[CR] Epic Winter ride

(Example: History)

Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:46:48 -0800 (PST)
From: "MARK" <mhoffman0@snet.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR] Epic Winter ride


Ok, I'll be scratching the bottom of the classic-content barrel here.  Please pardon that. My tenant (I'll call him "Scott") on my second floor and I have been friends for a long, long time.  I met him years ago at Andy Raymond's annual criterium in Middletown (CT), via another bike mechanic friend. He was riding a classic orange Crescent.  (Classic content: That frame later broke- rusted through  at the lever clamp area-I sent Larry Black the head badge, years later).

Anyway,  Scott's got two cars. Neither one is running.  He works in Hartford, about 12 miles away.

He starts work at 7 a.m.  He commutes by bike.

It kinda snowed a lot here yesterday. About 2 feet.  It started falling about 10 p.m. Tues. night.  I knew Scott was fighting the same cold as my wife and I.  I saw his tracks in the snow when I got up in the morning. I was wondering how he was doing.  Now, although he owns some classic steel (a Sachs, a Wojcik), he uses a MTB to commute.

He came home early, around 1 p.m.

"So, how was the ride?" I ask him. "Not bad, he replied.  Took about two hours.  Would have been better if the gear cable hadn't broke.  I tried to get it into a lower cog but it was too iced-up.  I had three gears coming home.  Only took an hour and a quarter."

I guess many things can make a ride epic.  I once rode five miles in a blizzard on a ballon-tire one speed. (To work in a bike shop, no less.)  Skied it a few times.  I bet there are other winter tales out there. I just thought I should give Scott's ride a "shout-out", and this was the only place I could get anyone to listen without having them call the van.

Mark Hoffman
in snowy
New Britain, CT
USA