I haven’t done an Interesting Bikes Spotted post here for awhile. That’s partially because I have (too) many other things to write about, but also because my tumblr blog bikesspottedpdx is the escape valve/appropriate place for me to post these things.
But every once in awhile something will pop up here. And in this case, it’s because of where it happened. There are many places where I regularly spot interesting bikes here in Portland, but the…synergy of how it all happened at Fred Meyer on Hawthorne (the big arsed grocery store) makes me want to share.
When I arrived, I found a Bontrager mountain bike locked up in the massive bike rack. A mountain bike in itself is nothing special, but a drop-barred mountain bike is. And it had quite the rackage on it (front and rear) so you know the rider “gets around”, if you know what I’m saying.
Then when I came out after shopping, in its place was a very very lovely Raleigh International, with a big ol’ Carradice Camper Longflap saddlebag, too. This is Portland: you may not be the only person in the bike rack with a Carradice bag (and a Camper Longflap to boot.) The International was the next-to-top of the line road bike in the Raleigh lineup in the 70’s, and some preferred it to the top-of-the-line Competition, as the Comp was geared for racing and the International was geared towards sport-touring and comfort. (Pretty Rivendellish, yes.) The bike was in beautiful shape too, and also very racked out. And I love the dual handlebar water bottle holders.
Then to finish things off, I turn around and spot a Univega Alpina Sport, a very sweet ’80’s mountain bike, and in very nice shape. I really like the unique setup of the bar ends on the handlebars.
Now, how does your local grocery store shape up in the bike spotting department?
Urban Adventure League 
I’ve seen a few decent bikes at our local grocery stores. I remember a chromed Miyata mountain bike that was pretty nice. I chatted with the owner of the bike who unfortunately turned out to be a bit of a nutter who wanted to espouse crazy conspiracy theories to random passersby. I also saw saw aRaleigh Mountaintour (don’t remember the model) that gave me the first inkling that there were actually good bikes if that name. Before that I had only seen the department-store-quality ones that I assume Raleigh had build under contract.
I’ve been checking the bike rack at my local Publix to see if aliens have somehow planted a homing beacon that summons every Next bike within range to a homecoming.