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| Sano Ford Econoline pickup truck. |
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| Surly Long Haul Trucker. 3 water bottle cages seem a mite excessive. |
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| 556hp, 190mph Cadillac CTS-V wagon: "We need to get Billy and his friends to their Little League game, stat!" |
Friday, July 26, 2013
Summertime in SoBro 2013 Edition, Vol. IV
In Broad Ripple it is apparently important to have specialized vehicles for hauling things:
...for hauling old muscle car parts.
...for hauling thirsty hippies.
...and for hauling ass.
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31 comments:
Looks like the Long Haul Trucker is set up for actual loaded touring. I think most people who have the bottom bottle cage on use it for carrying the fuel bottle for a liquid fueled camp stove.
Love the Surly, I have one like it, but with fewer racks since I haven't gotten around to doing a tour yet. Steel bikes win.
That's a nice bike. My Broad Ripple SUV was a little plebeian to be parked up next to it. :o
Is the Caddy owned by Carlos Danger's brother Marcos?
I had the local battery shop make me a multi-cell NiMH battery that fits into a drink bottle.
The lower bottle holder now carries enough watt-hours to run the lights all night.
Is that a cellphone mounted on that hippie-mobile?
jf
jf,
Smartphone mounts are getting ubiquitous.
Think about it: It's a GPS, an audio system, a bike phone...
(That, btw, is a pretty slammin' ~$1300 touring bike, as alluded above.)
In one of my part-time college jobs I had to drive an Econoline pickup. This was the era when the maker was touting: "Ford Has a Better Idea." It may have been the first time I yelled at the teevee. "Sir, I beg to differ," or words to that effect.
The heavy springs on mine kept the rear wheels airborne on any road rougher than the Bonneville flats. I heard that Ford later installed softer go-to-the-supermarket suspension, reducing the payload to about 69 pounds.
I saw a Corvair pickup the other day. To bad I was driving at the time. I like the side door on the bed. It was in great shape, especially in a state that puts salt on the road.
We had a couple of the Econoline pickups when I first went to motor transport in 74. It's always fun to drive a truck with the suspension of a lumber wagon.
My Surly LHT is easy on my old bones.
That Ford was a Buckboard with a motor added to it.
There where a lot of cab over pickups back then. Dodge, Chevy and Jeep all had examples.
They all did not haul as much as a real truck, where mostly used in the city where the length was critical. Out in the sticks you might see one as a go to town car, but rarely worked.
As to the bike, the long distance touring bike is a unique beast. The best teowaki vehicle you could find.
"Steel is real." That Surly is nicely accessorized with what look like Ortleib panniers and a Brooks leather saddle. My touring bike, sadly relegated to the Chiroptera (it spends its time hanging upside down from a garage rafter) is a Trek 720, the one from the early 80's with brazed 531c frame. Why they used extra-light gauge competition (hence "c") tubing for a touring bike I don't know, but it's easy on my bones as well.
On the topic of truck-like things, I've never understood the Subaru Baja. Can anyone explain the appeal of that (other than eccentricity)?
I love the big spendy caddies. All that money, and in nine years someone's brotherinlaw will be driving it to their night shift at Inland Steel, three original rims and one steel, drivers seat ripped and covered with a zebra pattern seatcover, inner panel torn off the passenger door to allow someone to crank the window back up manually after it stuck down, left rear turnsignal replaced by a trailer signal drywall-screwed to the fender.
It seems to be the fate of all caddies (and lincolns) everywhere, no matter how spendy they were new.
I'm just surprised they left the smartphone on the bike. Those things tend to sprout legs and run off. Maybe not so much in Broad Ripple?
I just noticed it doesn't look like the owner locked it up either. Maybe the owner is nearby. OK, enough playing internet detective. It's a sweet ride, regardless.
jf
Cage 1: Cointreau
Cage 2: tequila
Cage 3: lime juice
Jeez, do I have to do ALL the thinking around here?!
gvi
jf,
Huh?
The smartphone caddy is empty. The black thing on the other side of it is a speedometer/bike computer.
Have a 16-year-old Cannondale hybrid which vaguely resembles the Surly in Tam's photo, not as nice nor the same quality. As it's approaching 35K miles, looking for a replacement. Have to look at a Surly. Thanks, Tam.
Regarding that Surly, I continue to wonder why bike touring geeks love the bar-end shifters. Granted, compared to downtube shifters they are better (sort of), and with moderate terrain one doesn't shift all that much anyway. But, when compared to modern brifters, it's like having an original Motorola brick* instead of a smart phone.
For the youngsters: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=motorola+brick&qpvt=motorola+brick&FORM=IGRE
Had one of those E-pickups. '65? Rare version with corner windows. Ford made it ride better by adding a huge weight in the rear. I think it was mounted over the fuel tank? My dad had a couple of these trucks, also. He made removable weights for the back. He converted one into a trailer, to match the other truck.
Sold mine to an uncle, who used it to pick up furniture for his auction house. He liked it for the low bed height. My dad painted it by adding together all the green paint he had lying around in partial cans from other jobs. Turned out to match the color of the utility trucks (E-vans) in my uncles area. He said no one bothered him as he cruised thru back alleys and such at all hours of the night, apparently thinking he was "official".
Tam, lol, this is why I shouldn't play internet detective. Those things are getting fancy these days, I guess. Last time I saw one, they were round and had a metal needle in the middle.
Maybe I should just take up drinking as a hobby.
jf
All of Tam's bike talk makes me realize I don't think I've been on one since I was a college freshman in 1987.
I bought a used something or other for $100 and used it to get around when I couldn't afford to put fuel in my 1985 LeBaron convertible or it was suffering one of its frequent breakdowns.
What ended the biking for me was attempting to do the trick I'd seen others do of paralleling the curb then doing a little hop sideways to get up on it and cut across to whatever your destination was.
I caught the curb with the side of the tires and the bike and I did a barrel roll.
I partially dislocated my shoulder. It popped back in on its own but was mega sore for a couple weeks after.
Thankfully I did this where no one saw me.
I sold the bike for beer money after I'd healed up.
"why bike touring geeks love the bar-end shifters"
Dunno, part of an identity thing? Retrogrouch-osity? I have bar-end shifters on my touring bike, but they're period appropriate (1985) and more importantly I'm used to them. (My story and I'm sticking to it.) Then again, I have top-mount thumbshifters on the mountain bike so it's a wonder I've worked my up to electricity and indoor plumbing. The STI brifters I've tried seemed to be pretty nice, but I'm not man enough to try and work on the darn things. Ever see an exploded diagram of one of those? Yeesh.
@Scott J: My equivalent is managing to hook my U-lock on the end of my drop bars at low speed while riding downtown one day, thus abruptly turning the front wheel 90 degrees from the direction of motion. Went right over, popped up thinking some jackass had pushed me over and realized that I was the jackass as no one was within ten feet of me.
A 556 horse station wagon...and unlike station wagons of my misspent youth, built so that it won't have parts falling off at 30,000 miles. I'd say only in America, but I believe there's an AMG model that's almost as ridiculous.
I love ridiculously overpowered cars, btw.
I have bar-end shifters and toe-clips on my Surly LHT. That is the definition of knowing what works and sticking to it. Call me a curmudgeon is you want, I am sure I am in good company here.
I find the 3rd bottle cage on touring bikes like the Surly LHT useful for epic rides. I've put mine to good use multiple times. I did an unsupported "century+" on the Blue Ridge Parkway and needed to carry everything myself (nothing open on the parkway that time of year). I had three bottles with diluted sport drink, a 100oz Camelback with plain water, a large bottle of Gatorade in my seat pack, and 10 Cliff Bars (I couldn't eat another Cliff bar for months after).
I love mine. It's a bit heavy and plodding, but is so very versatile. It'll go from being an uber-tourer to a laid-back city bike with just a few parts changes. Currently, mine is set up for gravel grinding and general errand-running.
Pic of the bike at the highest point of the BRP in VA (bike is outfitted differently these days):
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g405/allencb/DSCF2008_zps0e9eb19f.jpg
@Scott - First time I ever pulled that jump the curb move was by necessesity. I was riding on a narrow road with no bike lane. Things were going great until a car clipped me in the left hip with their side mirror. Fortunately I had the reflexes of a 24 year old and was able to hop the curb instead of slam into it. Unfortunately the other side of the curb was soft deep sand. I rolled about 2 feet before doing a very slow wheelie on the front wheel and then a slow easy Summersault over the handlebars. I was completely unhurt, but it took a shower for me and an hour of cleaning and lubing to get all the sand out of the bike's moving parts. Speaking of steel framed bikes - I was on a 1979 Raleigh Super Grande Prix.
Speaking of dramatic bicycle rides, what sticks in my memory is the first time someone attempted to kill me.
Riding home from school on my full size bike (3 speed?), an oncoming driver veered across the two lane road directly at me. I moved onto the dirt shoulder, and he corrected his aim. Just prior to the anticipated impact, I dove into the ditch bordering the road. Maybe six feet deep, mostly dirt lined. Car occupied the space I would have been in, if I hadn't done that. I was about 9 yo.
Bike and I were a little banged up, but it got me home. I don't recall the brand, but it had steel rod linkage for the hand brakes. This was about 1960. I'm thinking the bike might have been English.
I don't think my mother believed me about the car. Dad, on the other hand, seemed to believe it, and was quite upset, and mad. Many years later, I wondered if someone was trying to get back at him, through me. There was only one way to get home from school with a bike, so it would have been easy to plan something like that. Normally, there would have been a few kids in sight, but that day I had the road to myself. I think I was kept late at school, for some reason.
http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/
I may be the only bicycle owner who doesn't blog about cycling, but I like this one. The lady takes nice pictures.
gvi
GVI, I've had Lovelybike bookmarked for nearly a year now. :)
Here's another good one, though DC-centric (I live in NoVA, so it's "local" to me): http://chasingmailboxes.com/
Chris
Just peeked in at chasingmailboxes.
What is it about Brooks saddles?
gvi
You don't break in a Brooks saddle.
It breaks you in.
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