Hiccup #1

The project to convert the 1976 Raleigh Grand Prix already hit a little speed bump. First, after inflating the tires and taking it for a little spin around the neighborhood, I discovered that the fork is bent, which causes the bike to pull to the left when you take your hands off the bars, much like a car that is out of alignment. No two-arms-up victory salutes on this bike for me (come to think of it, there probably won't be any on my modern carbon fiber road bike either). Nevertheless, I proceeded to strip the parts off and begin the transformation from 70s 10-speed to Twenty First Century retro fixie:

After going through the painstaking process of removing the cottered cranks, I got on the interweb to find out the best way to mount modern cranks on this bike. It turns out that Raleighs of this vintage use their own proprietary 26 TPI thread pattern that makes it very difficult to find replacement bottom brackets, unless I want to shell out about $150 for a Phil Wood BB and specially made Raleigh retaining rings (which I don't). Fortunately, however, the Sheldon Brown website I linked to in the previous post is a virtual cornucopia of information on these old bikes, and I discovered that I can use the old BB with a modern, square tapered spindle. Now the only challenge is to locate the spindle I need.

New Project

As if the 4 bicycles I have in my garage aren't enough, my neighbor just gave me the vintage Raleigh Grand Prix that had been gathering dust in his garage since the 1970s. Here is what it looked like the day he rolled it off the showroom floor:



As you can imagine, the bike my neighbor gave me looks a bit more worn than this beaut. I don't think he ever had the thing serviced, and I am willing to bet it's still got the original chain. The plan is to slap on a Brooks saddle, a new crankset, and a fixed gear wheel. Fixed-gear base miles, here I come!

Post script: after tooling around on the interweb for a while, I have come to realize that the Grand Prix is an excellent choice for a vintage fixie conversion. I Googled "Raleigh Grand Prix" and came across a smattering of excellent websites on these bikes, such as this one here photodocumenting a conversion, and this one here on old Raleighs in general.

That feeling in the air.....

Man I love the first signs of fall. Last night's ride at the Helotes Toos was awesome. It was a nice 80 degrees when we rolled out, and it probably was in the low 70s by the time we finished. At the obligatory post-ride stop at the Shell station, I actually felt a little chilly.

I really love riding in the Fall. Although "Fall" in South Texas is a relative term, those of you who ride around here must admit it is nice change. Sure, this summer has been mild with all the rain, but Fall means there will those cool fronts will bring in some of that dry, cool air to keep things nice. No more of those rides where you have to wring out your socks at the end because of the sweat, and not because it was raining. Now that DST has been extended, it now means we will be doing the Toos into November.

Sure it will still be warm for a while. I remember doing races around Halloween and the temps climbed into the 90s, but at least we can enjoy it for a while.

The thing about Fall is that one of my favorite cycling seasons--the 'Cross season--is right around the corner. For me, it looks like the first race will be in early November at the Wurstcross. Fall also means some of the classics will be coming up, like the Tour de Gruene Team Time Trial.