"Roy H. Drinkwater" wrote:
>
> I'm right here Monkeyman, and I think there's a few more who
> don't post much. Larry Black and Curtis Anthony also trade in
> highwheelers. Alan Schaeffer who took over Bicycle Classics has the
> "Ordinary Bike Shop"
>
> The Wheelman are at this location:
> http://www.thewheelmen.org/
> up is outre, it's mandatory at an Wheelman event*.
>
> Roy "the next bike after the track bike is a highwheeler" Drinkwater
> Lititz "suddenly it's 1890", PA
I've been a Wheelman member since around 1976 and there are _zero_ events in SoCal, but it is huge on the East Coast. Apparently the Wheelman in SoCal were very active in the 1960s but all had drifted away by the time I joined.
Caution: Ask some long time members about their "war stories" (crashes on highwheelers/Ordinaries) before getting too enthusiastic about lots of Ordinary riding. Very sobering and tends to kill the ardor for spirited riding on the things.
Off list, a friend wrote: "...two broken elbows, a broken vertebrae, two broken teeth, a mild concussion ... I had ridden over 3000 miles on various ordinaries before my one and only accident. Unfortunately, when you have two arms in full casts for 7 weeks and you are confined to a back brace for 4 1/2 months..."
Another friend has ridden them since childhood (he is in his early 50s now) and the stories of crashes during group rides and broken parts in races (yes they race the things... World Championships...) makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up!
Chuck "they didn't call the Highwheeler's replacement a Safety Bike for nothing" Schmidt SoPas, SoCal
.