Bikes Outside: Fuji Mount

It has been a while since we've gone downtown for Bikes Outside, so this morning finds us a stone's throw from the northeast corner of Bushnell Park, where this well-preserved old Fuji was locked up.

The all-steel wheels and cottered cranks suggest this was at the lower end of Fuji's offerings in its day, but the details in the half-chromed fork and handsome lugged frame show that budget-minded customers were not starved for quality or aesthetic appeal.

Green is my favorite color for a bike, and I'm usually game for an odd shade, the more dated the better. In that sense, the acidic lime hue of this Special Tourer does not disappoint. Very much at home with said color are the three-bolt chainrings, centerpull brakes, stem shifters, and 27" wheels with plenty of clearance for fenders. It's an unabashed 1970s period piece, and I love it. While I'm disappointed that Fuji no longer offers such a color, they have not forgotten their roots. Their site shows that they still make an old school chromoly-framed touring bike, as part of their retrogrouch-pleasing "Classic Series" They simply call it "Touring" now, but it's still pretty special.


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Bikes Outside: There Is A Rose In Spanish Hartford

This Independence Day edition Bikes Outside brings us to the Firebox Restaurant at Billings Forge in NoFroHo. Huffy is an unmistakably American brand, though I'm not sure how late they actually built bikes in the USA. Seeing as our nation has trended away from nuance and detail with regards to just about everything, I say that if its a Huffy, it's American!!!

This Huffy is in decent shape for its 30-something age and has a whopping big dose of utility in the form of a giant front basket. I had a Wald basket like this on my Skykomish in Portland and it was extremely useful. I got so accustomed to using it that the front end of the bike felt disconcertingly light, downright twitchy, the one time I rode without a load. The D-R's owner seems to have run into the same snag I encountered with my big basket: it makes bike locking that much more awkward. That means this Huffy's radical angle of repose is a forced function of utility rather than a hipster high-lock. High-locking does increase visibility as well, and my impromptu photo shoot was noticed by one of the Firebox's employees, who seemed very amused that I was so interested in the old bike, which he said belonged to one of the waitresses.

The Desert Rose exists in a stylistic limbo, having cast off the swoopy lines of muscle bike era frames for a more angular BMX (albeit step-through) form, while hanging on to the banana seat and ape hangers that ruled the youth bike market in the age of Aquarius. It has the requisite color scheme that ranges from pink to pink to mauve, with a bold departure in the form of a splash of maroon for good measure. I think girls' bikes were sort of an afterthought, although "Desert Rose" does sound a bit more rugged than the pretty princess treacle that endures to this day. There's something kind of tough and resourceful about this bike. I like that.

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Bikes Outside: Stolen

Recently, a friend asked me if I could take a look at an old bike she had. It had been sitting neglected for a long time before she got it and had a rusty chain. A couple of days later, I was walking to Cinestudio and spotted this old Univega locked to a tree on the Trinity College campus. I like old Univegas, even the lower-end models, and this one was prime Bikes Outside material for sure. It had an adorably small 40-something centimeter frame-- look at how the top tube and down tube share a single lug with the head tube- so precious! As I snapped a few pictures of the boom-era ten speed, I figured there was a pretty good chance this was my friend's bike and made a mental note to ask her about it the next time I saw her.


The next time I saw her happened to be this past Thursday afternoon. She confirmed that 1) This was indeed her bike and 2) It had been stolen sometime that very morning. Aw, crap!!!

Thus begins two simultaneous searches: the pragmatic quest for a smallish road bike to replace the pinched bike vies with the odds-challenging quest to somehow recover the absent 'Vega. Hopefully it didn't go to a scrapyard. Sadly, many serviceable discarded and stolen bikes meet this fate, where they fetch pennies on a good day and are quickly destroyed by equipment used to indiscriminately shove and stack the piles of metal. On the chance that it hasn't met such an ugly fate, I'd appreciate you keeping an eye out for an old gray Univega with steel 27" rims and dubious provenance. Share leads in the comments or email my screen name (at sign) blert.net. It's a long shot, but it would be great to find this bike.

