Dear CR community,
As a newcomer to this list, I thought I'd offer a bit of background, per Dale Brown's invitation.
I'm 56, a 2nd-generation Californian, and started riding on a blue Schwinn Stingray when I was six. I've been riding ever since, on:
A Phillips bent-top-tube 3-speed, on which I delivered prescriptions for a local pharmacy.
A Bianchi 10-speed with Campagnolo parts (cost: an outrageous $110 in 1964--a Schwinn Varsity was only $69).
A 21" Peugeot UO-8, purchased for therapy and leg rehab after a 1970 rock climbing accident, was my first college bike at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR, and was stolen less than a year later. I started my (unpaid) career as a bike advocate at the U of O.
A 23" PX-10LE--far too large for me, but fun--replaced the UO-8.
My first Raleigh Pro Mark IV ($425 in 1972-3), a 52 cm c-t frame, was all-Campi-equipped, and saw me across Oregon on a 1975 bike tour.
My second followed after a car hit me. (I cried over that bike- mangling accident.)
A second PX-10LE in 1975-6 (21", champagne green, with Phil Wood hubs, pedals, and BB, plus gold-anodized Mafac 2000 brakes) was my around-campus and touring bike, with the Raleigh Pro (now re-tubed and painted metallic black) reserved for "racing" (club ride training races, mostly).
After moving back to California in 1980, I bought a great 52 cm TREK steel-framed road bike--I think it was a 730--that was stolen from the back of my car. I went back to my champagne PX-10LE until another crash sidelined it, too.
A TREK 2000, my first aluminum framed-bike, followed in June of 1987. (I met my wife Linda on a Western Wheelers Bike Club ride shortly after I got that bike. We've been married for 20 years and have 4 complete bikes between us at this point.) The frame was replaced after the seatstay cluster cracked, and I still have it. although it's "retired."
I bought a 52cm Albert Eisentraut at Stone's Cyclery here in Alameda in 2001 or so. (It had been built for someone else, but, with its longish 54 cm TT, it fits me better than anything else I have ever ridden. I rode it on two AIDS/LifeCycle rides (SF-LA, 585 miles in 7 days). I love its downhill stability at 40-plus MPH....
I also am riding my mother's old bike, a white 1970s Peugeot UO-18 mixte, around Alameda. With Phil Wood hubs (the ones I bought in 1975) and a new Phil BB, front and rear racks and panniers, and 700 x 32 tires, it's perfect for shopping at the weekly Farmer's Market or riding to City Council meetings to advocate for bikes. (Linda has one, too, but hers is blue.)
And now you know why I'm interested in "classic" bikes--and parts-- that are almost as old as I am... :-)
Regards,
Jon
Jon Spangler
Alameda, California USA
hudsonspangler@earthlink.net