1/5/03 3:06 PMclassicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org
> Would you mean the 'Bugger' ?
>
> Steven Maasland
> Moorestown, NJ
>
> PS: My sister was asked if she wanted to be 'knocked up in the morning' by
> the gentleman at the reception desk the first time she went to Britain. Can
> you imagine the same comment here in the US? The same sister had problems
> when she asked her future sister-in-law which team she should 'root' for
> when she went to see a rugby match in Australia (Ben can undoubtedly explain
> this one!) And, we all thought that we spoke the same language.
true steven,
hmmm ... root? it would be akin to me admiting i "bone" for the NY Jets.
one thing that always has me laughing is how the term "fanny" differs from here to abroad. close but yet so far.
sitting around and getting "pissed" with your mates would be getting drunk where in american-ese it would indicate getting ready to throw blows. most antipodeans would concur its good to be "pissed" even though nobody in OZ actually drinks Fosters.
but bike related ..... i grew up riding a *Push-bike* - meaning powered by pushing on the pedals and not by a motor as mention of just bike could mean for most. i guess saying bicycle sounded too formal. i still love that term and for most of my pre-facial hair days (and definately pre-rogaine) it was not uncommon to spin round the neighbours on my "pushie" and head outta town. another offshoot on this wordism is "treadlie" as in tread on pedals (i guess a little older slangese in style). i dont use the term here stateside as nobody really gets my drift but i still love saying it given a chance. proud to be a pushbike rider still ....... well lacking much of that lately - blaming the weather ;-)
..... so, same words different meanings depending on geograghy and time - makes the world more funl; then again maybe 'coz im from downunder my vision of a mermaid has a fish top half.
aussie, aussie, aussie (pronounced Ozzy as in Osbourne)
to this day im still super proud and in awe of that man Phil Anderson - if i had to choose an aussie rider that had the respect of all pushibike riders and those on treadlies - he's the man. class, pure guts and spirit. if any of you know of any good pics on the web or a detail of his palmares i would appreciate a heads-up.
if/when i head back to OZ i will chase up some details and pics of frames built by Ken Evans, Geoff Scott and more locally to my area Jim Bundy. All used reynolds tubing, were established before the CR cut off and made the frames that we could afford and were proud to ride. Im not sure if any of these downunder masters are still active or in business but i sincerely hope their tradition, skills and quality lives on and their frames are being ridden as intended.
In Sydney (where i grew up) we would enter the chapels of euro-cyclisme at Clarence Street Cyclery (still in business) and also Europa Cycles (italian wonderlust - not sure if they are still around). but to this day i have SOOOOO much to thank an ex-bmx pro Dave Marsh who at the age of 22 (10 years my senior) opened a small dinky bicycle store offering bikes for mums and dads yet would build up and order any exotics we dreamt of as he would get as much a kick from a beautiful race bike as we would. often *no money down* - so long as we regularly rode on all our local club rides and track meets we attracted a little business and profile for his store and we could pay him off weekly a few dollars at a time for what must have been forever. we all worked for him assembling "pays the rent" bikes from boxes, building wheels, any service and repair work - cleaning and maintaining his shop was something we would automatically do whenever we stopped by - he taught us all whilst he was teaching himself and we were one big family aiming to improve his business. his shop closed every day at 6pm but we would be there till very late most nights. i know he barely scraped a living, and even his girlfriend was mostly embarassed at his chosen field but he adopted a bunch of us "cutters" and none of us would ever forget him for it.
if i had to recall the best days of my life it was those afternoons hanging around his shop where we would all drool at the catalogues and turn up like a flock of seagulls on his "delivery days". tools, frames, parts, clothing, 'zines - it was pure heaven and we were all addicted. those of us that had part time jobs after school sunk all our monies into bici and those of us that didnt blindly and unashamedly pilfered from our mums purses and our siblings piggy banks to fund our delirious drives. Olmo, DeRosa, Cinelli, Colnago, Casati, Bottechia, Ciocc, Gios as well as the local guns Kenevans, GefSco and Bundy (columbus vs. reynolds, italian vs. australian). nothing less than Record, Dura-ace or Superbe Pro and but one with full Mavic something ....... you name 'em our crazy gang rode em - yet most of us were barely 15 or 16 at the time. road, track and even triathlon - we lived for bikes and to ride them. cant recall a purer or more obsessed mindset ever to overwhelm me to this day. it was all late Cr list specific but it seems so long ago .... Dave Marsh was closer to me and more of a gaurdian than my father. he just wanted the best for us as he quietly admitted that his short pro-career was stiffled by lack of money and sponsorship needed to have given it a real shot. if i go back - priority # 1 is to track Dave down and thank him. his most often said words were "don't worry about how much it costs, we'll figure it out - lets get you sorted out and riding first". we all knew that if he would mark up above wholesale cost on our bikes it was something paltry like 5% which is nothing considering half of us would trade in our bikes for a new one with money still owing.
and sadly, im not sure when it all ended but by the time we finished high school, started driving and bought cars, started working or went on to university, worshipped drinking, drugs and chasing chicks our best days slipped past and we all forgot Dave Marsh and our love of bikes. no moral to the story, just an unnerving shame at how i let my best friend, mentor and hero slip past and out of sight like a cloud covering the sun. everything he offered was goodness and from the heart and he never asked for a thing. in that same time (seems like a millisecond) fat tubed aluminium, shimano sante and MTB's slipped in there somewhere and it was just memories. regrets, hindsight and failing a friend firmly etched ....
still learning
ciao,
ben kamen NYC