The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #12

4.5 pounds of sunlight strike the Earth each day.

And I'm back...

Thanks to a friend of mine I was able to score a used laptop to replace the frankensteined one that died... again.

We still need one for Mori but at least now we don't have to keep running to the library to check e-mail and suchlike.

Till Further Notice...

Till further notice both I and Mori will be unable to get online except sporadically during daytime working hours due to massive computer failures at home.

Over this past weekend both of our computers suffered massive hard drive failures resulting in the loss of both of them and the very rel possibility that all the irreplaceable files on both will be lost.

I will be able to check e-mail and suchlike only about twice a day, in the morning and in the early evening, from the library, Mori can only check her's when she has time during her work day, which isn't very often, if at all.

My e-mail address is listed to the right if anyone here needs to contact me.

Wish us luck... we're going to need it.

The Search For Truth... and Bike Info.

Lately I've been noticing a few folks finding this site while searching for information on various makes of bicycles.

Now while I don't mind people coming here and viewing this rambling mess I call a blog, I feel it's a disservice to those looking for information that's actually useful.

I've posted about my recent finds, a '78 Peugeot, a '76 Motobécane, and a '72 Raleigh, and the various mentions of these bikes have tricked folks into coming here from Google and other search engines.

Now if you're looking for information on these bicycles the best suggestion I can make is to go visit some of the sites I have linked to the right here, they have more and better information than I could ever hope to offer and it's available for free.

Cycles Peugeot and RetroPeugeot.com for anything Pug related and, of course, Sheldon Brown for absolutely anything bicycle related, Bike Forums, which is a great spot to ask and, eventually, get your questions answered, once you get past the snark, just be sure to try running a search on your question first, just in case... and other sites that I'll add as I find them myself.

I highly recommend that you visit these sites for any bicycle questions you may have.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #11

On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.

1970?-something Ross Eurosport.

And this is the Ross I picked up with the rest.

Despite it's having a nicely lugged frame I think I'm just going to part this one out since it has full Shimano kit from the brakes to the dérailleurs and use it on my primary beater bike that I refuse to ever part with.



Though you can't see it here, there's both an inner and outer pieplate on the front chainwheels.

I do like that bashguard on the rear dérailleur, that's part of why I want to put it on the beater.

Update - 4/22/08: I discovered today that this bike has what Shimano called their "Front Freewheel" system, where the rear gearing was fixed to the wheel and the freewheel was part of the bottom bracket.

The freewheel was built into the bottom bracket so that the chain would turn even when the rider was coasting. This was to allow shifting while coasting.

I'm hoping this will fit my old Huffy beater, mainly because it's weird.

1972 Raleigh LTD-3

Picked this one up the same time as the Motobécane & the Ross and from the same person.

I'm still debating the possibility of restoring it instead of just stripping it for parts.


By my reckoning it just needs tires, cables, and a good cleaning to be ridable.

Now is that a sexy set of forks or what?

It still has the original Raleigh Record tires on it too.



This is the sight that greeted me when I rubbed some of the grime off the hub.

If you look closely here you can see the date code stamped sideways on the hub casing.

And it turns out that the shifter wasn't broken as I originally thought, the shifter body was just sprung a bit and a few lovetaps with a rubber mallet and a block of wood set it to rights.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #10

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

The Baron's Latest Finds Part 2: Bike Porn

You might want to read Part 1 first...

As previously stated, I acquired yet more vintage bikes and bits related to them over the weekend.

Foremost among the latest finds is the 1976 Motobécane Super Mirage.

The Moto is, to me anyway, a gem found in the mud that only needed a bit of air in the tires and still needs a good cleaning but it's very ridable and I've already put quite a few miles on it already.

So, for all that may be curious or just bored enough to read my ramblings, here you go...

More geriatric bike porn.