Bicycles

I am down to two road 700c bicycles: I have a 1972 Gitane Le Tour de France set up, almost imperatively these days, as a fixed gear. I just installed fenders on it permanently. I also trimmed down some nice beer bottle cork into bar end plugs, but they keep ripping off.  My last set of tires were the Vredestein Fortezza SE’s in black.  They grip nicely in the rain.  I put the Mr. Tuffy tire liner back in the rear wheel 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.  Also, 25mm would be more appropriate.

My other road bike is lime green 1997 Salsa La Raza made in California possibly by Ross Schaefer (or one of his shop guys) definitely just before he sold Salsa as it’s the old sloping top-tube compact design with a 1″ headtube.  It now has 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 seems pretty solid. I put on some Mavic SSC brakes which match the Ergo-Levers very well, the braking is excellent. The drive train is all Dura Ace though I bought a cheap 9 speed KMC chain.  I have a some old ATACs that I’m still rocking.  I’ve thought about the Speedplay Frogs, or even Eggbeaters.  I’ve been mostly 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 last summer that I got from the CCC when I worked there in Portland. Just like the Le Mans, Gitane, and Mercier.

I used to own a red 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 ride.

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 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 Chris.  It still looks good though when I recently looked at the lug work I realized it was a very low-entry level model. I’ve seen much nicer lugs on similar vintage but higher end Miyatas and the like.

And let us not forget Jake the Snake [rest in peace].  Jake and I did 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 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. We were 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.