Dear Listmembers,
This report may require more than one part. The reason is I am going to take the "a day in the life" approach to this one. Reason is because this particular day was sort of "special" for me on account of a few things that happened that I will explain herein.
I am awakened by the blair of my clock radio at 5:30am as Led Zepplin fills my house with classic rock. I spring up, anxious to begin my traditional ritual of preparing to leave my compound for the day. I rarely have time to get anything together ahead of time, so I normally start early on the day of departure and try to hit my 7:30am exit time on the minute. This allows me to find my cycling clothes (shoes always seem to be the most difficult to locate), make some oatmeal and toast for breakfast, "drop the kids off at the pool", prepare my dog for my absence all day, and ready my bike of choice. On this day, on account of the "American" theme of our ride, I select a bike I haven't ridden since I began riding with the vintage crowd about 3 years ago. I have Sachs, Lippy, Eisentraut, Roberson (2), (soon a Bill Holland I just bought), and myself to pick from to meet the requirement. I decided to ride my 650c wheel bike since none of these guys have ever seen this one. It's the bike I used to ride all the time. Outfitted with Century finish Delta brakes, cranks, and headset along with 7 speed cassette gearing. Frame is Columbus KL tubing. I really like this bike a LOT! I ready my stuff for departure and exit my door at 7:32am.
Next, I stop at Sunny donuts for a dozen and 7-11 for some gas and a cherry Pepsi for the ride. I then head north to La Jolla where I have arranged to pick up Ken Robb on my way to Jays' place. I hit the post on our 8:00am rendezvous time again almost on the minute, not bad for finding a place I've never been to before. I have only briefly met Ken previous to this, so once we're loaded up and on our way, the typical exploratory conversation begins. We talk bikes the whole way as we discover what each of us likes and thinks. We are pretty much on the same page, which is always good when you're going to spend a total of about 3 hours in the car together. I enjoyed the conversation and the 1 1/2 hour drive passes quickly. As we arrive at Jays' house I see Chuck Schmidt and Mike Schmidt looking over the Masi 3V that Mike has brought along to pass to me for repaint. The day is warm and I can tell already that I will be riding without my tights, which for me normally doesn't happen until May or June for me. Yes, I HATE being cold and I am almost always the last one or even the only one wearing tights when most Califirnians have pitched them months ago. Chuck must have Polar Bear skin, I don't know how they do it. Anyway, here it is in January and I'm bare-legged!
As the participants filter in I see that some have arrived already and have started in feeding their pie-holes with baegles, OJ, coffee, breakfast tarts, and now donuts. Obviously we're all health food fanatics! NOT! After all, you only live who knows how many times, so why not enjoy yourself while you know you have the chance. The place is filling with exotic bikes and I can see that most of the riders have selected non, or is that" UNAmerican" mounts. I see 3 classic Pogliaghis, 2 Colnagos, an Olmo, a Mercks, and an MKM. The American bikes are 3 Peter Johnson bikes, a Richard Sachs, a Carlsbad Masi, a bike Sean Smith built for himself, a Wizard, and my Baylis. The first very special part of the day for me comes when I spot a bike sort of in the shadows of the house that arttacts my attention. It has a distinctive look to it and is an unusual dark flamboyant green color. I suddenly realize that it is the Wizard #72 that Chuck has been telling me about for several months. I almost got to see it as we were leaving Velo Rendzvous last Oct., but it didn't work out. At the time, the bike was apparenty rather crusty and the chrome parts were not looking too good. Since then, Chuck took the bike completely apart and cleaned and rejuvinated every piece on the bike. He cleaned and polished the frame. He told me he spent around 24 or 25 hours going through all the stuff, and now the bike almost looks like it just came out of our workshop. The bike was built in May 1975, and I actually don't think I ever saw the frame built as a complete bike. So here it is looking new, except for two small chips on the frame that are very minor. I looked the bike over, starting with the frame first naturally. I can't explain how special it is to see a bike like this that Mike Howard and I built nearly 30 years ago, look like this now. I was amazed that the lugwork (Nervex pros!) looks just as refined as my work looks now. Beautiful file work; consistant and thin, the gentle stress relieved crotch of the lugs, razor sharp, and with 3 perfect tiny hearts cut in each lug point. Peter Johnson was surprized that the BB shell was a sand cast Fischer (Cinelli style) that he has worked on many of himself because it looks like a refined incestment casting. The fork crown was the Masi style Fischer with a saw cut in it (I guess we "borrowed" a few of those from Masi ;-o) that was chrome plated along with the ft. and rear tips. Even the seat stay caps weren't too clumsey, which did happen sometimes on very early Wizards. AND THE PARTS! Oh my! The crankarms, stem, brake levers, bar end shifter levers, seat post, Art Stump alloy sear rail clamps, and brake calipers were anodized rich green to compliment the frame; but only after Art Stump had taken his magic milling machine to all that stuff and made swiss cheese out of it. He also rounded the brake caliper parts to save weight as opposed to mill into them. The Cinelli 1R stem had been engraved my hand with the initials E.J. (for Eugene Jones, the original owner) along with some other decorative work. The whole thing was beyond outstanding; it was good! ;-) By the time I finished looking at the bike my head was tingleing. It was quite an experience for me.
Anyway, we all stood around for a while as we waited for the possible stragglers to show up. We waited long enough and eventually the order was given to saddle up. We made it as far as the front driveway before the traditional "photo op" stopped us there for another few minutes. The usual jokes and monkey business ensued as Jan took a few shots while holding two cameras in her hands. One slipped out of her hand as she was setting up the shot, and with still another camera in her hand the one she was holding started groundward. As we all gasped she snatched it out of the air in an instant like a venus fly trap would capture a fly! I was impressed, as I think we all were! We finished the session and started down the road.
I'll cover the ride in part two, when I take a lunch break, and part three will cover the "party" later today . Following is a list of who was there and what they were riding:
Scott Smith-Colnago Sean Smith-a Sean Smith frame he built himself Andrew Gillis-Richard Sachs Mike Schmidt-one of Mattys' Colnagos Chuck Schmidt-1975 Peter Johnson (the one that won best of show last year in Greensboro) Charles Andrews-early 70's Pogliaghi Jay Van De Velde-early 70's Pogliaghi Derek Willburn-a really cute 70's MKM (my size!) Ken Robb-a beautifully JB painted Nishiki pro with "Stelvio" decals Dennis Stover-Carlsbad Masi (NOT my size,64cm!) John Morrison-a cool late 70's Olmo Jan Johnson-Peter Johnson (not sure how old, but I think it is one I painted Kodak yellow several years ago) Peter Johnson-Peter Johnson (not sure of age, but he says he has well over 50,000 miles on it!) Matt Gorski-another beautiful older Pogliaghi Kevin Ford-older E. Merckx set up as a fixie with one brake Brian Baylis-1989 Baylis 650c wheel road bike Paulie Davis and Brian Ignatin joined us for the party after our ride, providing us with the pleasure of their company and some of Brians' incredible home made wine.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA