Bike related stuff
After a failed attempt in trying to revive an old french “Liberia” road bike, I managed to pick up a Kogswell P/R on craigslist. A Kogswell would have been high on my list of bikes to get anyways even if I was going to purchase something brand new, so finding a slightly used one, in a big enough size (it’s the 64cm 700c version, which wasn’t one of the original P/R sizes) was a great stroke of luck.
The only real downside was that it was already built up but as a fairly bare-bones single speed, which I am going to have to convert to a geared arrangement. Already, though, it’s much better than the Liberia I was working on simply due to better geometry, a more robust frame, and better clearances for tires/fenders.
Right now I’m trying to gather all the parts to set it up properly as well as trying to find the best solution for carrying a toddler around on it. I don’t really like the trailers, they seem too expensive and inconvenient to me, so I am leaning towards a bike seat of some kind. I would prefer something front-mounted but my son is on the big side so I wouldn’t have much time before he grew out of it.
What I think would be really nice but doesn’t appear to exist is a seat that mounts in front of the handlebars and over the front wheel, possibly on a rack. There are probably a lot of bikes that couldn’t handle this but it would make sense on the right bike such as the P/R, which was designed for carrying heavy loads up front.
And on a related note of carrying heavy loads/kids on a bike, I am shamelessly linking to MADSEN Cargo Bikes in order to try and win one. Go check them out.
When the P/R is done I’ll put up some pics of it for those of you that are interested.