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Bikes Outside: For Reals

This morning brings us a bumper crop of bikes outside at this past Thursday evening's Creative Cocktail Hour. I spotted some familiar bikes about town including the gadgetized Bianchi that irked Brendan once upon a time. Turnout was no doubt boosted by Real Art Ways' offer of discounted admission and valet parking for anyone arriving on a bicycle. The evening was bike-themed and included an opportunity for people to decorate their bikes for the Saturday night Real Ride. Whatever the reason, it was great to see so many bikes assembled in one place.


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Bikes Outside: Pratt Lacks Racks

This Monday's bike outside was spotted downtown on Pratt Street. I was enjoying a Sunday morning coffee at Jojo's when someone in our city's government (who is neither Brendan nor Ben) rode up, locked up, and came in. This cheers me up for at least two reasons:

First, to paraphrase H.G. Wells, when I see a city official on a bicycle I do not despair for the future of Hartford.

Second, the fact that this city official had to lock his bike to a trash can means that one more of the powers that be is personally aware of Hartford's sorry lack of public bike racks.

My own bike was locked to a better suited (U-lock compatible) railing in the alley next to Jojo's at the time these pictures were taken, but that's no bike rack. Proper bike parking areas are few and far between in Hartford, but their absence on a downtown "showcase" street like Pratt is more glaring.

Like Pratt Street, this early 90's Trek 8500 could use a bit of sprucing up to recapture its former glory. At a distance, they both look nice, but the eye begins to get drawn to Pratt's cracked granite and loose bricks and the Trek's balding tires at close range. They're both solid and worthy of the attention, though. Other dings and scratches suggest that this mountain bike has been used for its intended purpose, which is cool.

I'm optimistic that we could see more bicycles carrying our city officials around. It could save the city gas money and parking woes. They don't require a license. One or two have shown promise, and could be convinced to ride more with a bit of encouragement on the citizens' part. I think it would put them in a better frame of mind.


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Bikes Outside: Bicicletas Fuera

This past weekend was a great one for Bikes Outside. Nothing short of the last Discover Hartford Tour put as many bikes on the street as this year's Puerto Rican Day. This year, Hartford's parade was moved from its longtime route down Park Street, A.K.A. "New England's Hispanic Main Street" to Main Street, which is just "Hartford's regular old Main Street." One of the nice things about this change of scene was that the added street width meant the parade floats kept to the right of the double yellow line as they headed north. This turned the southbound side into a handy bike-cruising lane. It was here that I made a few passes on the Mundo while Real Hartford's staff photographer snapped away from the cargo platform.

The Boricua bike representing was strong all weekend, with some classic cruisers and lowriders, vintage road bikes and three speeds, and a huge amount of BMX bikes, with Mongoose as the prevailing brand of choice. My favorites

included an early 1960's Royce Union 3-Speed and a 1970's Itoh 10-speed in a somewhat darker shade of the eye-assaulting apple green livery of my own bike.

Aside from a Sunday afternoon
downpour, the weekend was blessed with decent riding weather. The heavy traffic meant that pedaling was by far the fastest way to get around town, though you had to keep a sharp eye out for some of the
more rowdy car and motorcycle drivers engaging in smoky burnouts and other motorized jackassery. It would be a hoot to ride around, or in, the parade next year, but I saw that the loud paint color on the Mundo was not enough. Next year I will need a sound system, or at least a loud horn.

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Bikes Outside: We Remember on Zion

This Monday, Bikes Outside takes us to the military section of Zion Hill Cemetery in Frog Hollow.

Far from complete, today's "bike" is merely the chainwheel for a British WWII Airbourne bicycle. I humbly suggest that your Memorial Day would be similarly incomplete without some time and thought devoted to its reason for being.

Ride safe, and have a good week.

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Bikes Outside: Handrails to Trails

This morning finds the roving Bikes Outside eye between the State Armory and the Legislative office building. While these structures are best known for their vital proximity to and support of the Capitol Ave. Dunkin Donuts, they have other important functions. The armory is a beautiful stone structure, and the LOB helps keeps legislators off the street.

