Thursday, July 23

This old bike







At my house the bikes always out number people, 4 to 1. There was a time when we were just out of college that the value of our bicycles far exceeded the worth of any car we owned.

So, when we were getting ready for the beach, I knew I really didn't want to take my racing bike. I love that bike (pics another day), my husband custom built it for me. It's a metallic green, sort of a wasabi color, but it has 700c tires, tight toe clips and not really good for me to ride on unfamiliar terrain.

So, when I mentioned this to my husband, his eyes lit up. My husband has more stray bike parts than most people have nuts and bolts. He put himself through grad school as a bicycle mechanic and used to be quite a good racer.
So, he disappeared to the basement for a few evenings and surfaced with my new/old bike. I love her! She's understated, yet still quite fast. I don't know how old the frame is, but at one point it was ridden by a licensed rider and still sports the USCF sticker.

I logged about 60 miles while we were away. Now my husband rode about 175 miles that week. We ride together, then he takes me home and continues onward.

One of the coolest things about that bike is that it was in a triathalon. Now, I will never enter a triathalon because although I am a pretty fair swimmer, I can't run to save my life. It is good to know however that my bike has enjoyed being in one!

5 comments:

Pretty Things said...

I noticed the "triathalon" bit right away! I remember how absolutely stoked I felt to wear an "Athlete" badge at an event once!

We have (thinking...)seven bikes. Five of them are Rick's. He rode all over Korea, sometimes 100 miles at a pop. His bandanna was a cloth map of Korea. Very cool.

MissLucy said...

that's so funny! My next blog entry was going to be about the bike that my boyfriend custom built for me a while ago - he's got five that he built for himself too. It's so great to have a bike that is so right for its owner and its purposes. The value of our battered old car is less than one of those bikes...

elisa said...

Wow. It's really cool that your husband could just make a bike for y ou like that in a few nights time. You're pretty lucky. Having more bikes than people reminds me of when I was visiting friends on Cape Cod who had a number of bikes in their garage waiting to be used for a nice ride into town or to the beach.

Wear Your Wild said...

what a cool post! now i know why y'all have biker's legs! (i saw that walk on the beach photo and thought, "man, they have some nice lookin' legs!".

Sherry said...

Katie, you just made my day!