| Yes, I ride bikes too... |
| Once upon a time, I rode bikes a lot. In fact, I commuted for 5 years by bike. Century ride, road ride, mountain bike ride, I did a lot... Along the way, I learned how to work on bikes on the cheap too. I'll even admit to wandering the neighborhoods looking for bikes going out in the trash. Even put together a couple bikes for neighborhood kids that way. But let me digress first... A little history. Yes, I rode bikes as a kid. I remember banana seats, rear slicks and tall sissy bars. Even rode bikes like that even though I bought a 10 speed. A Sears Free Spirit. Rode that 10 speed on gravel roads and pasture trails. Always wished for wider tires though. But then I got a car, and forgot about bikes for awhile. Fast forward a few more years. Mountain bikes are on the market and have 15 SPEEDS! Oh my! But no, they were a little out of my price range, and even then, I knew department store bikes suck. But a few months later, I picked up a 12 speed road bike for cheap. Needed some work, but it was a start. That was in Hawaii. And I rode that thing to pieces. Picked up a better frame from a friend, and added old parts with a few new parts. I rode that bike for a while, when I got a really sweet deal on a KHS Fiero road bike frame. More new parts, and some of th old parts, and I was riding stronger than ever. By now I was full fledged commuting. My motorcycle had died and the bike was convenient. I had a 5.5 mile commute, and to drive it by car in the morning could take an HOUR or more! Twenty minutes or so by bike and I was there... No brainer. Picked up an Iron Horse Mountain Bike. 18 speeds. Awesome bike. Added a Tioga seatpost, a few other goodies from Bike Nashbar. Broke the handlebars, so added a Scott AT-4 handlebar. Nice, gave me lots of places to put my hands, even good for a little aero tuck. At one time, I PERSONALLY had 6 or more bikes. The MTB, the KHS, an older Scwhinn Varsity, a couple other oddball bikes and, an unidentified road frame that I hacked off tabs and cable guides and other stuff to convert it to fixed gear. Painted it red. I hacked an old pair of road handlebars to make "bullhorn" style bars. I cheated a bit though, I added a rear brake. Some friends and I even played soccer with these bikes, once in a while. I even had an old Cannondale Bugger trailer that I pulled my kids with. I really hacked up a lot of stuff in Hawaii. I took an old pair of safety brake levers, removed the safety arms. Funny thing I found one day, that one type of MTB friction shifters would bolt right to the brakes where the safety lever went. I never liked the stem mount shifters on the old Schwinn Varsity, so it wore the new setup. My wife had an older 3 speed hub bike, which she was content with. My daughter rode a little 12" bike. My son rode a 16" bike by the time he was 4. Rode BMX in Hawaii. Wound up on a GT Mini BMX bike with normal 20" wheels. I had the skinny wheels built up, but never used them. Yes, I built wheels too... Built a wide flange four cross wheel for my MTB, never ever broke another spoke ever. That bike was stolen, but I still have that wheel... When we left Hawaii, the family's bikes came too, but only my KHS road bike came with me. The MTB had been stolen and I gave the other bikes to neighbors, as well as a bunch of parts and the bike stand I had built. I didn't ride much when we got to San Diego. I was on a ship and the distance was too great for me to commute, not to mention I'd have to catch a ferry with the bike as there was no bike lane on the Coronado bridge. I did however, take a bike I'd built (from thrownaway bikes) on the ship for deployments. Rode that bike in Singapore, Hong Kong (never ever will I try that again!!), Pusan Korea, Perth Australia, Hobart Tasmania, Yokosuka Japan and Acapulco Mexico, as well as Seattle Washington. While in San Diego, I picked up a Trek 800. Not much of a MTB, but better than my KHS in the dirt!!!! When we got to the desert, we added a Scwhinn Searcher GS hybrid and a Cannondale R200 roadbike. My wife and I rode a while, even some distance. But then illness and other factors kept us off the bikes. Some reasons are as much excuse as anything else. Honestly, cycling was not even on the radar. We did get on the bikes every now and again, but not with any regularity. Well, this brings me up to now I guess. I recently pulled the old Trek down and rehabbed it. Even added a new tire. A friend let me have his old Gary Fisher HooKoo E Koo with a suspension fork. Slightly larger than my old Trek. but then, I'm a big guy and I can stress a frame, so I like a shorter frames for offroading. I've only been riding again for a couple times. And I can tell you, it hurts. I get so tired from so little effort, but time will fix this. Always does. I have to get comfortable again. Something, ANYTHING to lose some of the weight I've packed on again. I've been gathering catalogs from the usual suspects and can hardly believe the variety of stuff available these days. TEN speed rear cassettes? YIKES! Must be a PAIN to adjust. And I can't even imagine riding a moountain bike with 27 or even 30 gears. So, stay tuned. Pictuers even as I find them... |
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