Speaking of 26-inch Wheels ...

[Eric Norris]

Took my Raleigh Superbe out today for a ride downtown to grab some coffee. This is my only 26" wheel bike, but I love the way it rides. Raleigh certainly had the design of a town bike dialed in by the time this bike was built (sometime in the late 60s or early 70s).

Ads from back in the day showed bikes like this being ridden by British men and women all over the countryside. I'm not sure I'd want to take this on a long ride, but it could be done (and might be an interesting experiment someday).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/campyonlyguy/7352412778/lightbox/

--Eric N

[Steve Palincsar]

Could be and indeed is done every year, at the Lake Pepin Three Speed
Tour http://www.3speedtour.com/

[Eric Norris]

Darn! Missed this one. I'll have to put it on my calendar for next year ...

--Eric N

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[Tim McNamara]

On Jun 8, 2012, at 3:49 PM, Eric Norris wrote:
> On Jun 8, 2012, at 1:35 PM, Steve Palincsar <pali...@his.com> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 2012-06-08 at 13:27 -0700, Eric Norris wrote:
>>> Took my Raleigh Superbe out today for a ride downtown to grab some coffee. This is my only 26" wheel bike, but I love the way it rides. Raleigh certainly had the design of a town bike dialed in by the time this bike was built (sometime in the late 60s or early 70s).
>>>
>>> Ads from back in the day showed bikes like this being ridden by British men and women all over the countryside. I'm not sure I'd want to take this on a long ride, but it could be done (and might be an interesting experiment someday).
>>>
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/campyonlyguy/7352412778/lightbox/
>>
>> Could be and indeed is done every year, at the Lake Pepin Three Speed
>> Tour http://www.3speedtour.com/

> Darn! Missed this one. I'll have to put it on my calendar for next year ...

Not to worry, in September is the All-British Cycling Event brought to you by the same set of irreverent folks in the name of Queen and Coventry, celebrating the grand history of British bicycles.

http://www.abcetour.com

And there are Tweed Rides all over the place now. The ABCE has even inspired events in Old Blighty!

[Steve Palincsar]

Yes, but the Tweed Rides are Not About The Bike, they're about the
costume. And from what I've heard, not much real riding involved anyway
-- unlike the Lake Pepin ride, which is an actual tour with genuine long
distances (especially so for 3 speeds).

[Peter Pesce]

I think things like these english 3 speed rides are sorely lacking from our current cycling universe. There was that great YouTube video posted a few months back of a British cycling club outing in the 50's. It was a day trip by train, enabling city folk to ride around in the country and have picnics etc. Everyone rode normal bikes, dressed in normal clothes, and there seemed to be an almost equal number of men and women.
I have yet to find more than a handful of "clubs" in America that would even contemplate such a thing. There are the arementioned, plus a club in CA called the West Coast Three Speed Society or something like that. Nothing on the east coast that I'm aware of. And these clubs seem a bit snobby in their own right, excluding bikes of the same spirit in the name of purity. The Riv rallies and S24Os posted here come closest to the 50's spirit I guess.

[dougP]

That's the Southern California 3 speed club:

http://www.threespeedtouringclub.com/

The motto is "cycling for pleasure not penance". The site has links
to those 50s British videos. They are worth a few minutes viewing
time.

It's a spacious tent; British content not req'd and wear what you
want. At the last event James showed up with his Riv sporting a
single cog with a triple crank, qualifying it as a 3 speed. Andy
brought his Atlantis so he was limited to a single cog to avoid
disqualification. Our response to the obvious question "What is the
point of all this?" is quite simple: Lunch!

FWIW, the instigator of these shenanigans sometimes ride a 4 speed but
it's hard to tell.

dougP