parkrndl
Finally riding a big boys bike
A little reluctant to post this one, because it's a cheap entry-level 10-speed from the early '80s... but it was special to me, so a little background first.
My dad was an accountant. He used to do taxes on the side for small businesses. One of his customers was a surf shop near New York City that also sold bicycles. On one of his trips to the shop, in maybe 1981 or 1982, he took me along. I got to choose my first ten-speed on that trip. Over a period of a few years, from maybe 7th grade till the time I got my drivers' license, I rode that bike ALL OVER Long Island with a few friends who also skipped the BMX craze and got into ten-speeds. We read Bicycling Magazine, scanned the pages of Bike Nashbar, bought Bellwether and Rhode Gear and Cannondale bags, put high-performance tires on our low-performance bikes. I also "upgraded" other stuff; I remember I took off the suicide brake levers and hacksawed the mounts so that brake hoods would fit, and I converted the brakes to center-pulls I found on someone's junked bike. Pretty sure I put on aluminum handlebars and stem, and I'm sure I replaced the seat at some point. I think I even converted the stem shifters to clamp-on down tube shifters. Never got around to upgrading from the cottered crank, though.
Then I got a nicer bike with a double-butted frame and aluminum rims and Suntour BlueLine components right around the time I got my drivers' license... so we all know how much that nice new bike got ridden.
Somehow, though, I have no recollection whatsoever of what happened to that first old ten-speed that I logged so many miles on and loved so much. No pictures of it that I can find, either. I've done a couple of Web searches for the make and model, but they come up pretty much empty, and none of my current bike-hobby friends have ever heard of it.
Imagine my surprise, then, when this past weekend at a VW and bike show/swap meet, I found the exact same make, model, size, and color in a row of crusty bikes that I'm sure the vendor had rescued from the dump. I HAD to bring it home.
The freewheel is pretty jammed up at the moment. It'll turn with some force applied, but it's not rideable. Front brakes are just for show right now too. I want to clean it up and make it rideable first, and eventually go back through all my old upgrades... remove the extra brake levers, add centerpulls, down tube shifters, foam handlebar sleeves (oh, did I mention them before?), maybe even finally upgrade to that cotterless crank...
For now, though, I'm just looking at it in the basement and reminiscing.
My dad was an accountant. He used to do taxes on the side for small businesses. One of his customers was a surf shop near New York City that also sold bicycles. On one of his trips to the shop, in maybe 1981 or 1982, he took me along. I got to choose my first ten-speed on that trip. Over a period of a few years, from maybe 7th grade till the time I got my drivers' license, I rode that bike ALL OVER Long Island with a few friends who also skipped the BMX craze and got into ten-speeds. We read Bicycling Magazine, scanned the pages of Bike Nashbar, bought Bellwether and Rhode Gear and Cannondale bags, put high-performance tires on our low-performance bikes. I also "upgraded" other stuff; I remember I took off the suicide brake levers and hacksawed the mounts so that brake hoods would fit, and I converted the brakes to center-pulls I found on someone's junked bike. Pretty sure I put on aluminum handlebars and stem, and I'm sure I replaced the seat at some point. I think I even converted the stem shifters to clamp-on down tube shifters. Never got around to upgrading from the cottered crank, though.
Then I got a nicer bike with a double-butted frame and aluminum rims and Suntour BlueLine components right around the time I got my drivers' license... so we all know how much that nice new bike got ridden.
Somehow, though, I have no recollection whatsoever of what happened to that first old ten-speed that I logged so many miles on and loved so much. No pictures of it that I can find, either. I've done a couple of Web searches for the make and model, but they come up pretty much empty, and none of my current bike-hobby friends have ever heard of it.
Imagine my surprise, then, when this past weekend at a VW and bike show/swap meet, I found the exact same make, model, size, and color in a row of crusty bikes that I'm sure the vendor had rescued from the dump. I HAD to bring it home.
The freewheel is pretty jammed up at the moment. It'll turn with some force applied, but it's not rideable. Front brakes are just for show right now too. I want to clean it up and make it rideable first, and eventually go back through all my old upgrades... remove the extra brake levers, add centerpulls, down tube shifters, foam handlebar sleeves (oh, did I mention them before?), maybe even finally upgrade to that cotterless crank...
For now, though, I'm just looking at it in the basement and reminiscing.
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