All,
Thank you all for your passion and devotion. The bicycle is a wonderful amalgamation of physics, chemistry, history, passion, destiny, and need - to travel by one's own impulse and effort. That you all have recognized that over time the bicycle has become a symbol of, and regrettably (to the members of this group at least) a remnant of an era during which every effort was measured very carefully and thus expressed through a creative process as worthy of the limited resources available is what keeps me coming back to this exchange. Although at times I cannot help but consider that we have found a modern (a very modern one!) campfire around which to celebrate and remember that classic era - and cannot but help but think that it is a touch ironic is it not?
Soon it will be a new year by the Gregorian/Julian calendar and another year farther from the 1983 demarcation we (the Classic Rendezvous Bike List) use to mark to end of the "classic era". Cheers! I hope that I will have an opportunity to meet many of you the evening of February 9th (yes, Larry I will be attending - please count on 3 for beer and 4 for space and thank you for putting together the event) at the North American Hand Made Bicycle Show to celebrate those "keeping the flame" and to encourage, inform, embrace and listen to the "next generation".
Best regards and best wishes for a Happy New Year for you and your families,
Reed Pike (Raleigh America)
Sammamish, WA USA