Bicycle Musings

It has been far far far too cold to train here, which is sad, because that one difficult Monday at Central Park was enough to whet my appetite for more riding. So this has left me, as always, with tinkering. I was going to show you some pictures of my recent tinkerings, but my digital camera is, well, actually frozen. So just visualize all of this. Unmitigated geekery ahead.

The Raleigh is getting closer and closer to race trim. My dear dear friend has helped me acquire some much needed parts (some free clipless pedals that I'll pick up tomorrow) and some much desired parts (very inexpensive Cinelli Criterium handlebars). The goal is to have the more curvaceous bars matched with more modern aero brake levers and a properly long stem (I am very tall). This will give me many more comfortable and aerodynamic hand positions and let me stretch out like I ought to. The clipless pedals will link my feet to the bike and do all sorts of wonderful things in terms of power transfer and efficiency.

Malcom also sent me home the other day with a few lightly used dérailleur pulleys in order to spruce up the Raleigh's old VGt. Included was an arcane old pulley that uses bearings rather than bushings (little steel balls in grease rather than slippery metal just rubbing against stuff and hoping for the best, which is what most pulleys are) I cleaned and re-greased the little gear, and I think I'm going to put it in the Shimano 600 that's on the Raleigh now, just for kicks. It's heavy, but soooo smooth.

Same friend as scored me the bars and the pedals found me the Peugeot frame, which I picked up last night. It's a bit smaller than the Raleigh, and a worse frame in terms of the steel used, but it will definitely make for a fun fixed gear. It's a beautiful green color, and while it doesn't have the beautiful lugs that the Raleigh has, nor the light weight, it will most certainly be a beautiful machine put to good use. I'll post pictures once the camera thaws, I promise.