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In the past I was quite into trawling craigslist and garage sales for old bicycles to fix up. In particular I love old internally geared hub bicycles. I have had a number of bikes pass through my posession on their way to new homes after I fixed them up though I don't do much finding or fixing anymore. Now I just have a small stable of my favorites that get a tune up every now and then. I pulled out of the garage this afternoon my favorite bike to ride a light blue Motobecane Nomade Sprint from the 70s or possibly early 80s. I haven't been able to pinpoint this bike's exact age. After giving it a good wipe down and airing up the tires I played my kids' favorite game with it where I chase them around the yard on my bike making bison noises. The reason it is my favorite to ride is because I stripped the whole bike down to a bare frame and rebuilt it with parts I hand picked to be my ideal bicycle.
Both wheels were replaced with lighter and more common size 700C aluminum rims with the fattest Panaracer Pasela tires I could fit for added air volume and a softer ride. The front hub is a dynamo hub that powers the Busch & Muller headlight and the rear hub is a super cool SRAM Automatix 2 speed internally geared hub. What makes it so neat is that it has a low gear that is easy to get get going or on moderate hills and will automatically shift to a higher gear when you reach a certain speed (about 11mph). The version I have also integrates a pedal brake. 2 speeds and a brake with no shifters or brake levers required keeping the bicycle extremely simple to operate and clean of cables, levers and shifters. I love it. The handlebars feature diy shallac'd cloth tape grips and the saddle is a Brooks Cambium. The black canvas barrel bag and the rear spring trap rack are somewhat modern accessories that I think still fit the vintage vibe of the bike as a whole. I should also mention one other thing that adds to the cool factor of this bike. It has a partner. I found these as a matching his and hers pair and we also built up the matching mixte frame nearly identically to mine for my wife.
I have ridden this particular bike a LOT thought not lately. Cruising around with a group of friends at 10mph and chatting is no problem and neither is maintaining 18+mph on level ground on this bike with no shifting and only 2 speeds. I know I'm gushing but I REALLY love this bike.
Where we live now is nice for recreational rides but that is about it without taking the bikes by car to a different area. A few years ago we lived somewhere that we could ride our bikes for nearly all of our non-work transportation. We would ride to restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, farmer's market, friends' houses, the beach, events and I would ride my bike to play pickup soccer twice a week. I really miss that and hope that our living situation changes again in the future to make that kind of riding at least more possible than it is now. Riding a bike to get places is just so much more fun than riding in a car. There are a few other awesome vintage bikes in the garage that will likely make an appearance on this gemlog in the future so whether you like it or not there's more geeking out about bikes coming to this gemlog in the future.
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