* cababarant *

Thursday, February 23, 2006

My beater bike

So I haven't been riding my Brompton around, mostly because I have to tote the little guy around with me, and it's ridiculous to put a baby seat on a 16-inch wheel (I've seen it done-- it's not pretty). Also, given its price, the Bromptie is not a bike that I would ever leave outside here in Holland, unless I decided to give it away as a gift to bike thieves. So the solution was to buy a beater bike. I ended up finding one listed for 65 euro on a free classified ads site (kind of like craigslist). It was out in the boonies (well, not really-- but it was in Wateringen, which is on the edge of Den Haag), and I ended up riding it back home 8 kilometers through the coldest day in Den Haag yet (this was back in December) and through driving wind and hail (yes hail!). Thankfully, it wasn't uphill both ways (of course, this being Holland, it was completely flat both ways). Since then, I have totally souped it: saddle bags, extra rack and kiddie seat for the little guy. Now it's the family car.

Meanwhile, I've been wondering when it's from. It's actually a really good (albeit really rusty) steel Raleigh with 3-gear internal hub (Sturmey-Archer). I'm thinking, based on what I've read online, that it's probably from the 70's, or even from the late 60's-- judging from it's logotype and design. Doing a little webbie research, I found that there is a bit of a cult-following for old Raleigh bikes (who knew?) and I even found a resource for figuring out the date of an old Raleigh. There is also a catalogue archive out there. I heart the Internet!

Anyway, I haven't figured out the age, but I've come to really like it, and I even prefer it to the Brompton in some ways. The thing weighs a ton, so it takes on the Dutch cobblestone practically without bumps (which is good when you are carrying a baby with you), and it can jump up and down the ridiculously high curbs here. And unlike the basic omafiets, it has the three-speeds and (gasp!) hand brakes rather than pedal-back brakes. And the thing is rusty as nails and a busted-up purple color, so it's still a beater bike that I'm not afraid to park outside. All for 65 euro!

The family car (still locked with a chain, hey, this is Holland)

The typeface on the chainguard, but even with the catalogue resource (and the hub isn't dated) I still can't tell how old it is.

Links
SheldonBrown.com: A guy who is a huge fan of classic Raleighs, especially the Raleigh 20 (a seventies bike with 20-inch wheels, non-folding)
RetroRaleighs.com: An unbelievably complete resource all about Raliegh bikes
Omafiets.nl: All about omafiets, the classic no-frills Dutch bike

posted by sheryl | 12:01 PM | comments (1)

Smokey and her enemies

Now that Smokey is a resident of Holland, you'd think she would be trying to settle in and make friends. Noooo. Instead she is at war with the huge cats in the neighborhood (why are all the cats so huge here? Maybe they are eating all those gigantic pigeons that lurk in our backyard). One giant orange cat is especially persistent.