Bikes i've had in the Past really tell a story, some may find it interesting.
These are by no means all of the previous bikes ive owned, but they are ones i find interesting at the moment, as far as the story they tell. they all have something to do with how i got from Boston to san francisco california. First up we have a Litespeed Vortex built in 1997 I believe. I raced this bike as a CAT 3 roadie while living in florida. raced all over the south east, won a couple crits, placed second in a few road races, did a few time trials in some omnium events but never did well, i always blew up half way through. I actually raced this bike in cat 3 with these downtube shifters and single pivot brakes! I was a complete Ludite and hated roadies and the whole racing scene. I was a miserable fucker but loved beating people and loved going fast. When i started out racing i refused to wear spandex or shave my legs. The first and only time i took a nasty spill changed this: low-sided through a wet corner (i was actually pretty good at cornering, i remember all the club riders asking me how i was able to corner so fast) and took off quite a bit o leg tissue. This photo is in my apartment in Boston, long after my racing stint ended, and shows the "street" set-up I prefered at the time, flat pedals, bullhorns. These were some of the first serious wheels i built, they were mavic hubs and i forgot the rims. either way, aero spokes super low spoke count, high tension. they were really a good set of race wheels and held up to abusive street riding perfectly. I broke a rear spoke once accelerating from a stop. Had to walk the bike a few miles home since the tire would not clear the frame. When i got this bike my sprint seemed to go away: before road bikes i raced BMX and only started riding road to recover from a shattered collarbone and dislocated shoulder surgeries. I rode cannondale criterium series before the lightspeed and could sprint like a motherfucker in cat 5 and 4. wone every sprint i remember. cat 3 and the litespeed brough 2nd place finishes. not sure if it was the frame flex, the fact that i was now 21 and drank beer, or if the cat 3 guys were just fucking fast. probably a bit of all three. notice the 6 pack of PBR tall cans on the table and in the bag i remember perfectly, because it was the norm, is a bottle of either jameson or bushmills whiskey. this apartment was great, two jazz music students lived there, they went to berkely music school, one a trumpet player the other an upright bassist. when i moved in they were moving an upright piano upstairs, in pieces. it lived in the living room, never really re-assembled properly, but it had charact and whatever tuning it was or was not in sounded pretty original.
now here we have my Boston snow bike:
i think the frame was a univega cromoly tubing. total beater but i loved it. got me through boston winters which were hell and i just want to move on to the next bike now.
this pic is when i was setting it up for the journey. i ended up putting a rear rim brake on it. it has a 27 inch front wheel, topline cranks. frame was mild steel, 21.1 fork steerer ID, so schwinn forged steel stem....pulled a bob trailer trailer the whole way.
Now i'm in california and getting into old bikes. Raleigh Sports did it for me as they were cheap and plentifull. Restored quite a few and of course my girlfriend had to have a bitchin raleigh as well. hers is a 1952, my silver one here was early 70s but i put a '39 hubshell in the rear and a 50s dynohub up front.
then i got this after a while, always wanted a Kruisframe. I never rode it a whole lot, and i think it's because i am too young for such a bike. I assume i will want another when i'm 60 years old, i've since sold this bike and i know when i'm 60 i will be kicking myself in the teeth for selling this one. it was an early 50s bike.
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