I got the Cycling Merit Badge when I was in the Boy Scouts. Had to do 6 @ 25 mile rides and 1 @ 50 mile ride. Did them on a Schwinn Stingray with 20" wheels and a 2 speed kickback Bendix hub in 1969 (13 years old). Then I bought a 10 speed Schwinn Suburban (upright handlebars, kind of albatross-like, with fenders, saddlebag and generator lights - kind of Rivvy long before there was a Rivendell). It got stolen and I bought a Schwinn Varsity sport. This was just before the bike boom and people were puzzled by the strange dropped handlebars. Started riding with a local bike club that had been started by a local doctor who had been a cyclist for Sweden in the Olympics years earlier. By 1973 I had a Gitane Tour de France with Reynolds 531 frame, Campagnolo derailleurs and silk sew-up tires and had ridden my 1st Century. This was all in Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach.
Laing On Friday, September 3, 2021 at 1:48:18 PM UTC-7 Joe Bernard wrote: > Will has an interesting post in the the recent Riv Newsletter about how he > and some friends first noticed bikes and got into them. After your initial > foray as a kid with a bike, what was the thing that made you notice them > later and turn you into an adult-person-cyclist? > > Mine is similar to Will's as a young man in Los Angeles, except it was the > flashy riders in "tight clothes" I picked up on. I vividly recall being > stopped on Pacific Coast Highway somewhere south of Long Beach (probably on > a motorcycle) and watching all the roadies go by, this would be early '80s. > This one guy went by on a green (actually celeste blue, but I didn't know > that at the time) Bianchi with matching bar tape and riding gear. That was > the moment I - a car and motorcycle nut - realized bicycles were a thing, > too. A very cool thing, and you got a workout in the process! > > I was hooked, what hooked you? > > Joe Bernard > -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/448f227b-7d6e-4852-989b-406b3d6bb7a7n%40googlegroups.com.
