I bought a lovely Sierra brown Schwinn Continental when I was 12, right about this time of year in '69. Rode it around Charlotte, NC, sometimes all the way to the town of Matthews and back, wearing Converse All-Stars and cut-offs or tennis shorts. It was stolen right out of our garage in '71. With the insurance money, I bought a '72 Gitane Interclub, which I still have. It had tubular tires and a 45/21 low gear. No one told me this wasn't a great set up for loaded touring, so I ended up having a great time touring with a group in western North Carolina in summer of '73. In '74, now living in Columbia, S.C., I bought a Mirella with a combination of Campy Gran Sport and Nuovo Record parts. It had tubulars and a 42/23 low gear, so I was all set for the Blue Ridge Parkway that summer. No problem in my Worthy cycling shorts and Adidas Eddy Merckx shoes. I did a nice century on this (now much modified) bike last weekend (10/8). Rain was in the forecast for the morning. Fortunately, it didn't, but I seemed to be the 1 out of 450+ riders with fenders!
Mark Kiser
Knoxville, TN