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