Ride at Alki

Heading to Seattle's Alki Beach today for a ride with my wife and youngest son. An "All Twenty" ride.  We started right where the West Seattle Bridge ends on Admiral Way... near Bike University.  Parked the van and started out.

I sprung for some tension bars that create a false top tube.  This makes getting the R-20 MUCH easier to mount on a traditional tail hitch rack.

My wife rode the pristine orange Twenty we have.  If you look hard in the distance, it matches the color of the top of the 50th Anniversary Space Needle!  My 11 year old loves this view of Seattle.

There are a ton of waterfront parks along the basically flat 5 mile or so route.  Fun to stop and smell the salt water!  Also, much of the route has dedicated "wheels" path, meaning bikes only have to content with skateboarders and roller skaters.

No ride to Alki would be complete without a stop at Pegasus Pizza, my vote for best pizza in Seattle!!

My Current Ride

This is a modified Raleigh Twenty I picked up in Vancouver BC recently. Very sweet bike and an excellent price. Considering making this my main ride now.

There is a story to this bike (of course)...  The girl who listed it on craigslist for a C$75 price mentioned when I picked it up... "my ex-boyfriend wasn't too happy I sold it for that."  No doubt!  I think the wheels/tires alone would've cost me a couple hundred!

This bike rides real quick and agile.  The headset has been modified in some way too (although it looks original).  It is much more responsive than any other Twenty I have.  I haven't taken it apart to see what was done.

I took it out the other day on a 6 mile ride and it felt identical to the road bikes I have been riding recently.  The only difference is the handlebar.  I'm not into putting ram-horns on a bike like this (i've seen others do it) but there just are not the number of available hand positions in this configuration.

There is a slight rattle in the SA hub too I need to look into.  I thought it was the dust cover behind the sprocket at first, so I took it off and slathered grease in there... nope.  Still rattles.  It is a funny rattle - only occurs when I don't have active pedal pressure on the chain i.e. coasting along.  Not sure what is going on but it is definitely in the hub.

Anybody?  Thoughts?

More to come. I'm resurrecting this blog again using Blogger on my iPhone. This is just a test for now...

Modified Raleigh Twenty: Alloy wheels (new Schwalbe tires),
Seat Post, Pedals and Handlebar.  Fully updated brake system

I added lights (2 front and two rear), odometer,
bell and Carradice with home-made support and
Brooks B-17 Saddle

Looking for a nice set of narrow chime fenders....