On 1/19/2019 3:44 PM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:
Am Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:49:15 -0500 schrieb Frank Krygowski
:

On 1/15/2019 9:06 PM, jbeattie wrote:

...

My first set of rollers was from Palo Alto Bikes in 79/80 -- this set: http://tenspeedhero.com/features/yes...s-money-pt-ii/ They had sintered bushings instead of bearings which was a feature and not a bug. They were fondly known as the Paris Roubaix rollers, and they made a roar when you road them. Rather than people commenting on my sweat, I had the downstairs neighbors pounding on the ceiling with broom sticks.

Those rollers finally died, and I bought a set of Tacx rollers in 1984 that I still have to this day. I've replaced an end-cap, bearings and belts and some broken fans (got the metal cowlings), but they're still going strong. In fact, my communication with the folks at Tacx to get a replacement end-cap was one of the first e-mails I ever sent. I couldn't believe it was answered. Customer service was great. I was too cheap to buy Kreitlers.

I had very little money but access to a machine shop, so I built ours.

I should probably say "... I built my wife's." She rode them far more
than I ever did.

These will last forever, I'm sure. They haven't accumulated a single
mile in over ten years. :-(

I cycled to work during most of my working life, every single working
day, during summer and winter. So I never saw the point in using such a
roller.

This changed quite unexpectedly in the summer of 2011, after getting a
broken collarbone and some shoulder damage in a fall caused by a blown
front tube.

Unfortunately, this did some permanent damage to the shoulder an some
nerves, partially caused by a severe medical malpractice during the
initial treatment of the broken collarbone. In consequence, I never
cycled to work again and couldn't ride a real bicycle at all, for a few
years thereafter.

After medical rehab training in 2011, I bought a Tacx t1680, which I'm
still using regularly, in order to stay fit.

https://www.mystrobl.de/Plone/radfahren/technik/komponenten/tacx-t1680/tacx-t1680-in-der-verpackung/view.html

I'm quite satisfied with its performance. It is quite compact, self
contained, no mobile phone or app necessary, but programmable, sort of.
The display unit on the handlebar controls the electric brake on the fly
wheel on the rear, in order to adjust the torque which is necessary to
get the selected power. It offers the usual statistics, work done in
joule or kCal, average cadence, km or miles ridden, etc.

For some nostalgic reasons I mounted my first Peugeot PR60/L from 1978
http://www.mystrobl.de/ws/fahrrad/fuhrpark.htm
on the t1680

https://www.mystrobl.de/Plone/radfahren/technik/komponenten/tacx-t1680/pr-60-l-im-t1680/view.html
http://www.mystrobl.de/ws/fahrrad/bilder/Alltagsraeder/target18.html

We got our bicycles (my PR60/L Randonneur, her P65/L Mixte) from a local
bike shop, for touring in France during our vaccations. Me using it for
riding to work too came somewhat later. I still enjoy looking at the
pictures taken during our tours through france with that bike.

In 1981, for example, we rode from Tours to Besançon.

https://www.mystrobl.de/Plone/wolfgang-strobl/fotos/Frankreich/loire.html

Fun fact:

When looking at two of the pictures from that series
https://www.mystrobl.de/Plone/wolfgang-strobl/fotos/Frankreich/loire/loire3b.png/download
https://www.mystrobl.de/Plone/wolfgang-strobl/fotos/Frankreich/loire/19-.jpg/download
you'll notice a gadget from
http://tenspeedhero.com/wp-content/uploads/Palo-Alto10.jpg on both our
bicycles, Cat. No. 40-10, a Huret Cyclometer.

That resetable trip odometers came quite handy when navigating using a
paper map.


Thanks for the inspirational story. Hey that's a cool
Peugeot (can't remember our USA version model number...)

And excellent choice on that Multito too. Those were so
dependable and cheap that they stayed popular well into the
electronic geegaw era.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971