The assignment for this weekend was to attend two CR vintage rides. The first: Hetchins Pete's affair on Saturday starting at the Larz Anderson Museum in Brookline MA. The second: Charley Young's swanky do at his Honeybrook PA home. A daunting prospect, but if anyone can sit on his butt in traffic for hours on end better than me, I'd like to see em. So with the CD player loaded with Les Paul and Mark O'Connor and the cooler with Pepsi and cookies, I hit the road.
This was my first visit to the Boston area, and after the obligatory slow crawl through the NYC metro plex, I arrived with no troubles. Saturday morning turned out to be a real goat rodeo, though, as the Larz museum had a GTO concours show on the lawn. I threaded my way through the 60's Detroit muscle cars in search of more refined steel steeds.
At the top of the hill on the back 40 of the museum grounds, with a breathtaking view of the Boston skyline, the geezer bike crowd was gathering and unpacking. Lucious bikes were everywhere. My shaky memory recalls two Hetchins (Pete's 70's Campy NR Hellenic and Dan Borden's 30's Brilliant fixed with original(!) finish), a fulll chrome & pinstripe Mondia Super (Maurice, was that yours?), Ken Denny's magnificent chrome Hurlow with the transparent blue laquer banding, a pristine full Campy Bill Boston (can't remember the name of the charming gentleman who was riding it), and your correspondent on my '49 Ephgrave. Ken and I discussed whether Ephgrave made Supremes back in '49, or whether mine was just an early #1 with lug cut outs. The sole italian steed was a nice red Pinarello (was that you, Jim Kerr?). But the neatest bike was Jack Demarest's '03 Dayton fixie, with swallow bars, cork grips, "model t" gloss black paint and fast back seat stays. Yowza. And kudo's to Jack and Dan for riding fixed on this rolling route.
Regretably, dead camera batteries prevented me from taking any pictures. Just take my word for it that the bikes were all polished and lovely, we were all slender and handsome with full heads of un-grey hair, and the chicks were all over us because they dig intricate lug work.
The ride was perfect, with cool, crisp air and winding, rolling low traffic streets. The only defect was Pete's decision to start the ride at the top of hill, as that meant we had to slog our way back up it at the end of it all (gasp, wheeze!) But everyone made it back, and after some post ride comraderie, I loaded up the van and headed south west for PA.
Finding Charley's place Sunday morning proved to be more challenging. Apparently no one in Honeybrook PA knows where White School road is. Arriving a half hour late, I was sure the peleton had already left when I pulled into Charley's 200+ year old farmhouse and saw a zillion bikes strewn about the place. But no; that's only Charley's personal collection. I was actually one of the first to arrive. This was a bigger crowd, with listmembers Roy Drinkwater, Dan Artley, Mark Poore, Charley (of course), Steve Maasland Vulkan (last name?)and Ray Sachs and some other folks from the IBob list. Significant bikes included Steve's 50's Benotto with Cambio Corsa (several folk test rode her for their first Cambio Corsa experience), Roy's yellow Cinelli track and AD full suspension fixed gear, Mark's beautiful Rauler with Campy 50th group, Charley's $75 Kellog Ross Signature, Dan's (the biking fool) Sach's touring rig, a Rivendell and two Bridgestones. Steve, wuss that he is, chose to ride a lovely Cinelli SC C Record complete mit Delta brakes instead of the Benotto. I blame the aero advantage of the brakes for Steve being faster than me. Of course after we got on the route, I myself was wishing for a granny ring. For this day I was riding the '54 Major Nichols built up with Campy NR. The ride itself was sublime, winding through Amish farmland, along streams and past stone fences and old mills. Special kudo's to Charley for ordering the perfect weather.
Fresh batteries in the camera let me take a few pics, when my eyes would stop spinning and focus..
If that link doesn't work, go to http://photos.yahoo.com/
Just a word of reassurance; Steve (white jersey, on the ground) did survive and finish the ride, in spite of appearances at the rest stop.
So at the end of the day, full of bonhomie, Charley's beer and grilled bratwursts, we once again reluctantly packed up and headed off into the sunset.
Just let me take one last chance to thank both of my hosts for a fine, vintage weekend. It's guys like you that make this a great list. Hope to see you all again soon. Who's organizing the ride at Trexlertown?
Yr humble correspondent:
Tom Adams, Shrewsbury NJ