Ultimate Bike Thread....

[Jim Bremner]

Originally Posted by jyl

How come they were recalled? What was the problem?

Tube/lug separation.

[intakexhaust]

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

Peugeot recalled those in '86-87. I destroyed 200+ of them. I kept a bunch of the Stronglight headsets and road them on my MTB's till Aheadset came out

Jim- Guessing they were Stronglight A9 taper rollers? Any left? I have on one bike the Hinault branded but dummy me while cleaning it, part of the logo came off.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

Tube/lug separation.

How did you destroy them? I recall seeing an eBay auction of a PY10FC frame that had a saw cut about 1/4 of the way through the top tube, up near the head tube. Your handiwork?

I know they recalled the Comet and other press fitted Al frames. I didn't know they recalled the PY10FC.

[jyl]

This is a post about a vintage mountain bike.

Back in the 1980s, I lived in Southern California. I didn't have a bicycle. My college bike, a 1974 Raleigh Gran Sport, had been destroyed in a crash a decade previously, and I hadn't thrown my leg over a bicycle since then. We were living in the foothills of the Angeles Crest mountains, and just a few minutes up the hill began a network of fire roads and rocky trails through the scrub and chaparral. I bought a mountain bike, a Raleigh Seneca, and started riding. How different this sort of riding was, than my previous road riding! I coughed my lungs out and lost strips of skin, leg-pressing up steep sandy climbs and tumbling down gullies and loose scree descents. My legs regrew and I started spending my weekends on dusty ridgelines high above the smog, with the lizards and coyotes. It was the era of Mountain Bike Action magazine and crazy anodized bikes with bizarre chainstays and the first suspension forks. The Seneca, with one of those early sprung forks grafted on, was passable, but only just. I decided to buy myself the best mountain bike I could.

It was the heyday of Bridgestone, and I completely bought into Grant Petersen's folksy catalogs and quirky, defiant philosophy. Bridgestone sold a line of mountain bikes, the MB models, from MB-5 to MB-1. The famous mountain bike racers, guys like Johnny Tomac and Tinker Juarez, and girls like Missy Giove, were riding bikes that I couldn't afford, like Ritchey P-23s. But Grant and Bridgestone started offering a superlight machine that was so cool, it didn't even have a number, but was just called the Zero, the Zip. The MB-Zip. By 1993 I was ready to buy one. At that time, the MB-Zip was a pure race bike, and by 1993, more or less, it was no longer the latest, fastest race bike, and such is the way of mountain biking that last year's hot race bike was this year's chopped liver. My local bike shop had an unsold Zip and they were ready to deal. I went into the bank branch, spoke to an actual human bank teller - remember them? - and emerged with a fat envelope of fifties totaling over a thousand dollars. I recall the list price was over $2000 then. The bike shop was willing to sell me the Zip at a steep discount, for cash, with no tax or receipt involved. Like a drug dealer, I carried the envelope to the back room and exchanged cash for bike, and departed by the back door.

My mountain biking career with the Zip was fairly short. It was perhaps too much bike for me. The bike was deliciously light, especially after I added a Flite Titanium saddle and a superlight Ritchey Pro bar, with the heavy rubber grips discarded and replaced with a few turns of Cinelli cork tape. The weight weenie sickness was in me even then. But after the slack angled Seneca, the Zip felt twitchy and unstable. The front end washed out terrifyingly in fast sandy sweepers. Around then I got sucked into the vortex of fly fishing, and during the early 90s I found myself stalking trout more often than bombing hills. A growing collection of custom Sage flyrods and a desk covered with fly-tying projects gradually pushed aside the stacks of MBA magazine, and my weekends were spent grinding on dirt roads in my Land Rover to find secluded trout streams and camping sites. Then we had a little girl. The Zip last tasted dirt sometime in the mid '90s. We left SoCal and went abroad, the Zip went into a storage unit along with the rest of our stuff, where it slept until 2000 When it re-emerged, the Zip was just a dusty old bike.

For the next decade or more, the Zip was just a transportation bike. I took reasonable care of it, even added a RockShox Mag 21 fork that I found for cheap, but its dirt days were over. When I went back to graduate school, the Zip spent its days locked up on the Cal campus. Then I started working in San Francisco, consumed with the daily grind of the office and providing for our two children, and forgot all about bikes or fishing or indeed any sort of physical activity. I grew older, fatter, weary and sick. The Zip gathered dust.

In 2006 we moved to Portland. I was overweight by now, starting to be afflicted by the middle age diseases of the under-active, over-stressed office worker. I took four or five medications daily, for cholesterol and blood pressure, and then for gout. Diabetes medications were next on the list. My gallbladder started attacking me, hours of vomiting and pain, and then my kidney began spitting out excruciating stones. A few years later, I was significantly overweight, walking with a cane, and in really bad shape.

