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Old 06-28-2006, 11:33 PM   #301
footfootfoot
To shreds, you say?
 
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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.
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Old 06-29-2006, 07:15 AM   #302
Griff
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Thumbs up

Welcome back.

Some things are constant, like road racers being pricks, some things improve like clinchers, and somethings get worse like component companies changing product lines every couple years. The riding is still awesome and you'll probably appreciate it more with 20 years behind you. Kick butt man!
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Old 06-29-2006, 08:35 AM   #303
LabRat
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Wow F3.

Good luck, don't get too discouraged at first, it will be very hard to not compare what you can ('t) do now to then.

Um, what are sew ups?

I'm plugging away with kid in Burley again this summer. My usual ride is after dinner, about 6-7 miles long, with a stop at various parks depending on the route. Nice change of pace from running.
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Old 06-29-2006, 10:10 AM   #304
footfootfoot
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LabRat
Wow F3.

Good luck, don't get too discouraged at first, it will be very hard to not compare what you can ('t) do now to then.

Um, what are sew ups?

I'm plugging away with kid in Burley again this summer. My usual ride is after dinner, about 6-7 miles long, with a stop at various parks depending on the route. Nice change of pace from running.
sew ups are to bike tires what stockings are to legs. Clinchers are the pantyhose of tires.

As for discouragement, I keep looking down to see if my brakes are grabbing or my wheel is rubbing the rear forks. No, it's just the extra me.

Yeah the inch is attached to my touring bike via a burley and my road bike is just plain.
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Old 06-29-2006, 10:12 AM   #305
footfootfoot
To shreds, you say?
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Griff
Welcome back.

Some things are constant, like road racers being pricks, some things improve like clinchers, and somethings get worse like component companies changing product lines every couple years. The riding is still awesome and you'll probably appreciate it more with 20 years behind you. Kick butt man!
Thanks Griff, I'm glad you started this thread. I admit I did read a couple of your posts. Your post ride posts reminded me of how good it feels to have been riding.
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Old 06-29-2006, 03:18 PM   #306
Pangloss62
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Nothing better than the biking life. As a kid, bikes were my best friends. I remember them all. My first was a Schwinn Sting Ray. My friends and I would spend hours and days taking bikes apart, putting them back together, switching handlebars, adding extenstions to the forks, etc.

Then in 1986 I became a bike messenger in Boston. I actually used a Raleigh 3-speed my first few months, but moved up to a Specialized Rockhopper shortly thereafter. I lived 17 miles from Boston in Natick, MA, so with the round trip commute and the daily deliveries, I was riding a whole bunch. Then I took a solo trip from Boston to Toronto on the same bike; kinda heavy, but I liked its durability, and when I camped at night I could ride in the woods. When I returned, I was tired of the messenger job, so I traded my job for my best biking friend's job at a print shop. Me and this guy would ride centuries on our mountain bikes, screw hex-head screws into our Ground Control tires to ride on frozen lakes, and do insanely stoned night rides into the wee hours. This guy, Scottie Roberts, died from hitting his head on a curb one night; he had a bunch of champagne and was baked, but I truly think he musta hit some rock or other object in the road. I remember I had taken the most recent picture of him, so they put it on his casket. It was him and his bike. They were inseperable, like I became with mine. Scott's dad gave me the bike he died on, a nice custom mountain bike made by Fat Chance in Sommerville, MA. I sold it back to the company and bought a nice road bike with Columbus tubing and a mixture of Campy and Shimano 600. Then I REALLY started riding, making sure to do at least 200 miles a week with some good hill grinds and sprints to boot. I raced on Sundays at these dangerous criteriums, and did the Wednesday time trials in Maynard, MA. Never joined a team, however. I went to college, got married, and moved to Chicago, so the biking slowed down a lot; but I kept in the saddle. Now that I live in Atlanta, the city that is rated the worst for cyclists in the whole nation, I just don't ride that much anymore. But reading this thread makes me want to start again. At my peak I was so slim, so fit, so full of energy; I could eat any amount of anything and not gain weight. I took a lot of pride in my cycling. Now I feel I let myself down.

So thanks for the inspiration, people.
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Old 06-29-2006, 06:10 PM   #307
Griff
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Gee whiz guys, now you're making me feel good.
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Old 06-29-2006, 10:07 PM   #308
warch
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I am proof that even the chubby, clutzy and old can ride a bike, even a little, every day. Yea!
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Old 07-02-2006, 04:41 PM   #309
Griff
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Speaking of clutzy, my new friend is named vicadan. I will be putting on a few pounds as I mend fractures of the ulna and radius. crap It turns out pavement is not forgiving. again, crap...
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Old 07-03-2006, 01:20 PM   #310
LabRat
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Oy. Best wishes for a speedy nad soon painfree recovery.
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Old 07-03-2006, 02:28 PM   #311
footfootfoot
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Ouch with a capital OW. vicodan been berry berry good to me.

Get well, lucky for you, you have all that practice at one handed typing
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Old 07-03-2006, 02:33 PM   #312
Griff
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Thanks guys, keeping chin up.
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Old 07-04-2006, 07:42 AM   #313
Griff
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Since my typing hasn't been slowed, I may as well tell the story. This is all a "near as I can figure" commentary. I was riding behind my friend off his wheel to the right, on top of my bars so no brake levers (I think the lawyers took away suicide levers). I drifted back and switched sides (this is all happening unconsciously) to get off the shoulder which was limited. I gave a quick stroke to put me back on his wheel and relaxed waiting for deceleration to match his speed. He thought I was on his right and decided to get out of his saddle and burn some calories. He bounded up, swung left tipping/turning my wheel abruptly. Somehow I hit on my right side maybe trying to recover? So I'm road rashed on my right arm and shoulder but broke the bones in my left arm in compression.

I tried to get back on my bike but my wrist felt mushy when I put my weight on it. We made a sling from Sams jersey and a tube. My buddy road back to a house to phone another guy who rides with us to pick us up and it was off to the ER. We got to survey flood damage on the way and solved the various world crises. Pete met us at the hospital and Sam headed home. The only screw up at the hospital was a nurse who came in and removed the spint I had on switching it with a foam one that didn't give me any support. My ER Doc is a mountain biker and we chatted about gear while he checked me over. A car wreck came in so Doc left me to his PA who put a plaster(?) splint on and set up yesterdays appointment with the orthepedic guy.

The ortho guy was hilarious. He hung my arm by three fingers from wire chinese finger traps while we talked about Bingham's swamp. I couldn't relax enough to pull things back into place so he hung some weights from my arm for 10 minutes. He then put a sock on my arm and wrapped it with a bandage that hardenes into a cast. He then shaped my wrist giving it a good squeezing that sorta hurt quite a lot. The follow up xrays looked good.

Pete co. is out of town so here I am changing the road rash dressings on my good arm gaining empathy for folks with real problems.
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Old 07-04-2006, 08:58 PM   #314
footfootfoot
To shreds, you say?
 
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sounds like you caught his tire, it lifted your front end up, and the devil take the hindmost.

I remember riding with a friend who had just gotten a bike and she said "What happens when I touch my front tire to your back tire?"

I didn't have time to answer.

Sounds like you had good medical care. As they say, It'll feel better when it stops hurtin'.

I got on the bike today after a mini overhaul. It was great.
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Old 07-05-2006, 05:51 AM   #315
Griff
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When we mtn bike we screw around bumping tires and such but not at speed and not on pavement. Quite a screw up. Ride well and write about because this is as close as I'm going to get for a while.
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