I frequently get compliments from young people on my ancient but pretty fly Bartali. Even people who don't know a headset from a crankset can appreciate its aesthetics.
Kurt Sperry Bellingham, Washington USA
2008/9/26 Dr. Paul Williams <castell5@sympatico.ca>:
> They are coming out of the woodwork - got passed on my way home from the
> Uni today (riding the 49 Carpenter) by a student going the opposite
> direction on a lugged Fiori. What amazed me about the latter and my
> student on the Peugeot is that neither of the bikes was "fixiefied"!
>
> Paul.
>
>
> Paul B. Williams, BAH, MPhil, PhD
> Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
> castell5@sympatico.ca
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: dave martinez
> To: Dr. Paul Williams
> Cc: CR List
> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 4:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [CR]Hope from a new generation!?
>
>
> Hello Paul,
>
> By god there is hope!
> The other week, I was driving my park ranger truck through the
> old neighborhood- on my back to the service yard. I noticed a flash of
> chrome- a young cyclist elegantly accelerated away from a group of
> teenagers. The lad was a on new KoF(?) Bianchi Pista. He gracefully
> pedaled away with his courier bag swung over his his shoulder.
> As I gently passed him, I realised he successfully caught the
> draft of my truck and I inadvertently towed him through the historic
> town of Niles (bravo). Thoughts of the butcher boy from Castellania came
> to mind. Coincidentally, when I arrived home for the day, the book
> "Bianchi, a bicycle in the lead" arrived; highly recommended by the way.
>
> Regards,
> David Martinez
> Fremont Ca
> US of A
> where thankfully one of our sons is interested in cycling.
>
> --- On Fri, 9/26/08, Dr. Paul Williams <castell5@sympatico.ca>
> wrote:
>
> From: Dr. Paul Williams <castell5@sympatico.ca>
> Subject: [CR]Hope from a new generation!?
> To: "Classic Rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Date: Friday, September 26, 2008, 5:03 AM
>
>
> The other day I was sitting outside our building at the university
> having a coffee with a colleague when a student pulled into a nearby
> bike rack on a vintage Peugeot. As I looked over my colleague's shoulder
>
> he asked if I was checking out her form - I laughed and said no and that
>
> she was one of my students from a first-year seminar and that I was most
>
> curious about her bike. I was also amazed by the fact that she was
> wearing a matching Peugeot team jersey. I didn't have a chance to look
> at the bike closely so will have to ask her in more detail about it next
>
> week - in a later exchange of emails about an assignment she did say
> that:
>
> "My Dad gave me that bike a few years ago, after he upgraded to a Trek
> or Giant or some other light-weight contraption! He bought it in Germany
>
> in 1980. We haven't done too much to it - new brakes and Shimano pedals
> - but it still runs very well."
>
> I am not sure of the model but the frame was in black and yellow livery
> (as was her jersey).
>
> There is hope (this student is about 18 or 19) - and not just from the
> fixie brigade!
>
> Paul Williams,
>
>
> Paul B. Williams, BAH, MPhil, PhD
> Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
> castell5@sympatico.ca