I've had a lot of bad experiences. Hit in the head with a beer bottle, yelled at, liquid thrown on me, a gun leveled at my head on a couple of occasions. But I love to ride and I lost my way but got back on and am riding again. It's been six weeks of the track bike spinning 165's and a 42x17 gear. But my legs are coming back. So today I go out with a group for a 100K for some distance. I had couple of riders on Litespeeds with the saddles pointed to ground actually snickering and laughing at a custom steel frame with Campagnolo C-record. Tried to discuss cycling and but it seems they only know about Lance. Lance is great but there's a lot more to cycling and a lot more to the Tour. I finished the 100k and I'm gonna ride my steel till the tread wears off all my tires. But most importantly I'm gonna ride with pride and show cycling the respect it deserves.
Rob Dayton Charlotte NC USA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Ed Lutz Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2005 5:15 PM To: Classic Rendezvous Subject: Re[2]: [CR]Most unpleasant bike ride
I remember years ago I entered a charity ride down in north San Diego county. The Tour de North Country or some such thing. I was on my beloved Bottecchia and was having a fantastic ride. Two things though almost ruined the day. First was this downhill...not very long but oh so steep. Must have been 12% or more. This was nose bleed time ya know? I was feeling cocky and decided to let the Bottecchia stretch out a bit. I don't know how fast we got going but its the fastest I've ever been on a bicycle and that lovely old frame didn't like it one bit! Wiggling and bouncing all over the place and way to fast and out of control to do much with the brakes. Mostly just to much fear on the pilots part. Fortunately I made it down that hill but it made me wonder about the intelligence behind the design of bicycle clothing (protection?). The other thing wasn't so bad but hurt for a while. The single worse onset of lactic acid I have ever felt. The finish was pure torture.
Best ride? The Solvang Prelude, just before that damn hill killed my knee. I was training to do my first century in many years and was more than ready. I blew through the Prelude like it was a mild Sunday ride. The bike though wasn't my Bottecchia but a newly built Specialized Epic. No, not a mountain bike! The original Epic that looks somewhat like a traditional frame but with carbon fiber main tubes. Nice bike, great climber, still have it. That ride was just one of the nicest I'd done in a long time and felt so good. My training was paying off and I was feeling good. The next weekend though spelled the end of my century ride ambitions...damn hill...
Ed Lutz
Loveland, CO.