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Night Rider

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"Look, a UFO!"
- random bystander

My longest-used bike and also a mascot of this website. Its main advantage is versatility. The rack with a huge basket works for both shopping and touring, mudguards allow riding in every weather and lights riding at night. The bike is quite light for my taste (less than 16 kg), so it climb quite well. Weight distribution is 46 % at the front and 54 % at the rear, cornering is stable and predictable. 2×5 gears (range 3.1..7.8 m) are mostly enough, although sometimes I'd like at least one more gear at either end. Regarding reliability and repairability, there's nothing to complain about. A weak spot is riding in winter where rims and chain deteriorate very quickly. The caliper brakes are not super strong; thery're mostly adequate, but definitely not enough for a heavy trailer. The racing geometry causes sore bottom, hands and neck on long trips, which is one of the reasons I switched to recumbents. Another reasons were headwinds and cargo capacity.

As years passed, almost everything was replaced on the bike (something more than once), except of the frame, rack, mudguards, rear brake and light fixtures. Most of the components are Shimano, the rest is a mix of various junk that was at hand when needed. Front derailleur Romet is a rarity, it uses a pushrod instead of the usual parallelogram. The tyres are Schwalbe Delta cruiser - definitely recommendable.

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