Encounters with Stupidity

My Raleigh has recently found a new life as a single speed. I bought it in '94 or '95 as a "retro" road bike with all Campy Record parts, down-tube shifters and the like. It was a relic even then. According to a not-friendly guy I met on RAGBRAI (why go if you aren't friendly?), the bike was new in 1985 or 86 (he was riding the exact same model, sofaras I could tell). The frame is beat up, but still pretty (beausage). It's cherry-ish red, with 1/2 chromed fork. Nice normal pointy lugs (what! but lugs aren't normal!). The Raleigh has long been my freak bike. After buying it I stripped off all the parts, most of which ended up on a Trek road bike I gave to Kerrie. Later the bike got build up with top-mounts used as bar-ends, and a mix-match of parts, including the Evil Brooks B.17 from Rhino that gave my such ass pain on RAGBRAI. More recently I took the cassette off the old Ultegra-Mavic wheels and unscrewed it (not riveted) and put on some spacers and made it a single speed. That's all the craze now, sure, but I'm not doing it to keep up with Modern Bicycling Trends. I'm doing it for fun. It's fun to have different bikes with different handlebars, gears and geometry. My first gearing attempt created a heinous 46x15 or something. That sounds easy for flat paceline tailwind downhill crusing. But try starting from a stop sign with a bagful-o'-stuff on your back, with a pickup approaching from the side because you're going too slow through the intersection. So I backed off, gearing-wise, to a 32x17? It's nice, a bit on the hard side but that lets me go fast on the way home from school. Other features. I put on Nitto Moustache Bars, acquired in the old Bridgestone days. I wrapped 'em in white cork tape and on that put about 3 coats of orangey-brown shellac. It looks pretty good, despite my poor taping job. The M'tache bars plus the 29 cm (?) Cinelli stem make for a stretched-out cockpit, but it's not as bad as you'd think. Wow that stem is long (but not 29 cm...). So now my Raleigh is my preferred bike for riding to work! It's smooth and quiet (except for the 1 bpr (beat per revolution) that I think is coming from the bottom bracket). I bought some tyres from Specialized -- I'm in love with Armadillos (the tyres). I got 38 c's and they're HUGE! But -- here's the amazing part -- they still fit on the Raleigh, even with the stock Campy Record sidepulls! Wow! My newest bike, a Schwinn middlin' roadie, has 25c Armadillos and the clearance is whisker-thin. Holy cow! Not much clearance. Isn't it nice to be able to put 38c's on a racy road bike?