Greeting
While the weather was cool, brisk, and with a significant wind, it was dry - and circa 15 brave souls showed up to ride their vintage steel bicycles thru suburban Maryland. The circa 30 mile route had too many turns (which proved confusing to a few) - sorry about that but it comes with the territory. Some hills to make it interesting for the fixed gear riders but nothing severe. The comraderie before and after was great. My thanks to all who showed up - some driving in from significant distances. I will list the riders and what they rode - although some brought more that one bike for viewing. My appologies in advance if I don't get someone's name right or incorrectly identify the bike.
Peter Kohler rode his immaculate blue 48 Raleigh Record Ace with Sturmey 4-speed rear. Very nicely done up with all the proper bits. He said it sort of felt like dating someone else's wife as he had acquired the bike from listmember Paul Raley who was there riding a very nice circa 1950 green Ephgrave Number One (that he had acquired from Tom Adams). Sounds a bit incestuous to me. I was riding the next oldest bike, a robin's egg blue Gillott. Not totally proper kitted out yet but the period Benelux shifter is working very well after lubing by me and adjustment by Harvey Sachs. My very close neighbor, John Tisdale, was riding his 54 Witcomb track bike. Fred Radnor rode another Witcomb, a 73 road frame currently configured as a path racer. Dan Artley rode a white 1963 Viking, which shows the patina of original finish. Tom Witkop recognized the lugs as the same as on a mystery frame he owned. A later close comparison proved this to be correct - so a mystery solved. Tom rode a Raleigh 753 road bike of which I do not know the vintage. Tom Adams, who drove the longest distance, rode a circa 1983 Stan Pike made of that same 753 tubing. Continuing the 753 Stuff, David Irwin was on his very clean 1982 Raleigh Team TI. Duncan Granger rode a very nice 68 Mercian Professional. He also brought a very nice Hobbs of Barbican tandem to exhibit. Harvey brought his lovely Peter Weigel to ride and his also lovely 1973 Hetchins for show. John Barry drove a long way to ride his 1978 Raleigh Super Course. My brother Ben Sanford rode his 73 Eisentraut track bike. Marc Frasier (sp?) from Baltimore rode a pretty 85 Pinarello road bike with those pretty off-topic Campy components. hope I did not miss anyone.
Anyway, a good time was had by all. Hoping to do another in the spring (if not before) but not at my house...
Ken Sanford
Kensington, MD