"Way back when" I and everyone else rode whatever you had. You didn't need anything "special" then, nor do you now. as a teen, I toured on a middle of the road Trek 6something. The rims were probably narrow Rigidas and I rode Specialized Touring Turbos in either 27 x 1-1/8 or 1-1/4. The crank I believe was an SR double with 40/52 rings and a 6 speed 13-28 FW. I never once thought of changing one damn thing. Riding the big ass hills of the Mississippi river was no problem loaded with panniers, tent and sleeping bag. My buddy I rode with brought along his "portable" tape recorder, yea, the big ass things that took D batteries, and we rocked out along the way.
My neighbors rode their Treks from Rochester to Door Co. Wisconsin every summer, no panniers, just backpacks.... yes.... backpacks. Worked for them ... back when everyone(men *and* women *and *kids) was strong and tough as F'n nails, not like whiny "I gotta have this that and the other to help me" nonsense you see today. Kids played outside, rode their bikes around town, we played "touch" football every Sunday after or before Vikings games. "Touch" wasn't very polite or touchy, I tell you that , ha ha :) We played outside in the ice 'f'n cold MN winter, walked here and there and everywhere. Played boot hockey, skitched behind cars when it snowed and threw snowballs at them. We had tomato fights in people gardens at night and watched horror movies on TV 'tll the channel went off the air. Yes, stations used to sign off, "see ya later folks, go to f'n bed cuz all we're gonna do is emit this annoying tone all night long." Oh yeah .... Gatorade came in bottles, as in GLASS bottles, and it was fantastic. Pop and beer came in "returnables" , a case of 24 reusable and returnable bottle of which you paid a minimal deposit for and got back upon return of the bottles. The bottles were cleaned at the bottler and refilled and sold again. Everything tasted great out of returnables , it just did and there is no use trying to explain it. . On weekends I'd go with my Dad to get gas @ Earls one man service station, back when they really were service stations. He had a glass door pop machine that didn't take money, you paid Earl of course, who else is there, duh ? On his chest freezer with ice cream sandwiches was a kids dream. Gasoline, pop and ice cream sandwiches .... all the basics covered . Oh, and KFC down the street too was a treat. Back when chicken was chicken, and what they didn't sell real people hand picked the meat off the bones and made sandwiches covered in home made gravy to sell the next day. ah well . . . . way back when .... when everything was fresh and new and special. Going out to eat was a REAL TREAT and infrequent. You could go to any airport and run around and look at all the planes without assuming you're a criminal for being born. Flying was a big deal, people wore nice clothes and were polite. Sorry for running about and all .... stuff happens . -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
