Bicycles

[BT Humble]

I went for a bit of a bicycle ride a week and a half ago - 790km (495mi) over 13 days.  If you're interested, I've thrown together a web page:

http://www.smallsolar.org/BTH/gvbr2007/index.htm

(The last 2 days were the hardest).

BTH

[chadking]

Wow! That looks like a challenging adventure.  Glad everything went well, and you returned home safe and sound.

Congratulations on completing it, and thanks for sharing!

[dinges]

Nice little trip that was.

As I was looking at the pictures I was wondering, 'would that bike be dumpster dived too ?' Did some looking around on your website. It came as a shock to see that you actually -bough- a brand spanking new bicycle. Took me a while to recover.

http://www.smallsolar.org/BTH/budgetbike/index.htm

Anyway, I 'bought' a new bike at the dumpster last week:

http://www.anotherpower.com/gallery/dinges/peugeot_1

Building it up now to make it street legal and more user friendly. It's the best bike I've ever owned yet (admittedly, that says more about my other bike than this one)

Sad to say it, but you're likely to find a better bicycle in the dumpster than in the stores (unless you're prepared to spend a lot of money). Says a lot about the society we live in, no ?

Peter.

(upon checking your website some more, I notice the white bike in the background is a good old Batavus! Now my feelings are hurt even more.)

[richhagen]

Looks like a fun trip.  - no photos of drop bears though . . . Let me know if you make it through the states though, I still need to take you on a snipe hunt, or as TOMW suggested, cow tipping - although I don't know what the cattle will think of that.  At any rate, glad you had fun.  Rich

[Bruce S]

BT;

  That looked like a beautiful ride:-)

Nice bike too. Question , I did not see any lights or flag in any of the pictures. Are not they required or used there?

Cheers

Bruce S

[BT Humble]

BT;

  That looked like a beautiful ride:-)

Nice bike too. Question , I did not see any lights or flag in any of the pictures. Are not they required or used there?



You're not looking hard enough, Bruce!  I had a headlight and front reflector on the handlebars, and a 7-LED red flasher mounted on the rear rack.  I've only ever seen flags being used on recumbent bikes around here.  Helmets are compulsory in Australia though.

BTH

[BT Humble]

It came as a shock to see that you actually -bough- a brand spanking new bicycle. Took me a while to recover.

http://www.smallsolar.org/BTH/budgetbike/index.htm



Yeah, well I was trying to prove the point that bicycles are a lot better than they used to be, and you get quite a bit more for your dollar than you used to.  I mean, what kind of bike could you have bought new for the $75 I spent, if you were looking 20 years ago? (And of course that $75 would have bought a lot more food/booze/petrol in 1987).

Anyway, I 'bought' a new bike at the dumpster last week:

http://www.anotherpower.com/gallery/dinges/peugeot_1

Building it up now to make it street legal and more user friendly. It's the best bike I've ever owned yet (admittedly, that says more about my other bike than this one)

Mmm, that's a nice Pug!  I've always kind of liked those wide-flanged hubs.

Sad to say it, but you're likely to find a better bicycle in the dumpster than in the stores (unless you're prepared to spend a lot of money). Says a lot about the society we live in, no ?



Well, in one way I agree with you and in another I disagree.  The bike you get out of the dumpster might have been top-of-the-range 20 years ago, but in my opinion the bike you buy new for $100 today is a hell of a lot better constructed and equipped than the $100 bike from 20 years ago.

BTH

[BT Humble]

Looks like a fun trip.  - no photos of drop bears though . . . Let me know if you make it through the states though, I still need to take you on a snipe hunt, or as TOMW suggested, cow tipping - although I don't know what the cattle will think of that.  At any rate, glad you had fun.  Rich



Mrs Humble and I are off on a 3-month trip through Europe next year (Sep-Nov), including a week or so bicycling through the Loire valley in France.  Maybe we'll get to the USA sometime around 2010?  Our rate of savings has slowed a bit since we both started working a 4-day week, but the 3-day-weekend lifestyle is SO worth it! ;-)

BTH

[richhagen]

There had been talk of switching me to 4 @ 10 hour days a while back.  It got voted down at work.  I like the idea of only having to get ready and commute to work 4/5 as much, and a whole day off, who knows what I might accomplish if I did't add any more part time 2nd jobs or tasks.  Rich

[BT Humble]

who knows what I might accomplish if I did't add any more part time 2nd jobs or tasks.



It's funny how few inroads I'm making on my backlog of tasks.  Having a big veggie garden and 300 trees to keep watered seem to prevent much other progress! ;-)

BTH

[Bruce S]

BTH;

 You're right!! I put on my glasses and found them:-)

Must've been ALL the beautiful scenery that got in the way. If you're here in 2010, there's a nine day ride across the state of IOWA. And there's a 2 week ride that'll take you real close to the Dan's place.:-)

Cheers

 Bruce S