Hi All:
The Silicon Valley Ride in Marin a week and a half ago (as previously reported by Bob Freitas) went so well that we decided to have a repeat performance last weekend. The group was a bit smaller this time around due to threatening weather. It actually sprinkled a little crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to the ride. Present this time was Jan and Peter Johnson on matching his and hers Masi GCs, Brett Horton on his Ugo DeRosa that was custom made for Brett by the man himself, Bob Freitas in a perfectly restored late sixties Bianchi, Tom Hardy in a Super Record equipped, custom made for him Richard Sachs, I brought my Bianchi Super Leggera with pantographed Super Record and Stevan Thomas on a flashy painted. (sorry Stevan, I forgot the make). Bruce Shrader and his lovely wife came and met us at the end of the ride for the party. A special treat was seeing Brett's latest acquisition of two thick binders of original sketches and drawings of old bike parts that he brought for show and tell.
The ride retraced the previous week's route with the same great vista and hills and once again lived up to the name of the paradise loop. Tom Hardy took us on a side trip a couple of blocks off the route to visit a guy with a beautifully restored 1958 Alfa Romeo Sprint. Since most of us are big Alfa fans (Stevan even drove his to the ride), we would probably stayed there all afternoon, if the owner hadn't kick us out and sent us back on our way. The weather held out during the whole ride and the sun even came out for a while. Rain drops started falling when we got back to our meeting place and have continued for the last few days.
After the ride, we were all invited to Bob's house to help him celebrate his birthday. Bob's wife most certainly acted like it was a big event (probably is considering what happened to Nitro Bob last year) and pulled out all the stops with an over abundance of great food served on fine china and linen. We were all quite amazed by all the bike "stuff" that Bob manage to keep in his garage. As the saying goes, a good time was had by all.
Looking forward to the next ride.
Respectfully,
Felix Chiu
Foster City, CA