Be Vewy Quiet...

When hunting old bikes in the wild, it is best to approach downwind and observe them unawares. If they catch your scent, they will often run off, but can be easily tracked by the trail of rusty nuts and bolts they leave behind, as well as their trademark squeals. Spotted in Balboa Park last weekend; a Schwinn Racer, I believe, with a slightly different handlebar shape than mi...

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Down Townies Ride Report

Today's Down Townies ride took us around the 'hoods of South Park, Golden Hill, North Park, University Heights, Kensington, and Normal Heights and finally ended up at the Adams Avenue Folk Festival. This was one of largest rides we've had so far, and this contributed to a small group of us getting seperated at the back. Eventually, we lost the main group entirely. We're thinking of calling ourselves the Down Shifties. We are officially the slowest of the slow! Oh well, everyone knows the cool kids hang out in back.Once we got seperated, we figured, hey let's do our own thing, and stopped at an...

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What? A Relief!

Putting the Wald rear rack/baskets on the Columbia marked the last major task associated with the bikes in my stable (for a while, knock wood), and I must say, I'm incredibly relieved. If you follow this blog, you know that I've been working on at least one project now since July 2008. First, the Runwell, then a short break, then the Huffeigh, then recently the Schwinn, with the Mundo thrown in there in the middle (the Mundo is still a project, but a very slow one, so I don't count that).As much as I really do enjoy doing refurbishment or restoration work, I also get tired of never having things...

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1955 Huffy/Raleigh Sportsman FINISHED!

Sweet Fancy Moses, this has been a long project! I started this back at the end of November, which makes it just shy of a full five months. Here's what I did:-CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN-replaced crappy saddle with less-crappy used Brooks B72-replaced stuck stem/bars after sawing off original-replaced badly pitted and gouged crank axle-replaced crank cotters-replaced missing hub hardware and shifter cable-replaced tires/tubes/rim tape-replaced brake shoes-replaced grips-cleaned and repacked headset, bottom bracket, hubs-sanded, primed, painted fenders, top tube, chain stays-touch up and clear coat entire...

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Sixth Annual National Meeting of Ancient Bicycles, Portugal

Going to be in Portugal this summer? Need an excuse to go? Here's one:For more information, go to Men in Bike (English & Portuguese, mostly Portugues...

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Chicago's 1st Annual Winston's Tweed Ride

Since the OBB has roots, if not origins, in the Windy City, I'm quite happy to post this announcement for the First Annual Winton's Tweed Ride. Says the press release:Inspired by The London Fixed-Gear and Single-Speed Forum's Tweed Run and challenged by San Francisco's Thursday Tweed Ride, I would like to announce the 1st Annual Winston's Tweed Ride! This celebration of herringbone, hip flasks, and our noble steeds will be hosted by British Bicycles of Chicago, or the BBC.Everyone is invited! If you have a Brit bike, do ride. If you don't, but enjoy tweedy elegance,...

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Bike-Mounted Grill

Spotted at Streetsblog and I wanted to pass it along to people who might not see it there. Old bike + tiny grill = Freakin' Swe...

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Down Townies/Earth Day Ride

I haven't been making it to the weekly Sunday Down Townies rides for a few weeks, but today I debuted the Huffeigh, which went very well. I'll have another post soon about finishing it up. I didn't even manage to get any photos of it today, so I'll just dedicate a whole other post to it.The ride today went to Balboa Park for one of the largest Earth Day celebrations in the nation. It was pretty cool, I must say, and the very best part was the secure bike valet parking offered by the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition. Of course, I forgot to take a picture.I was only able to hang out for about...

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Meet the "Grocery Racer"

Here's the finished product on the 1962 Schwinn Racer refurbishment. The bottom bracket, headset, hubs, everything, were almost completely pristine once cleaned up, and although there's nothing more I can do with the paint (can't bring it back if it's gone) short of repainting it, which I'm not about to do for a long time, I kind of like the "beater" look. I took the front fender off because it raised a godawful ruckus, even on perfectly smooth pavement (which is hard to come by around here).The hub shifts well, except for skipping in third. I've done all the exterior troubleshooting I can do,...

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Just What I Need

Another way to waste time online. This looks like it's been around for a while, but I'm usually behind the curve on these sorts of things, so I just found out about it. It's a fun little tool you can use to create a mockup of your perfect bike. There aren't as many options for configuration as I would ideally like, and the color on the fork in the mockup above doesn't match the frame, but you can at least get an idea of how a project might turn out. I tried to get close to what I hope the Mundo fixed-gear project will look like when finished (still a long way off--the stuck seat post is still...

