My Kingdom for a Bike

Today Peter and I were on our way to Target to purchase nylon webbing with which to hang our hammock in the park. We received a very nice two person hammock as a wedding gift and have not yet taken her on her maiden voyage. Along our walk to the store I spotted a yard sale. I'm good at spotting yard sales.

Here in Chicago they call them yard sales although they generally don't take place in a yard. Usually items of clothing and accessories will be hanging from the wrought iron fence with trinkets and appliances strewn in the patch of grass between the sidewalk and the street.

At this particular yard sale there happened to be a very nice powder blue men's bike. I asked the young man tending the loot "How much for the bike?" He looks to his father behind the fence and the father says "50 bucks". This is a good deal for any bike but for a nice vintage Apollo it's a steal.

Through internet research I have ascertained the bike is from Sweden and was made somewhere between the 1960's and 1970's. It has some unique text on the seat post stating "svensk kvalitets cykel" which translated means "Swedish Quality Cycle". It's hard to tell if this is factory type or was added by the retail organization. I imagine some old Swedish man who owns a bike shop and trains professional cyclists in his spare time selling this bike to some 20 something kid back in the 60's. Said kid then decided to make his way to the states for the decade of free love and what not and brought his bike along for the "ride".

Needless to say we purchased it and it now stands in the living room awaiting a much needed overhaul tomorrow by our local bike shop gurus.

As many of you may well know I am a giant stickler for fairness and the minute we got the cycle home I jumped on the internet searching for an excellent deal on a vintage bike for myself. Surprisingly, through less than 5 minutes of searching on craigslist I found a beautiful MOHAWK women's bike (that's right people MOHAWK Peter's bike might have the name of a space shuttle but mine has the name of an everlasting trend in follicle experimentation).

I immediately called the number for the ad and the phone went straight to voice mail. I left a message and we set out again for Target to purchase webbing for the aforementioned hammock. It was, for me, a very anxious journey. Craigslist is usually a very anxiety inducing experience for me anyway. Especially if I've found something I REALLY want. So over the course of the next hour I called three times and sent one email from my phone. Not too bad for my standards. I'm not a patient person when it comes to monetary expenditures. Eventually I reached the gentleman with the bike and I jetted over to Lincoln Park, via bus, with poor Peter in tow. For $65 I purchased this beauty.

She may be from an earlier or later time I haven't done as much sleuthing on the interwebs yet. Both bikes may need a little work, as of right now they are in working condition but could be in better condition with just a few tweaks here and there. All in all I'd say both are very worthy purchases and I have none of the buyer's remorse I experienced with some of my previous bike purchases. And this is where ALL of our bikes live.