*****shield ye eyes, all ye purists who may enter here!!!*****
"Offensive'... 'Unconscionable'...'Unbelievable'...'Pointless'...'Waste of Time'...'Absurd'...'Crazy'...'a Farce'...'Wow...'...'Garbage'...
Yes, yes, I know. Now let the fun begin! Choose your favorite descriptor from above, and come on in.
[ [i]Note for our moderators: First, I'm sorry. Second, yes I'm serious. About the only thing saving this thread is the fact that it does indeed have 'vintage' bicycle content, though certainly nothing 'classic'.]
Before we begin, let's first take a moment to look at this lovely 1960s Cinelli...
Ahhhhh. That's wonderful. Okay, keep that picture in your head for later - you're going to need it.
Now that you've got your C&V immunity shot and taken your C&V vitamins, onto the travesty...
We've got a local ride coming up in several months called the Eddy Rando. I've never done it, but it sounds like fun. I saw a post about some guys getting some sweet, undoubtedly high-end bike projects together for it. I thought, 'hmm, maybe I should get a project for this ride together'...
I became inspired for the original concept of this spawn of all unholy from a discussion
here, which was a thread I created that compiled a list of 'favorite bikes' from many C&V members.. Funnily enough, Trek took the title by a landslide (which it probably why the thread died lol)
Some of the discussion drifted towards a theory that the components may play a larger role in influencing the quality of the ride of a favorite bike. I jokingly responded that it would be funny if someone just took an old Huffy and loaded it up with the best stuff just to be crazy and see what happens. Nobody stepped in to fill the gap. I decided to take one for the team. You're welcome.
Even before this thread, I was aware of the original Huffy advocate, the one and only
Johnny Mullet , and his fantastic threads on Huffy, some of which you can find
here and
here (they are really good reads). Sadly, we have not seen him since 2017. I hope he is alright, and if he is reading this - we'd love to have you back!
I started to get inspired, the same way a baby gets inspired to climb up on a hot stove or shake an ironing stand with a hot iron sitting on top.
Finally, I just came to the conclusion: why not? I have an actual, genuine, somewhat-warped interest in how one of these bikes rides, and even moreso when actually given a makeover. So I started looking for a good donor. First place I checked was the scrap pile of a few local co-ops, which would undoubtedly be a great source of the perfect donor. Unfortunately the scrappers are quick to the draw, so finding something for this project has actually been hard.
Then one evening, I saw an ad for what was titled simply 'bike'...
No description of any sort. But what exactly was it? The features started looking promising: squirrely housing, small tubing, huge steel kickstand, the goofy looking seat, the ashtabula cranks...okay...okay!! Could it be!? The photo was clear enough to make out the name, and upon some quick research: bada bing, bada boom! We found ourselves an authentic, genuine
Huffy. I actually got excited.
'The spirit of the bike'...
The bike is a Huffy Le Grande. Now, unbeknownst to basically all of you, this bike is actually pretty special (er not really).
It appears as though this bike is the famed '
Breaking Away-but-not-the-
Breaking Away-we-all-know-and-love' edition (tv series, cancelled after 8 episodes), upon which Dave rides to a local championship. Which increases its collectability to, well, still zero, but I mean, cool, right? I think I will eventually have to source some sort of 'world champion' decal. No harm in a little embellishment of a fake story, right?
Notwithstanding all your Tour de France wins and countless local championships, your fancy Italian has nothing on this Huffy!
In doing research on the La Grande, I stumbled across this gem from 1980 -
Say what you will, I bet your fancy Pinarello or De Rosa never had a theme song. The ad does a great job spanning the gap between nostalgia and propaganda. Once I saw that ad, I knew. It sealed the deal. I had to have that Le Grande. I mean, Its the nice, white Huffy with the European look. The propaganda worked.
So I went, and I looked, and I bought it immediately, from a very nice gentleman, who also gave me another Huffy since he was going to just throw it away.
Yes, I paid for it. Real money. An ad for this bike from 1980 places it on sale for $115. That is over $400 in today's money! Another ones lists it on sale by Christmas at $104. Heck, I got a bargain!
And in the flesh:
As pictured when picking up. Intentional NDS photo.