"I've never seen that before" - seldom a welcome phrase!

   I've recently completed two custom projects that were very different than my usual builds. The first was a Georgena Terry bicycle conversion for a female friend who is short of stature. For those unfamiliar, back in the 1980s Georgena began building prototype female-specific frames that addressed the anatomical differences between men and women. She eventually formed a thriving company specializing in women's bicycles, clothing and accessories. There is plenty about the Terry bicycle story on the internet, and there is no need to repeat it, but here is a short, interesting Vimeo feature on Georgena.
   Kathy had a Terry bicycle years ago and sold it when her kids were young, I'm only assuming because she was just too busy to get out and ride anymore. Not that she totally lost the cycling bug, because a couple of years ago she purchased a Trek e-bike and was commuting to work regularly.
   Now that the kids have grown, she was interested in going full pedal power again and turned to the brand she knew worked best for her. She found a Terry "Prism" bicycle from the early '90s (for an amazing 45 bucks!) on craigslist and expressed an interest to me in modernizing its setup.
   This model had the distinctive smaller front wheel that allows the frame to be of more traditional geometry, as the head tube does not have to be shortened in order to compensate for standover height. The bicycle was equipped with mostly Shimano Exage 6-speed components from the era, which included downtube shift levers.
   Most of the conversions Kathy and I spoke about were fairly standard procedures for me. Because it is pretty hilly in our area, Kathy wished to increase the gear capacity, and she also wanted to change to brake/shift levers (brifters). I noticed a 6-speed gear cluster on the back and assumed (yeah, you know what happens when you do that) a 7-speed freewheel with a bigger maximum cog would take care of that problem. Kathy mentioned a bit of a tweak to the brifter search, in that she wished to include a set of short reach levers to help her small hands more easily apply the brakes.
   Normally finding a set of Microshift R7 levers, which come in a short reach version, shouldn't be too much of a problem, but the global shortage of bicycles and parts caused by the pandemic made the search a real headache. I found dozens of resources for the levers, only to come up with "out of stock" notes attached to online catalogs. I emailed or called a small handful of places that hadn't mentioned stock status on their sites, and they all responded with an apology for not updating that their shelves were also empty.
   Finally, I hooked up with Spokes Bike Lounge in Berkeley, California, and chatted with the manager for a while about "the biz" before he confirmed they had a couple sets. "A couple?!!" I exclaimed. I was not too happy with the price I was quoted, as the tax and shipping was outrageous, so I settled myself down for a "I will get back to you" reply.
   Realistically, if we didn't want to wait until (at least) next spring for the supply situation to normalize, and faced with really no other options, making the decision to pay up was pretty simple. The fact that Kathy had only paid $45 on a complete bicycle certainly made sinking a bit more money into this project easier to swallow. I called Spokes back and ordered, thinking that, at least, the shipping would be expedited.
   HA! The first package was lost somewhere in Post Office Purgatory, so about a month
went by between my original purchase, Spokes offering to replace that order and the eventual delivery of the levers.
   I have to say, the Microshift levers seem to be a really nice product, and if you are counting at home, this is the fourth different brifter configuration with which I've had experience. Much like SRAM and Campagnolo, these levers have a paddle behind the brake lever with which to activate the shifting, but the "downshifting" is done with a small lever that sticks our a bit on the outside of the shifter body (indicated by yellow arrows in photo on right).
   The real problem with this gearing conversion came with my misidentifying the hub/gearing configuration which, with a 6-speed system, would usually be a screw-on, freehub cluster of cogs. It turned out to be a product which had never seen before!
   The Shimano Exage rear hub had the company's Uniglide system, an early attempt at the freehub/cassette design. Unlike modern freehubs, which have an independent lock ring to hold the cogs in place, the last 1/4-inch or so of the Uniglide splined freehub cylinder has threading (yellow arrow in photo below) onto which the smallest cog would tighten to keep everything together.

   This system works fine, but the 6-speed cluster certainly isn't compatible with our 7-speed levers, and finding these obsolete parts is difficult and expensive, anyway. I did see some online videos on how to convert the Uniglide hub to Shimano's current Hyperglide system, but that is a little over the top for this project.
   I'm letting Kathy borrow one of my Campagnolo freewheel-compatible rear wheels until I find her something that matches her front rim fairly well. The catch is, since her Terry bike has 126mm rear spacing, and I squeezed in my 130mm-wide wheel, she has to avoid being in the smallest cog, as the chain will rub on the seat stay. When I purchase a wheel with the appropriate 126mm hub, all should be well!
   Below are photos of the "finished" bike (see the lead photo above, as well), with her original wheel installed for aesthetics, since my Campy wheel has a black rim:

   My other custom build was requested by a gentleman in the East Harlem section of Manhattan. Matt had a friend that was once a bicycle messenger and his desire was to find a great bike which would inspire him to get out and exercise regularly. He told me that, although he is now in his seventies, Bernie would want a racy bicycle that included some "comfort conversions". Above all, Matt said, the bike had to be lightweight, as Bernie would have to take it up some stairs to his apartment.

   I told him about the Klein Stage Comp bicycle hanging in my rafters, which had clearance for some wider tires, and Matt liked that it also had a triple chainring setup for plenty of gear range. After agreeing this was the way to go, we worked together for a few days selecting some swept-back bars and a nice-looking synthetic leather saddle with some cushioning. I also found some cool leather wrap bar grips to match.

