Folding Bikes

Picked this up silly cheap, its a Hawk Cycles folding bike made in West Germany (~70's?) It will be my rehab bike while recovering from a broken collarbone.

Full length guards, Hellenic art deco chain guard, spring clamp rack, heavy as shit and It's got a coaster brake.

I'm wondering if I can get a longer seatpost for this as it aint built for a 6 foot 2 person. No markings apart from a 'minimum insert depth' mark in german, looks to be around 29mm? I don't have those tron electric calipers, will get it measured by to bike shop. what's the likelihood of finding a 350mm+ long seatpost like that? Or I will just look like the tall simpsons guy in a small car which isn't terrible really.

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BBB SkyScraper is 400mm. I can see that frame flex just by looking at the picture.

thanks! and yeah It's a wet noodle.

Picked up this Raleigh Twenty last week. Haven't checked the serial number yet so not sure how old but by the look of things it could be mostly original and old as F.
Gorgeous thing, heavy as hell and the ride feels very dangerous.

How lovely!

I took the Pathfinder into the city this morning many puddles were forded.

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Looks great and clean for something so old.

Finally took some time to get my Bike Friday back together. I had it set up with drops, and it was good that way, but less easy to pack up for travel. Now it's quickly packable, and plenty comfortable. I'd like some fenders and a rack or two for it for greater daily utility.

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Have you found your serial number?

I just looked for mine, been meaning to see if I could work out when mine is from and seeing your post reminded me but I can’t find a number anywhere.

I found some posts on an old wordpress site suggesting left hand dropout but I don’t see anything.

I don’t think I cut enough off the bb shell to have obliterated it if it’d have been there.

You can date the bike approximately by the SA hub serial no (dependent on whether you have the original), if that’s all you want to know? It should have the month and year of manufacture.

Don’t still have it, it was really rough and I was going singlespeed so chucked it. Decals and colour scream ’70s to me so I’ll stick with that as my estimate.

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I'll check in a couple days when it's a bit warmer than -25'C in the storage!

Took the bike friday out for an hour today.

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I want a bike Friday soooo bad!

Fifteen more hilly miles this morning

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@dadbike

That bike is great, especially the dual bottle setup!

Touring the Alps

I've been really enjoying it again lately. These things ride so well. I just laced a new rear wheel for so I can take off the funny SRAM Dual Drive wheel that came with it. Have a few trips planned soon and I'll bring this with me, so I've taken it out a bunch to make sure everything is in good shape to travel.

Really nice looking. What is your gear range and setup? 1x11?

The Tern on the right is full SRAM Force with Red cranks 50 x 11-32 teeth, giving me 30.3 to 88 gear inches. Handles surprisingly well with a 12 kg front load.
I have forgotten the details for the Birdy on the left.

The first week of June, I rode an elderly borrowed Birdy Blue between Strasbourg and Frankfurt, mostly beside a fairly flooded Rhine. A pair Ortliebs on the front rack were more than enough, given hotel stays. Out and back on Eurostar/ TGV and ICE. All good fun overall but I don’t particularly like the Birdy’s front end geometry. The 3x7 gears worked well enough, though the gentle route meant that the middle hub gear would have been sufficient.

Thanks. The tern is the bike I was curious about. I am planning on 2x8 or 9. Planning on 53/39x11-32. That should give me pretty decent gear range for nearly anything.

Yes, that gearing should get you up to anything. Mine is fine for up to a 13% incline when fully loaded.
With 20" wheels, I often feel that 11 gears are too finely graded, an 8 or 9 speed cassette would be better. But I already had that SRAM Force lying around...

Yeah, I also want the "wiggle room" and tolerance to being slightly out of adjustment of 8 or 9sp since this bike will be in and out of the case and traveling around.

Interesting about 11 feeling too close. Hadn't considered that might be an issue with smaller wheels.