Cruisin' State of Mind

There is peace in riding for miles on a bike. The back roads, or main thoroughfare, a day long trek to nowhere sliding through the gears and passing the world by at a bikes speed. My own stable of bikes is full of the Schwinn 10 speeds of old that make such rides an easy joy.
Then there are those rides where raw simplicity is the most pure form of attraction.  Whether its to the beach, or across town to a friends, nothing draws the moments of my youth like a cruiser.  Now I never had such a bike as a child, but it was the carefree way we rode as kids that is embodied in the cruiser bikes.  As an adult the same 10 speed that I would steel from my brother for the day has become more complicated.. I understand its functions now, and as such, use them.  When I was young, whatever gear he left it in was the one I rode around town in.  Carefree with energy to spare.

A Father's day gift To myself

For father's day this year, I bought my dad a book, (as I describe in the last post).  My kids gave me a pair of hand decorated mini duck pillows, cause I like ducks.  But what I really wanted was a new cruiser bike.  Bummer, no ones giving.
So I headed to my shop Sunday and dug around in my spare parts.  I found a frame that was part of a craig's list acquisition.  A fellow collector was reducing his inventory to focus on more specific projects.  This frame was thrown in with a few boxes of parts he had, as well as the frame I originally stopped to get.  Here is the frame I found, although it was horribly bent out of alignment. (likely why it was a free add in)