Sunday, January 13, 2008

My new commuter

Picked up this circa 1985 from a guy from Bikerag.com who was giving it away. Of course, if it weren't for a friend of mine, Mark, who is a real wheeler and dealer in bikes I wouldn't have known about it. Here is what it looked like before I picked it up. It was wrapped in hockey tape. I guess if I were living in NYC I would have kept the tape on.


I decided to remove it instead. In that process, where the bike had received some dings, the paint came off and initially I thought I might have to strip it but worst part was along the right chain stay. Otherwise it wasn't too shabby. In fact, I think the tape, when it go wet was causing the paint job to oxidize. I think what I will probably do is use some steel wool on those parts to get it down to it's base and then find some touch up paint that will adhere to aluminum. Might try to find a lighter shade of purple or even pink and do dots. Might look cool when it's done.





I found a Vintage Cannondale website and figured out that this bike based on the stamp on the bottom bracket being "CC" was made in 1985 and is an SR-300. I downloaded all of Cannondale's catalogs and found a few things that I still have, like my vest, sleepingbag, backpack, and some assorted pannier pieces that I got on Pulaski Street in Stamford.

In fact, I am still using the vest, the sleepingbag, and some of the pieces of the backpack. The backpack has an interesting story to it. I had been using it for Boyscout camping trips and then in my senior year me and a friend, John Reddin, set out on an ambitious over night hike up the Appalachian trail from Sharon, CT to Butternut Ski area. We got to the top of Mount Race, just past Bash Bish Falls and camped out. It was so cold that my Sterno wouldn't light. Ended up pitching the tent, getting into our sleeping bags and eating dried food. It was windy and cold that night!

Next morning we packed up and when I picked up my loaded pack the frame snapped! I did my best to jury rig it so that one of the frame pieces wouldn't dig into my back but it was extremely difficult to carry the load with just one shoulder strap. So, John and I slipped and slid our way down Sage's Ravine to the road and thumbed our way back to Butternut where we met my father.

Holy long hair and mustaches! This is how our parents looked in the 70s!

As you can tell, I haven't been riding. Wanted to ride this weekend but was just too busy. I did however work on my bikes. The Dumpgoose has been stripped down to bare components in preparation for it's transformation into a ski bike. Probably do a DIY post on that build and hopefully we will get some snow to try it out.

My Garmin Edge came back last week. This now makes the third unit. I think it's not as durable as I thought it might be. I think I am going to find some durable cyclocomputers and use those instead. I will still ride with the Edge, just keep it protected in neoprene pouch on my shoulder strap. Additionally, I am still questioning it's accuracy and want to do some comparison testing with a basic odometer. I think the one issue could be is on longer rides if you don't hit the pause it's recording every movement of the unit so when you stop to take a brake, with the constant movement of the satellites, it might be recording changes the satellite's aspect in relation to the bike/unit sitting in a stationary position.

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