I am currently down to one road (700c) bicycle: I have a 1972 Gitane Le Tour de France set up, almost imperatively these days, as a fixed gear. I installed fenders on it permanently. I trimmed down some nice beer bottle cork into bar end plugs, but they broke off. I installed some used Oury grips mixed with Pedro’s Diamond Duelers. My last set of tires were the Vredestein Fortezza SE’s in black & they gripped nicely in the rain. I put a Mr. Tuffy tire liner on the rear tire when I started to get flats due to broken glass on the Pulaski Bridge. They’re probably not the most ideal commuting tires, but in the Winter they had a lot more grip than the Armadillos. A 28mm tire would be more appropriate & I’m contemplating a move up to 32mm’ish with the Pasela TG aramid version.
The last bike I sold was my other road bike, a lime green 1997 Salsa La Raza made in California possibly by Ross Schaefer (or one of his builders) definitely just before he sold Salsa to Q as it was the old sloping top-tube compact design with a 1″ headtube. It had Campagnolo Chorus Ergo Levers on it using 9 out of ten speeds, White Industries titanium hubs, standard Mavic Reflex hoops that James Connell built out in San Francisco. It was pretty solid. I put Mavic SSC brakes which matched the Ergo-Lever cable pull & the braking was excellent. The drive train is all Dura Ace though I bought a cheap 9 speed KMC chain. I have a some old Time ATACs that I still rock. I’ve thought about the Speedplay Frogs, or even Eggbeaters, though mostly I’ve been trying to not buy more stuff.
I’ve bought and sold a nice used 1985 Klein Performance. I also sold on eBay my 1985 Specialized Expedition touring bicycle that I rode to Montreal several Summers ago, that I got from the CCC when I worked there in Portland. Just like the Le Mans, Gitane, and Mercier.
I owned a red/white early 1990’s Centurion Le Mans. This was a nice ride, low stand over, long top tube, Tange 2 steel. Not super light, but a decent, good & honest.
I purchased a white Mercian for full price at the CCC to match the Gitane as dualing cyclo-cross single speeds. To this day only the Gitane is really for me.
Previously in Olympia, WA I had bought a yellow Cannondale Jekyll dual suspension mountain bike with rim linear pull V-Brakes. All the brake and derailleur lines would fill with mud from the NW winters. Disc brakes and sealed lines, I guess that’s a given if you want to mountain bike year round in the Pacific NW.
There was a white Schwinn which took 27″ wheels, which I built 700c fixed wheels for and rode for a spell. I sold the wheels to a fellow bike shop kid at Evergreen and built the frame up for Alison, after accidentally locking myself in the bathroom at the CCC from about 3am-7am.
And Mrs. Krygowski’s Cannondale R500 triple bone shaker road bike.
And a Kona BMX dirt jumper stolen in Olympia, WA.
And of course the purple Nishiki Olympic 12 that I sold to C. It still looks good though when I recently looked at the lug work I realized it was a low-entry level model. I’ve seen much nicer lugs on similar vintage, higher end Miyatas and the like.
And let us not forget the 1998 Kona, bright orange, Jake the Snake [rest in peace]. Jake and I rode many many miles together. A lot of cyclo-cross. A trip up the PCH 1/101 from San Fran to Olympia and a little cross country bike ride from Olympia to DC. When Jake finally cracked, Molly got a new (ugly mixed green) frame out of that one.
Had a couple little old Trek mountain bikes, a 800 or 820 I think, in green metallic. Chris from USC still has it, and uses it, amazingly. There was a smaller black one that got stolen from my driveway with Conor’s bike, it made me sad.
And a BMX bike I crashed really hard in front of my parent’s house with Conor, in the rain and I had rocks embedded in my lip.
And a really awesome tricycle with plastic wheels.
