Can anyone suggest a good bike for my wife and I to haul the kids around in?

[maxo]

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 01:37:48 -0400, Luigi de Guzman wrote:

>
> Who was riding wrong-way?

Neither, it was a wierd three way intersection off of Halsted,--it was a few years back so I forget the
details, but the gist was that it was one of those freak once in a
lifetime things--he was a veteran cyclist as was I, an we both knew the
law, and both thought it blameless and funny.

> The only trouble is that
they're so slow off the line. I'd love to have
> one to ride around town now, and see just how confident I could be
> mixing it up with suburban traffic in one of thse machines.

They're flatlander bikes and bikes for cities where motorists are used to
bikes--since they aren't nimble by any means. Chicago is perfect

> But I
prefer the lines of the Raleigh and its descendents to those of
> the Kronan. That's just me, though.
>
> -Luigi

The lines of the Raleigh are indeed elegant. The Kronan is designed from a
military school of thought, so more function over form--whatever the
interpretation of that was in 1941. They are much more nimble in traffic
than the Raleighs, though still lumberingly majestic because of the
weight. In a straight line though, they feel virtually identical.

 

[the black rose]

Luigi de Guzman wrote:
> On 22 Jul 2004 15:57:35 -0700, [email protected] (R.White) wrote:
>
>>Would this be it?
>>
>><http://www.yellowjersey.org/EASTMAN.HTML>
>
>
> Wow.
>
> I want one. Coolness!
>
> Only thing left to do is fit it with appropriate Raleigh lighting
> gear--ideally one of those big chrome headlamps--and off you go.
>
> It's the bike I never had--I went for a used MTB in college, but
> somehow always felt a twinge of regret, seeing my supervisors ride
> their old Raleighs.

I saw a classic Raleigh in some bike shop or other last week. I was in
fits of nostalgic ecstasy over it, and my 16-year-old son thought it was
the ugliest thing he'd ever seen.

Ya just can't teach taste. *sigh*

-km

--
the black rose
GO LANCE GO!!!
proud to be owned by a yorkie
http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts

 

[Luigi de Guzman]

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 17:03:26 GMT, the black rose
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I saw a classic Raleigh in some bike shop or other last week. I was in
>fits of nostalgic ecstasy over it, and my 16-year-old son thought it was
>the ugliest thing he'd ever seen.
>
>Ya just can't teach taste. *sigh*

It helps that I'm a bit of an Anglophile. Also that I was at
university there.

I never understood the appeal of the American-style "cruiser."
They're big, fat, heavy bicycles with inelegant lines. They try to be
all sorts of things: motorcycles, streamline locomotives, jet planes.
To me, they look dumb. Sorry Schwinn cruiser fans, but that's how I
see 'em.

The Raleigh roadster is none of those things. It pretends to be
nothing more than a bicycle.--actually the symbol for "bicycle" in
road signage seems to be a line drawing of a Raleigh roadster, now
that I think about it. There's an honesty to it that is missing in
all the chrome and fins and springer forks of the cruiser renaissance
in the USA.

That, and I never understood the handlebars. WIDE, with the ends
turned OUT. nearly impossible for me to relax and "cruise" with my
hands splayed out like that. The sit-up-and-beg roadster with its
North Road bars (or the more severe sort on the rod-brake models) is
refined, elegant.

-Luigi

"Your father's Raleigh. A more elegant bicycle...from a more
civilised age."

 

[maxo]

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 14:52:48 -0400, Luigi de Guzman wrote:

> I never understood the appeal of the American-style "cruiser." They're
> big, fat, heavy bicycles with inelegant lines. They try to be all sorts
> of things: motorcycles, streamline locomotives, jet planes. To me, they
> look dumb. Sorry Schwinn cruiser fans, but that's how I see 'em.

I'd put on some asbestos underwear after saying such a thing...

I agree totally.

roflmao!

 

[Chalo]

Luigi de Guzman <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> That, and I never understood the handlebars. WIDE, with the ends
> turned OUT. nearly impossible for me to relax and "cruise" with my
> hands splayed out like that. The sit-up-and-beg roadster with its
> North Road bars (or the more severe sort on the rod-brake models) is
> refined, elegant.

I have Nitto "All Rounder" bars (similar to North Road) on my
go-to-work bike. The narrow width lets me thread between parked cars
and those merely stopped, or among foot traffic, or between the
close-set poles, parking meters, newspaper boxes, etc. that are the
furniture of city sidewalks. But I am more comfortable and feel
statelier when riding the one-speed I keep at work, which sports a bar
from an ATV, about 32 inches wide with maybe 20 degrees of rearward
sweep.

I find the wider bar more dignified as well as more authoritative in
providing steering control. So to each his own, I suppose.

Chalo Colina

 

[Luigi de Guzman]

On 23 Jul 2004 17:06:54 -0700, [email protected] (Chalo) wrote:

>I find the wider bar more dignified as well as more authoritative in
>providing steering control. So to each his own, I suppose.

I suppose so, when it comes to handlebars, pedals, and saddles
especially.

-Luigi