A trip to Outpost Sports proved most valuable in helping to make a decision on a road bike. In short, the conclusion is to not purchase one. You might be thinking the salesperson was off-putting or the price was too high. Neither was the case. In fact, the sales person was so helpful it required further investigation which leads to the topic at hand.
Rather than spend the money on a new carbon frame bike, shiny components and a few accessories (like a seat designed to my marvelously shaped buttocks) to get on the street, why not go the route of the fixie first, then proceed into something that requires a higher outlay of cash should the desire still be there in late summer.
It started by looking, yet again, at urban/hybrid bikes on Saturday morning. This happened after some minor distraction from the road bike section on the Trek website, probably involving a craving for toast. Clicking around some more landed me at a site for fixed gear bikes which were immediately appealing in so many ways it might be called divine intervention, or fate. Or not. In any event, the philosophy was simple- more with less. No gears, no derailleur, no free-wheeling, no cables to connect all that stuff and no brakes. Many of the bicycles were old chrome-molly mounts from Japan, England, France and the like, retrofitted with new and new/used parts to create what is referred to as the messenger bike, a fixie or a track bike. Did you catch the part about no brakes?
Now before you start accusing me of wanting to be a hipster (circa 2005) it might be important for you to know that hipsters generally do not take to me. Of course, that is the case with most people. But this is not a self help rant, so we will keep moving forward.
It just so happened that the location of an old Japanese touring bike was known and, for the most part, it still had good structure. While it will take some sweat, ingenuity and an outlay of cash, it will be far, far cheaper than purchasing a new model. Here are a few photos of the old mount in its declined state and as a dismantled starting point:
The initial plan is to sand the frame, prime and paint; replace bearings and reuse the components that are still in fair shape or modify them to work for this application. The seat and bar will be replaced first and the original cassette will be shimmed for a single cog as will the chainring. I will try to update progress, but you know how these things go...
