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Let's be boring and talk bicycles!

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JonathanGi

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Out on the bike this morning and not on the turbo. Used my incredibly old, steel, 67.5 fixed. I am that old school. Only reason I went was because it wasn't windy and it wasn't raining. A little 25 mile loop.
Running this evening.
Favourite bikes anybody?
The tandem for me!
 
Mountain bike for me - more comfortable than the drop handlebars and fun to get off road.
If I had one, a gravel bike would probably suit but I don't have space for new bikes even though my partner tells me the perfect number is one more than you have ... he only has 3 at the moment.
 
Straight bars on my fixed and on the tandem. You can never have too many bikes. I'd like a gravel bike particularly as I live on the edge of a forest.
 
I liked racing bikes and used to hang around Stan Miles' cycle shop in St Albans. He was very patient with us lads. I popped in frequently between 12 and 16. Then the motorcycle bug bit hard! My last bike was Raleigh dual purpose bike but unfortunately I developed an arthritic hip . I haven't ridden a bike in a decade
 
I started racing in 1969. But the last time I won anything was in 1972. I still have the medal!
 
Drop-bar gravel bike, wide clearance (normally ~35mm but at this time of year ~40mm tyres) nice and comfortable especially with the diabolical state of the roads and difficulty of working out what is just rubbish tarmac and what is an actual hole when it's wet!

Come the drier months if I'm not riding to see people I'll ride on the road to get to an interesting looking bit of off-road (e.g down to Salisbury on road, then cross-country to Stonehenge and back on the MoD perimeter paths), gravel bike works well for this use-case.
 
I'm going to have to get one. Can't beat a fixed though. I have climbed Sutton Bank on a fixed. Going up was hard work but ok. But back down again....
 
Prefer one with an engine. :D
 
I have a very boring 3 speed now. I used to have racing bikes of some quality - my dad had a shed full of lightweight parts.
He did an apprenticeship in bike building and way back in the dim and distant days used to make bikes for speed trials, best time for 25 and 50 miles used to be in the Guinness book of records.
When tuning up a newly built tandem he went out with a rather beefy young fellow on the back seat for a last run before handing it over, and they were passing cars.
Two really fit athletes on a lightweight tandem often resulted in the whole thing being wrecked in a weekend, everything bent, twisted and broken.
 
MikeyBikey said:
I am baffled the prices people will pay for a ropey old one. Tried one just the once and felt far to small for me!
Click to expand...

Would be far to small for me now lol

Can imagine original secondhand one's will fetch a good price, haven't been on bike for years now & much prefer walking.
 
One thing about Raleigh Chopper's that I'm sure you've all been wondering..... how well would one do being ridden by an ex junior national hill climb champion? Well the answer is right here.

 
I got a Raleigh Bomber when I first started work. Larger frame than the BMX craze happening at the time.
Kept it for years in the garage after passing my driving test. 20 years back decided to take it out? Noticed the back wheel buckled. Must have been hit by the car. It got scrapped.
 
I have two, both very old. One pure road bike - a Klein Quantum, and the other is sort of an experiment put together by local bike shop - a mountain bike frame but with wide tyres and road gear. Makes it pretty much bullet proof.
 
JonathanGi said:
Out on the bike this morning and not on the turbo. Used my incredibly old, steel, 67.5 fixed. I am that old school. Only reason I went was because it wasn't windy and it wasn't raining. A little 25 mile loop.
Running this evening.
Favourite bikes anybody?
The tandem for me!
Click to expand...
I like the sound of yours - how about a pic?

I don’t have one, but I love the look of pre-70(?) 531 frames, beautifully pencil slim seat stays, brazed lugs. Bars with proper tape, cables that follow a smooth curve without being strapped under bar tape or worse. Gear change on the down tube…..

You get the idea?

I haven’t ridden a fixie since early 60s, the year not my age. I have a rubbish Trek, recycled milk-bottle frame, Shimano stuff, calliper brakes, something that’s called suspension - yuk.

I look, but haven’t yet found a suitable oldie, but I’d like to build one with Sturmey 3sp and drum brakes. As close to maintenance free as you can get.

Ah, well. It’s raining here so not urgent. 😉

Edit: The bike that’s in my mind is my old Carlton, that had nice chrome fork ends and drop outs, and a lovely blue laquer over what I assume was chrome as it certainly wasn’t metallic, but had a glint. Oh gosh, my eyes are beginning to water - must be a draft.
 
I have a Jack Taylor tandem - handbuilt to fit. We still have some ancient campag pedals and proper gear shifts on the downtubes. My handbuilt Paul Donohue tourer with hand made racks. A Saracen alloy frame bike with a huge gear (for me, anyway) of 52x13, or 108 inches. A Giant folder designed by the much missed Mike Burrows. A PDQ recumbent. And the single fixed.
 
I used a Dawes galaxy for years but switched to straight handlebars rather than drops, and a comfy saddle. My OH still has his but I switched to one with wider tyres. Walk most of the timmmie so it doesn’t get the use it used to when I cycled to work.
 
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