Following the renovation thread, after these pictures of blank walls and this post about filling blank walls, I present: non-blank walls.
I’d show you the other side, but we’re still waiting on the blinds so we can finally have sex on the couchenjoy a little privacy.
Also, and completely unrelatedly, Zach wrote:
You can’t leave us bicycle geeks hanging without some more background on your bike. We got a few entire posts about your car, and that is far less interesting. What type of bike (in as much detail as you would like to provide of course), how you got started riding again, stuff that gives you bike envy, that sort of thing.
To which I’ll bubble up my original reply, and add a picture:
It’s red. I believe it is called a “Raleigh Retroglide,” which is one of those brand names that sounds dirty but isn’t. I bought it used, via craigslist, and then had the local bike shop fix the chain and replace the tubes.
I started riding after Chris DiBona shanghaied me into riding one of the communal bikes on Google’s Mountain View campus. (Frumpy-looking bikes are available all over — just pick one up at the entrance outside your building and drop it off at the entrance to wherever you’re going.) Then I started riding them everywhere around campus. Then I came home and decided to buy one.
I try to ride 30 minutes every day. Last week was the exception because I was sick.
Nothing really gives me bike envy yet. Except I’d like to have a biker’s physique so I could look good in spandex. But not actually to wear spandex, just to be able to without feeling depressed. I’ve promised myself that when I hit 200 pounds, I’ll buy a new bike that doesn’t look like a holdover from the 1950s.
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Woohoo. I had a small part in inspiring a full post. Ride on Mark, ride on. And for more bike envy, check out my latest favorites — The Sögreni Classic or the Okee Man.
Uhm, ehm, is it me or brakes are missing from the picture of the red bicycle?
@Giulio — I belive that’s one of the models where you activate the brakes by pedaling backwards.
When you’re ready, you could worse than buying something like a Fuji Absolute, which for me is a good of bike envy. Then you can upgrade to a Bianchi Pista, but you’ll have to learn how to ride a fixed-wheel bike without brakes. :)
http://www.fujibikes.com/2007/bikes.asp?id=323
http://www.bianchiusa.com/05_pista.html
— ludo 
Incidentally, I believe the correct translation of the German colloquialism for that sort of bike would be “granny bike.”
Nice. I just got back from a 3 week trip in Amsterdam and bikes like that are the norm. I enjoyed leisurely cruising around and being able to wear work clothes with no worries. Definitely can’t do that on my Specialized road bike. I’m tempted to buy one for home now!
— Eliot
Hmm. I just pulled the bike image from the manufacturer’s site, it might not be an exact match. Mine most definitely has brakes, and not the push-backwards-on-the-wheels kind, just the normal hand brakes on each handlebar. It also has 7 gears, with a gear switch on the right handlebar.
I had no idea people were so interested in the minute details of my rusty old bike.
— Mark
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Nice. I just got back from a 3 week trip in Amsterdam and bikes like that are the norm.
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Such bikes (well, usually they have somewhat less of a “grandma” look to them ;) ) are popular in the Netherlands because they can be built of fewer parts than normal, and in addition those parts are less likely to break. This is of course important if you use your bike as a reliable (daily) means of transportation. (Try getting around in Amsterdam by car, and you’ll also immediately know why this is the case.)
Back-pedaling brakes hardly ever cause problems, whereas what you apparently call “normal” brakes may have cables breaking (usually at the point where they are attached to the handle), braking cables getting stuck behind other bikes when you park them (have you seen the Amsterdam central train station? You’ll know what I mean), or cables getting stuck (frozen) in winter.
In addition, the country is very flat so many of such bikes have only a single gear. Again, less parts, meaning fewer things that might break.
— Some dutch guy
Nice living room. Good work. Lovely red bike too.
“I had no idea people were so interested in the minute details of my rusty old bike.”
This is the internet. Trivia rules.
Hey Aristotle, the German grannies would not ride a bike which has that fantastic red color :) they even prefer the boring black Drahtesel….
— Dirk
Woa. This is quite an uninspiring interior.
— johnk
johnk: Maybe Mark wasn’t going for “inspiring”. Maybe he was going for “comfort”.
— Pete
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