[CR]My mentor & his bikes

(Example: Events)

From: "Mark Poore" <rauler47@hotmail.com>
To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 08:46:13 -0400
Subject: [CR]My mentor & his bikes

My mentor Oliver “Boots” Ward his love of cycling and his bikes.

In planning a trip to the Washington D.C. area this weekend to visit my sisters as well as get a warmer climate ride in I started thinking of Boots. I was sure if Boots was breathing and could get out of bed he would be doing a ride this weekend so I called him. Just so happens he has his 35-mile loop planned for Sunday. I am as good as there.

I haven’t seen Boots in about 15 years so a visit is long over do. In 1960 I met Boots, he was a mechanic in a local bike shop and I was having some problems with my Simplex derailleur. He talked me into riding with the club on Saturdays and then the following year into racing. I owe Boots a lot for the love and appreciation of bicycles and riding he shared with me. In thinking about it the riding is what counts the most. We can hop on any old bike and enjoy a good spin. True, some bikes are more pleasurable than others and make the ride more enjoyable, but it is the riding in it’s self that makes the sport what it is. This is the essence of Boots. Sure he has many records and achievements (1950 National Road Champion) in the sport of cycling, but it is the love and dedication to the sport that makes the man. Boots was and has been a bike mechanic all his life and has commuted to work all those years. If one were to count the commuter miles he has put in the saddle it would probably be a record in it's self. Now in his upper 70’s he still rides his fixed gear to and from the bike shop in which he works. I have the feeling that this, for me, will be one of the most memorable rides in years.

And now on to his bikes, I asked him if I could take some photos of his collection. Although he probably doesn’t think of himself as a vintage collector of bikes, he doesn’t show them or take them out for club rides, they are just his bikes. I will be taking several cameras and lots of film and will try to get as much detail as possible then pass copies of the photos along to Dale. Many of these bikes were in his collection when I was a kid hanging out in his basement watching Boots build wheels or riding his dual rollers with the clock in a race with my buddies. What memories.

Anyway here is a partial list:

Hetchins track Higgins track Carpenter track Autto or Otto track Condor road-Gold plated-a gift from the local cycling clubs Jack Taylor Teledyne SP? And more.