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Bikeless no more!

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,037
7,554
I have a long history with balancing on two wheels.

I learned to ride bikes as a kid when I was 5 or so, and I recall riding a bicycle up and down the 30th floor hallway of our Manhattan apartment building a few years later. As I didn't know any better I thought the world of that opportunity. A few years later yet I delivered a paper route by bicycle on Mercer Island (near Seattle) in middle school, then moved southwards to a city with more open spaces nearby, Tacoma. My neighbor was keen on biking, and his enthusiasm soon rubbed off on me. Thus in 1993 my parents caved in and bought me my first real bike:



Incidentally, this is also around the age when I picked up trumpet:



That Proflex 550, horrible as it was in retrospect, was my pride and joy, and I rode it on trails all around Washington State. Here's an inadvertently artsy double exposure of me trackstanding while my friend (and best man at my wedding) Ruben waits for me to fall, or something along those lines:



Over the years that 1991-era Proflex 550 frame saw a new fork (cracked and bent the first one), stem (Girvin Flexstems weren't such a great idea even back then), handlebars (titanium!), clipless pedals, rear "shock" ("microcellular elastomer" instead of skateboard wheels, essentially), seatpost and seat, wheelset, and derailleur. By the end of its life it had about 3 inches of bottom bracket play from the sloppy main pivot.

By the time that it died I had become both more serious about the sport and more specialized in my interests. I had tried cyclocross racing and didn't quite get its allure, was a mid-pack Sport class xc finisher (not competitor by any means!), was obsessed with bike handling enough to take up observed trials, and had managed to chip off part of my ulna's olecranon process while biking down Blackcomb Mountain. Yes, you read that correctly, Blackcomb, not its neighbor now known for a monstrous bike park, Whistler: back in the day tours on Blackcomb were the only biking gig around up at Whistler Village. Funny how things change.



The fearsome-looking Canfield F1, one of the many bikes that I owned, knew, and rode.

As things changed, so did my bikes. Through high school, college, a brief stint in the working world, and medical school I went through many, many bikes. I'd save key components from one when I moved onto the next, selling the last frame and buying a replacement one used to minimize loss. In this way I went through the following bikes:

- an 18"--too big for me!--1996 Cannondale CAAD4 frame built up as an xc rig
- a GT Team Trials modified-class trials bike
- a 12.5"--way too small for me!--Specialized Stumpjumper M2 frame built up as a stock-class trials bike
- a Klein Quantum Race road bike bought in Palo Alto, CA during my brief stint at Palm, Inc.
- a 2000-era Kona Stinky, resplendent in green and orange
- an Intense Uzzi SLX frame built up with a 150 mm travel 2001 Marzocchi Super T fork as an "all-mountain" bike before that term was coined
- a Planet X Bommer that I won in a contest and subsequently had stolen while parked at MIT for a rehearsal
- an Evil Imperial that I thrashed on the streets of Boston with everything from a rigid fork to a Monster T for comic relief
- a Canfield F1 prototype downhill bike bought from one of the homonymous Canfield brothers themselves
- a Diamondbackracing Axis frame--Tru-Temper triple butted tubes and Breezer dropouts!--built up with the finest of decade-old componentry
- and, finally, a commuter bike to end all commuter bikes, a REI/Novara hybrid with full fenders and a Nexus 8 hub that I built up as a homebrew electric bike with 48V 12Ah of LiFePO4 and 700 watts of power output to the ground

I may be missing a bike or two from the list above.

You get the point in any case: I loved bikes and my apartment was always full of them. This didn't last forever, however: I eventually lost that spark and, with mounting concern for the environment, felt it harder to justify mounting an expensive piece of metal (a bike) on an even more expensive piece of metal (a car) then driving several hours out of my way just to feel like I was experiencing nature. Thus I went from having up to 4 bikes at a time down to 3, to 2, to 1… and finally to 0 as of last fall, when I sold the electric bike to my parents, who live out west.

I didn't spend this time away from biking idly, of course: as should be amply obvious I took up motorcycling. Around where I live, in Long Island, it makes more sense to be on a powered two-wheeler in many ways: it can be stored outside securely; it can be ridden indefinitely at night rather than relying on expensive, finicky bike lighting; and it can keep up with the crazy, inconsiderate car drivers. In other ways it's very different, for the noise, the bulk of the machine (450 lbs wet versus 20 or 45 for a road or a downhill bike), for the restrictive safety apparel I choose to wear out of a spirit of self-preservation and a loathing of skin grafts, and for the type of people one meets. This is not to say that motorcycle or scooter riders aren't my type of person, but I feel more of an affinity with the biking crowd.

I missed riding: being able to get out in the woods and really pin it, not worrying about a cop around the corner or a car that might venture over the yellow line. Furthermore, I have ready-made riding buddies in the works: some of my scooter-riding friends have been riding easy trails recently, and one of my undergrad bike-riding buddies now in med school himself now lives less than an hour away and rides somewhat regularly.

Thus this winding tale comes to its point: I will be bikeless no more.

Just now I placed the order:

- 2009 Jamis Durango 29er mountain bike, on closeout from JensonUSA
- a surprisingly cheap replacement set of clipless pedals, as mine all either had bent axles or wore out years ago
- a brand-spanking new Giro Hex helmet for my large noggin
- a floor pump, as busting out the compressor each time tires need topping off isn't my idea of efficiency

A helmet is a helmet and a pump is a pump but the bike itself is kind of interesting looking, mainly because it's a 29er with those ungainly big hoops:



I'm psyched. These years away from the "bike scene"--greater than the 1 year physical absence from bikes would indicate--have cured me largely of my "gear whore" tendencies. Well that plus a much more strict budget these days… In any case I'm totally ok with steel stanchion tubes and lower line components. I'm not planning on racing at any level--I'm fat, slow, and don't like self-inflicted pain of that amount!--and the bike won't be holding me back as it's a hardtail 29er with hydraulic discs, albeit one done up on the relative cheap. I'm in it for the ride this time around, and I hope it'll be a good one.
 
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Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,037
7,554
Ah, I did forget a bike! A 2000-era Kona Stinky, how could I forget it? I pedaled that thing along a Nevada highway after running out of gas on the way back from racing the NORBA National DH and Kamikaze DH at Mammoth…
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,037
7,554
Sweet!

That's a lot of words to say, "I bought a new bike."

:monkey:
It's true. 'Tis a rambling affair with many word-things and such.

As this thread is of very limited repeat-viewing interest otherwise, and because I haven't posted them in years (as they're from ~2004), here are some shots I snapped with bikeys in 'em:











Finally, one of me:

 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,037
7,554
HOORAY new bikey!

I wish I was as fast as a middle of the pack sport class racer. :(
That was many, many moons ago, back when I wrestled in high school (in the 135 lb weight class! :rofl: ). Like I wrote I'm fat and slow now and have no interest in racing. If I end up in Portland I will do some theme rides, perhaps dressing up as Liberace as MMike helpfully suggests...
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,037
7,554
Why a 29er?

Don't you miss riding in BC/Whistler? I sure do.
I wanted to feel that at least something progressed in my time away from the scene. :rofl: This way I'll have some concrete evidence: 29" hoops and hydraulic discs on a low-end xc rig. I want my damn gearbox and belt drive tho... heh.

I do miss the BC/Whistler/Oregon riding, and at the first chance (read: 2013 when I finish up out here) we'll be back out west if all things go according to plan.
 

CBJ

year old fart
Mar 19, 2002
12,863
4,162
Copenhagen, Denmark
I wanted to feel that at least something progressed in my time away from the scene. :rofl: This way I'll have some concrete evidence: 29" hoops and hydraulic discs on a low-end xc rig. I want my damn gearbox and belt drive tho... heh.

I do miss the BC/Whistler/Oregon riding, and at the first chance (read: 2013 when I finish up out here) we'll be back out west if all things go according to plan.
Nice I can't blame you. I was there 6 years in a row but have not had time nor money since the kids arrived.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,037
7,554
The actual bike, in the glorious surrounds of my neighborhood: