Gorgeous old bikes!

Thumbnail of image from bicycle gallery on pbase.com

OK, OK. I know I'm a little nutty about old bikes. Today I found another site with some truly lovely old machines like this one, a 1907 Racycle with an enormous front chain ring. I'm intrigued by the bicycle bell with an embossed turtle on top.

There are a wealth of photos here. Enjoy!'

LINK

Cool old bike

I visited Tom's Bicycles in Tulsa this afternoon, and while poking around in the back room, I came across this! It's a lovely Italvega from the 1970's with a full Campagnolo component group. The frame is Columbus, as was customary on Italian bikes at the time, but what was truly astonishing was the bike's condition.



I would have given my eye teeth for one of these back in the day. At the time, a Raleigh Professional or Schwinn Paramount with full Campy sold for about a thousand dollars - well out of my price range since I made only about eight thousand a year at the time. Tom plans to sell this one on E-bay.


Another astonishing thing was the story that went along with the bike. An elderly couple living on a farm were allowing their grandchildren to play on the bike up until one of the sew-ups went flat. They brought it into the shop hoping to have the tire fixed. Tom - being the stand-up guy that he is - told them what they had and offered a fair price for it. They left happy.

This bike is lovely....and it's my size. But I couldn't justify buying it only to hang it on the wall. I'd ride it and ride it hard. The bike deserves better than that.

The ultimate fixed gear

This was listed on Tulsa Craigslist today. It's a reproduction of a penny farthing from the late 19th century. The owner is asking $1495 and I honestly do not know if that's a good price for one of these bikes. The headbadge says "Boneshaker".

I remember these from the 70s. I was tempted to ride one but never had the chance. These days the prospect of that long fall would scare me.

The photo above was reduced and desaturated. The original shows the copper finish and is much nicer.