The adjacent compounds also form the all-important gateway to the path to the southeast corner of Bushnell Park. It was on my way to this always handy, often sandy bit of the East Coast Greenway that I spotted this clean Trek hybrid tethered to a railing. I say tethered rather than locked because this is one of the more halfhearted locking jobs I have seen. Bike theft is a drag on many levels, and I cringe when I see such an easy target.

This style of handrail is probably the best of the non-bike-rack-bike-racks out there. A longish one like this can accommodate many bikes and any sort of lock, from a heavy-duty chain to a compact U-lock to a glorified bungee cord of the sort we see here. Actual bike racks would be even better, of course but barring that, a decent railing at your destination is a nice find. If the powers that be won't see fit to dot the cityscape with bike racks, someone can lobby for a bunch of small, short handrails to be installed on every sidewalk for pedestrian safety. I'm sure the lawmakers will get right on that.


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Bikes Outside: YES! (Postcard from Portland)

I have been back in Hartford for less than one day as I type this, having spent the past three weeks taking classes at United Bicycle Institute in Portland, Oregon. When teaching new languages, there are many who feel that full immersion is the best and quickest way to achieve fluency. I think full immersion would be an accurate term to describe my sojourn in Portland. My days were spent studying, disassembling, reassembling, riding, modifying and intently geeking out about bicycles to a hitherto unknown level in my life. It was pretty freaking cool. While I am far from fluent in the language of bicycles and bike repair, the past few weeks have made me a bit more conversant, or at the very least less effluent.

Pictured at the top is the sheltered bike parking area used by the students at UBI and the employees of Queen Bee, located one door down. Also, we have a random pile of kids' bikes, a ridiculously heavy-duty cargo-hauling reverse trike, and a forlorn red Radio Flyer that had its handlebar swiped. How shady do you have to be to steal components off a kid's tricycle?

I found bike racks to be in abundant, if not downright decadent supply in Portland. The sheltered ones were somewhat less common, but were much-appreciated during the first two rainy weeks of my stay. Many businesses had signs inviting customers to park their bikes inside. One bike shop had a remote switch behind the counter that held the front door open as you wheeled your bike through. I may have cried a little at that one.

I saw a lot of older bikes locked up and in use during my stay, with a surprisingly large amount of Chicago Schwinns and French-made road bikes among them (the second bike from the front of the pictured rack is a 1970's Motobecane mixte, for instance) This post would be crammed full of many more street-seen bike pics if my camera had not bitten the dust a few days into the trip. I took a few more with a single-use film camera from the supermarket, but it will likely be a while before those get developed and scanned, so you shall be spared. Thanks to Schleppi for picking up the Bikes Outside slack for me. I have procured a substitute camera for interim use, so your man-in-the-street will be scoping out some local iron once more. It's good to be home.


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Bikes Outside: The Town Bicycle

If you don't lock it up, everyone's gonna take it for a ride.

This Schwinn was left, apparently unlocked, in the randomly asphalted rectangle (part of the Pave the Planet initiative?) on the corner of Capitol Avenue and Putnam Street. Nobody was loitering in the vicinity, so I did not have the opportunity to ask what was going on with the strange seat height-to-handlebar height ratio. I will assume that the handlebars are used to balance cargo, more than to steer the bicycle. Read more!

Bikes Outside: Legislative Office Breezer

This morning 's bike outside is a Breezer seen locked up outside of the Legislative Office Building on Capitol Ave. While this step-through comfort bike is sparkly clean, shiny and well cared-for, my eyes were drawn immediately to the wheels and hubs. The Shimano Nexus 8-speed internally-geared rear hub is a personal favorite of mine (actually my Nexus-equipped Robin Hood is a 7-speed), and the generator hub/light combo up front seems like it would come in handy. I've never had a bike with a generator hub or Dynolight (I prefer saying Dynolight because I can imagine Jimmie Walker saying it)

I've been seeing more and more non-mountain bikes with suspension forks lately. I don't see myself joining the ranks of the bouncy commuter set just yet, but I'm sure this bike has a super plush ride between that and the suspension seatpost.

