On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 19:19:38 -0400, William Blum
wrote:
Most of William's bike history, snipped
My bike history:
1. Little kid, don't remember
2. Ten or fifteen speed, 20" wheels, coaster brake + hand brakes
3. Don't remember
4. Huffy with black plastic cover on crankset -- turned out
to be very common at the time, and I was called a
poseur for it
5. Royce Union hybrid that must have weighed 50 pounds, had
27" knobby tires I couldn't replace, and was generally
worthless.
6. Real bikes, as described below...
I was always given dept. store bikes (with the exception of me having
saved
$350 to go to the bike shop in 10th grade, and my stepfather stealing the
cash out of my room, and coming home with a 12-speed from the sporting
goods
store in the mall.)... and I *always* tried to keep them running as
Why do children and young adults insist on
trusting family members? Family members are
the least trustworthy for that sort of issue,
because they share your living space and feel
it's okay to invade your space and use your
stuff.
I've never had a problem, although by the
time I was 14 I was securing my stuff as much
as possible (some of it needed to be secure
so that nobody knew I had it, if you catch my
drift
. I don't have a scumbag family; but
whenever I couldn't find something, I never
blamed anybody else, and never had that
argument as a result.
I've witnessed other families who "trust"
eachother more, and their relationships seem
to suffer for it.
So, it was a nine-year gap between bikes....
I had a smaller gap, though I didn't understand
dept store quality vs. LBS quality until I was
18. I think I was 15 or 16 when I destroyed the
fork on my Royce Union, which had 27" knobbies
that I couldn't find a replacement for, so it
just seemed so futile to buy a bike when I was
going to be driving so soon.
Then, I must have been 18 when the bug to ride
bit me, and I studied hard and bought a GT
Outpost mountain bike. Years went by, and last
year I bought a nice road bike, and have since
rescued a few ten-speeds and a couple older,
but good, road bikes from people's garbage.
They're in no worse condition than what you find
at a yard sale, and are discounted by 100% of
what you'd pay at a yard sale...
So now I have a big collection of bikes that I
don't ride, will repair and sell...at a yard sale.
As Lance as my witness, I'll never go bike-less again.
Amen to that, brutha! G
--
Rick Onanian