I've bought and sold many bikes since I've last posted. One interesting example was an Anker Rad swiss built bike. It had a newer Pletscher Athlete rear rack, Specialized Armadillo Infinity 700C 35cm brand new tires, steel painted fenders, stainless steel upright handlebars, Weinmann cantilever brakes, Union bottle generator hooked to front and rear lights, Pletscher double kickstand, french Maillard hubs, Columbus Aelle frame, Brooks double sprung saddle, an unknown brand of crankset, Suntour derailleurs with lowrider dropout fittings in the front fork. I loved the nice heavy duty Weinmann brake levers and the long reach cantilever cables.

I bought the bike, took off a bunch of stuff and sold it for $5 less. I took the tires $40, bell, kickstand $50, generator/lights $50. I left the Brooks saddle cause the guy I bought it from had left it out in the rain for a long time. It had hardened and I had a bunch of Brooks saddles anyway.

The model was called a camper and it was heavy as lead. It was very utilitarian, but the weight was too much.

All these parts but the bell will eventually be migrated over to my Surly LHT.

Another interesting bike I bought and sold recently was a Viner which had a high level Italian Gipiemme component set including headset, bottom bracket, beautiful shifters & crankset. The frame had dents, heavy rust and a frozen headset/stem. The headset bearing were perfect and smooth but I couldn't unfreeze the stem to raise it. The bike was very light. I rode it about 10 miles, but since the stem was so low it wasn't much fun. Bought it for $150 and sold for $200.

The Surly Long Haul Trucker is new since my last post. I bought the frame/headset/fork/fenders/Tubus cargo rack as a unit and built it up from there. I have nice bartape on the Surly which helps with the pleasure factor of riding this bike. I also feel the quality Chris King headset and nice quality bottom bracket bearings. The wheels/derailleurs/crankset came from another cheap Schwinn MTB. I got a nice quality set of SPD pedals from one of my bike purchases. The brakes are Tekro. I bought them from a guy who was upgrading his Surly Crosscheck(?). Apparently the Tekro Onyx are standard on the Surly.

I got a steal on a Trek 420 from the mid 80's. I paid $20 for it. It was on Craigslist in my neighborhood. I put new tires on it and sold it for $300. If it had lowrider dropouts on the fork I would have kept it. The 420 is a lower end Trek touring bike.

I bought a mid-70's Schwinn Suburban that had nice fenders but was completely disassembled. It was a beautiful glowing neon green color 10 speed. Bought it for $60 and sold for $125.

Finally sold the Performance 20" child's bike with 11" frame. I had it for about a year trying to decide what to do with it. I got it for $35 and sold it for $65.

I bought a Novara Safari which I loved but couldn't convince Karen to trade her medium frame for the small frame. I knew I could make some money off of it. I bought it for $200 and sold for $300. It probably had 50 miles on it. I almost kept it for myself. It's quite a neat bike with big, fat, 26" tires, mechanical disk brakes, butterfly handlebars with foam padding, 27 speed gearing and fittings for a lowrider rack.

I bought and sold a Nishiki Hybrid Colorado. It was beautiful and clean, had 26" slicks and SKS fenders. It had a very laid back seat tube and head tube angle which made it an interesting change from the more road race style frames I typically ride.

To update the accident report I was listing a few posts ago I had another wreck on a extended commute. It had rained the night before so the roads were damp. I was going around a curve just before crossing a bridge and felt the rear tire start to slide. I was able to regain control. It was November 2008 if I remember correctly. So I thanked the bike gods and slowed down. I had a sharp hill to descend after that. While on a speed bump on that hill my rear wheel lost traction and I went down pretty hard. I slid about 15 feet. The injury to my wrist caused problems for about a year afterwards.

Karen had a collision with a cab back on 'bike-to-work' day. I went down to DC to escort her home. We were coming north on 14th Street near Wallach St NW. We were in the bike lane. A cab was waiting in a line of cars when suddenly the rear passenger door flung open and hit Karen and knocked her to the ground. She's going to need surgery to repair a torn ACL.

I got a couple wheelsets at a thrift store. One I sold and the other I put on my sons bike. He chose red tires to make the bike his own. He has a 2004 Trek 1000 54CM which has a bar extension for triathlons and other long distance rides. Today was his first ride with all the parts in place and he said it was beautiful.

I read an old post about a night ride I did. Well I did another night ride last fall which was really fun. I went out in Rock Creek park on Beach Drive near the beltway. I did not use a light and only encountered a car or two. It was probably 10PM when I left home. It was peaceful and quiet and invigorating. All I could hear was the quiet whir of my tires. I could almost guide myself by the moonlight. I was in my quiet dark world in the middle of the city. How remarkable to be in a city of 5 million and to be out in a park alone. I rode about 20 miles in quiet solitude. It gave me great peace.