I don't know why I decided to start riding my bike to work. I think I wanted to do something, but my gouty ankle was too painful and stiff to walk far, so I tried pedaling. The Zip came out from the basement, went to City Bikes for an overhaul, was fitted with street tires and fenders, rack and panniers. For the first weeks, the not-even-four mile ride home was exhausting. I remember struggling up the slight grades on my route, pushing weakly on the small chainring and the biggest cog, pouring sweat, seeing double, collapsing into the bench at my local pub to gather strength for the remaining four blocks to home.

You probably know what happened. There are a thousand stories like this here.The miles became shorter, the hills flattened. I started losing weight, riding faster, riding everywhere in the biggest ring, sprinting over the bridges. Sure, weighing my portions to the nearest gram and counting every calorie was the main change. But the Zip helped me not only get lighter, but also get stronger, healthy, and cured of all my diseases. I owe that bike my life.

Eventually I made the fatal mistake of getting interested in bicycles again. n+1 is so easy when n=1. I bought an old Peugeot road bike, then another. My commute ride was now done on a 1980 Peugeot PSV with drop bars and skinny tires. The Zip was reserved for rainy days. Then I bought some more road bikes, put fenders on the Peugeot to make it an all-weather commuter, and the Zip was retired to the basement again, to sleep.

Last year, on our annual week with friends in Lake Tahoe, my friend John brought a spare bike. I rode it, a recent Specialized Hardrock, on the trails above the lake, and rediscovered mountain biking. A little idea was planted. Last winter, I found a set of NOS '90s Ritchey Z-Max knobbies at my local bike shop. This summer, I stripped the fenders and other commuting accessories from the Zip, mounted the knobbies, and on this year's trip to Tahoe, brought the bike down on the rack. My friend brought his spare bike again, and it fit my son. We all went riding on the single track above South Lake Tahoe, climbing around the Heavenly Valley ski runs, on rocky sidehills, lumpy climbs, and flowing trails in the forests.

It was great. I went up the mountain several times, my son too. It must be recorded that, having never ridden a mountain bike before, my son comprehensively dusted his old man, and every time it made me smile. Note also that he went head over heels once and embedded himself in downhill prickly bushes twice, while the wisdom of the years and whatever fragments of mountain biking memory I still had kept me upright. Also let it be said that all the while my friend John, now in his sixties, was just a disappearing jersey in the distance. I can drop him on a short paved climb, but on anything that requires endurance or skill, he is the Master.

So here is the Zip, restored to dirty duty. The seattube is wrapped, which was meant to protect the decals back when a daily U-lock-ing was its routine. The foam on the top tube is there to make shouldering the bike a little more comfy, and also to cover up the signature of Grant Petersen, that was put on there a few years ago. The original fork hangs in the garage, and the vintage NightSun lights are the last remaining relic of its commuting days. I think the front rim must have been worn out along the way, anyway it was replaced for some reason that I can't recall, the Ritchey headset too. Otherwise, the bike is all original and in pretty decent condition. Not a garage queen or wall hanger, but a survivor.



And here is my son (left, in the Klein jersey) and my friend John (right, in the long white socks), and a sample of the rocky trails that I confess were more often walked by me than ridden, but that John and my son mostly navigated on wheels rather than feet. My son is apparently also happy to tumble down, since he bounces like a Nerf ball.



So now that we are back home, what to do with the Zip and with my son and with mountain biking? The mountain biking close to Portland is not very good, I'm told - we have miles of forested hills but the birdwatchers and walkers have kept them off-limits to bikes, except for a few tame dirt roads where families pedal their hybrids and trailers. But drive an hour and there is supposed to be some good riding, even some single-track. We have a 90's Hardrock that I fixed up for my daughter to take to camp a few years ago. It is just a simple rigid bike, but in very good condition, and maybe I can find a decent older suspension fork for it and make it my son's starter mountain bike. As for the MB-Zip, I doubt I will make any changes to it. For now, the old race bike is capable of far more than its rider. Someday, maybe I will get myself a fancy full suspension machine. But I'll never part with the Zip. For almost twenty years it was my only bike, and then it saved my life.

[intakexhaust]

^^John- Nice read, thanks for sharing.

[intakexhaust]

All I can say, he'll always make me laugh

[intakexhaust]

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

Brilliant! What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[CurtEgerer]

Cool story John!

[CurtEgerer]

All the big boys from 1975 (from left to right): Moser, Van Impe, Thevenet, Gimondi, Merckx, Polidour.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

All the big boys from 1975 (from left to right): Moser, Van Impe, Thevenet, Gimondi, Merckx, Polidour.

missing Joop

[look 171]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Brilliant! What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

ask my elbow and the outside of my knee. They will tell ya.

[intakexhaust]

Not for PARF and only thinking what if.

Read Mary Burke, a former Trek exec. and daughter of the founder has a possibility of becoming gov. of WI. I don't know much about her and but only seems to have a solid business background.

Who knows but if a leading bike manufacturer executive (former or current) was governor or prez, perhaps they could give the industry a boost. Thoughts?

My list would be pushing for a massive infrastructure of cycling road and trail networks, incentives for companies and businesses having 'X' amount of employee bike commuters, allow electric bicycles on all cycle specific trails (Fed and State), better law and protection for cyclist - and harsh penalty (mandatory jail) for vehicle drivers antagonizing, harassing or worse. At the very least push for a better fit America to get off their azz and ride.

