I don't know if I was searching for LOTR related information way back in internet prehistory, on some message boards, or GE net or something like that, all text, I found Grant's early bellyaching and what amounted to blogging early Rivendell Bicycle struggles on line: waxing chains, getting real cloisonne headbadges made, cash flow, etc. I was especially intrigued when I learned he had designed the Bridgestone bikes I saw in a local (Yakima, WA) mountaineering/cycling/ski shop that seemed so smart and well done, even though I couldn't justify one on my teacher's salary, with a young family. But I followed him online for awhile; no examples of the Rivendell bikes were available to me until I saw one at a Seattle Bike Show in 1987? 1988? 1989? Only one bike, someone sitting in the booth, looking bored, with a little pile of brochures, that might have been an early Reader. That bike was a beauty and reminded me of Mercians I had drooled over in the Freewheeling Bike shop in Austin, TX, at least in looks. I never really lusted for the Italians; I'm a tourist, and there were no high-quality French bicycles being imported.
And then, I found my Quickbeam through Ebay, after reading something Sheldon Brown wrote: http://sheldonbrown.org/journal/journal-0409.html I read once that Tolkien wrote his fantasies in an attempt to provide the English a mythology, something like the Kalavala for Finland, full of images from his childhood and old and middle English literature, myth, story. It seems to me that Grant has done something like that for American bicycles, grounded in Californian earth and sky, full of memories of English bicycles (via Japan and the rest of Asia), the smells of dust and rain, canvas, leather, wool. They work really well in the desert! I suggest a "Hoom" of Quickbeams; "Hoom" is what I say after a little sprint. I first read Tolkien when I was 12, and still enjoy him in a different way now, at 53 and 9/12th. On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 9:16 PM, PATRICK MOORE <bertin...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 8:47 PM, Paul Cooley <pcoo...@cybermesa.com> wrote: >> >> http://carfreefamily.blogspot.com >> Santa Fe, NM > > Are you new to the list? If so, welcome. If not, greeting anyway. I'm an > Albuquerquian and I think the last time I rode in Santa Fe was circa 1993; I > remember the long slog up the hill to a trailhead just out of town, north I > think. > > It was your blog that caught my eye, and I read your post on the Railrunner > with interest; one of these days, in warmer weather, I'll have to try riding > one way and taking the RR back. I live about five or six miles along the RG > and Paseo trails from the nearest stop. > > What sort of Rivendell do you have? > > Lastly, an almost-connection: I *almost* got a job teaching at St John's in > SF back in the early '90s; rather glad I did not, after all, but I did > follow a similar undergraduate curriculum way back when. > > > > -- Bill Gibson Tempe, Arizona, USA --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
