Bikes

Ever since I was a punk kid, I have loved bicycles.

When I was a wee lad, in the early 1970s, the cool bike for young boys was a Schwinn Stingray, complete with banana seat, chopper-style handlebars, and knob gear shifter. But, Mom and Dad unfortunately were big Consumer Reports readers, and they deemed this design to be hazardous. So, the first bikes for David and I were matching Schwinn Typhoon coaster-brake single-speed bikes. They were red, and looked a lot like the one shown to the right. Kinda retro looking now, but definitely not what a kid wanted when Stingrays were all the rage...

When we got older, Mom and Dad upgraded us to matching copper-colored Schwinn Calientes (just like the green one shown). These were the classic, "10-speed" bikes, with front and rear derailleurs, drop handlebars, the whole nine yards. Despite the fact that the steel frame weighed probably 35 pounds (that's a lot), I put many a mile on my old Caliente before getting my driver's license. Back then, a bicycle represented freedom, my only means of getting more than a couple miles from home.

David and I used to enjoy riding on this rails to trails path, which went from Washington DC all the way to the Blue Ridge mountains, and passed through our hometown of Vienna Va.

Fast forward to adulthood. In 1988, when I moved to Greenville, I bought a blue/white Nishiki Prestige sport-touring 14-speed from Sunshine Cycle Shop on Pleasantburg Dr. This was my first truly decent bike. Although at the time I didn't know what "Tange 2 double-butted seamless Chro-Moly lugged frame" meant, the guy at the store told me it was a good frame. So I bought it, and put probably less than 50 miles on it in the first ten years I had it.

Around the year 2000, some guys at work introduced my to real "road riding". I bought a helmet, clipless pedals, "fruity bike clothes", and a bike computer. Since then, I have put over 1,000 miles on the ole Nishiki.

I also got into mountain biking somewhat, and bought a Trek 3700... I'll do another post sometime about my various mountain biking adventures...!

This year, my son Zach got into road riding, and bought a sweet steel-frame Lemond bike. This bike made me realize that my 20-yr old Nishiki, though a great bike, was getting a bit dated. So, after hunting around a bit on Craigslist, this week I bought a "new to me" road bike!

The new ride is a 2007 Felt F75. Check out the glowing review here. For you tech geeks: 58 cm aluminum frame with Wolf TT carbon aero fork, carbon seat stays, Ultegra rear derailleur, 105 front derailleur and brifters, Shimano 600 compact crank 175mm, Shimano R500 wheelset, 12-27 Ultegra cassette, Felt racing saddle.

[Reality check - I'm 200 pounds, so the lightweight nature of this bike would mean more if I were to drop a few pounds!]

Anyhow, rode it for the first time this morning with Zach, on a brief 10 mile loop. Survey says: awesome! The frame felt light and responsive, but not "stiff" as I feared it would compared to the forgiving steel frame of the ole Nishiki. And the biggest difference: fingertip shifting!!! Oh my, it will be hard to go back to downtube shifters...

So in summary, this has been a great cycling week for the family... Last week of the Tour de France, new bikes for Brian and Cathy (check out her new Townie!), and a great group ride with Sarah and Zach this morning.

Life is good!