Hello Paul,
By god there is hope! The other week, I was driving my park ranger truck through the old neighbor hood- on my back to the service yard. I noticed a flash of chrome- a yo ung cyclist elegantly accelerated away from a group of teenagers. T he lad was a on new KoF(?) Bianchi Pista. He gracefully pedaled away with h is courier bag swung over his his shoulder. As I gently passed him, I realised he successfully caught the draft of my t ruck and I inadvertently towed him through the historic town of Niles (brav o). Thoughts of the butcher boy from Castellania came to mind. Coincidental ly, when I arrived home for the day, the book "Bianchi, a bicycle in the le ad" arrived; highly recommended by the way.
Regards, David Martinez Fremont Ca US of A where thankfully one of our sons is interested in cycling.
From: Dr. Paul Williams <castell5@sympatico.ca> Subject: [CR]Hope from a new generation!? To: "Classic Rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Date: Friday, September 26, 2008, 5:03 AM
The other day I was sitting outside our building at the university having a coffee with a colleague when a student pulled into a nearby bike rack on a vintage Peugeot. As I looked over my colleague's shoulder he asked if I was checking out her form - I laughed and said no and that she was one of my students from a first-year seminar and that I was most curious about her bike. I was also amazed by the fact that she was wearing a matching Peugeot team jersey. I didn't have a chance to look at the bike closely so will have to ask her in more detail about it next week - in a later exchange of emails about an assignment she did say that:
"My Dad gave me that bike a few years ago, after he upgraded to a Trek or Giant or some other light-weight contraption! He bought it in Germany in 1980. We haven't done too much to it - new brakes and Shimano pedals - but it still runs very well."
I am not sure of the model but the frame was in black and yellow livery (as was her jersey).
There is hope (this student is about 18 or 19) - and not just from the fixie brigade!
Paul Williams,
Paul B. Williams, BAH, MPhil, PhD
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
castell5@sympatico.ca