Many of you remember my west coast bike, the Green Goblin. It’s a vintage REI Viaggio Safari of (until just now) unknown vintage. I bought it at a Portland bike co-op that helped restore it to its current glory.

The thing is… the Internets have no info on this beast. None. I spent the last year googling in vain trying to find something (anything!) that would clue me on the details on the Goblin’s origin story. I tweeted Novara, I asked REI mechanics… no one had a clue.

And then I stumbled on this little gem… the 1998 ACA Touring Bike Buyer’s Guide. And there it was:

 

A nice review, and it’s definitely correct because it has that weird reverse-spring deraileur that will definitely screw me up if it ever blows on the road! And, of course, you can definitely tell that’s the Goblin in the pic. It’s nice to know (finally!) what I’m riding.

And I get to see the Goblin as soon as Saturday… we fly out tomorrow for Portland and the WDS conference. Tour starts the 15th, so I get to rock some local Portland rides first. Looking forward to it!

 

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Hey, if you dig this, you’d probably like my podcast Pedalshift. Its all about bike touring and stuff!