[herr_oberst]

I agree with your push for more cycling except for the electric bikes - can you elaborate?

Why do you think these are a good fit on cycling specific trails? I value your opinion.

[intakexhaust]

for starts:
Electrics- I don't think there's any harm in having them on trails and paths but yet they're banned in many state's and local jurisdiction's for path use. Example, Illinois 'claims' to be bike friendly but bans these 'motorized' bikes on trails.

(Recall Lee Iacocca and his electric bikes. Expensive back when but regardless, I think the reason electric bikes are shunned is the Fed. and States collect massive revenue from fuel taxes (today its in the range of .65 to .70 per gal.). Perhaps they want to keep the sheep stoopid.

A few more thoughts
A commuter who may not have the luxury of a shower or locker room discourages them from riding a bicycle. A little electric boost makes it easier for them and without the sweat and can go the longer distance. But a bigger problem is being afraid of riding the shoulder of a road. And that's a VERY VALID reason.

Some of the larger cities already have decent networks of bike trails but the number of commuters using them is a tiny fraction. Also, wide safe bike lanes are rare. Get commuters out of the car and onto an electric bike, it alleviates congestion and the shortcut trails make the travel time not that much longer.

Shoppers with electric bikes can travel with a load much easier and get them to use a trail. Nervous car drivers seeing a wobbling cyclist carrying goods would agree.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

Not for PARF and only thinking what if.

Read Mary Burke, a former Trek exec. and daughter of the founder has a possibility of becoming gov. of WI. I don't know much about her and but only seems to have a solid business background.

Who knows but if a leading bike manufacturer executive (former or current) was governor or prez, perhaps they could give the industry a boost. Thoughts?

My list would be pushing for a massive infrastructure of cycling road and trail networks, incentives for companies and businesses having 'X' amount of employee bike commuters, allow electric bicycles on all cycle specific trails (Fed and State), better law and protection for cyclist - and harsh penalty (mandatory jail) for vehicle drivers antagonizing, harassing or worse. At the very least push for a better fit America to get off their azz and ride.

I would like to see more education on riding in traffic like riding single file, and do not hold up traffic, ride three across and talk at 8 miles an hour and simple stuff like that. When caught, they should be ticketed as well and with a hefty fine (just like drivers)and points on driving record.

[CurtEgerer]

I swear, I was riding like il pirata today (well, minus the EPO and transfusions anyway ...). All due to a race-used TdF CocaCola bottle, late 90's version. These things go for stupid money, but this one was advertised as 'display only' for $10 because it was full of mold. A little cleaning took care of that. Aargh!

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

for starts:
Electrics- I don't think there's any harm in having them on trails and paths but yet they're banned in many state's and local jurisdiction's for path use. Example, Illinois 'claims' to be bike friendly but bans these 'motorized' bikes on trails.

(Recall Lee Iacocca and his electric bikes. Expensive back when but regardless, I think the reason electric bikes are shunned is the Fed. and States collect massive revenue from fuel taxes (today its in the range of .65 to .70 per gal.). Perhaps they want to keep the sheep stoopid.

A few more thoughts
A commuter who may not have the luxury of a shower or locker room discourages them from riding a bicycle. A little electric boost makes it easier for them and without the sweat and can go the longer distance. But a bigger problem is being afraid of riding the shoulder of a road. And that's a VERY VALID reason.

Some of the larger cities already have decent networks of bike trails but the number of commuters using them is a tiny fraction. Also, wide safe bike lanes are rare. Get commuters out of the car and onto an electric bike, it alleviates congestion and the shortcut trails make the travel time not that much longer.

Shoppers with electric bikes can travel with a load much easier and get them to use a trail. Nervous car drivers seeing a wobbling cyclist carrying goods would agree.

These are all good points. The only issue I have is the speed differential, and the ease and quickness that that speed can be reached. As long as safety issues can be addressed, I'd be fine with one less car/one more bike.

(And here in Portland, our bike lanes (most of which are frankly too narrow and close to car doors), and bike freeways are in use constantly and very congested at rush hour.)

[jyl]

I don't mind e-bikes using bike lanes and MUPs if they act like typical bicyclists in urban environments, which basically means accelerating gradually, topping out around 15 mph on the flat, and slowing as they climb hills. I like that idea that these can help older people, parents with multi-kids, cyclists hauling loads, do their business on the bicycle instead of driving a car.

The more powerful e-bikes that accelerate hard and cruise at 20+ mph don't belong on bike lanes and MUPs, it's like riding a scooter or moped on the bike path. They should be out mixing it up in traffic.

That's my view in theory, anyway. As a practical matter, despite bike commuting daily, I have never actually seen an e-bike in a Portland bike lane, and can't actually recall ever seeing an e-bike anywhere on the road. The only place I've even seen an e-bike is in the hands of a Chinese food dellivery boy in New York City.

[CurtEgerer]

From May 1985: