The Clipper Ship

[RatRodDad]

I thought it was time for a Ladies bike, so here are some shots of my wife's Columbia Clipper.

The watercolor version ....

In the woods ....

Black and white ....

From a fisheye lens .....

 

[chimichanga]

Man you're having fun with photoshop! Nice bike.

 

[RatRodDad]

Thanks, Chimichanga. I probably do get a lilttle carried away with the photo editing, but it's fun to see how different the same photo can look if done in different ways.

As far as the bike goes, it's been from a 10 speed (originally) to a 15 speed (added a 3 sprocket crank) and now to a 5 speed.

I just intalled the single 36T sprocket this weekend and my wife took it for a ride yesterday and loved the gearing. A nice cruising gear plus a couple of higher ones and a couple of lower ones. And there is now only one shifter and one derailer to have to deal with, so that's a plus too.

 

[chimichanga]

wow! That's alot of changes. That's great your wife loves it. I am still trying to find a decent womens bike for my girlfriend because she is starting to hate the single speed. Are you going to paint it?

 

[RatRodDad]

About the only thing I might paint is the front fork. The white on the bike looks okay, but I'm not sure why they thought the front fork should be another color - yellow in this case. So I will probably try to find some paint that matches the bike and paint the fork that color too. I also have a set of chrome handlebars that I plan to eventually put on it.

It's pretty flat here in Houston, but the bike trail we ride on has some pretty decent grades in different places so the multi speeds do come in handy even here.

I don't understand why they gear bikes the way they do. When it had the original dual sprockets on the front even in the lowest gear combination was too high - and of course you then had 9 higher gears - probably 6 or 7 or which you never used.

The new single sprocket I put on it worked out great and lowered all of the gear ratios - giving her 5 usuable ones now. So if you eventually find a multi speed bike for your girlfriend, keep in mind that you can easily make that same change. I think I paid $10 delivered for the single sprocket on Ebay.

 

[mastershake916]

That's just the fork that I need, same color even.

 

[RatRodDad]

Hummm, now if I can just get her to ride it without a front fork .....

Mastershake916, I assume that means you have a mustard yellow bike sitting around somwhere that has no front fork ... LOL.

Now the ideal situation would be if you had a mustard yellow bike at home that had a white front fork. Then we might have something. :lol:

 

[mastershake916]

Hummm, now if I can just get her to ride it without a front fork .....

Mastershake916, I assume that means you have a mustard yellow bike sitting around somwhere that has no front fork ... LOL.

Now the ideal situation would be if you had a mustard yellow bike at home that had a white front fork. Then we might have something. :lol:

Actually a yellow schwinn varsity frame that I'm going to make into a schwinn sidewinder (really early mountain bike).

 

[Clothespin n]

Nice Bike..
Kev.

 

[RatRodDad]

Thanks, Kev.

Hopefully I can get the ratchet shifter and SIS derailer on it before long and make it even more fun for my wife to ride.

Does anyone know anything about Columbia's serial numbers? The numbers on the bottom of this one are 08563 - and then another set that reads 8 044 1576.

I was just curious on when the bike was built. Maybe 1976? If you know how to read the numbers and tell, let me know. Thanks.