This past Saturday a teammate and I headed up to Michigan to take part in the second annual Barry-Roubaix gravel road race.  In the interest of full disclosure, I did not ride my old, crappy 10-speed for this event, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have my eyes peeled for participants that did!  Since I was participating, I did not have as much opportunity to pester the competitors astride OTS as much as I would have liked, but below I have posted a very small sampling of the old and crappy that I did spy.

1974 Zebra Kenko

This is a one owner, OTSG-First, 1974 Zebra Kenko.  The owner had swapped out a Suntour RD for a long cage Shimano Tourney to accommodate his wider range freewheel, but aside from that and the saddle, this baby was all original.

Mid 80s Trek 560

This mid 80s Trek 560 touring bike was spotted while waiting  in line for my not-so traditional post-race coney dog.  This baby had a triple that I would have killed for 15 miles earlier.

Miyata Ninety (Fixed)

I know, I know, this is bike is “fixed” and completely contrary to our site bylaws, but I liked it anyway.  I saw several setups very similar to this, but didn’t have my camera handy for them.  This one gets bonus points for being the only bike I saw with KICKSTAND!  To illustrate just how out-of-it I was after the race (when this picture was taken), I said something to the owner about, “That’s a funny way to spell ‘ninety’…”, thinking that ninety should have been spelled ninty. I was tired.

Other OTS spotted but not photographed: a mid 70s Fuji with a “no derailer setup” (a straight chain on stock rings and freewheel), a couple mid 80s Schwinn touring bikes, and several SS-converted, debadged OTS.

Now get out there and start racin’ your friction shiftin’, 27inchin’, center-pull brakin’ selves!