[CR]Fast Eddie makes an apperance/SD Vintage Ride 9/23

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Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 16:07:46 -0700
From: "Brian Baylis" <rocklube@adnc.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Fast Eddie makes an apperance/SD Vintage Ride 9/23

Hi Gang,

Just got back from the monthly Sterling Peters/SD Vintage Ride from Balboa Park. Had a wonderful time as always; especially delightful on account of taking my newly rennovated 1962 Masi Special for a spin. For the duration of the ride I felt a great pride in being fortunate enough to have gotten this bike and to be it's current custodian. She is so very sweet. Yes, I still don't like the excessive fork rake; it's really annoying to get out of the saddle and have a bike that was going straight start handeling like a shopping cart with a bum wheel. It's even worse out of the saddle in the hooks while digging real deep (hey, I have to do that a lot in my condition) than on the hoods. It gets almost scary as soon as you stand up. But I love her anyway; the same way you like your friends in spite of their faults.

Who is "Fast Eddie"? He's a local rider/friend/customer who is a super nice guy and very into retro stuff. He showed up for a ride for the first time and we had a ball as usual. Oh, he also gets out on the bike like religion and is always fit and Fast, but only if neccessary. Otherwise he's totally content to sit back and talk bikes or movies. Real nice guy.

And since we're on the topic of nice guys; another new face showed up and made quite a (good) impression on everyone who bought any goodies he happened to bring along to sell. His name is Dave Field. He obviously loves bikes and must also ride a lot; he was moving along pretty good as far as I could tell (once they were out of sight I don't know what happened). But upon our return the car trunk reopened for business and I've never seen a more generous and accomodating sale take place. He made positivly everyone felt good about what they got and what they paid. I bought a wheel from him and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see someone passing along bike parts to needy fellows without the attitude of what it could bring on ebay or worring about not getting top dollar for everything. I think the trunk was empty when he left; which is not exactly a surprise considering the cool stuff he had to offer and his delightful sense of honesty. Where do we find more people like this? I hope some will be in attendance at the Velo Retro (unofficial) swap in two weeks. Thanks Dave for that breath of fresh air! I hope anyone who needed really good bike stuff and super fair prices wasn't somewhere else. Especially if the air wasn't all that fresh.

Hope to see anyone who can make it to the next San Diego Vintage Ride. We always have a blast, tell LOTS of stories, meet new friends, and even fit a ride into the deal. Sure, occassionally a VERY drunk person might figure you wouldn't mind if he hopped on your Colnago and took it for a ride around the block; but that's part of the experience, right guys. (Yeah, it happened today as we were eating lunch at our regular spot situated right on San Diego Bay. He was deffiniately going to do it, luckily he was so drunk he stood there forever just trying to think straight as we looked in amazement. We convinced him to leave; without the bike , of course!)

Come join the fun.

Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA