Some of you know that I do a lot of cycling, and I know a lot of you are engineers of one persuasion or another......so I thought this link might be of interest to some of you. I have no clue as to possibility of production on these bikes.
Having sold bicycles for the last 5yrs, I am blown away by these machines, esp. the Viper. Only problem is that you'd probably have to be a lottery jackpot winner to afford one !
MootsMan - -
Interesting - are you certain the boys at Morgan Hill are not pulling our leg? I'll have to check out BRAIN's site. I noticed nothing in the trade journal as of last week's issue. These remind me of some results of the design contests that are held in Japan for fledgling car company employees - great for gaining some print, but...
Always meant to get around to asking about your name. I operated a store here from 1973 until 2003 when I "retired". We purveyed a good number of competition road & ATB bikes in our day, but eventually wound up as a kinda family store with some pretensions. Quite a few employees went on to work for the "real" GT in various capacities.
We did sponsor quite a few road & ATB races around St. Louis in the mid to later '80s. We also had a large ATB team of mostly GT and Serotta riders from '88 through late '90s. Personal racing, though, was MO & STL Cruiser BMX from '80 through '85. The three daughters raced BMX Nationally, including many visits to Memphis and Nashville - using the '83 SR5, of course !
Incidentally, my current '86 SR5 came from Smyrna in April. I became quite familiar with the Advance store in Murfreesboro in the two days prepping for the hegira to St. Louis.
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit." T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates." Mark Twain
I worked at Bike Pedlar in Nashville for 3 yrs, after I sold a business I'd been in for nearly 20yrs ( non-bicycle). Then I went into a partnership with one of my co-workers and another guy to open our own store......I'll never do another partnership again.....it lasted about 6mos. But the bike business is fun. When I first started at the bike store, there was a Moots road bike that had been sitting on the floor for almost 2 yrs. The owner was really wanting to get rid of it, so he gave me a below cost deal on it. What an awesome bike ! I can't imagine there's a road bike out there that rides any better. Since then I've acquired a Litespeed and Serotta road bikes, and my dream mtn. bike, a Moots RigorMootis. Cycling is the best thing I've found for my fitness. Sounds like you've had some fun times with the bikes, too !
I remember seeing that car for sale. The best I recall, it was a very nice car. I live about 30miles west of Nashville. I'd have been glad to helped had I known you had to do some work on it !
Hey - MootsMan -
Well, as we said in the trade - you have some nice bikes!
We sold Serottas from the '80s when you used to talk to Ben himself until about '96 when he went with some stores who promised bigger numbers. Well, our market had changed by that time, though. Still, since the nearest "new" store was 10+ miles away, I thought he could stick with someone from the old days...
Speaking of the Serottas, though, right after I closed, I arranged the sale of two Serotta Legend Ti's that a dilettante customer had. He bought these in Palm Beach and not from me, alas. They were THE most expensive bikes ever in the store: One was Record 9 and the other was Record 10. Neither had any miles on them, and I do mean any miles. The original cost was slightly over $8K APIECE... I was able to get a little over $4K each for them, even though they were showroom-fresh.
One of my favorites, though, was the '80s 3Rensho from Japan - talk about a stiff steel bike! You'd think it was aluminum.
The Smyrna SR5 is actually totally rust-free - what do you guys put on the roads in the Winter - sand? However, there were a number of issues not stated with the car, and in my haste to get it, I must say that I missed a number of items, including the locked-up compressor, etc. I did burn the guy on the eBay Feedback, as he was totally nonresponsive to my problems. The exterior is great and the interior is actually pretty good. I've been fighting BIG hesitation problems ever since, and have still to get it to the MO emissions testing station - it really bucks and misses. I just reset the timing. The litany of things I've done have each helped a TINY bit, but it's still there.
I note you replaced the vacuum advance - I get the advance to move on the sub-diaphragm, but the upper two tubes will not hold a vacuum - problem? The FSM is silent on this. This '86 FSM really does leave a lot to be desired. One (or more) of the vac tubes was routed incorrectly by a previous person, and when I replaced all 40+ tubes I did not notice this. Going to check all again today.
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit." T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates." Mark Twain
Hey guys, enjoy reading about fellow bicyclist. My family also did the BMX thing for a while. My son and I will probably try it again next year.
I have ventured into the road riding also. Bought a Motobecane Grand Record (not the real thing a Tiawan version) but it is a great entry level bike for me. We have a great trail to ride on. The old rail line from Atlanta to Anniston, AL comes through our town. It lacks approx 20 miles being totally completed. It is called the Silver Comet Trail here in Georgia and the Chief Ladiga trail in Alabama.
Have not rode much this year though. Its been too hot or too wet or both.
Once your over the hill, you just pick up speed. <><
I've ridden that trail, Dirt. Back when I was hitting the used car auction circuit I would always throw my bike in the car when I was going out of town, and I found the Silver Comet trail on one of my trips to Atlanta. What an awesome resource !! I think I rode it out about 15-20 miles one evening. It was especially nice when you got out away from town and there was much less foot traffic on it . I can envision an entire network of rail trails across the country. I've also ridden one up in southern Illinois called the Tunnel Hill trail. I was on it late one evening last summer, and came to the tunnel.....it must be 500' long...I thought , this can't be that bad ( I had no headlight on my bike). About 75-100 feet into the tunnel, it started gettin' really dark, and the further in I went, the more disoriented I got. I could see the other end , but i couldn't see the walls, the ground, or the top of the tunnel....barely could balance on the bike because there was no reference point other than the light at the end of the tunnel.
Road cycling is really a lot of fun, once you get accustomed to the hazards. I may get hit tomorrow, but have been extremely fortunate since i've been cycling. I've had plenty of mtn. bike crashes, but so far nothing real serious on the road bike.
Maybe we can do a Tercel4WD.com century sometime !!
