[CR]Riding no-handed

(Example: Production Builders:LeJeune)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Bianca Pratorius" <biankita@comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 05:52:16 -0500
Subject: [CR]Riding no-handed

One of the main contributors to being able to ride without hands is practice. Years ago I used to ride for a few minutes at a time on straight smooth roads without hands. Nowadays I wouldn't attempt it, and there are a few reasons why. I'm older and my body is more delicate than it was when I was a teenager. Little accidents like twisting my ankle, getting knocked down in a wrestling match or hitting the pavement take weeks not a day or so to recover from, so now I'm more cautious. I've tried to ride hands free on every single one of my "new" old steel classics and was able to do it, but there was always that added element of fear, so I only attempt it for a second or so. My current old bikes may have tighter geometry than my old Atala of teenage years but I still don't think that's the deal breaker. I think if you payed me enough and if I were wearing a padded suit I could ride any well tuned road bike a mile or so down the road without hands. I would just need to practice it the way I did four decades ago. Nowadays, I just don't see the purpose. My body is more delicate and the bikes I'm riding are rare and need to be preserved. If something happens to them, all the money in the world can't bring back their original paint. We are riding bikes which will never be made again by mass production. Yesterday, I removed the bottom bracket on my neighbor's Gianni Motta. He bought the thing for $300 bucks complete with Campy kit and full pantograph from someone who didn't know any better. He and I know that even if these old bikes could be purchased for $3 dollars, we would still be in awe of them and have to work on them very carefully, padding the bottom bracket with rags when removing the grease and filth encrusted Campy lock ring. We are archeologists carefully scraping the dirt off Archioperix or Stegasaurus bones. We are the curators of the lost art of pinned and brazed tubing. You don't just thrash around with these bikes anymore. If you break one of them, that's one more piece of history that will never spin down the road. Most of us are living the last half of our lives. Some of us are living the last quarter and some of us are on the last tenth. You go with more care and more caution the older you get. I can still reach into my back pocket or take a drink of water with one hand on the stem or the hood while riding in a tight pack, but I do it very carefully. Who I am, and what I ride are collectors' items now, worthy of a little extra care.

Garth Libre in Miami Fl USA