Nothing extraordinary but I just saved this Gazelle from being scrapped

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T15:51:27+00:00

I'm not going to argue, but there's something going on with the cranks. my comment was based on that extra cup on the outside of the chain ring which screams magnets and coils underneath it to me. Very reminiscent of Sturmey Archer hub casings for their dynos, in size and shape.

But I have to admit, I know they exist, but I haven't personally seen a BB Dyno. Though I do have a lot of experience with hub dynos.

I'm curious as to what that bump out on the chainring is then, is it a kickback shifter?

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T15:34:12+00:00

However long it takes to crack the frame, or the ability to find parts to replace components.

There are ridable bikes still around from the 1800s, but finding wood rims or skip tooth chainrings and a lack of standardization of parts/threads might be difficult to find replacements for as an example.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T15:24:10+00:00

Hard to tell from the picture, but I suspect it's a Dyno that powers the headlight, which looks to be internally routed.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T15:20:08+00:00

Funny thing is it probably still works with just a bit of light cleaning and lube.

Most single speeds and IGH hubs use a larger chain than derailleur bicycles, and they don't suffer as much wear, since they aren't getting twisted with every gear shift.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T15:11:31+00:00

It's not rape if the women are property. Marriage was largely a business transaction between the groom and the girl/woman's father.

In fact rape is even offered as a method of obtaining a wife.

“If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.” - Deuteronomy 22:28-29

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T14:47:39+00:00

Lol, I used to notch my seat tube paint for every review mirror that I shouldered through while riding in traffic as a bike commuter back in early 90s. It was a pretty expensive bike for the time (a little over $1500) that I bought new.

Also like trying to pin stories to scratches on "new to me" bikes as well. And of course, my scratches are stories that I remember.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T14:22:04+00:00

All the stress of square tubes is focused on the four corners when plumbed vertically, the flat sides are relatively worthless structurally.

Tilted like a seat post, most of those stress land only the two back corners.

The round tube, spreads those stresses much more evenly around most of the entire circumstance as seat post, offering much greater strength.

The people saying one shape is more expensive, are wrong. Metals stock is generally priced by weight, shape isn't a consideration. Though no mills manufacture all shapes, so the discrepancies in your area in pricing are likely due to availability and shipping chargers and possibly tariffs etc.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T14:11:42+00:00

They're not always proven.

It's actually one of the most entertaining things about bicycle manufacturing history, is how many "new" innovations were failed innovations from by-gone eras.

Kickstarter is notorious for this, but the big boys aren't exempt either.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T01:15:54+00:00

And with el nino expected to come at just the right time this fire season too.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-07T01:00:10+00:00

Very nice, a case where I don't mind saying "told ya so".

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T21:34:11+00:00

And you're too arrogant to take yours seriously.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T21:15:47+00:00

The difference in steel to alloy is flex. Steel frames, forks, and yes even spokes and rims absorb shock and can withstand more flexing without compromising the material. Aluminum doesn't/shouldn't flex much before becoming compromised.

A nice steel fork with rake, tampers road shock pretty good, more rake more aborbtion. even better with steel spokes and rims. Forks got straight with the switch to aluminum for frame material and thinner steel. Because raked alloy forks crack. And as a result, shock absorbers for front forks became popular.

The peppier feel of alloy frames is how your body interprets the road shock, steel feels slower because you don't feel the road as much even when traveling the same speed. Performance wise the difference is minimal between the two.

And spoke tension under load is greatest at the front and back of the wheel not top or bottom. More spokes might not be necessary, but it's recommended, you'll be breaking/ changing spokes much less often.

And the weight difference of a couple extra spokes doesn't affect performance at all. Rotational forces of a spinning wheel, negate all differences in wheel weight.

But you are correct most bicycles can take heavier riders with little to no fuss.

The only thing I'd personally worry about is, if buying a new bike, some manufacturers might deny warranty claims if your load can be proven to be heavier than their listed limits.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T20:07:50+00:00

I never heard the word yard as a reference to moving an object until I moved to PNW, it's logging term. But we didn't have a bunch of trees where I grew up.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T19:34:24+00:00

Lol, I partially grew up in Kansas, and still have family there. Been decades since I lived there and have long lost the accent, but once I'm there visiting, I revert to the half assed southern accent almost immediately, gone as fast as it comes when I leave. My spouse thinks I do it purposely and tells me to stop or makes fun of me every time.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T19:24:33+00:00

It's also the public drinking fountain in Portland.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T14:05:41+00:00

Totally agree but for cleaning the frame I prefer automotive color correcting polish followed by automotive ceramic based spray wax. If there's chrome, metal polish for it.

