--- Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Here's the article from Mark Bulgier's web
> site/archive (great site
> HIGHLY RECOMMENDED):
> As Light As Air by John Derven:
>
http://bulgier.net/
-lots of other excellent stuff snipped-
Chuck, all,
Thanks for posting that article and the drillium history. I clearly remember reading that article in BG when I was still in High School and being blown away by it. Aside from the 1984 olympic "funny" track bikes, Bicycle Guide probably had the most to do with instilling the classic mentality in my cycling life. A somewhat distant third was the 5 or so years it took me to figure out how in &(%)# the messengers in nearby NYC stopped without brakes. ("with my feet" a large dreadlocked messenger told the 10 year old me, not helping me one little bit, fred flintstone popped to mind)
The epiphany (for me at least) here is that the old BG was probably a bit anachronistic compared to other bike magazines when I was a high school kid, the hot tubes articles (which I cut out and saved in a binder), the history articles etc...
The era discussion for me is interesting as I came of cycling age (as a road rider) just after the classic era as defined by the list. My first real bike was an 85 ro 86 fuji allegro sport tourer. Black with contrasting seat panel (sticker probably) with a head badge and interesting lugs (with fuji cast in the fork crown).
After I got my next bike (an OT trek aluminum bike) I spent 2 weeks turning the fuji into a NYC messenger bike. I intended to run a 52 ring up front and a jockey pully as a rear cog, cause it would look cool. I flipped and chopped the handlebars, took about 20 pounds of crappy derailers and kickstands, racks, etc. etc. etc. off it, stripped the paint, rattlecan'd it, learned that jockey pullies are not the same as track cogs and pretty much learned everything about working on bikes in 2 weeks. A friend of mine and I were going to drill out the stem, but my practical father pointed out that the stem might break in half. We set out to do the Chainring, but we wore out a few drill bits in the process and gave up. I think we were pinning the chainring between sneaker and floor (concrete) and drilling away as the bit smoked and rounded out.
I really enjoyed seeing Chuck's Peter Johnson drillium spectacular at the Cirque.
Anyhow, per usual, i am rambling a bit here. I think I was going to bring it back to some summation of the era, but my thought train has crashed and thousands of braincells have died. I will conclude with this:
Most people seem to hold holy the most expensive bike in the shop when they bought their own first bike. For me that would be the Team Fuji of 85 or 86 with the polkadotted paint job. MMMMmmm polkadots. i have not seen one since. Anyone got one in a 56-59cm?
Lter
Tarik
=====
Tarik Saleh
PO box 1326, Knoxville, TN 37901
tsaleh at rocketmail dot com
Bicycles, bicycles, bicycles:
http://www.engr.utk.edu/
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