There were three bikes locked up outside of the LOB on this particular day, which is two more than I have ever seen and three more than I usually see. The credit for such a turnout probably goes to both the great weather and the fact that it was Earth Day. Like the owner of this Breezer, the other riders had improvised bike racks using posts or railings, as there doesn't appear to be a bike rack in the vicinity of the LOB. Maybe someone should lobby for that.

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Bikes Outside: MagnaTude

This Monday's bike outside brings us to the Center for Urban and Global Studies on the Trinity College campus. This setting is the epitome of solid. The 19th-century brownstone, slate roofing, heavy door and massive lamp post hearken to another era. The very pavement on this chosen stretch of Vernon Street smacks of old world, old school, and old money. A solid, stalwart old bicycle would round out the scene nicely. Something with a long, storied history. A British roadster or an early Arnold, Schwinn & Co. machine would fit the setting, a Hartford-made Columbia would be better still. Yes-yes, that would do nicely.

As it happened, the classic velocipedes of yesteryear had prior engagements on this particular day, so today the part of bike-about-campus will be played by a young plebe, the Magna Glacierpoint. It may not have over a century of brand heritage behind it, but it does have plenty to say; things like: "15 SPEED!" "CANTILEVER BRAKES! INDEX SHIFTING!"

The Target-marketed Magna shares with many cheap bikes a penchant for over-stating the obvious. At some point, they would do well to simply label every component with descriptive blurbs. This would ease the bikes' serviceability and render owners manuals redundant. Think of all the paper they would save!

Magna is also the name of a discount cigarette brand, which I doubt is related to this bike. That does, however, remind me of the recently featured Marlboro Adventure Team bike and bring to mind a world of potential tobacco bike ideas. Think about it: a Virginia Slims women-specific design, a Parliament-labeled Retro British roadster (or go the Mothership Connection route.) Kool could market a sleek black city bike, Shaft-driven? Damn right! You get the idea. What a terrible idea.

Lest I spend this whole post slagging the box-store bike, I will pay it one earnest compliment. I like the color. It's not a stunningly beautiful shade of green, but it is an appealingly nostalgic hue that would look right at home on a 1969 Dodge Polara or a Schwinn Collegiate of a similar vintage. Sometimes, the right coat is all you need to fit in on campus.

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Bikes Outside: Literary Giant

Bikes Outside brings us back to the Hartford Public Library this morning for a Giant Rincon-turned-commuter special.
A mountain bike with smooth tires, fenders and a rack is a tried-and-true recipe for a solid everyday ride. I realized after taking these pics that this bike belongs to an acquaintance who is in fact a year-round cyclist. There are few bikes that see more personalized custom touches than the dedicated commuter. The more hours you spent riding something, the more you get to know it and tweak it until it is just so. Even if you get another bike, there's a certain set of parts, parameters and settings that inevitably find their way onto the bike you use the most. For example, most of the times El Prez sets up a new bike for himself, I can tell it's his at a distance from the vintage North Road handlebar.

Some people like big seats and they cannot lie.. While this plush, sprung double-wide saddle is not original equipment on the Giant, it is rather giant in its own right. The original seat on my cargo bike was approaching this size, and I yanked it off the first day I rode it. This saddle suits the bike's owner, and that's what matters.

The bike racks at the library are getting more and more crowded these days, which suits me fine. Not many people do enough reading or riding these days, and an upswing in either activity bodes well for society as a whole. If I ever show up here to find no empty spots, I know can lock up across the street at City Hall, and I'll do so with a contented smile on my face. Read more!

Bikes Outside: Wrapped around a tree

This Monday's bike outside was spotted outside of El Mercado on Park Street. This folding Fuji looks for all the world like it was bent around a tree. It has the makings of a cautionary poster: don't drink and ride, kids!

This versatile mountain bike was a premium for Marlboro's "Adventure Team" promotion of the 1990's, which is irresistibly ironic. Nothing cries out a jubilantly defiant, if raspy, "Sucks to your ass-mar!" like smoking enough cigarettes to buy sporting goods. I see these from time to time, so at least a handful of wheezing would-be-athletes puffed the requisite number of cartons.

