1984 Centurion Turbo Project

I am not a winter person. One of the best things about moving from North East Ohio to the Cincinnati area is the short, relatively mild winters and usually clear roads until January. I have not ridden since the Sunday after Thanksgiving and now the roads are full of sand, grit and salt. I am not a big indoor trainer guy either although I did get the beast out and dust it off but I just couldn't bring myself to hook up a bike to it. I guess I could go out for a run but that just seems like so much work and a miserable way to get a little excercise.

So here is what I am going to do. I dragged a project bike out of the shed that I picked up earlier this fall. It's a 1984 Centurion Turbo 58 cm. It was their top of the line bike that year. It is just my size and will be a truly beautiful bike. It sports Champion #1 Cr-Mo tubing, chrome Suntour Pro dropouts, chrome crown on the fork and chrome ends on the seat stays. Matter of fact I think they chromed the whole thing and then painted it.

The bike is in fairly good condition with no dents or huge scratches.It is complete stock with the exception of the cheesy cranks. The Sugino Aero Mighty crankset that went with the bike are kind of pricey if you can find them. I have an old Shimano 600 crankset that I will install until I can find an original.

Gran Compe brakes and levers are anodized gold and the Suntour Superbe derailers will hopefully clean up nice. Anodized sealed Suzue hubs and Araya 700 rims are also original and will have to be trued and cleaned up as well. I will post more pictures after I get started.

Playing the handlebars

Mark Growden plays the handlebars from Doctor Popular on Vimeo.

NE Wayne Co, IN Ride Report

Nov. 28, 2010

It is becoming a tradition. When we gather at my parents house for Thanksgiving weekend my brother and I go out for a ride. We normally go South of Richmond where there are few nice hills and scenery. This year we decided to tour our old stomping grounds of NE Wayne Co.

We started out before noon on Sunday and dodged all the mad shoppers as we crossed 40 towards New Paris Pike and Porterfield Rd. Porterfield was the most scenic part of the trip because once we got past Middleboro it was all typical Indiana flatland.

We nixed the idea of passing through Whitewater where we both went to elementary school. All that is left of the school is a vacant lot.

So it was off to Fountain City, our hometown and the home of Levi Coffin, "The Grand Conductor of the Underground Railroad".

Since it was only 40 we stopped to warm up and have a cup of coffee at the old Mrs. T's, now the Village Inn or something like that. We then rode through town and past the places where we lived and played. It's funny how things shrink. As a kid I remember being so far away from our house which in reality was just a couple of blocks.

We then headed west with a little detour to hit New Garden Rd. and then on to Williamsburg. Not much has changed there either. They did keep the school which is now a community center.

We picked up the Cardinal Green Way for an easy ride back into

Richmond. They had just paved this section. There were no signs erected and I don't believe it is officially opened as of yet.

We got into Richmond and took "A" into Glen Miller Park and home.

A nice 36 mile ride on a beautiful day in late November.

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Hood River / The Dalles, OR Ride Report

In June of 2010 I had the opportunity to visit Portland, OR and the surrounding area. In a brief description everything is over the top beautiful. The Willamette Valley, Coastal area, Mt. Hood, Columbia River and Portland itself.

I had a day to myself while my wife was working in Portland. I drove the couple of hours to Hood River and rented a Giant OCR from Discover Bicycles. I rode out of town and East towards Rawena Glen and The Dalles. The route follows old 30 for awhile which is an engineering feet of the last century. Cliffs and tunnels and one really cool switchback coming down from Rawena Glen.

I dodged some bullets. It rained every day on our trip but only threatened rain and spit a little on my day off.

The incredible thing about this ride was the change in scenery. In the less than 20 miles I went to a rain forest kind of environment to a dryer one.
This was a memorable 45 mile ride and if you are ever in the area this is a must do, especially with a shop like Discover bicycles where you can rent a nice road bike for $30 for the day.

