It’s probably been about a year since I have posted on rocbike, so here’s a collection of the fun group rides I did in 2009.

In March I headed up to Monson, MA to join up with fellow ratrod bikers for a swap meet and cruise. Monson kinda sucked for cruising so we packed up and went across the border to Willamantic, CT, where we had lunch and continued to ride.

full photo set here

In June I was on vacation so I ended up bringing one of my custom vintage bikes up to Rochester to join up with the old cruising crew, with a lot of new faces since I left town. One of the nights we went way out on the canal trail.

full photo set here

There’s a few local guys that go on custom vintage rides in downtown Hartford, so that happened at least a few times this summer.

June:

full photo set here

August:

full photo set here

Also in August, a few of us joined up in New London for a custom-vintage ride.

full photo set here

In September, I was back on vacation, and I did a tour of NY state, starting with a stop in NYC. Me and my friend Otto cruised from Queens to Brooklyn.

full photo set here

After NYC I was back up in ROC for two more days of cruising with the ROC cruise crew.

Wednesday:

full photo set here

Thursday – we rode up the Genesee river trail to the pier at Charlotte:

full photo set here

And the last group ride I did this past year, a custom-vintage cruise in New Haven, in October:

full photo set here

Hoping that 2010 is as full of fun bike rides! Happy New Year!

I’ve been wanting to spend a lot of time on the late ’40’s RoadMaster Luxury Liner I just got rolling a little while ago, it just rides so smooth, and looks so good.

So, I rode it to work the other day, on one of the nicest days of the year so far:

My first cruiser commute of ‘09. It was a lot of fun but I realized I had been spoiled over the winter by having multiple gears on my commuting rig, suddenly it’s a bit more work to push a bike up a hill on a single speed. But I will get that back soon as I start to cruise to work more and more.
Incidentally, that crappy department store girls MTB in the background has not moved from the bike rack since I started working there over a year ago. And incidentally, it’s also a RoadMaster.

This bike is perfect for giving my girl a ride around the hood. She just sits side-saddle on the top tube. I have to pedal bow-legged but it works.
Here’s a video:

She loves it :)

Getting ready for springtime, trying to finish up a few on-going bike projects once and for all. Here is my Luxury Liner when I first got it.:

and here it was as of this weekend:

just wanted to get it rolling, so for now I’ve replaced the wheels, tires, crank, sprocket, chain, pedals, and grips. I have converted it to non-skiptooth for the moment. I saved the original sprocket though. I still need to find a proper kickstand, as well as get the seat-post straightened. But it rides real smooth and turns heads :)

I also joined in on another custom bike build-off, this one space-themed (perfect for me). I started with this frame:

and it became this:

Comprised of a mid-60’s Murray-built SpaceLiner knock-off frame, NOS Royce Union tank, Mercury chainguard, Varsity stem, chrome banana pan and suspension-sissy bar, and generic moon bars and platform pedals.

I built this as an entry for RatRodBikes.com ’s Space Bike Build-Off. It was actually assembled in less than 12 hours, including a last minute run to home de pot for some supplies. I tightened the last bolt and took it outside for a test run, I wasn’t even sure that my experimental seat mounts would work. I was pleasantly surprised:

So that’s what I’ve been up to.

In less than a couple of weeks is the Monson Mass Bike Swap Meet and ride, I will bring my camera.

12 sexy custom vintage bikes to drool over during the new year. My bike DevilWing was selected as Miss March. You know you want it!

http://www.cafepress.com/ratrodbikes.345663037

So far, not much to report, that’s why I haven’t posted in a while. Let me tell you, CT ain’t got nothin on Rochester winters. There have been two snowfalls thus far which anyone would classify as “heavy”. Not blizzards like ROC is used to, to be sure, but everyone around here freaks out. The roads basically become closed save for a few plows and crazy people who think they know how to drive in the snow.

I still rock my way in like any other day… I may spend less ride time going no-handed and air drumming to heavy metal, but I still get there by my own two legs. And I have to smile when I pass someone begrudgingly cleaning off their car and trying to dig it out of the driveway.

Anyway, this has been my winter rig so far this year, a 90’s Schwinn Frontier a co-worker gave me in the spring because it was wasting away on his back porch:

I got it pro-tuned last month at Renaissance Cyclery in Plainville, it’s been pretty good, even with those simple mountain knobbies. There’s some snow, but New England gets a lot of what is affectionately referred to around here as “Wintry Mix” (I had never heard of it so frequently before moving here). Basic translation is road slop. Got a decent clip on fender for the back. Can anyone recommend a good one for the front?

I also recently I upgraded my light situation with another Fenix L2D up front and another Planet Bike Superflash, so now I am running 3 total back there. And of course the Neon:

in other news, I got a new project for the new year…

a late 40’s Roadmaster Luxury Liner… all original, all intact, as found in storage, I just cleaned up a little so far. It’s already up in the stand getting tinkered with. Original tires still hold air and all the moving parts still move, I realized that it was probably still ridable so I took it out for a test spin (before I completely dismantled it) and shot video because I knew no one would be believe me that it was still functional:

click to watch video

Besides being 60 years old and needing some fresh grease, it rides nice and smooth. Can’t wait to fix this one back up in time for plenty of spring cruisin.

Now I still need to work on finding more people to cruise with here…

A few of a us guys who met on the ride in August wanted to get together and cruise again while the weather was still nice.

We got together for an impromptu ride on a Saturday night a few weeks ago. Here are some pics, as always more and full size versions on my flickr page.

There was a street festival going on with a terrible cover band playing… we didn’t stick around here long.

Riding to Dinner

After dinner at Black Eyed Sally’s

Posing on the bridge

Inside the Federal Cafe

Outside the Federal Cafe

And check out Ian’s Epic Skid at the end of the night:

points for distance

Good times, good riding, good night.

Wow, I just realized I had forgotten to post this. Sorry RocBike readers, I’ve been holding out on you!

This happened in the end of August, to commemorate the annual Bike Swap Meet, held at the New England Muscle Bike Museum (I was unable to attend so I don’t have pics of that).

Here are some pics from the ride, as usual more pics and full size versions on my flickr page.

Meeting at Bushnell Park

Riding through the arch

Making dinner reservations at Black Eyed Sally’s

Having a couple pints outside Vaughan’s

Hard to tell from this photo, but the Butterfly Girl was up on stilts.

Hanging out down on the Connecticut River

Tri-unicycle? This guy was great.

Hartford Sunset

All the bikes posed at the fountain

It was a good time, I met some new friends and had a lot of fun.

I shot video too which I will eventually cut and post.

More pics from the next ride soon!

This summer I participated in the RatRodBikes.com Bike Build-Off 3, an online competition for custom-built ratrod and hotrod styled cruisers. There were 58 finished bikes, of all different styles. Voting wrapped up last week and the winners were announced:

1st Place: Madd Hammer (68 votes)

by MonsterMetal – Final Build Pics

2nd Place: DevilWing (65 votes)

by JoeyMac – Final Build Pics

3rd Place: Pay It Back (41 votes)

by Karfer67 – Final Build Pics

3rd Place: Maldwyn the Flying Merkel (41 votes)

by Boardtrack Fan – Final Build Pics

click here for a Gallery of all the bikes

click here for all the Final Build Pics

click here for the Build Diaries

It was a lot of fun to be a part of the competition, and a great honor to have my bike included amongst so many awesome rides. And an even greater honor for my bike to come in second place :)

Cheers to all the bike builders, everyone wins… an awesome bike!