BarackWheelie.jpg

BarackWheelie.jpg
Originally uploaded by ipsofatso

Lulz

The night I wrecked my room-mate's bike (and my face)

So one time I barrowed my room-mate's bike without asking. Naturally, I wrecked it. I was trying to catch up with my friends, so I was standing as I pedaled and I was going fast. Then the handlebar grip slipped off. The bars went sideways and hit me near the groin. The impact bent the handlebars to a crease. The front wheel went sideways and threw me forwards. My hands got stuck behind the bars and the first part of my body to hit ground was my face. Fucked up my glasses and beat me up pretty bad.







I felt so bad about wrecking the bike that I stayed up super-late replacing the wrecked part with ones from my Ralleigh. He ended up getting the wheel fixed and kept my handlebars because he liked them more.

Wednesday night was tight

Wednesday night was tight
Originally uploaded by flippabotamatic

cool!

Schwinn Stringray on Huntsville CL

You hardly ever see Stingrays in Alabama.  $40 is a great price.  I'll probably end up buying this if somebody else doesn't first.  Hell, please buy this before me.

link

Couple of new ones

Being home to visit my parents affords me an excess of bike buying opportunities. They live in the one city in Alabama where the bulk of the citizens are non-native. This means that it's actually possible to find bikes other than MTBs at the thrift stores. Plus, there are a few pretty good thrift stores here. Anyway, I've been visiting for a week and I've already found two. Here they are:



I found this one for cheap at Thrift Mart of University Dr. It's a Murray x12. It's a pretty typical cheap 12 speed road bike. It's in pretty good shape, but, as usual, the wheels are untrue, the brake pads are spent, and the tires are decaying. It seems like a good canidate for stripping down since most of the components (shifters, derailers, brakes) are of low grade. Maybe I'll turn this one into a fauxie or something.




This one was over at Breaking Free Rescue Mission on Oakwood.  It's a neat old Free Spirit (Sears) 3-speed commuter.  It's in surprisingly good shape with responsive, well-adjusted brakes and true wheels.  The wierd thing is, some previous owner took the shifter off and replaced it with a bit of ball-type chain to hold the bike in the uphill gear.  I'll be needing to fix that.  Oh, and it only has on fender.  Wierd.

My main bikes

It's brand new, so I guess I'll start with five of my own go-to bikes:

This is my beater. My go-to bike. It's a frankenstien sort of thing with few original parts.

Crusty old Ralleigh I got for $5 at a thrift store. Took off the hand brake and shifter since they were busted/worn out. The handlebars are from an excercise bike. They're basically bullhorns. High speed gear and coaster brake make is great for skidding.

Sweet old beach bruiser. Got it in a trade.

Schwinn Le Tour III. Just a nice old ten speed. Fast and fun to ride. My only real multispeed.

My tall bike! I'm really proud of this one. Just your typical single-speed affair, but how could you not love it. Blue tires and full body wrap of old tubes.

A bit about the goals and creator of this blog

Hello, my name is Tyler and I love bikes.  I don't get down on that expensive and/or aero and/or lightweight stuff though.  This blog follows my interests:  cheap, fun, crazy, and wtf-type bixe.  I frequent thrift stores and junk heaps looking for any bikes or things with wheels to fix or mod.  I also love to scour the internet for freak bikes.  So why not make a blog to document my findings and my work.  Here it is.