I used to say that the front wheel of my Eastman had its own Zip Code and that English bobbies and postmen must have had thighs like tree stumps. I kind of wish I still had one. Plenty of low traffic gravel roads where I live now.

[59bisquik]

This one says made in England somewhere on the bike. To really enjoy it, I need to get a set of tires and true the wheels. It gets alot of questions when I keep it in the back of my Dodge.  

[cheesy]

I’m sure it gets a lot of comments. They are cool bikes. If I am not mistaken, ‘Made in England’ is on the top tube.

[pflaming]

I have enjoyed this post.  All the different bikes, fun to learn about them. I grew up on pones, so i”m a horse person. 

[cheesy]

This one is finished. It's going to my youngest daughter. She rides a 1974 Raleigh Grand Prix now and this will be an upgrade even if it is four years older. I couldn't save the Blumel fenders. Next up is the Gitane Mexico track bike.