Ok, fine, she's just a bike. But a ladies' bike. I think I'll call her Linda.
Our tryst started innocently enough... I recently bought a new house. The most exciting part, besides moving out of my real life wife's parent's house, was that the house included a bike. I found her (the bike, not my wife) in the loft above the garage. The years had not been good to her (still the bike). Faded and chipped paint, dry rotted tires, one of those Schwinn lighting systems that just seem so clunky, a lock around the seatpost that suggests that a one point somebody treasured her, but then later opted to toss the old hag. But like a lady of the night, Linda still has some tricks left.
The interwebs tells me that she's a 1973 Schwinn Super Sport, size 20", in Sunset Orange. The frame is certainly the highlight. Curvaceous and robust. She's just asking to be ridden all over town. The grocery store. The park. The laundromat. Yeah, you could ride her anywhere. Notably, Super Sport frames were constructed of straight gauge 4130 Cro Mo, a step up over the lower model's (i.e. Varsity) heavier steel. Even better, they were fillet brazed by hand (real American hands) in Chicago rather than electro-forged by machines (real American machines). Read all about it here. However, the parts never did the frame justice. The bike came with a heavy Astabubublalalala 1-piece crank and 1 pound kickstand. The wheels on mine were actually aluminum, but still not particularly light. AL drop handlebars with a bit of a touring bike rise to them, and a 26.8 seatpost. I'm sure all these parts were shiny at some point, but after a few (dozen) years in a detached garage, they were buffed a nice rust color.
Below you can see a woman, probably named Linda, riding a Super Sport resembling my Linda in her promiscuous youth.
After hoisting Linda down from the rafters, I almost immediate stripped her down. Her bare frame shimmered in the sun (Nora Roberts, feel free to run with this...). Thanks to foresight, months ago I had purchased an adapter to go from Astabullalalala crank to a more modern (read: light) crankset. I was slightly distressed that the adapter didn't seat entirely properly, but the BB went in fine so I'm not going to worry about it. I also had another fork that weighed about 3/4 lbs less than the stock frame, so I switched them out. The kickstand was the real conundrum. Being a bike aficionado, I scorn kickstands. They add weight, unsightly lines, and, uh, weight! But sometimes its nice to throw down the kickstand and walk away...like when you hear your mom calling, or want to jump in a four square game quick. But since I'm not 10 yrs old and $4000 carbon bikes don't come with kickstands, I decided to take it off. Plus, I have this other Schwinn that I'm trying to get up OVER 45 lbs, and it needs a heavy kickstand. Since drop bars are so 1970, I put some shiny risers on it. Routing a rear brake just looks like a hassle, and I like to live dangerously, so I'm going with just a front brake. And as an experiment I put pegs on the back. We'll see how long that lasts.
I'll add some more pictures of Linda's current state, but in the meantime, its late and I'm tired.
