the best things in life are free
mel and I have been hunting a couch for some time now. haunting the thrift store and checking craigslist. no luck until now. this beauty is from the coffee and tea house on duval. once the hangout of many a pedicab driver, now it's moving accross the street. this was a real test of the extracycle. in fact, it was so sketchy that it barely counts. but it was on the curb, now it's in our living room. yay!
a curbside score - a beautiful sofa bed that a bed and breakfast was finished with. it had to be moved six blocks to its new home. a truck to move a couch? truck shmuck.
well, if it's saturday and we are in key west, it means we get up early and head out to the garage sales. beats the retail experience hands down. farmer and hunters. anyhow, we load up on coffee and hop on the bikes, hopelfully come back laden with treasure.
this is the classic view from a conch cruiser. notice the chain and combo lock and the sailing magazine. here we are rolling down southard street.
conch cruisers
with all this talk out there about the wonderful european bike style, I thought we'd chime in with a report from down here in key west. key west is a small island with a long tradition of using bikes to get around. you won't find many fancy road bikes or tricked out mountain bikes. what you'll find is conch cruzers. they just might be the closest thing on this side of the pond to a dutch bike. here's some hints to help identify them.
more than ten years old
less than forty bucks: probably an old rental bike
baskets: front,plastic flowers and beer cozy. back, fishing rod holder
high rise handle bars. key west is like never never land. and how better to get that stingray feeling than a nice set of ape hangers.
big fat seat. sit up right and look around. you need a big cheeky seat to hold all that weight.
flashlight that takes c batteries bolted on the handle bars. or they'll get ya!
kick stand: with a tennis ball on the end so in works in sand.
chain guard: doubtful, who wears long pants, ever.
