My first “real” bike was a red Sears 3 speed with upright bars (I was 10). I took them off immediately and replaced them with drops, wrapped in lime green semi-transparent plastic tape. I thought it was the shit. Rode it to school 3 years running every day, 6th through 8th grade. It was stolen from the school bike rack (we didn’t lock our bikes way back in the Paleozoic Era), and I didn’t replace it – a drivers’ license didn’t seem that far away at that point, and anyway my high school was much farther away than my junior high school.
So: a 7 year bike hiatus, through college graduation. But during my senior year my girlfriend and I were planning a post-graduation summer bike tour in Europe (summer of 1974) and I needed a bike, so I bought a Fuji S10-S on a bike shop recommendation (a very smart bike shop, as it turned out – that was a wonderful bike for the price). I rode it all over England and France, 75 to 100 miles a day, for 3 months (by myself – the g/f broke up with me right before we were going to leave!), after not having ridden a bike for 7 years. (Oh, to be that young and flexible again!) I think I put something like 4000 miles on that bike that summer. Brought it back to Philadelphia for law school, where it was promptly stolen. (Unlike my Sears bike, it was locked – I don’t know how the thief got it.) Anyway, I replaced it with a Raleigh Super Grand Prix in 1975. Rode that bike to and from school for two years, then basically hung it up for almost 25 years, until one of my sons wanted it (interestingly, to use as a commuter bike in Philadelphia – he rode it every day for 3 years until the top tube cracked at the headtube lug). Hanging up the Raleigh led to two decades of no riding at all. In the late ‘90s, I bought an aluminum Trek hybrid (a 7600) to ride around on at the beach in New Jersey. A few hundred miles a summer, max. But it reminded me how much I enjoyed being out on a bike, and led to the next stage. In 2005, I decided I was getting too sedentary, and thought I’d try to commute to work on the Trek. I did that for a year until I had a bad crash, and ruined the front wheel on the Trek (in addition to, temporarily, several of my ribs, my collarbone, and my wrist). Interestingly, though, the crash just made me more determined to keep up with my commute, and also to try to begin to learn more about how bikes worked, and what makes a good bike. Investigating the latter point, I stumbled on the Rivendell website (2006). I saw the Bombadil (then in prototype), and fell in love with its appearance, which reinforced my instincts that the Riv way was mostly the right way, for me. I bought a Bombadil shortly thereafter, and Rivendells and the Riv way of looking at biking has dominated my approach ever since. Since then, I’ve had 11 Rivendell bikes, and built or rebuilt most of them; I’ve passed on three of them to family members, but still have the others. I’ve probably built up another 15 bikes in that period – most of those have been passed on as well, either to family and friends or as contributions to charity auctions, which I enjoy. So it took me many years, but biking is again an important part of my life, and Rivendell has been an important part of the inspiration for that. From: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com [mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mike Schiller Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 4:28 PM To: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com Subject: [RBW] Re: Evolution of your bike preference? The 1st bike I really remember was a candy apple green Stingray... I rode that from age 6 'till maybe 12. Most of the time on dirt roads, cow trails, off jumps. I stripped it down and rattle can painted it may 5 times. In Jr high I got a road bike. Rode that every where the Stingray went. Started doing longer rides in the canyons of the San Gabriel Mtns. In summer we would be gone from morning until after dark. 1st year of college I got a nice Centurion. Still riding the dirt canyon roads on 25mm tires. I was into triathlons for a while at that time. Loved the bike and run but I swim like a stone. Next was a Univega Gran Rally. I loved the way that bike rode. Then mountain bikes came on the scene, I bought a 1983 Schwinn Sierra, Snakebelly tires, a 14-38 Suntour freewheel. I probably didn't ride that Univega ever again. For at least a decade I road 100% off road. I went through a number of MTB's after that, a 1st year 1986 Rockhopper, Fisher HKK, Bridgestone MB-2, Fisher Mt Tam. I started racing MTB's Mammoth, Big Bear, Keyesville, anything within driving distance. As full suspension bikes came on the scene and downhill speeds increased I lost interest in racing a bit. Owned a few full suspension MTBs but I ended up going back to a hardtail 29er. I also bought a Ciocc road bike and started doing more road riding, Some centuries and organized rides. OK but not my cup of tea. I prefer adventure rides where I almost get lost or have to climb fences to get home. I picked up an early version of the Soma Cross bike and re-discovered mixed terrain rides. Did my first multi-day bike tour. Bought my 1st Riv, an Orange Hillborne, equipped it with 40mm knobbies and had a blast. Found a nice green Ram and sold the Sam H. The ride was just so much nicer for me. I still have an MTB, a custom steel 29er hardtail, but most of my rides are on a lugged steel 650B custom with Hetres. Got a mountain cross custom about done for 700c x 45mm tires. That will probably get a lot of use too. So not much of an evolution, I love riding dirt and going places I've never been before, the bikes are custom now and tailored to my passion. Big fat tires, no suspension, fun, fast rides and sometimes I may stop and admire the views. ~mike Carlsbad Ca -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com<mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com>. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **************************************************** To ensure compliance with Treasury Department regulations, we advise you that, unless otherwise expressly indicated, any federal tax advice contained in this message was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or applicable state or local tax law provisions or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related matters addressed herein. **************************************************** **************************************************** This email (and any attachments thereto) is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email (and any attachments thereto) is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error please immediately notify me at (212) 735-3000 and permanently delete the original email (and any copy of any email) and any printout thereof. Further information about the firm, a list of the Partners and their professional qualifications will be provided upon request. **************************************************** ============================================================================== -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
