[footfootfoot]

Hi. It's me.

I've been avoiding this thread assiduously for quite some time now due to my complicated relationship to bikes! Many years ago, after I was a baker and before I was a woodworker, I worked as a bike mechanic.

This was back in the days when you could still find mafac brakes. we're talking 1979-1986 roughly, with some bakery overlap.

I was never a racer. I'm not sure about now, but then racers and mecahnics held each other in disdain. (We mocked their inability to do even the most rudimentary of repairs, and they, in turn, mocked our ability to fix their bikes. Maybe they mocked our preference for riding as an excuse to grill hotdogs and drink beer after, I'm not sure, so few of them could compose a thought, much less carry on a conversation. I digress)

I used to live on my bike. I moved from New Rochelle, NY to Brattleboro, VT via bicycle. I cycled form Jackson Hole to Glacier one summer. Another time I cycled from Rockwood, ME to Quebec. While I was living in Burlington, VT a bunch of my fellow mechanics organized a ride we called the 100/200 which was an all day ride held on June 21 (solstice) that ran from Canada to Mass, via Route 100 for about 218 miles. (hence 100/200) It was my suggestion to jump to route 30 in Jamaica and then to route 5 to Bernardston since that was my old stomping ground and I assured everyone that the scenery was better.

That's me digressing wistfully up there.

Anyway. At the pinnacle of my cycling life I was working 32 miles form home and had no car since me and the GF at the time broke up, so it was a 64 mile R.T. commute each day. In Vermont.

A year or so later I bought my first car. That was pretty much the end of cycling as I knew it. That was 1986.

20 years later I've gone from 6-0 and 165# 32" waist to 210# and a 36" waist. My blood pressure hit some crazy ass numbers like 146/94 resting pulse of 87. So...

Today my sewups arrived in the mail. My wool cycling shorts with the real chamois liners have been consumed by moths, my toeclip straps have dry rotted, and no one sells those crocheted biking gloves any longer.

I am getting back on my bike after 20 years of carrying it around.

Rip Van Winkle rises.

I will not go through this whole thread, it is too much for me emotionally, the purpose of this excerciese is to lower my blood pressure.

At one time cycling meant as much to me as music means to Ibram. Maybe more.

I've come back and the world I knew is gone. I was a gear head, but became downhearted when the gear kept changing seasonally. I found a shop in Wisconsin that still has a lot of old school parts and accessories. So I can give it a go.

After this season, if I can log a thousand miles (formerly two weeks riding) I'll buy some clipless pedals and retire my duegi cleats.

I also noted that the rear derailleur on my touring bike which was broken by a friend, is now a vintage collectible selling for $250. on ebay. A huret duopar titane. A marvelous derailleur, but not that marvelous.

I'm off to glue on my sew ups.