Friday/RideDay/WrightDay

With a high of 65 and all the sunnythenovercastandbacktosunnny skies, today was a perfect day for a bike ride.

Jonathan got an incredible deal on an eBay find this week. It wasn't even being bid on when he picked it up for a cool $525.
It's a 1974 (or so) Dawes touring frame that has recently had extra water bottle bosses added as well as being professionally repainted. It's dressed to the 9s with a Brooks team pro, moustache bars (not the Nitto's like mine, but so far so good/all the same) good planet bike fenders, a looooooong technomic stem, tough and fat Michelin City tires and cantilevers to stop any load it can carry.









It has a Deore LX drive train on a small triple chainring, all runnin on Ultegra barend shifters.

But the best steal of the purchase? A Phil Wood rear free-wheel hub laced with 40 spokes to a Mavic t519 ceramic rim, paired with a 36 spoke (generic hub) set up front.



I couldn't believe it when I first saw it on eBay, especially since it seemed to be going under the radar with no bids and low views. It was really perfect for Jonathan since its a rustic old English all-rounder, it can handle any load, its a dead match to his frame fit, and it was close enough for local pickup. I did a build list of everything on it new and it came to over $1500 too. Well, fair enough. A great purchase.


We did a moderately long ride today to see how it faired, though we probably looked a little funny rollin side-by-side on our twin mustaches, but we know what we like I guess.

We rolled out to Manayunk to meet up with our friend Chris Wright. He was riding his daily commuter and tourer the Schwinn Voyager SP - More on the bike another time, but we had a great cup of coffee together, an eye opening number of rare beers at the Fork and Barrel and came back to have a pizza in Rittenhouse in the cooling temperatures. About 20 miles round trip and not a complaint could be made about the bike (or our matching bars), so it lives to be ridden again - much much more I'm sure.


Really a great day to try out a new bike and spend times with great friends.