Originally Posted by
Sixty Fiver
...And of course, because I built a fair weather and rain bike... it is now snowing.
tell me about it. I just got my project bike into ridable state yesterday, a FrankenVega Viva Touring "OK to get it dirty" bike intended for wet surface commuting (so I can restart my commuting season earlier), not directly pertinent to this thread, except that now that I'm ready for the wet, we've been accumulating snow again for the past week and a half, with more to come through the weekend, and it is not a snow bike (nor have I any intention of commuting 28 miles round trip in snow, on any bike).
Not that we get a lot of rain here, but I'm anticipating several weeks of intermittently wet roads & trails as the winter snow accumulation melts.
Anyway, beautiful build & story, Sixty Fiver. I am reminded of my best boyhood friend's bike, not a Raleigh I think but an equivalent CCM if there was such a thing, double diamond 23" frame, not sure what size wheels (probably 26"), drop bars and Sturmey Archer 3-speed. It was pretty non-descript at the time with many years and miles on it, but he maintained it in good working order and always ran with the rest of us on our new 10 speeds.