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Fits and Starts

My apologies, readers, for being so inconsistent with my posting lately. I haven't had a lot of time to devote to either my bikes or to the OBB the last couple of weeks, but today I picked up the first of the last of the stuff needed to finish off both the Schwinn and the Huffeigh, and the rest should arrive on Thursday. I put the new tires on the Schwinn, and I'm working on a way to attach the rear rack/crate for carrying groceries. I'm hoping to have both bikes done by next weekend, and will hopefully get to take one of them for a ride on Sunday with the Down Townies. If I could ride both at once, I probably would.Anyway, thanks for your patience, and don't forget to send me those photos of your own Reader Projec...

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The Old Bikes of Spring II

And speaking of projects:CALLING ALL OLD BIKE BLOG READER PROJECTS SUBMITTERS!Now that spring has more-or-less arrived, let's see how your winter projects came out! I would very much like to post after photos of all your hard work, and preferably, a nice "action" shot of your refurbished/restored bike on the road or trail. If you're not quite done with your projects yet (like some old bike bloggers, ahem...), just send along a photo of your progress at this point, and then maybe another when it's finished. Half the fun of finishing is getting to compare the before and after shots, so let's see what you've got!So, send me an email with a few photos and a quick description of the work you've done, and I'll post them up here as they come ...

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The Old Bikes of Spring

Now is the time to haunt Craigslist if you're looking for an old bike to restore or refurbish this spring. As people clean out their sheds, basements, and garages for spring cleaning, they just want to get rid of these "rusty old clunkers" and put them up for just a few bucks. In the last few days, the following CHEAP old bikes have been posted to my local Craigslist, along with several others without photos, all for $50 or less. Alas, with two almost-finished projects, and one long-term unfinished project, I can't justify rescuing any of them. Sigh.Cycleworks Tyseley, Birmingham, England, single-speed...

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Sure Folly

I've opened up another blog, called The World Awheel, which is going to be a catch-all for the thoughts, ideas, ramblings, and other bike-related detritus that floats around in my brain most of the time, and which don't fit on the OBB. It's going to be a very sporadic beast, I think, but will perhaps be of interest to my readers here. Give it a look from time to time, and don't be afraid to leave a comment.&nb...

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Pennyfarthing Help

I received this email from Nicky last week, and since I don't know anything about pennyfarthings, original or reproduction, I'm posting it here to see if anyone can offer any help. Just leave a note in the comments if you can help, or if you can suggest a resource that might help Nicky.I couldn’t resist a reproduction pennyfarthing about 17 years ago and bought it.  Since then I have been told it is likely to be a limited edition reproduction constructed during the 1960s by Raleigh.  Unfortunately, Raleigh had no archive records at that point and I’m wondering if you are aware...

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Ignore the Drugs, Enjoy the Bike

This commercial has been running for some time, but I've just now found a YouTube video of it. I'm pretty conflicted about posting an advertisement for a pharmecutical company, but I'll just assume that nobody here gives a bibble about the drugs anyw...

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Yet More of Chicago's Old Bikes

Okay, this is the last of 'em. Mostly a mish-mash. Captions above images.I can't believe I don't remember what kind of bike this was on.Antenna-looking shifters on a Schwinn -- very cool.I hope nobody rides this crashed Raleigh, but I think they do. Yikes!Signs with bicycles on them do not a bike-friendly city make.Executive 3-speed, made in Austria.Starjet Sports Tourist, 3-speed. Never heard of it.What's wrong with this picture?Yup, you guessed it: the banana in the basket has gone b...

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Online Museum of Tradesman's Delivery Bikes

Just found this beautiful site, definitely worth a look.Museum of Tradesman's Delivery Bi...

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More Old Bikes in Chicago

I saw a ton of great old bikes on my trip, and here are a few of the most interesting, although not always the most-loved.This lovely Manufrance Hirondelle mixte (no date obvious) was one that I really wanted to rescue. Check out the original white tires! The entire bike just screams quality, but the bars struck me as especially cool. Unfortunately, it's just rusting away, locked up, but apparently unattended.A lovely Dunelt, which has unfortunately seen better days. This was another one that I really wanted to rescue. I forgot to check the year.A beautiful, well-loved and definitely actively-used...

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Chicago: Land of Schwinn

So, I've been out of town for a few days, back to Chicago, where we used to live. Although it was not the primary purpose for my trip, I couldn't help but take a whole lot of photos of all the old bikes hanging around my old neighborhood of Hyde Park (and President Obama's neighborhood, woot!), and the campus of the University of Chicago. There are waaay more old bikes around than when I used to live there, go figure.In the heyday of the mid-twentieth century bicycle boom, Chicago was to Schwinn as Nottingham was to Raleigh. Nowadays, Schwinns are no longer built in Chicago, nor are they likely...

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