Greetings,
I joined this fine list the other day, and understand it's customary to introduce oneself and one's bikes.
My story's not much different than many. Grew up in the 60s and 70s riding bikes, got my first actual Schwinn around age 12, rode it for at least five years, when I got a 10-speed and went off to college. Briefly had another bike whilst in the Navy, then went bikeless for many years. Just started riding again about four years ago in Florida. I've gone through a few bikes in the last four years:
1982 Panasonic Sport - Some old Raleigh Capri - 82-ish Centurion Sigma - this was my main transportation for two years and 12,000 miles. - '73 Schwinn Twinn - Unknown vintage Columbia 5-speed tandem - Some piece of junk unbranded tandem. Looked brand-new, but was a piece of kronk from the beginning, nothing but problems. - One or two others
My present stable consists of: - Unsure year Univega Gran Turismo - it's Uniglide - 1982 (I think) Nishiki Olympic 12 - Unknown vintage Phoenix folder - Unknown vintage 'nother folder - Unknown vintage, unknown brand Tandem. Just got it a couple of months ago, just got it on the road a couple of days ago. It's got high-rise bars (the old "Monkey" bars from the '60s, early '70s) - A couple of Fuji mountain bikes (I know you guys don't care about them - what's interesting is that one of them is a folder)
The Univega has been my main ride since I got it a little over a year ago, once I got it fixed up. Nice little adventure finding Uniglide sprockets, Loose Screws to the rescue! It's now set up for touring, racks front and rear, 13-32 cassette, and is getting an SR crankset custom triple 52/40/28 if/when I ever get around to working on it. It's out of action at the moment, needing a bottom bracket.
-Dennis Fariello
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA