I recently scored a free 1974 Deelite Apollo 10 speed. As far as I can tell, it has all original parts, but most of the stickers have faded out and there are a few places where the paint has failed completely on the tubes.

As a project bike, would you consider stripping and painting the frame, or simply replace what needs done (tires, bar tape) and ride it as is?

I was kind of hoping to get a more accurate plagiat of the community banner. I deliberately killed some time before the climb because my app said the sun would come out later, but nope.

I got this when he sold his house to move to an assisted living facility. It's just been sitting in my garage for a couple years. Busy with the kid and all that. Well, we just got a little child trailer, and I didn't want to pull it with my mountain bike so figured it would be a good time to clean this guy up. New tires and tubes. Cleaned and lubed. Waxed. I thought it was trying hard to look like an old Schwinn, so I thought some nice shiny fenders would help out with that.

I have so many memories of going on rides with him, and of him taking it camping. I always thought it was a nice looking bike. I'll have to show him a picture of it all cleaned up next time I see him, I don't think he's ridden it in at least a decade.

Next on the agenda is new brake pads, and some retro lights. Any other suggestions? Maybe a white saddle seat, or different handlebars? I'm pretty sure its only value is sentimental, so the best suggestions are cheap suggestions. Thanks!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15863592

I will update this topic in the [email protected] community in the coming weeks with some more lengthy sermons.

Oh my gody guys and girls. I am beyond hyped right now, two days into riding the Pyrenees west to east.

I started my pyrenees route yesterday from St. Jean de Luz on the atlantic coast. I thought road cycling was popular in spain, but here in this french town - and i'm trying to be accurate here - i saw about a hundred roadies riding out into the mountains this morning. Crazy.

It is a beautiful sunny saturday, i feel like it's the first really warm day while i am cycling on this trip, it's 25° - which was basically the temperature i expected all along. The route for the day would take me over two smaller passes, but starting from sea level it's still a lot to climb. First pass is the Puerto de Oxtondo, it's not very spectacular and has some traffic, totally forgot about motorbikers. On the way to the pass i cross into spain, the downhill is sweet and at some point i turn east to climb up the Izpegiko or Col d'Ispeguy, a border pass after which i'll be back on the french side of the basque country. That one is much nicer, hardly any traffic. A guy touring with a cargo bike comes zipping down as i climb up, waving happily. On top of the pass is a bar, i have a drink, then sit on the grass to eat a banana and some cookies and enjoy the view. There's horses around and one cute baby horse comes up to me, i pet it a bit and it keeps demanding more. It starts to nibble on my tshirt. I try to hush it away, it's been hanging around for a while. Then it starts to nibble on my forkbag. Eventually it lets go of my stuff and licks the cylinders of a motorbike. Horses i guess.

About to descend the Izpegiko

Downhill is gorgeous and i roll into St Jean Pied de Port, a major starting town for the camino crowd. I check in on the municipal campsite, whole bunch of cycle tourers there (hikers too), i assume most of them are doing the camino too. I go into town to eat at a bar and befriend an american guy, we decide to share a table, he was also waiting for a free table. He is going to start walking the camino the next day.

Back in my tent i plan my route for the next day, as i have already went off the track i had originally planned.

I start right in time to when the carrefour supermarket opens, i buy food for 2 and a half days because it seems like i won't pass anything really. Turns out i just had the food type poi's disabled in my navigation app.

It is going to be 17° and cloudy today, but the wind isn't cold so it feels kinda good. I'll be heading into the Irati forest. As i'm riding towards my first climb there's a sign that says col d'iraty 17 km at 5.7 %. That sounds alright. My plan is to ride only about two thirds of it, then go onto what looks like a hiking track, then do a little river crossing onto a mountainbike route. A sign comes up 17.5 km to the col, next 500m will average 11%. I guess that'll only make the rest a bit milder. But it turns out the whole climb isn't very even and i started a climb that will average almost 10% for the next 9km. If i had had a look at the grades yesterday evening, i'm sure i'd have found a different route. The climb is really moody and cloudy, but i still enjoy it, there's a whole lot of vultures dipping in and out of the clouds, which looks amazing, very calm climb too, just a few roadies and a couple RVs.

Climbing up the Burdinkurutxetako

The climb has some kind of pre-pass, it goes by the snappy name "Burdinkurutxetako", it is basically where the steep section ends and i will turn onto the hiking track. It is super beautiful forest, i ride along the creek. There comes a section that looked like hike-a-bike, but i am able to "ride" down, walking speed and one foot on the ground kinda. Then i am at the river crossing. I gues this is the first actual river crossing i did. Water is above knee high in parts. There are diagonal rocky furrows in parts that look super sketchy, all the rocks are covored with algae too. I find a spot with hardly any furrows, do a test walk to the other side. It's pretty damn slippery and the current kinda strong. I decide to carry over bags and bike seperately. I bring two bags at once, i think having one hand free could be helpful. Last i bring over the bike, which is way easier.

About to cross. There is a big toad hidden in this picture, i guess it's really hard to find, whoever finds it will get an upvote

I don't know if the it was the right call to cross the river 7 times (incl. test walk) or if i should have just gone with the complete bike. Maybe the current would have been worse with the bags, but it felt really stable with the bike as an extra post. While i'm fooling around with my crap by the river, the sun comes out. On the other side of the river is a picnic table and i eat some waffles and try to let my sandals dry. River crossing was also a border crossing, i am back on the spanish side now.

Then i get onto the mtb track, which is really a gravel road. It gets cloudy again, and i ride a climb way into the clouds, then a real fun downhill out of the clouds, then climb back into the clouds again. On top of the climb is a hikers bar, open on the weekend. I drink a coke on the terrasse, which should have a fantastic view but it's all in the clouds. The plan is to go like some 20km more, but fiddling around with my phone i see that there's a refugio just 2km further up a road. It is a bit early, but the sun breaks through the clouds again, i can see into the mountains and think that would be real sweet. The clouds move real fast, i get a view for 20 seconds and then it's all just fog again. And then a view again. I order two beers at the bar, one of them to go, some crisps and another bottle of water. The bar closes at 6, i ride up up to the refugio and get a glimpse of really great views and i start to get super fucking high on my trip. Cycle touring is the best.

The refugio is again a bit shoddy, but i place a chair outside of it, sheltered from the wind and eat some crisps, drink the other beer, watch birds of preyg, enjoy the view and start writing a post for lemmy.

Chilling at the refugio

At 8 o'clock i am covered in clouds, the wind picks up and it gets cold, but in the refugio it's warm, someone has made a fire here today, the warmth comes from the fireplace. I cook some pasta, then some tea, have a look outside but it's still all clouds.

I am sending this the day after, there was no connection in the refugio. Morning was still all clouds, but i descended out of them already. On the descend i remembered what i wanted to buy last week at Decathlon in Pamplona: Gloves.

And I looked at what I can add to have free shipping. After I told my mum that they have unicycles she told me: "It will be f-ing awesome, buy it."

So as responsible, grown up man I am now owner of unicycle.

(Here you can see how I tested the rack)

Just gave my bike and bags a rinse on this bicycle washing station, the BICIcleaner. I rode past one already yesterday but kept going, happy to find another one today. Both were in San Sebastian or a suburb town, located along cycle paths.

Living in Montreal I’ve gotten to the point where I only ride my own bike when I’m transporting paniers of stuff or doing an overnight trip. I installed a double kickstand on my old bike and its worked well until today when my old frame kicked the bucket. I realized that what I basically want is a slightly long tail cargo bike. A rack that’s big and built in, not electric, normal sized wheels and straight handlebars. The weird thing is, I can’t find this product. I’d assume it would be a popular choice for people touring with a lot of kit, but almost everything I’ve found seems to be for electric urban cruising with a couple of kids on the back. Has anyone else looked for this product and encountered a similar gap in the market?

The Yuba Mundo Lux is probably as close as I’ve seen, but has anyone done a few full days on it? It’s probably too much to spend if it can’t handle a few days on tour.

Edit: I’ve decided to dabble with a cheap second hand aluminum Kona Ute, because I live in a salted road winter an aluminum frame is good to have around. If I like it, I’ll probably invest in an electric option for the other 3 seasons.

Now that summer is almost here, I'm looking for better ways to protect myself from the sun. I generally dislike sunscreen, but I do wear it while riding.

The helmet visor "Da Brim" (website) caught my attention. Since I wear a huge-ass sombrero-style hat when I'm off the bike, I'm fine with the way Da Brim looks.

For context, some of my summer rides might have me in 8-10+ hours of sun, which isn't good, even with sunscreen on. If Da Brim can make the experience more tolerable, I'm in!

I'm curious to hear from anyone who has one, and what their experience has been.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/19380579

Cyclists blame "utterly ridiculous bike prices" for brands' ongoing struggles, after Giant's sales slashed again; Visma–Lease a Bike's cursed 2024 continues; Devastated Arsenal fan turns to... Lance Armstrong; Bargain hunting + more on the live blog

I've often wondered why, after a century of innovation, modern bicycles look so similar to the ones that people rode in the 1890s. After all the innovations in the world since that time, why haven't we improved on the bicycle?

That question drove me to compare a brand-new, just-out-of-the-box bike to one that was built in 1895. And maybe you'll be as surprised as me at the similarities and the differences between them.

A big thanks to the Reynolds Museum, particularly to Juanita Voth, who shared her time and knowledge. You should visit the museum: https://reynoldsmuseum.ca/

The modern bike is a 2024 Priority Eight (and it's super fun to ride). The old bike is an 1895 Singer Ladies' Safety Bicycle (and it's fascinating).

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/18598029

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/18598001

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/18597997

Been considering a belt driven commuter and wanted to see what you all thought. Thanks!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14835612

(Title picture is from yesterday in the Parque Natural Sierra de Castril, narrow single track only went for a couple 100m but a good occasion to take a photo and make me look like a badass)

A week in and it's been really great so far. I started in Malaga, stayed a day longer than i wanted to because it was harder to find a fitting gas canistrr than i yhought. The third Decathlon (at the airport) finally had one. I also picked up a windbreaker there because i felt that the wind was really cold but the sun really strong, too warm for my rain jacket. Was a good idea, used it a lot already. From there went into the mountains then down to Granada where i made an early rest day, had a pension for 25€ a night in the heart of the city and wanted to have a look around. Early rest day was also good because i was not in shape at all (last cycled in ocyober really, other than running errands at home), and the first days were pretty tough with lots of climbing and steep grades.

I feel like the grades here may generally a bit steeper than what i know from elsewhere, maybe i am imagining it though due to my form.

• Cycling out of Granada. If you enhance the jpg enough, you can see a crystal clear Alhambra

Went back into the mountains on what i believe is a part of the badlands race route, very lonely and beautiful. Went on through the Gorafe desert. It was drizzling

• Gorafe desert

In the desert there were quite some people, motorbikers, vans. Not too bad though. In the weird sandy riverbed (?) at the bottom of it seemed to be a small cycling race going on. After a river crossing i was all alone again for a good while in amazing landscapes.

Yesterday i went into the parque from the title picture all day along this hiking track. Only at the bottom of it i saw some hikers, the rest of the day i was aline. Slept in one of the refugios up there on the high plateau, it was so good because it is getting really cold in the mountains. It was drizzling, really windy and i was freezing. So happy that i have mu stove with me to eat something hot, also earlier just make a coffee break and wait out the rain. So good when there's no infrastructure around.

• My bike in the refugio. Somehow looks like great weather outside in this photo :)

Refugio also had a water pump. This morning it was real cold again, the nights in the mountains were like 3-5° which i did not really expect tbh. It was raining and i descended. Fucking ice cold hands, cold everything. After about 15km downhill i finally made it to a village, where i hung around in a cafe, eating tostadas con tomate and drinking tea and coffee. Rain kept raining and i didn't want to go back up on the hiking tracks, so i made up a new route to the next village on my original route where i could take a room. Cycled through the rain on mostly asphalt, which was nice for a change, the road was also super calm, met like three cars on 40 km of riding. Beautiful views too.

• Through the trees you can see the village where i'm at now. Every lemmy user here in Siles is invited to as much beer as you can drink, pm me for details :)

So i got a room here now. Somehow the sun is coming out, weather report said it'd rain all day, heavy in the evening. Next two days it's gonna rain too.

I am waiting for a restaurant to open, which is only ever after 8. So i have time to kill writing this post, haha.

The whole 'no dinner before 8' really is not great for my touring time table. Also the siesta fucked me over a few times. I hope i will get used to it.