|   Jan 2 ride on a rental bike ... | Humma Hah
Jan 5, 2004 9:25 AM | | ... So there I was down in Nags Head, NC, for the week after X-mas. I had not brought a bike because I figured the roads were too boring, and the environment not conducive to keeping my antiques around another 30 years or more.
But Jan 2 I was feeling a need for some decent exercise, so around noon, my wife and I found a bike shop and rented a couple of bikes. She got a fairly new Jamis hybrid. I could have gotten a newer bike, but my eyes lit on a dinged-up yellow Schwinn Continental 2x5, kickstand and all. The owner said it was a '76. Chicago-built, although it had tube forks instead of forged aero forks.
The Schwinn was a mixed bag. The pedals squeaked like a flock of seagulls, and the front der needed to be shifted to the big ring by hand. A shot of oil got the rat-trap platform pedals to where they were not annoying (although the left one was missing some bearings), and I only needed one gear on that flat terrain. The brakes were weak, and the handlebar tape thin and hard. The saddle clamp was a little loose and I had no wrench to tighten it. But it had true wheels and rode like a dream. It seemed lighter than my old Varsity, although a tad heavier than the Paramount, in any case plenty light enough for riding on a paved sand bar.
I rode it from Kill Devil Hills down to the Oregon Inlet and back, maybe 30 miles round-trip or a little more, and wished I had time for more.
Next time I think I'll bring the cruiser, and ride Hatteras Island down and back. Boring riding? Yeah. But, as Jay Leno said recently, "Even bad pizza is pizza." |
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