What have you been riding lately?

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For this past Thursday's Retro-Ride I dragged out the Apollo. For some reason, people LOVE this thing. It is a mongrel in every sense of the word. I got the frame/forks/seatpost from the junk pile at the local LBS, I spent a few bucks buying the wrong-year shifter for it online because it looks so darn cool, and the rest is just parts I scrounged. NOTHING is "correct" on this thing, but it's a pretty nice rider and it gets tons of attention.

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As usual, we had a mixed bag this week.

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And today I've been tinkering with this:

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I like it better this way than the previous two configurations:

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I've always loved Apollos myself. Enough in fact to edit a post on my class one buildoff.

Which I was out riding last night in it's latest configuration.
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Sent from the edge of an alternate universe...
 
My old Cannondale. Put 25 miles on it today for mileage in the Great Cycle Challenge.

Carl.
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^^^ it always makes me laugh to park whatever I'm riding in the rental bike rack and take a picture. That's my sister on her recumbent trike in the background...
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Sent from the edge of an alternate universe...
 
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I had Muscle Spasm out for a while today. Brakes suck I think I need a different handbrake to go with the manual disc caliper...
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Light up skateboard wheel for my idler. I got it cooking with a hand grinder!
Carl.


Sent from the edge of an alternate universe...
 
And today I had Harlequin out with family riding around my extended neighborhood...

Carl.
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^^^ my daughter on her Schwinn hybrid that we've been modifying since she before she began her college days, not quite a mixte but still pretty cool. My brother-in-law on his recumbent and my sister on her recumbent trike.
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Sent from the edge of an alternate universe...
 
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Went to Newburyport and had the bike back in the house less than 2 minutes before a thunderstorm hit.

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I really like the bronze and white of one of the boats down there. I'm making about a half-dozen models of the boat I'm building, so I think I'll paint one in that scheme. Real one will probably end up light blue or emerald green, though.
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My campus green '72 Collegiate has been my go-to for the last few weeks; I took it on last week's Thursday evening Retro-Ride and then on Saturday morning I took it to Caledonia State Park.
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Turned out to be the wrong bike to take: I thought there would be paved or hard dirt paths, but once you got away from the picnic area there were lots of roots and stones to navigate. I felt kinda like this guy, only less confident.


I've also been logging some miles on my build-off bike, which I am calling a Murray JetCruiser. I really like how solid it is, except for the rear wheel; I need a decent hub to replace the Falcon junker that's on there.
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I had Muscle Spasm out for a while today. Brakes suck I think I need a different handbrake to go with the manual disc caliper...
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ca173ee997945364bdfa5f22909ec7bb.jpg

Light up skateboard wheel for my idler. I got it cooking with a hand grinder!
Carl.


Sent from the edge of an alternate universe...
A hand brake?
Like this maybe?:nerd:
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A hand brake?
Like this maybe?:nerd: View attachment 100229
Hand brakes that make you take your hands off the bars , on a bike with raked steering, are just plain suicidal (hence the name suicide brakes) and I won't do it. But...
I was using a disc caliper from a minibike... as soon as I put an actual bicycle caliper on there, the hand grip I had worked fine. Who'd have thought...

Carl.
 
Well, I moved to much flatter area in Savannah about 6 weeks ago.
Been riding my strandie about 5 days a week around here. My other bikes are hanging in the shed....for now....
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The missus has been talking about getting in shape for a while now. I keep offering to clean up a bike for her so we can do laps around the block together. She finally took me up on it. She actually tried a few days ago on a ladies' '77 Collegiate that I have around here, but she wasn't a fan of figuring out friction shifters and old derailleurs and never left second gear. So today I pulled out this old Free Spirit and puffed it up with a seat I knew she'd like, and off we went. I had her shifting down to 1st for the uphills and up to 3rd for cruising in no time.
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We only did a couple of laps, but she said she already likes it better than the Collegiate. Hopefully it'll stick...
 

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