Tomb Ride Report

A nice day for November 23rd; 50, sunny and not too windy and just enough time to go out for a quick ride. I never get tired of this ride; there is nature, history, beauty, some easy hills and a great down hill run.
I rode across the Lawrenceburg Rd. "Lost Bridge" over the Great Miami River and am always on the lookout for bald eagles. There were none today but I did spot a couple of blue herons. The Great Miami is maybe a mile or so from the Ohio River at this bridge. At the point where the Miami meets the Ohio marks the Western edge of the old Ohio Territory and now the state line which runs due North and splits Ohio and Indiana.

I took a right on Bower Rd. and followed the Miami R. towards the Ohio R. and on the left is Shawnee Lookout State Park. The Indians used this site as a lookout and camp to see who was coming and going on both these river highways. I followed Bower Rd. which runs along the Ohio by the Duke power plant. This is called the Miami Fort plant because Fort Finney was built on the site after the revolutionary war to subdue Indians in the area.

I then followed Bower Rd. (where I get a glimpse of the Ohio

now and then)

until I see the limestone monument and tomb of our 9th president William Henry Harrison. He is Ohio's first and America's first president to die in office. He caught a cold and died 32 days later. The tomb itself is pretty cool. William and

his wife along with their son and family are buried in the crypt.

I then climbed up Cliff Rd. past Congress Green Cemetery where a whole bunch of early settlers are buried.

Cliff Rd. is my favorite part of the ride because once I get to the top I stop and gaze at the great view up and down the Ohio River. I then ride the roller coaster as Cliff Rd. turns into Dugan Gap and then fly downhill to Bower Rd.

There is really very little traffic on this route. There are some tractor trailers but they seem to know to expect bicycles. They generally slow down and pass with care.

Danny MacAskill

Gobbler's Knob Ride Report

November 12-The weather was perfect, about 70, not too bad for a November. We hit it pretty hard with the hill out of Harrison, and kept a pretty good speed 19-20 mph all the way to Cedar Grove. The Big Cedar Rd. portion is perfect; downhill, peaceful and beautiful. The Gobbler's knob hill is allways a killer. Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don't make it without stopping. Today was a day I didn't make it. The St. Peter's Rd. portion seemed to have a lot more gravel than usual (from recent course asphalt patches) which is a drag because it is a usually a great downhill run. All in all it was a great 38 mile ride followed by a cold one in the VFW parking lot.

Can I go riding?

1988 Terry Gambit

My 10 year old son has been wanting to go riding on a "real" bike (as opposed to his Trek mountain bike) with his older brother and I. The big problem was finding a road bike with a short standover height.
I found this women's bike built by Georgina Terry on the Dayton, OH CL and snagged it. These bikes were and are still made primarily for short legged women. It had a cheap saddle, upright bars and levers, well worn tires but in pretty decent shape. It is a cro moly frame, has a nice Sugino VP triple crank, 6 speed freewheel and Shimano indexed shifting.

We first stripped everything down to
the bare frame and my 10 year old insisted on removal of any trace of girl related evidence. After a complete cleaning of the frame I then overhauled the bottom bracket and headset. I went ahead and did the hubs at the same time.
I had a set of Nitto drop bars and stem from who knows where that worked. I then ordered some Crane Creek levers that have a closer reach than normal. I also ordered replacement 27" and 24" Panaracer Pasela tires and tubes. They are about the only manufacturer of 24" x 1" tires and were kind of hard to find.
The wheels were in pretty good shape with just a little truing necessary.
We cleaned and polished rims, brakes, derailers and crank. New cables, a San Marco saddle, carbon look bar tape, matching bottle holder and an old Pedro's seat bag completed the project.


My 10 year old along with my 15 year old and I went on a 11 mile test drive on Saturday. We parked near the Richmond, IN airport and planned to ride a block that went into Ohio and back. This is probably the flattest route I knew but as luck would have it we had a pretty good breeze which of course he thought was going against him the whole way. He enjoyed how much easier it was to pedal and how fast he could go down the "hills". As soon as he gets used to letting go of one hand to shift we will show him some real hills.