The Death Fork!

If you are a fan of Vintage Bikes, aka old crappy ten speeds, then check this bike out. It's a 1973 Lambert Grand Prix with one owner. Guy claims he bought it back then for $153 rode it for awhile, he made it sound like he didn't ride it that much and that's entirely possible just by looking at the tire tread. Sheldon Brown has quite an extensive history written up on the Lambert and Viscount Bikes, and a stern warning to any and all owners:

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD A LAMBERT OR VISCOUNT BE RIDDEN WITH THE ORIGINAL CAST ALUMINUM FORK!!!!!!!!!

Here is the infamous Death Fork!

While this is not the Gold Plated version, unfortunately, it's still a fine example of English craftsmanship, hand made no less. Besides replacing the fork, the rims and spokes have quite a bit of rust on them which means they are going to have to go. I will probably cut the hubs out and sell them, along with everything else I take off, on eBay. The knobs on the shifters have a laminated L in red on a blue background, which is really cool.

Both front and rear brakes come with tire clearners. Never seen this before but it's really neat. The one upfront doesn't seem to be functioning properly. The seat and wheel skewers have hand forged Lambert insignias. Saddle reminds me of the Schwin Varsity Saddle my parents had on their bikes when we rode around San Luis Obisbo back in the late 60's and early 70's.

So, if you frequently read the Snack you know where I am going with this bike. I am going to strip it down and clean it up really nice. Replace the cables and probably get some dayglo orange housings from Dan's Comp to match the orange accents on the frame. I will be keeping both brakes, contrary to my usual MO on fixed gear conversions but I want to keep as much original parts on it as possible. The bars have to go, though. I think I am going to try shortened riser bars with orange Oury Grips. Maybe I should go all out and get some orange deep V's and call this bike the Orange Drop Martini! I think I also now have a good candidate for the Brooks Racer Saddle.

Beauty and the Beast

Some more bikes locked to pole outside GCT with contrasting differences.

The Beauty is the black fixed gear bike, the beast is the Trek delivery bike.

Pipe insulators and duct tape for grips on the beast while the Beauty sports bull horns and Turkey basters.

This pie plate seems to be about 60% effective.

Flip Flops are always nice. Rigged fixed, I should have stopped and counted the teeth.

Drive by Fixie

Here is the link direct to YouTube if it's not working on the blog: Drive by Fixie.

Cycling into Eastern CT

Did another loop on Shore Points before heading over to Eastern CT. The weather was not a good as it was on Saturday, very over cast and a lot more humid, but it was still great to be out on the Stinson before 6 AM. This time I did a reverse loop a long Shore Points right into a head wind - that was a lot of work. From there I just stayed on Rt 154 under over I-95 and under Rt 9 to the north part of Old Saybrook. Again, along Shore Points the GPS said I went underwater but I don't recall ever going swimming.

When I got on Rt 1 I noticed a sign that said "Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge Path" so I changed my mind at the last second and decided on a little site seeing detour. The two big spikes in the profile (12 mile mark) above is where I climbed the bridge over the Connecticut River to Old Lyme and came back.

At the town line, I took a quick picture.

Picture of the Connecticut River from 120 feet

On the way down I passed three cyclists and I wondered if I would ever catch them when I turned around.

Fixed on the Shore

My brother-in-law's wedding was this weekend and we decided to spend the weekend in Old Saybrook. Seeing that I would be on the coast and not having enough time to go mountain biking I brought the Stinson with me to try some fixed gear coastal riding. I had read somewhere that there was a really nice section in Old Saybrook called Shore Points and turns out it's a state bike route, too.

I hit the road at 5:50 AM from the hotel on Route 1. I wanted to do a loop on Rt 154 - Shore Points and then head down Route 1 and see how far I could get in two hours. It was so peaceful, there were almost no cars on the road.

I was hoping the profile would be a little smoother but as you can see the actual elvation change was pretty miniscule. In fact, as you can see in the elevation profile I was actually under water a few times though I don't remember getting wet. 27 miles in 2 hours. Probably could have done better but I stopped off and took a lot of pictures.

Sunrise over the Connecticut River at Fort Saybrook

This shot is looking up river

Shore Points

Swans in the lagoon

You could ride into the water