   I took a drive up to NYC to drop-off the bike yesterday, which conveniently included a second bicycle delivery to a customer in Brooklyn, and met Matt in the community garden attached to their high-rise apartment. I buzzed the intercom to ask Bernie to come down, and although I couldn't see his smile behind the Covid-precaution-mask, I could hear the excitement in his voice when he opened the door.

   One of the first things he did was lift the bike, and I was so glad to see him shake his head in amazement and say, "Oh, this will be easy!" Matt and I were a bit startled when he put his foot up on the pedal and quickly swung his leg over to start off down the street, especially because I hadn't lowered the seat, and we were afraid he might catch himself and fall, but never underestimate a nimble cycling vet!

   

   

What goes down must go up!

   Sue and I are in western Maryland enjoying some cooler temperatures and some cycling on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail. She was feeling a particular need to get away and recharge before facing the chaos that is going to be a new school year in the face of the continuing pandemic!

   I thought it was particularly appropriate to come here, since my father passed away this May, and this was the site of a particularly enjoyable cycling experience with him during the autumn of 2011. You can read about four of our wacky trips to complete the over 300-mile route from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath and GAP Trail in my Trail Tales section.

   My father did not like to ride uphill and was sure to plan this particular section of the trail from the summit of the mountains down into Cumberland, MD. Sue usually reads my blog entries, and she certainly researches the trips we take together, so I was very surprised when we headed off from the trailhead near the Frostburg Depot, and she said, "I didn't realize it was so long and so steep." Now I usually would say, "It's not that steep - it's a railroad grade, after all" (and this portion of the trail shares the right-of-way with the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad), but in this case it is fifteen miles of hill, so her point was valid. Sue hasn't been riding this spring as much as she normally does, mainly because she has been doing constant trips to Chadds Ford to do cleaning, painting, yard work, etc. to prepare her parents' large property for sale.

   As were were coasting along, she admitted that having the return trip hanging over her head was not allowing her to enjoy the ride down to Cumberland. Before we started the outing, I had figured she was only going to want to go part way, and I had counted on doing the rest of the ride by myself. I had planned on riding the uphill pretty hard in any case, so I offered to let her relax down at the station near Canal Place (western terminus of the C&O canal) and go back to fetch the car for her "rescue".

   Of course, she immediately wished she had brought along a book, but I told her that the historic district in Cumberland is rather attractive, if she wanted to explore. I also suggested that, since this leg of the ride didn't require a whole lot of hard pedaling, she could always pedal a short distance east on the C&O Canal Towpath.

   We knew there were some thunderstorms forecasted in the area later in the afternoon, and she warned me to take cover if the weather turned. Because there actually isn't a lot of shelter out there, I joked, "Like under a tree or maybe one of those tall, metal wind turbines?" She suggested I could time it right and stop in one of the tunnels.

   As it turned out my timing couldn't have been worse, as the skies let loose about a half mile from our Airbnb apartment. I was riding from the Frostburg trailhead into town up a very steep hill, right into a wall of rain. By the time I got to the top I was completed soaked, and I was pedaling through rushing water about four inches deep, as it seemed all the runoff from Main Street was flowing into this intersection with Depot Street.

   Since I was already wet, I quickly jumped in the shower and then changed into street clothes before going to pick up Sue. It was pouring hard when I reached Cumberland, and I found her hiding out in the pedestrian underpass at the Western Maryland Station. I couldn't tell what Sue was gesturing about as she ran to the car, but it turns out I had parked in a huge puddle - everything just looked wet to me.

   Speaking of moisture, we were absolutely smacked at home Tuesday by Tropical Storm Isaias, with some areas around us seeing 3-4 inches of rain. I had originally planned on going out on a night ride into Philadelphia with a few friends the night before we were leaving for Maryland, but we were wondering if that was wise. Most of the Schuylkill Trail is high enough up on the bank of the river, but areas like Manayunk had a foot of water on the street.

   We figured if it got too bad, we could just turn around, but it turned out that most of the water had receded by Wednesday night. There were a few low areas with some sticky wet mud, but once we made it across Falls Bridge, the riding was quite enjoyable to the art museum. You can't beat the four lanes of traffic-free riding on West River Drive (MLK Blvd.), which has been closed to cars for recreational use since March, in response to the virus situation.

   Faced with the idea of riding back through the mud, we decided to loop up over the Girard Street bridge via Sedgley and Poplar Drives and cycled past the Philadelphia Zoo and the Please Touch Museum (housed in the Centennial Expo's Memorial Hall). We veered right on Parkside Avenue to Belmont Avenue and headed up to Conshocken Avenue to reach the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.

   I wasn't aware that the big curved arch bridge to Manayunk was closed at night - apparently it is a safety concern because it is currently unlit. Seriously, if you can't find your way across that bridge with all of the ambient light in the area, you have a LOT to be concerned about!

  Anyhow, we were blocked by a large gate at the south end of the bridge and had to bear left to head down the hill so that we could cross the Schuylkill on Green Lane. Well, we had effectively avoided the muddy streets, but that was an incredibly long detour to do so!

   I had a rather quiet couple of weeks in the shop leading up to my vacation, but I did clear out a couple more bicycles, again nearly wiping out my stock of finished bikes. I'll sign off with photos of the completed Cannondale R4000, which lasted all of two days after I listed it!

I included this extra photo angle so you could really see the gold color change!