So here's the bike I was after, it's currently the only one I've put back
together as I've not yet had time to put all the others back together
yet, but I will... Probably!
It's called a Real Easy, and I
quite like the look of this frame, it's almost beach cruisery! I'm
diggin those mudgaurds too! But I guess they'll stop me getting a muddy
wet stripe up my bum and back when I'm out riding on it! As for the
other bikes in my new collection, well I'm not too sure what I shall do with them yet, but time will no doubt tell! Anyway, I don't know who makes these (if you know share the knowledge), but my
feeling is this is made for Halfrauds! However it's not bad, I like how
it looks, and it rides very nicely, but those mudguards are UGLY! I thought that I would take it for a test ride, as I've
not been out for a ride for a while and to be fair, all of
those pies I've eaten recently have had a detrimental effect on my trousers... They're
a little snug! It was wet and muddy on my ride, and is has to be said
that although those mudguards are hideously ugly and quite large...
They
offer little to no protection from the mud and water at all, and I
arrived at work sporting a rather large muddy wet stripe up my bum and
back, and a fair amount up my front too! Those damn things have now
been dispatched to the bin, and I went on the hunt for something a little
more functional, and better looking! As it was a quiet day I decided that those hideously ugly
mudguards had to go, and that was to be about it really, it would be ready to
ride. However I've been short of work for a little while now, and as
such have had a bit of spare time and this is where the plan to ditch
the mudguards and just ride it started to go a bit awry! Suddenly I was
raiding my parts shed, and stripping yet another bike from the shed of cycles down to carry out a
few mods. This is what I came up with, and you need to remember that
there was really no need for any of this, this bike rides very nicely
before the voices in my head start telling me to carry out a few mods!
Before too long I was looking at this...
Wheels
from the previously meantioned Murray Timber Mountain, tyres switched
with the tyres from another bike from the shed load, forks from an incomplete
bike in my garage that I'll never do anything with (especially now!)
Bear trap pedals (which will probably chew on my leg at some point!)
from my stash of spares. Brake levers and gear selectors also from my
stash of spares. After a couple of days tinkering with it, it was ready
for wires, or cables if you prefer. I could've probably re-used, or
swapped some cables for some on another bike, but I looked at them all
and I thought in the end it was going to be better to have all new
cables. Off I went to my local Halfords to buy a set of new cables for
it. I had pretty soon located the cables and was standing there
wondering why I was going to need to spend £9 on each brake cable, and
£8 on each gear cable? Did I really need to spend £34 just to ride my
bike? There was no way I was paying that, back to the bike shed to try
and cobble together a decent set of used cables to do the job. But
before doing this Mrs Clint informed me it was time to do the
weekly shopping, as due to me being late home because of purchasing a shed load of bikes we had only done an abbreviated shop the other night! So we headed off to ASDA where I spied with my little
eye, this...
A
complete set of brake and gear cables, all for a monsterous £4!! In the
trolley they went! Then Last night at BelongaClint I busied
myself wiring my new ride, ready for the test ride which I had penciled
in for this morning... If by some miracle it wasn't raining!
This morning was
mildly moist under foot, but no matter, it was only under foot, and not
falling from the sky, and besides, I had also managed to find some
mudguards to fit just on the off chance I got rained on!
This was what I was going to be riding! It has to be said that the
addition of the suspension front forks (which I honesly don't need) has
probably doubled the weight of the thing! But thats ok, I figured that
the more weight I was having to propel, the faster my (still) unburned
off pies would be gone! Besides...
Just
look at it... AWESOME!! I really like how it looks, but better yet, I
really like how it rides, aaaaand, even several hours later I don't still
feel like I've got a seat rammed up my bum, which personally I feel is a
bonus!
So
what was my ride like, well ignoring the fact that there seemed to be
an abnormal amount of people walking in zombie like fashion, completely
taking up the whole width of the cyclepath, which induced a rage in my
that made me want to just scythe through them as fast as I could cutting
them all down like a hot knife through a leper!! It was ok really! The
bike rides very very nicely, yes it is heavier, but this seems to have
given it a feeling of solidity, and this makes it feel of a higher
quality than either it, or the parts I have used on it actually are.
Those bear trap pedals although looking extremely fierce offer a good
about of grip for my feet, and I really doubt that my feet will slip
from them until I am riding in shorts, and have no protection on my legs
at all! The tyres, although quite fat are road tyres, and make the bike
feel quite comfortable on the road, and seem to hold the road very
well, plus as an added bonus, they have a reflective band around them,
which is pretty damn bright! The gears shift nicely, and it's easy to
pedal, and the brakes stop the bike on a dime, well, they would if I
were riding in Americaland, here... They stop on a penny! All in all, it
is a pretty darn nice machine to ride, don't get me wrong, it's no
Magna Fugitive, but it's right up there! Anyhoo, as good as my ride
was, it was completely overshadowed by seeing this...
Bambi!
(sorry about the crap photo, it's a camerafone type one which I've
zoomed right in on!) I just saw it as I was riding along out the corner
of my eye! I slowly went back, and parked the bike up to try and get
closer. I got my camera out, and slowly approached it, but it was on to
me, and looked quite quizzically at me (perhaps it's Bambi Gascoigne!)
as I took a step, then stopped to let it get used to me. It would then
go back to eating, I'd take a few steps, creeping up on it, camera
poised and at the ready. It would look up, I'd stop, and wait for it to
go back to eating! This went on for about ten minutes, and I got to
within about 50 feet of it (15.24 for you metric types!) But then, the
same group who I should've cut down earlier came walking around the
corner, all talking loudly amoungst themselves! That was it, Bambi was
off, and so was I before I had to try and get passed that group of
elderly inconsiderate b'stards again! Never a dull moment (or a dry one
lately it would seem!)
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