# Red Racing Bike

This is not my favourite kind of bike, the whole point of getting a Dutch bike was to limit the weight my wrists have to hold up. However I have a big hill to climb on my ride to work, and the geometry of an opafiets is not well suited to that. 

I refuse to wear lycra, though. that's where I draw the line.  😅

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15JUN2025

This bike is pretty stable now. I like how it is set up, though there are a couple of improvements I will probably make in the future. Currently it still has the 1950 AW3 hub, with the original steel rim that will probably need to be replaced eventually. I have a couple of Surly Hurdy Gurdy chain tensioners that mostly keep things in line, but I may have to try something else because the non-drive-side wants to slide aft under load, unless I crank way too hard on the nut. I think the wheel is pivoting on the drive sidebecause it wants to pull itself forward but the tensioner won't let it. And the one on the NDS can't stop the wheel trying to go aft. It also needs a full chain case but I might wait until I replace the chainring when that wears out. I can tuck my pants into my socks in the meantime. 
It does need a new shifter cable. I keep forgetting to order that. But other than those little things it has been great for it's one purpose - getting me up a big stupid hill on my commute to work. 

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25JUN2023

I guess I haven't detailed anything about this bike, yet. So here we go. 
It's a mid 60s CCM frame, painted red. It was restored by the guy I bought it from, and it's in pretty good condition. 
The first thing I changed was replacing the narrow old style drop bars with a riser bar with some sweep back (I believe the kids call those "alt bars" now), and some bar end grips for that bull horn style. It's fairly comfortable and gives me grip options. I've got tan grip tape on it which looks pretty nice. 
Initially the hub, which is a 1950 Sturmey-Archer AW3 (!!), was having trouble shifting up into second gear. I didn't want to have to open it up, so I squirted a generous amount of automatic transmission fluid into it, and every weekend I put a couple of cc's in to top it up. It works nearly perfectly now so I'm happy with that.
Next I bought a cheap rear rack that clamps to the seat post. It's not ideal, but I can bring my lunch with me at least. 
The next thing I want to do is to replace the pedals. They're an old style that kinda lets you rotate the front and rear bits to get fresh grip? They're square in cross section. Or were to start with. It's a decent idea, but it just means sometimes my foot slides off the pedal so that's gotta go. I learned that there are two sizes of thread for pedals, too. 
That's about it for now. I've done a bit over 200km on it at this point. 

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