My lifetime of bikes

I bought the Surly Long Haul Trucker which I will ride on the TransAm in June of last year (2011).  Shopping for a new touring road bike got me thinking about the bikes in my life.  I counted up seven bikes that I've owned, which I determined was also the number of cars I've owned in my lifetime.  I'm not really into cars, seeing them purely as a means of transportation.  My bikes are much more interesting to me and have brought me much more pleasure and fun.  What follows is a summary and description of my lifetime of bikes.


20" Red single speed - brand and model unknown

Early last year at my Mom's house I found a bunch of old 8mm movies from my childhood.  I sent them out to be converted to digital files to preserve them.  Among these I found a short segment of what is probably my first ride ever on a "two-wheeler".  It was actually a four wheeler in the movie since it was equipped with training wheels.  At the time of the movie it wasn't my bike, it was my big brother's birthday present for his 6th birthday.  I was a couple months shy of my 5th birthday.  A couple of years later my brother outgrew it and got a bigger bike.  This 20" red bike was passed down to me - my first bike.

I still remember the feeling I had when I finally mastered riding this bike without training wheels.  A few weeks of wobbly, precarious rides led to success and the ability to ride smoothly on my own.  The freedom this bike offered was exhilarating.  Now I could ride everywhere!- at least as far as the limits established by my parents.  But I could keep up with the bigger boys as we rode all around our block.  Eventually we went to exotic far away places like deep into the woods beside our house and to the golf course three blocks away.


26" Red single speed Columbia - model unknown

Eventually I outgrew my little 20" red bike.  I moved up to a big kid's bike, a 26" Red Columbia which was probably a present for my 8th birthday. We had moved in June, 1964 to Marion, IL.  The neighborhood around our house was perfect for bike riding.  Little traffic and lots of places to go within a few blocks.  All of my friends lived close by and we rode our bikes everywhere we went.  This bike was a workhorse.  With a heavy steel frame, it was made to withstand the abuse dished out by a 9 to 12 year old.

My bike looked something like this, but without hand brakes

At some point I added a pair of wire-cage baskets straddling the rear wheel of this bike.  These were great for carrying the returnable glass soda bottles we would ride around the neighborhood collecting.  Early on we got 2c apiece for them.  Later the price jumped up to 5c and we thought we would get rich.  Of course the supply went down as the price went up, economic theory in action.

It had baskets like this straddling the back wheel

In 1969, when I was 12, I got a newspaper route.  This bike became my first newspaper bike.  It wasn't really fit for the purpose.  The papers could be carried in the baskets, but they wouldn't all fit.  The flat handlebars and minimal clearance above the front wheel made it hard to strap the newspaper bag to the front.  After saving the earnings from my paper route for a few months I bought my next bike, one much better suited for newspaper delivery.


20" Orange Metallic 5-speed Western Auto(?) - model Stingray-type

Sometime around 1969 my best friend got a copper colored Schwinn Fastback, 5-speed bike with hand brakes.  Unlike my big red clunker, his bike was COOL.  The small wheels made it very maneuverable.  The banana seat set way back meant you could pop wheelies on it.  I was envious. Then when I got the paper route a bike like this wasn't just cool, it was very practical.  You could clamp heavy metal hooks at the top of the high-rise bars and wrap the strap of your canvas newspaper bag around the hooks.  The papers hung in front of the bars without sitting on the front fender and wheel.

My best friends bike was just like this

So sometime later that year I bought a stingray style bike.  I think it was a Western Auto brand.  Everyone was selling bikes in this style by then.  I think my best friend's bike had cost his parents over $100.  Mine was list priced at $60 but I believe I paid $45.  It had been a prize in a raffle run by the hardware store next door to my dad's drugstore.  Somehow the prize wasn't claimed so my dad worked out a deal with the owner to sell it to me for a discount.

I rode that bike at least six days a week for the next four years, delivering newspapers Sunday through Friday.  The low configuration and maneuverability was perfect for the task.  You could hop on and off easily, toss the papers while on the roll and haul the huge canvas bag full of Sunday papers hanging from the front.  It wasn't perfect.  The newspaper bag would sometimes sit partially on the front wheel and would wear through after several months, but there wasn't anything better around.

This was my first bike with multiple gears and hand brakes.  The ability to adjust the gears to go fast or climb hills was a big plus.  I really enjoyed this bike and got a lot of use out of it, though I never did learn to ride a wheelie.


27" Red 10-speed Jeunet LeJeune

A bike boom hit the U.S. in the early 70s.  Sleek, lightweight bikes from Europe with narrow tires and dual front chain rings stormed the market.  These 10-speeds were all the rage and I was caught in it.  Since I wasn't old enough to drive, the freedom offered by these road bikes was enchanting.  Also, I had disposable income from my paper route so I could afford one.  I read what I could find about the brands, equipment and features and shopped around.  No one in Marion, IL was selling these bikes, but the nearby university town of Carbondale had a couple of dealers.  In 1971, after comparing the choices and figuring out what I could afford I bought a French 10-speed which wasn't top-notch but was pretty nice.  I think it cost around $200. My older and younger brothers also bought similar foreign 10-speeds shortly after me.

My first road bike looked like this

This is the bike which got me caught up in bicycle touring.  I rode for miles around the backroads of southern Illinois.  Rides to the surrounding small towns, north to Rend Lake, south to Lake of Egypt, and many trips back and forth to Carbondale sixteen miles to the west.  I joined the League of American Wheelmen and learned about many day rides with organized groups.  My older brother and I took our bikes up to my grandmother's in Indianapolis and rode a 50-mile ride south of town one time.  (I remember on this ride the biggest hills were the overpasses crossing the interstate highway.)

It was during this time that I learned about and joined the Bikecentennial '76 organization.  That's what led me to packing my bike in a cardboard box, riding a Greyhound bus to western Virginia and then riding my bike to Williamsburg, VA in August, 1976.  I also took this bike with me to Purdue.  I rode my first century (100-mile ride) on a group ride which started at Happy Hollow Park in West Lafayette, IN.

During the summer of 1977 I completely disassembled this bike so that I could repaint it.  The original red paint had faded to a dull silver after years of sun exposure.  I spray painted it a bright cherry red, though I couldn't recreate the shiny lacquer finish or replace the decals it had originally.  I learned a lot about bike mechanics doing this.

I graduated from Purdue in May, 1979 and moved to Allentown, PA for the summer.  I drove out with only a few possessions and lived in a dorm, but I brought my bike along.  That was the year of the first U.S. gas crisis and gas rationing.  I remember riding my bike ~5 miles to work a few times that summer.  After two semesters back at Purdue to get my master's degree I moved to Allentown permanently in May, 1980.  I'm sure I brought my bike with me, but I don't recall riding it much.  I also don't remember what happened to it, but I no longer have it.  Sure wish I did.  Darn!
 

27" Silver 10-speed Ross Gran Tour

While I was dating my first wife, probably in spring/summer of 1981 we bought a matching pair of Ross Gran Tour road bikes.  We bought these from a local locksmith shop on N. 8th Street in Allentown which also sold Ross bikes.  These bikes were made in Allentown so we were supporting the local economy.  We had ideas of riding the streets and country roads around the area.  Unfortunately, I think my appetite for riding and my tolerance of road traffic was much bigger than hers.  We didn't end up riding a lot.

My Ross Gran Tour

This bike was built about ten years after my first road bike, but the technology hadn't changed all that much.  I continued to ride this bike for many years.  When my marriage ended and I was alone I rode more, but I was still busy with my daughters and many other activities.  The bike sat around and wasn't used very much.  As I think about it, I probably put less miles on this bike than any of my others except my first one.

When I met my current wife in 1997 I got my bike back in shape and rode it more.  Our second date was a bike ride around southern Lehigh county and I proposed to her 1-1/2 years later on a ride covering the same route.  We rode a number of times over those couple of years and my bike served me well, but it was equipped with 16 year old technology.  With this bike, you had to tweak the shifter to adjust the cable tension and get the derailleur lined up correctly.  The shifter tension would get out of adjustment easily and then it wouldn't shift to one extreme or the other.  Her mountain bike had nifty rapid fire shifters which were indexed.  One click of the shifter lever moved the gears one position.  Very easy and a big improvement over mine.


700mm Dark Gray 24-speed Bianchi Boardwalk

Late in 2000, after we'd been married about 1-1/2 years, my wife bought me a new bike.  We shopped for it together and I decided on a hybrid style bike made for both on-road and moderate off-road riding.  This bike has flat handlebars, a more padded saddle and a more upright riding posture.  It's a great bike and I've ridden it a lot of miles.  It's well suited for the type of rides which my wife enjoys, mostly on parkway trails but also on local backroads.

My Bianchi Boardwalk

This is the bike I took to Iowa to ride RAGBRAI.  That ride rekindled my interest in long distance rides.  I rode about 450 miles across the state including one 100-mile day - my second century ever.  It also reinforced my desire for a bike better suited for climbing.  Although it may not look as comfortable or relaxed, there's a big advantage to the posture afforded by drop handlebars.  As I thought about doing the TransAm ride I determined I wanted a more classic road bike for the trip.

I still have the Bianchi in my garage and continue to ride it.  It's very good for the local rail-trails and parkways.  I expect to ride it for years to come, just not on a cross-country ride.


26" Blue 27-speed Surly Long Hault Trucker (LHT)

That brings me to the Surly Long Haul Trucker.  My current pride and joy, which I'll ride on the TransAm.  I did a lot of research about long distance touring bikes before deciding on this one.  It's a sturdy bike with a steel frame and good components that are made to last.  It's not an exotic lightweight road racing bike.  It weighs in at close to 30 pounds.  But it should withstand whatever the TransAm demands of it and keep on truckin'.  I've described it and the added equipment I've put on it for this ride at another page on this blog site.