I own one of these frames, courtesy of my friend, Erik. The 26"-wheeled Fuji lacks the packability of more common 20" folders, but I like it. The log-gone stock components were sort of luckluster, but the chromoly frame has the sort of overbuilt Fuji-ness that I have grown fond of. It's not as sweet as an older triple-butted VaLite frame, but something about its odd-looking frame really appeals to me somehow, though I'm not crazy about the color. Irony alone isn't reason enough to retain the Marlboro livery on a long term basis. I'm going to build mine up for street duty one of these days, but I have a few more pressing projects right now. I'll make it a priority the next time I have to take a bus or train trip.

I see this particular bike around the neighborhood from time to time. It's mostly stock, save for what appears to be an improvised stem riser for the quick-release stem. The owner's taking the seat along is an added theft deterrent in this case, as the post locks the frame halves in place. It's one of many oddball bikes that see daily use in Frog Hollow. Read more!

Bikes Outside: Where the C.C.B. At?

This Monday's Bikes Outside takes us back nearly a week to Elizabeth Park's Pond House for last Tuesday's annual CCBA dinner. There was a nice mix of bikes there: Schleppi's Classic-style Schwinn, Ken's geniunely old Columbia Tourist, El Prez's Motobecane fixie, Robin's Trek Hybrid, Rich's Breezer city bike, and my own Yuba Mundo cargo bike. In this motley crew, we had an internally geared hub, 5, 6, and 7-speed derailleur hubs, and a fixed single-speed. There was a wide range of frame styles and materials represented, with three or four different rim sizes between them. It was a veritable Benetton ad for velo multiculturalism. That said, these bikes do have a couple of things in common. They were all ridden in the rain Tuesday night (hooray for fenders!) and they all belong to friends of mine. I've personally ridden and/or worked on four of the six pictured bikes at some point. While I get a warm mix of comfort and pride gazing upon a rack full of my friends' bikes, it also means that nobody outside of my circle of friends actually rode to this bike-centric event.

Wow. Really?

A CCBA member in the know told me they believed attendance for Tuesday evening's shindig was 171 or 172. If that figure is accurate, it means that just 3.5% of event attendees actually rode their bikes there. I later learned of at least one attendee who walked to the event. This boosts the verified non-motorized attendance to 4.1%. Keynote speaker Jeff Miller devoted a fair amount of time to identifying and seeking ways to improve such paltry single-digit percentages. The CEO and President of Alliance for Biking and Walking should have been preaching to the choir at such an event. This below-capacity bike rack seems to say we have a long way to go.

How did we come to have such a disappointing turnout? let's look at some possible culprits:

The Weather
It wasn't very nice out that night. The chilly temperature and light-to-moderate rain certainly were a letdown after the fantastic weather we had the previous week, but it really wasn't all that terrible. I didn't even bother bringing my rain pants, and I made it to the Pond House and back without regretting that choice. Rain gear can be had pretty cheaply from many sources, so this excuse doesn't really hold water.


The Clothes
This was not a gala event. Several people were wearing suits or dresses, but I didn't see designer threads of the sort that would have precluded anyone from hopping on a bike for a few minutes, especially with the aforementioned rain gear. Our own Ms. Longstocking rocked a nice dress AND high heels whilst riding her shiny new Jenny to and from the event, so it can be done.

The Distance
I'm glad that people from further-flung parts of New England saw fit to show their support, and I certainly won't fault someone for driving from Providence or New Haven to join us. The more, the merrier. Many people had their hometown written on their name tags, so I could see that a lot of Hartford, West Hartford and Bloomfield residents were in the house. These people didn't have terribly far to ride, yet they didn't.

The Toil
In spite of the cold, the rain and the darkness, six people rode to that dinner, and had a fun time doing so. With minimal preparation and good company, a dreary night can be transformed with the addition of two wheels and two pedals. In fact, five out of six of us continued riding to meet up in Hartford for a beer after the dinner ended. You could have, too. We already belong to the same group. I hope that next time you will join us.

I apologize for stating the obvious, but the best way to get more people on bikes is to get more people on bikes. If committed bike users are a fringe group among the advocates, our strength and relevance in the general population is at a tremendous disadvantage. An organization that encourages people to bike everywhere should strive to boost the ranks of its own members who do just that as often as possible. Read more!