We had a nice crowd for the vintage, fixed, bobish ride with a lovely bunch of bikes and a trike. Tom Adams and Steven Maasland drove in from New Jersey. Tom was scratching his head along the side of the road after having forgotten directions, but found the way when a car buzzed by with a racing (touring?) trike hanging from a bumper rack. Harvey Sachs bussed the brothers Sanford and Peter Kohler up from the DC area with their awesome bunch of bikes, Harvey with his Cinelli SC, Peter with his lovely 1948 Raleigh Record Ace (lovingly restored by Paul Raley), Ben on his Eisentraut track bike, and Ken on ... not a fixed gear but a BEAUTIFUL Cinelli SC IN MY SIZE in silver, MY COLOR. Can you tell I liked this bike? My dream bike? I'm finally getting to tell the two brothers apart, yeah, yeah ... Ben's got the glasses and Eisentraut fixed, Ken's got the CINELLI's. Roy Drinkwater and Goon Koch both drove down from Pennsylvania, both riding fixed. Bill Hale was riding a purple Alpine fixed conversion last seen at Wayne Bingham's vintage pre-Cirque' ride. A few local friends also came, Mike and Evie Reinsel with their 70's Moseman tandem that Rodney recently repainted in a pretty, dark British racing green. They'd let Rodney pick the color. He came out of retirement to rebraze the cantilever brake mounts from 27" to 700c and to get rid of some paint that he still had left. Mike had joined me for Bike Virginia this year riding his RB-1, while I'd ridden my Richard Sachs tourer. Phil Hack and his wife came with his old Dunelt 3 speed "English Racer" that he'd just picked up from the old homestead, the bike he grew up with. He'd just overhauled the SA AW and cleaned the bike up. He's been picking up the vintage bug listening to me. Lets see where this all leads. Janice, his wife, kept my wife Barb company while we were out riding. And Jim Sheridan came with a DeBernardi track bike riding with no brakes, while his wife Ellen and their son rode the Northern Central Railroad rail trail next to our house. And last but not least, actually one of the first to arrive, was Steven Maasland with that Bianchi trike! and another mystery bike. The Bianchi, also a mystery, turned out to be a Longstaff trike that had been painted black. Steve had to give it a bit of a signature before getting the thing repainted. The other mystery was a finely finished Miyata team bike that was the first bike he'd raced on as a kid.
A few hardy souls tried out the trike while waiting for the gathering horde, I snapped a few photos, but even with the best laid plans, I ended up forgetting to take more than just a few. I nearly rode the trike into my hedge on our rutted street. Steven asked about terrain to decide which bike to ride. I warned about the steep potholed road that the ride started on and how I'd be terrified to ride a trike on the hills around home, but off he went on it. I just stared in awe as he blew past me on a downhill swishing quickly side to side to scrub off speed, and climbing with impunity in the oncoming lane to take advantage of the left hand drive. I'd always wanted one since I saw Bob Jackson and three of his racing trikes at New York's Coliseum National Bike Show in the 70's and now I want one even more.
Peter suffered a loud blowout when the tire lifted off the rim of those wonderfully light Conloy Asps. We took the time to make sure the tire was seated as well as could be. Only three people fought to do the repair. The left turn next to the miniature donkeys didn't work for some, the donkeys weren't out at the time (the few that missed the turn managed to get back on track). A cue sheet takes a beating when no one's vintage ride carries an odometer and directions are stuck in the back pocket of the jersey while people are expecting the ride leader to give directions (I was at the back!)
Steven was taking a beating on the hills with his trike and no useful low gears. About 12 miles into the ride he asked about flat shortcuts. A short distance later, we regrouped at a spot where there was a quick way back with only 8 miles straight to our house on the local rail trail, and all downhill. Unfortunately we were at the high point of the trail in both directions. We continued on still heading out while paralleling the trail and Steve thought we were heading back ... oops!
Jim Sheridan, no brakes, asked me to warn him when the BIG downhill was coming up since I'd given him the BIG warning about it, RR crossing, sand and all. He got the warning, and I just got to see him bunny hopping (or something like that) the tracks at the bottom of the hill and all the riders missing the turn at the track crossing. It was a slight downhill grade for a mile or so, then grunting up the next one, Ken was next to me on the Cinelli that he'd just gotten on e-bay when he said that I was wrong calling this a fixed gear friendly ride. I should be calling it a hilly ride that can be done on fixed gear for the more hardy riders. I'll remember that if we do this route again. It was right after that that he said "I am not getting off this bike! It's the first time I've ridden anything that wasn't fixed in two years".
The few people that were with me at the next regrouping were treated to a shortcut that knocked out two fairly steep short ones, and got onto a very fast mostly descending twisty farm lane. Near the end of that road and about a mile from home someone told me my fanny pack was ringing. It was Steven Maasland "I think I might've gone a bit past your house" He described a few unfamiliar landmarks till I realized he had ridden almost 3/4 of the way to York Pennsylvania, the Northern terminus of the trail, and in the opposite direction from home. He'd done all our miles and then some. "You said it was all downhill" and yes ... it was. He was assured that we'd pick him up somewhere if he got to a landmark we could find. When I got home, there were still one or two people on the road, but all got back within minutes. Harvey Sachs immediately volunteered to pick up Steven. He and Ben took off as soon as they got a fix with Ben's GPS. Barb had some food laid out already and the party started to take off. Bikes started to line the deck. Tom Adams had the fancy Nervex lugged black Paramount tourer with a 24 tooth granny gear against the railing, he remembered last year's ride ,^) . Bill Hale brought out a really pretty chrome Falcon track bike with lower road gears, no brakes. I pulled out the Paramount track bike that I got last year, too small for me to ride, but a real looker since I set it all back to original parts. I also had my Jack Taylor curved tube path racer with ASC rear hub that I'd ridden that day. I got to take Ken's new old Cinelli SC (MY SIZE) out for a short spin ... oooh could I give it a quick toonup? Just 15 minutesworth? wasn't to be. The food got et, I got to show off the workshop, people started to go, Lance got second by 22 seconds in the GC, it was a good day.
I felt it was a success when Steven told me that "I've got to do one of these rides at my house soon!" 'Course its flat where he lives. Hear that! Its FLAT at Steven's! You might want to check that one out. Now that's a bike collection I'd like to see! I wish I could make Tom's ride next weekend too, maybe next year.
Dan Artley
Parkton, Maryland