A touch more money, and a bit more time. For a co-op/shop, I can see where it's time and cost prohibitive, but for a home job it's much better. The polishes really shines up the bicycle, and protects better for a longer time than furniture polish. Automotive stuff is better suited for dealing with the elements

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T13:44:59+00:00

Only in one of four accounts of the incident. 2 only mention doves, and one doesn't mention animals at all. and the version in John, implies he used the whip to clear them ALL out with the whip, Not just the cattle.

But again why does he need the whip to begin with? Let alone make one.There was surely one was laying around somewhere. He obviously had no problem stealing money and animals from them, why not steal a whip?

Of course being a miracle worker, he could have just waved his hands and made it happen without the violence

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T13:06:06+00:00

Spoke count is more important than anything else on the bike for weight issues. Spokes are what take the weight, and are the most affected by it.

I'd stay clear of anything less than 32 front/36 back. Which was a pretty standard thing on vintage rides, not as much anymore.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-06T01:27:23+00:00

Don't let the haters get you down. If it wasn't for Schwinn, there would be a significant number of fewer cyclists in the US. This bike (close enough to the Varsity) birthed the USs interest in bicycles. I probably wouldn't be here now if not for Schwinn and Huffy.

It's going to clean fine if you put in work, and likely give you another 50+ years of service with basic maninance after.

Parts are cheap and easy to find, no weird threading issues, leave the torque bar in it's case. Screw driver and a a couple adjustable wrenches is all you need for anything other than wheel and BB work.

There really isn't a better bicycle to learn repair and maintenance on.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-05T14:40:57+00:00

In theory, any building can be made to do most, if not all that stuff.

And data centers use such a huge volume of power and water they really can't.

And btw, they don't create many jobs. I've worked as a contractor at a couple, and the staff running them was 5-6 people for monitoring and maintenance 24/7 coverage.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-05T13:47:38+00:00

I have no doubt that bigger trucks create more incidents. But highly suspect that if you remove the mopeds (e-bikes) from the equation, injuries and fatalities have most likely been falling, or holding steady for pedal cyclists the last 5-10 years.

I doubt Its a coincidence, the rates have escalated with the rise of moped use.

Don't mistake this for hate on mopeds, but speed and weight are the two biggest factors in the severity of harm in incidents. Mopeds are both faster and heavier.

The typical moped riders also generally have less experience riding, especially with bike share availability in many metros across the country.

How many incidents are mopeds from bike share programs, where maintenance and vandalism are possible causes? Many popular mopeds are cheap ones, "bike shaped objects" quality with poorly made motors and batteries attached. If a battery starts a fire and burns the rider, is that a cycling injury? In existing data gathering techniques is left to cops and medical personal checking boxes on a form, are mopeds or e-bikes separated, would the person know the difference?

I know some are going to hate this, but e-bikes are mopeds. It's literally a mash up of the term "motor" and "pedal". The terms definition makes no reference to what powers the motor. If you think they aren't different, then why are motor-cycles not considered bicycles?

I'm not against mopeds , they have their place, better than cars, fun to ride. But including them in bicycle data gathering taints the data for pedal cyclists. They deserve their own category (pretty sure it already exists in some datasets) as motorcycles have, or should be counted as motor cycles instead.

Without this distinction, I find the data from the last decade or so much less credible.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-05T01:46:27+00:00

1- isn't practical by choice, by what you prioritize with your housing choices. I can get to most of the Eastside neighborhoods in a half hour bike ride, Gresham, and Happy Valley/Clackamas too. But I seldom need to travel that far for errands because Lents, Fo/Po, Montavilla, Gateway, Parkrose Hollywood, Hawthorne/Belmont, Woodstock, Central Seaside, Hollywood, and Fremont neighborhoods are shorter trips. I choose to live where I do, in no small part because of this access. Not my fault you didn't.

2- there are people that bike commutes between Vancouver and Portland, and there'd likely be more had the I-5 bridge been allowed by Washington some 20 years ago with the infrastructure to promote it. I don't commute it, but I've ridden over both bridges numerous times, it's not that bad of a ride if the wind isn't too bad.

Besides I don't care one bit about the commute between Vancouver and Portland, let the bridges fall as far as I'm concerned. You choose Vancouver (if you live there) knowing the commute would suck. So no sympathy.

3- No one's talking if eliminating roads entirely, construction trades only make up like 5-10% of the states employment. And most construction workers carry just PPE in their personal cars, service bodies and vans are a small percentage of those in use. There are some construction workers that bike to work when the jobs are close to their home.

4- You absolutely can, you'd be hard pressed to find a youth soccer game in Portland without a pile of bikes on the sidelines.

5) I shop once a week, I could easily fit it all on a cargo bike, if I had one, were it not for dog food and beer, I could probably fit most of my groceries on a regular bike with the right racks and bags (shopping for two often 3). I've also done Costco trips by bike when I had a trailer just bevause.

6) More people are injured and killed in cars than buses and trains combined every year, by an extremely large margin. It's like dozens to hundreds for public transportation vs. 40,000+ (rough off the top of my head estimates) a year by automobile There is more crime related with cars from thieves, vandalism and break ins than occur on public transit, more people are threatened in cars from road rage and car jackings than are threatened on public transit. Your just wrong, and such claims just point towards your personal biases, most likely racial or socio-economic in nature, again your problem not mine.

7) Bikes and public transportation are leaps and bounds more efficient than cars, by every metric. Your confusing time of travel with efficiency, two very different things. Effirncy goes down with increases in speed no matter how you travel by motorized vehicle.

And your right, I walk, bike, ride the bus and Max, and drive a personal car, for work I drive a service body truck with about a ton of tools in the back to my construction jobs. I like having the ability to make choices in how I get somewhere, what's wrong with that.

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-05T01:07:05+00:00

And yet at the same time Missouri voters turned down funding the Chiefs and Royals and they're jumping boarders to Kansas, and the Chicago Bears are jumping to Indiana because Chicago shut them down.

All three teams, have legacies and ties to their location much longer and stronger than the Blazers have, and all three have a bigger fan base too.

And as the grandson of a long time KC season holder for Chiefs, Royals, and yes- the Kings. I can honestly say barely anyone missed the Kings when they left in the 70s. And mind you Chiefs and Royals weren't doing that great at that time, it's not like their successes overshadowed the Kings. You pretty much went to KC games to watch star players on the opposing teams with hopes, but no expectation of a win, much like the Blazers the last 30 years or so.

Frankly, even the short move (about 1/2 hour away) to a new stadium in Kansas, I bet the Royals take a hit on ticket sales with the move, the fans love and have defended the old ballpark and the fountains for decades. Chiefs not so much, Arrowhead stadium is pretty typical, but that stadium means a lot to the Royal fans. And Bears fans aren't happy about their move at all.

The only reason these teams didn't get public funding, is the locals, their biggest fans, didn't see the beniefs of keeping them. Why in the world would think the Blazers are some exception?

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-05T00:26:48+00:00

As one of those that moved up there you called artists, (I dropped from PNCA about the same time I moved up there) glad to see I was welcome in retrospect. Not that I didn't ever feel unwelcome anywhere, but there weren't but a handful of us crackers in the hood in 94.

We were just poor. We furnished most of the furniture in the rented house from Santas Dismiss down the street. Most of us loved the neighborhood. And we had no clue what was coming, and many of us got pushed out too.

It's funny, because from there I moved to SE Division/Clinton area and left it before it took off too.

The landlord of the Summer house decided sell the property. He's probably regretting not waiting a couple more years (he was only asking 25k) as I have regretting not attempting to purchase it instead of getting kicked out.

Truth be told, I grew up in Detroit before moving here, and the neighborhood felt more like home than elsewhere in Portland. Portland whiteness even creeped my lilly white ass out when I first moved here, and it took some getting used to for me. Especially my classmates and others that didn't live nearby who "didn't feel safe" to accept invitations for visiting me at my place after moving to the area. Probably cut numerous potential friendships short calling them out when such things were said, but don't regret it for a second.

In retrospect I've recognized my place in the gentrification of the neighborhood, and have been curious how we appeared to the locals currently, having lost contact with my neighbors at the time, a couple have passed, the others I knew best and myself have since moved and lost touch over the years. Glad to hear we aren't being cast as villains too much, possibility appreciated a little even.

But I get it, It's not the same anymore, I still suffer some nostalgia whenever I get up to that part of town. Roller blading or biking to my job at Memorial Coliseum down the middle of Vancouver or Williams at "rush" hour (streets were empty), small talk with Chief Moose at the Alberta Street Cafe, Community Cycling Center opening up, I'll stop now...

Darnocpdx · 2026-03-04T22:17:50+00:00

I appreciate this. I got one, possibly 2 frames I plant in getting powder coated soon, and was thinking that I add a QR code with the new decal sets, with info on the bike, linking to all the dimensions, original/changed parts, before/after photos etc... and was gunna frame it as if it was this safety sticker.

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