New old bike
Ever since my old bike (a ‘99 Rocky Mountain Hammer Race) was stolen earlier this year, I’ve been extra-paranoid about its replacement. I love riding my Devinci Sydney, but the thought of locking it up somewhere and coming back to find it gone is too much to bear. Losing the Hammer was traumatic enough.
As a result, I’ve ended up biking far less than I should. So this weekend I picked up an old beat up road bike at Our Community Bikes. Its a really neat bike shop that recycles old bikes and parts. You can rent a work stand and their full range of tools for $5/hour - not a bad deal!
My “new old” bike is nothing pretty to look at. But used 62cm Bianchi frames aren’t easy to come by. The bike fits me pretty well and it handles quite nicely. Once I get the hang of the downtube shifters I’ll be tearing up the pavement in no time…
I do the saem thing! Luckily I still have my trusty 1989 Canondale. Gloss black with large sections of paint missing & chipped away (coated with clearcoat afterwards), downtube shifters… the only clear give-aways are the Mavic rims and clipless pedals. If you look real close you'll see the drive-train is Campy, but it's been scuffed a bit too. My first "real" road bike.. took me all over Germany. At first I just couldn't get rid of it for sentimental reasons, now it serves as my steady workhorse, getting almost as much use as my "other" new road bike.
Eric Heupel — 20-Jun-2005 19:06Now that I have a digital camera, I should post a picture of the old Bianchi. I suspect that in its prime it was no match for your Cannondale (the drivetrain is mostly SunTour). But rust and dents aside, I still rip past cyclists on much nicer bikes.
I'm happy to report that I've gotten the hang of those damn shifters, they're pretty nice once properly adjusted.
jerome — 21-Jun-2005 00:26