Don and Mike,
First off, welcome to the list Mike.
I too must say that I too share Donald's "feeling like a 12-year old" every time I get on a bicycle--heck sometimes I feel like I am all of 8 years of age.
Let me preface this paragraph with: Always wear a helmet. One thing that makes me feel really old when I ride though is when I strap on the helmet; I feel like a senior citizen who is going to break a bone at the drop of a hat. But, always ride with helmet regardless of how old it makes you fe el.
I have a friend who is out of his mind. He was down in Mexico picking up a Windsor Pro to bring back to the states, strip, and sell the parts on eb ay. Well during his stay one night he borrowed a motorcycle. This dud e is fearless. The motorcycle had no lights and it was 3 a.m. He star ted going down this pitch black road at full speed and noticed that the thr ottle was stuck on full boar...I mean bore. The road was coming to a dea d-end but fortunately he caught sight of a trail which veered off to the ri ght. He didn't know where he was and quickly found out that he was dodgi ng headstones in an old graveyard! Without hitting a headstone he kept g oing only to hit a hurricane style fence head on. He estimated that he w as going about 75mph. When he hit the fence, four of the metal poles whi ch were buried eight feet into the ground promptly and completely uprooted themselves. However, the posts to the far right and far left stayed put and this created a "rubber-band effect." So he hit that fence going 75mph, uprooted four fence posts, and the fence only "gave" about three feet! T wo onlookers (don't know what these guys were doing at the graveyard at 3:0 0am...ghouls?) said that he was flung backwards into the graveyard and henc e the motorcycle "totaled."
Do you know of a cheap but high quality chroming place in your area? I h ave misc things that need re-chroming (old Cinelli bars and stems, old thre e piece hubs, and so forth.)
Ted E. Baer Palo Alto, CA
Was watching "The Brady Bunch" the other day and it was the episode wherein
Peter gets a job as a Bicycle Mechanic. It was comical as all he seemed
to be doing was flooding the drive train with oil from an old metal squirt
container. What I found to be clever was that the name of the bicycle s
hop owner was Mr. Achinelli (a Cinelli.)
Dear Mike,
I hope we get to see you at the San Diego CR dinner next friday night, in Mission valley at the Mexican restaurant. Sterling Peters is organizing it and many local bike enthusiasts will be there, with our wives:
I find that getting on a bike makes me 12 years old again, and I had a very happy childhood (despite being deprived of a high-end bike until I was 18.5 years old.) So I hope very much that by returning to the cycling hobby and this industry, you can recapture some of that psychology and happiness that made you so successful at MASI, Medici, and Simonetti when you were younger.
- Don Gillies San Diego, CA, USA
P.S. Do you offer any independent-contractor services that could benefit the CR list? Such as painting, KOF frame building, frame repair, lug filing? Do you think you could offer a frame building class to local San Diegans at some point??
Are you interested in restoring MASI, Simonetti or Wizard cycles? There is nothing like a nearly undetectable restoration by an original artist. The availability of OEM restoration services for these brands (MASI, Wizard, Simonetti/Simo) makes these bikes worth 25% more, at the very least.
I always like to hear what KOF builders consider the "most classic" bikes today. If you had an unlimited budget, what would your favorite ride be today ?? What builder would you use, and what parts would you use ??