Single Speed Conversion Completed

Here is the bike I was working on these days. Ended up knowing a lot more about tire sizes, crank types, etc.

This is a similar bike, not the same, before the work started.




This is what it looks now.

Faster Than Amazon Prime

I sold some software on Amazon and the buyer happened to be 7 miles away.
Just came back from dropping it off on my bike. That must be the fastest delivery the buyer must have experienced so far from Amazon, on the same day, faster than Amazon Prime.

My Pic from India Day Parade in Edison NJ 2009

Would have been nicer if it showed the rest of the parade! That is the MGX - Orange bike and Schwinn - in maroon

NYC Saturdays Car Free Bike Path - Summer Streets

Just caught it on the on the news yesterday. Here is the URL
http://www.nycbikemaps.com/spokes/2009-car-free-summer-streets/

I guess I will try to be there on 8/22, which is the last one, too.

Huffy Regatta

My first bike purchase in the US was a new Huffy Regatta back in 1984. I was low on cash, having just bought a house with all the savings ($5K) used as down payment for a fixer house. I was starting a relatively well paid job and had the option of buying a house in the same town where my job was and commute by bicycle, if the car I had eventually failed, (It was a rusty AMC Hornet '74 wagon) or buy a new car and postpone the house. Well, we bought the house and also bought the Huffy Regatta, ladies model, so that my wife can ride it, too.

I rode it to work about 3 miles away, as many days as I could, unless it was raining or snowing. Eventually bought a new car in 86. Later, the bike was also used to transport my son to a nursery school and to a YMCA for swimming lessons, as we were a 1 car family. We had installed a plastic child carrier in the back. I still remember taking him on evening rides around the neighborhood and he will doze off dangerously tipping his head and torso on the right side. I would have to hurry home then.

Yes, that Regatta had served us well. I think we sold it when we sold that house and had to move into a smaller apartment.

The picture above is not the same bike, but very close. Mine did not have the rack.

Let's try again

I have been unemployed and re-employed since my last post. I think I am more into bicycling now than I was before, though the riding part is shorter than the thinking about bikes part.

Recently, I purchased a Randor Triathlon, almost new bike, found out it was a low end brand, was heavy for a road bike, had cottered cranks and steel rims. Sold it to a guy who happily rode off on it to the train station.

Before that, I could not walk away from a Columbia Men's road bike. It was in bad shape. The guy selling it cleverly arranged the meeting at 9pm. Front tire rotten, and I would have walked away from it had I noticed that it had 26" wheels, steel rims, one piece crank, etc. But I have made it a project bike. I was even advised on a forum to abandon the project but now stripped completely, repained a flat black, from metallic blue, it looks much better and promising. New tires and tubes are on the way, due to arrive next week. I have cut the curved parts of the drop handle bars and reversed it make to look cooler, like one of the fastboy bikes. Don't know fastboy? Well search for it. It will be worth your while.

Here is a picture of what the Columbia looked like.


I forgot to take pics of the Columbia before and during the transformation. The pic above is of a bike very similar to mine. Mine even had blue plastic tubular grip and bar covering - or whatever that is called. It also has a blue seat which I need to recover.

Went on a ride last evening. Had to get the lottery tickets to see if I can get a piece of the $146 million. I rode the MGX, now equipped with a harvested rear wheel from an already vandalized and abandoned bike I spotted in the area and got the wheels off. The reason for the rear wheel transplant was that I went crazy with my spoke wrench and badly mangled the rear wheel out of the tru, while trying to tighten the creaking loose spokes. I was successful on the front wheel, but the rear wheel just did not cooperate. Now I will need to spend an hour or two some day to fix it.

BTW, the Huffy is sold last week. My wife is comfortable on the Schwinn MTB now and we no longer need the Huffy with its 6 speeds. That was the Huffy Main Street we got for my wife from Amazon. It was a dog of a bike. Uncomfortable and tiresome. Something wrong with the frame geometry, as you felt very uncomfortable riding it.

I saw an ad on CL by a guy who wanted his bike fixed cheaply. Responded and offered but the guy did not care to describe the issues and the cause and did not provide contact info. Typical Asian. He thought he was obliging me by letting me work on his bike. Good bye to him!