Pre Rule #26 photo
Words of advice for the lads: If your girlfriend is a very good cyclist and you two are going to get engaged, a nice racing bike is not a substitute for a ring. I tried it. In my cyclo-centric male brain, she needed a proper racing bike a lot more than she needed a ring. I made my case and lost. She did get the ring and the bike and me so I’m not sure it was total victory for her.
I mail-ordered the frame from Palo Alto Bike Shop. They were selling fine unbranded Italian steel frames. I built the wheels but denied her a gruppo. The unwritten subtext of Rule #12 is s’s (spouse’s) bike must be marginally nicer than your own. But I was unaware of that Rule back then so her bike was a functional Suntour groupsan. For the record, her next two #1 bikes are both nicer than mine. The Palo Alto bike was eventually repainted De Rosa pink, upgraded to Shimano, and ridden into the ground. Fast forward too many years and that bike is still hers. It is bike #3 and resides five thousand kilometers away, used each year when back visiting family. Now even the bike is losing its old home.
What am I going to do with my bike?
Ship it out here, obviously.
No, that’s too expensive. I’m going to sell it here.
WHAT? But it’s your pink bike, you can’t just sell it. It’s your pink bike…(muted sobbing deleted)
This is another debate I’m going to lose. She has all reasonable arguments on her side. Me, I leave no bike behind. I have two bikes back there and when my mother’s house sells, I’m shipping them both out here. Will they be ridden much? Hell no but that is not the point. These bikes have been my brothers-in-arms and I’m not leaving them behind. We have been together in the trenches for much too much time for me to abandon them. Is this a male thing? Do women have such emotional attachments for inanimate objects? Or is it a Velominati thing? Either way, my Bontrager hardtail mountain bike and my Bella steel road bike are going to join the rest of the stable out here. They may not see much action but I can still tune them up, keep them ready if and when the orders ever come down.
How does this all end? Obviously it ends up with me, as a failing eighty year old at my sunset years yard sale telling some puke he is not worthy to own any of my old bikes and he can fuck right off. Then, later, my widow will bring them all down to the police station to be sold at auction, for ten dollars each.
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Perhaps it will end up in the hands of a worthy young person distantly related to Ms. Vos. Just saying, if you here a young woman saying she got her first rig at an estate sale, maybe you will have unwittingly changed the world for the better.
I have not gotten rid of any of my bikes since 1987 (those department store BMX bikes did get the heave-ho when I made the jump to road biking, and my first rat-trap pedaled, 30 pound Kuwahara got the boot as well when I laid my hands on a proper bike). Definitely a dude trait I'm guessing (or hoarder, not sure).
I've been at a few races over the past years where someone breaks their frame in a crash. I'm not sure how the grieving process is going to go if that happens to me.
Fantastic bike, btw.
"How does this all end? Obviously it ends up with me, as a failing eighty year old at my sunset years yard sale telling some puke he is not worthy to own any of my old bikes and he can fuck right off. Then, later, my widow will bring them all down to the police station to be sold at auction, for ten dollars each."
Best part of a good article. Made my day.
I'm with you Gianni. I get so damned sentimental with my bikes; I truly don't understand how people can flip bikes (or even frames) every year or two or three. Hell I'll never get rid of the frame I was on when I got pegged by a car, and it's not even rideable. I had to warranty my mountain bike frame a few months ago due to a crack in the top tube and I was BUMMED to have to send it back. Even though I was getting the same frame, 2 model years newer, it was hard to let go. I feel like the frame itself, all its little scratches and dings, was a tangible incarnation of the thousands of miles and memories I experienced on it.
Cheers, cheers and double cheers... I love this post
>>> Will they be ridden much? Hell no... <<<
>>> ... some puke he's not worthy to own any of my old bikes... <<<
Classic. And I do really dig that bike!
What's the saying? My biggest fear is that when I die my wife will sell my bikes for what I told her I paid for them?
Like reading the screenplay here of Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" ...with bikes.
My better half says I might be a hoarder of certain things....like bikes and bike parts and kits, I am just "collecting" for now, waiting for the right young rider to come along to gift them too, so I 1. know they are going to a good home and 2. will be used as I have used them and 3. will one day maybe again along with other stuff be payed forward to another- so the cycle (yea I just did a pun) will continue.
@Erik
Yeah, giving a bike away to a pedalwan would be the best outcome. My fear is giving it away to an abusive owner who would leave the bike in a dark shed, unwashed and unridden.
@Ccos
I gave away my Peugeot PX10 LE to some youth who wanted to try racing, lord knows where it is now. And my original KHS no suspension MTB bike was donated to the non-motor pool for visiting scientists. It was so heavy it should only be used for commuting, downhill preferably.
We are not hoarders! We might just be over-protective.
@kixsand
I actually have already gifted my two best bikes in my will to a friend. Of course he will be too f'ing old to ride them if we all die of old age. Better I should get mowed down by truck and somehow the bike is unscathed. This is depressing.