Classic porn fest

   A friend and I took a little road trip yesterday.  A group of cyclists who lurk about the Classic and Vintage group on the Bike Forums got together for an afternoon ride in the Chicago area.   Thirteen of us showed up in Crystal Lake, a northwest suburb of Chicago, and did battle with the freakishly cold April winds.  The temps were in the thirties all day despite the abundant sunshine and good spirits.  We took off across the farmland and countryside of Illinois against a ferocious headwind for about 15 miles.  It was work, but happy work, admiring each others gears, all of which are works in some progress of restoration or revision.  I have to admit, my old Trek was the ugly duckling of the group.

There were some superbly maintained and restored bikes in the group.  We stopped at a country store to refuel, refresh and admire each other's gear.

 There was a Frejus in perfect condition,

 a beautiful black and red Motobecane,

A Medici with those wonderful logos lined up so symetrically

a couple of old Treks, in much  better shape than my own,

this powder blue Univega restored with modern parts and converted to 

650B, replete with Velo-Orange parts.

The most perfect of all was this Concorde with an absolutely stunning and nearly perfect

original paint scheme.

but the "best in show," in my opinion,was ridden by Dave, the organizer of the event.

                                  

It wasn't the most beautiful, but was by far the most interesting.

                                     

A 1932 Frejus, with a single chainwheel, 3 cogs on the rear

                                      

 and this remarkable lever actuated derailler system.

He even had an Italian newspaper to wrap up his spare and tool kit.

He had bought the bike online from the original owner in Italy and had it shipped to him.

     After an hour of drooling over each others gear we took the path of least resistance (downwind)
15-20 miles to Crystal Lake and enjoyed a truly authentic Mexican dinner.  It was a great day and a unique experience riding without any inane comments about toe clips or downtube shifters, it's a group for whom the relative benefits of index shifting is still an argument, and not one electronic device took any handle bar space.

 More elegant weapons for more civilized fun.
There are more complete photos on Dave's Flickr site.