Another good group ride. iBOB Bill Canilang, CR member Chris Beyer, Chris' friend Martin (who's on neither list) and moi (iBOB and CR member) rode from my home in Ridgewood, NJ towards the GW Bridge. We got a late start so I left the group part of the way and hurried along by myself while Bill, Chris and Martin headed up 9W and met us at the police station near where the park path meets the main road.
I rode my custom fillet-brazed Bilenky again because the rear hub on my planned ride, my 1981 Raleigh Team, sounded terrible. Bill Canilang rode his new Ibis Ti. Martin rode a black Falcon with a 7-speed cassette rear. Chris started the ride on his newly-built-up green Atlantis, with 26 x 1.5 tires, fenders, a rear rack, and a Sugino XD triple (more about the crankset later!) Chris sported bar-end shifters on mustache style bars.
At Fort Lee Historical Park, I met Jamie on his decal-less Sandvik/Panasonic Ti, Peter on a Thorn all-rounder type bike with racks and fenders, Scott on a Waterford, and Joe on an early Rivendell road. The five us met up with the other three and headed towards Nyack. Peter observed that his bike, as outfitted, probably weighed fully twice what mine did.
Almost to Nyack, Scott had a flat tire. As soon as we started off after that, Chris managed to bend his XD crank and big chainring after losing a chainring bolt, and since one of the chainring bolts couldn't be loosened, Chris' ride was in danger of ending. Chris walked and got a few pushes to make it the rest of the way to the planned stop about 1 mile up the road in Nyack, while yours truly rode 3 miles back to the Piermont Bicycle Connection to borrow one of those little tools to hold the chainring bolt in place. I met the group at the Runcible Spoon in Nyack, where Chris and I manage to remove all his chainrings, put the granny back on, remove a few links of chain, and leave Chris with a 12-32 in the back and a single 28-tooth chainring. Chris works in the area so, after food, we rode together (save Peter, who elected to ride to Bear Mountain then take a train back) to just south of Piermont, stopping to return the chainring tool at the bike shop, and split up there, the New Yorkers in the group heading down 9W and the four of us heading to Chris' place of employment, where he had another bike stashed. A quick bike switch and off we rode back to my house. Bill C. reports 54.6 miles on his computer - add 6-8 for me going back to Piermont for the tool.
The weather was delightful, many of the bikes classics even if not terribly old, and the group was, as always, pleasant and interesting. I promised to resurrect an old bike, hopefully my 1960 Meteor for the next such outing.
I will post again here when we have another ride planned and would love to see some more old bikes on the ride. If I can get my Meteor going, I hereby throw down the gaunlet and challenge anyone to ride an older bike then!
Fellow riders, please feel free to correct and/or amplify as necessary.
-S-