Several entries have reminded me that there actually wasn't a huge gulf between my 'kid on a bike' days and 'being a bikey' but in those days I didn't understand there was a thing called cycling, we just rode our bikes.
Leah's story reminded me of the welder guy on our block, which is where all the parents in the neighborhood bought Sting-Rays for their kids. He had a garage that was open all day and half the night and there were always dozens of bikes and frames in there. I don't know how he got them all - in N. Long Beach, CA. in the late-'60s you probably weren't going to ask the big guy with a welding torch in his hand too many questions - but he would weld the snapped downtubes back together, get some spray paint on there and sell it to your dad. Then - this was the heyday of Evel Knievel jumping buses - we would set up ramps in the alley and break them again! Later I had a Sears 10-speed and a succession of Schwinn Varsitys and Continentals. My first job (like most boys then) was delivering newspapers on a Schwinn. Little kids at 4am wobbling down the street with huge heavy bags on the handlebars - crashing regularly, especially with Sunday papers - is unimaginable now, but we did it! So that's the kid part of my story. Joe Bernard On Friday, September 3, 2021 at 3:41:27 PM UTC-7 Joe Bernard wrote: > A friend on PM asked how I got from the "flashy roadies" beginning of this > story to Rivendell so here's that (slightly edited) answer: > > It was kind of a long gestation that overlapped the Riv world before that > was a thing. The cool road bikes at the time were lugged steel and that > first Bianchi I noticed was definitely friction shift, probably Campy. I > was young and poor so I found older Motobecanes, Centurions and such and > did the drop-bars-and-lycra thing. > > In the late '80s I discovered Bridgestone, which as you know was Grant > trying to hold onto sensible lugged steel bikes as the industry was about > to tumble headlong into "rad" aluminum road (not many) and mountain > (everybody had one) bikes. > > So I stuck there with my lycra. I had a couple different used Bstones, my > first new-as-an-adult bike was a closeout XO-3 with moustache handlebars, > this was right after Bstone USA closed. At that point I was already signed > up for Grant's Bridgestone Owners Bunch, which morphed into us early > adopters getting the Rivendell Reader. Riv World! > > Fast forward: Still lycra, drop bars came stock but I probably switched to > moustache at some point, my first Riv was a Romulus I got new from a dealer > in Dublin in 2003. This had a Brooks B17 which was a stunning revelation > for me. Soon I was in Riv shorts and a few years after that I started with > pullback bars. That's my story, I'm a Riv lifer! 😁 > > Attached is a pic of a much younger and fitter me with my Rom. Apparently > I thought matching blue tires were cool! 😂 > > Joe Bernard > > 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/be45c9e9-f892-4130-af9a-f33b647045cbn%40googlegroups.com.
