Okay, sports fans, a quick synopsis of this week's action at the Baltimore and DC retro rides. First, the Baltimore death march.
The Nov 1 ride was organized by Shawn Downing of the local Baltimore cycling racing club. We covered roughly the same terrain as Dan Artley's summer CR ride, which, thankfully, forewarned me to bring plenty of low gears. The weather was magnificent, the doughnuts were so fresh they practically melted in your hand, and the roads were quiet asphalt serpents winding through the farm lands.
Unfortunately the ride start point was also the site of a large college Cross Country running meet, so all around us while we scarfed our doughnuts were young folks with 6 foot long legs, 5% body fat, corrugated abdomens and limbs with more cuts and striations than a sandstone mesa. And those were the women runners: I don't even want to talk about the men.
CR stalwarts I remember meeting were Dan Artley, Harvey Sachs, Larry Black and Paul Raley. Bikes included Dan's curve tube Taylor with a SA 4 speed fixie hub, Harvey's Cinelli mit Bivalent system, Paul's stunningly restored '48 Raleigh RRA and Larry's super clean Proteus built up with a Campy 50th group. Paul's Raleigh pushed my '49 Ephgrave to 2nd place in the oldest bike catagory, but his rebuild is much more period correct and impressive than mine. There were a bunch of gorgeous bikes, some of which I got pictures of, many of which I missed.
The ride itself followed it's usual course meaning I missed most of it from off the back. The only way I could have been dropped faster would have been to turn the wrong way coming out of the parking lot. Fortunately, Dan A dropped back to ride with me, with some phony excuse that the 51 inch low gear on his Taylor required him to ride that slowly. Dan, being a local, knew a shortcut, and we jumped ahead of the pack, proving once again that old age and treachery will defeat speed and strength every time. It also allowed me to get out in front far enough to stop and take some candid ride shots, which may be some of the worst framed shots in history, but at least you can see the countryside. Afterwards, Dan, Paul, local builder Tom Bruni and I broke bread at a local mexican eatery and talked about (what else?) bikes.
Thats all for now (gotta eat something for lunch). Later today, the DC ride report and picture postings.
Thomas Adams, Shrewsbury NJ
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