Re: [CR] Epic Winter ride

(Example: Racing:Jacques Boyer)

From: "James Abt" <jamesabt@charter.net>
To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <864495.58642.qm@web81405.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <864495.58642.qm@web81405.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:39:56 -0600
Thread-Index: AQGXcd11C+ganwklsBHwT8GBwWm3WZQ3iMJg
Subject: Re: [CR] Epic Winter ride


This may start something but I have friends that do not own vehicles. They use their bikes wherever they go and only on extreme circumstances do they ask for a ride and that is only when the person driving a car is going in the same direction they are going in. Never do they seek out a motor vehicle ride. I know that most of you are going to say that is no big deal but when you are writing this from central Wisconsin when the temperatures have not been higher than 20 degrees Fahrenheit (that is actually considered warm this time of year) and we experience snowfalls on occasion and not just once or twice a winter (every other day is considered good), it may be slightly impressive. How about when one of my friends has to ride 12 miles one way and works second shift and then rides home at 11 P:M on the side of a county road...not a bike path...in a 55 MPH speed zone where most cars barely know what it is like to see someone on a bike that time of night nor could they really give a shit no matter what time of year, would you be impressed then? The other thing is that he rides a Masi cyclo cross set up that is a steel lugged bike and was purchased new just recently (last year, I believe). I have never seen a bike take more torture in my life! So I know that this might start a discussion about our biking heroes who are either too poor or too cheap to buy wheels....or are really going green and loving it but it could very well be the best strings produced in a while. Seeya all.

Jim Abt Wausau, WI United States

-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of MARK Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 7:47 AM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR] Epic Winter ride

Ok, I'll be scratching the bottom of the classic-content barrel here.  Please pardon that. My tenant (I'll call him "Scott") on my second floor and I have been friends for a long, long time.  I met him years ago at Andy Raymond's annual criterium in Middletown (CT), via another bike mechanic friend. He was riding a classic orange Crescent.  (Classic content: That frame later broke- rusted through  at the lever clamp area-I sent Larry Black the head badge, years later).

Anyway,  Scott's got two cars. Neither one is running.  He works in Hartford, about 12 miles away.

He starts work at 7 a.m.  He commutes by bike.

It kinda snowed a lot here yesterday. About 2 feet.  It started falling about 10 p.m. Tues. night.  I knew Scott was fighting the same cold as my wife and I.  I saw his tracks in the snow when I got up in the morning. I was wondering how he was doing.  Now, although he owns some classic steel (a Sachs, a Wojcik), he uses a MTB to commute.

He came home early, around 1 p.m.

"So, how was the ride?" I ask him. "Not bad, he replied.  Took about two hours.  Would have been better if the gear cable hadn't broke.  I tried to get it into a lower cog but it was too iced-up.  I had three gears coming home.  Only took an hour and a quarter."

I guess many things can make a ride epic.  I once rode five miles in a blizzard on a ballon-tire one speed. (To work in a bike shop, no less.)  Skied it a few times.  I bet there are other winter tales out there. I just thought I should give Scott's ride a "shout-out", and this was the only place I could get anyone to listen without having them call the van.

Mark Hoffman
in snowy
New Britain, CT
USA