[CR] What do you ride?

(Example: Framebuilders:Pino Morroni)

Date: Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:37:27 -0500
From: "David G. White" <whiteknight@burlingtontelecom.net>
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] What do you ride?


I ride lots.

During warmer weather I ride bikes. During snow season I ride snowboards (but I guess that's off-topic). (Two feet plus of snow today -- hurrah! Can't wait to go to the mountain and hit the woods!)

I love cycling in so many ways I can't enumerate them all. I love riding casually with my wife. And last year we began trying tandem for the first time. I do time trials with my local club. I'm middle-aged and not particularly fast, but I love the challenge. Living in Vermont there are no flat roads, so I also challenge myself by riding lots of gap rides through the mountains. Sometimes I ride with hard core racers (who are MUCH faster than me and kindly tolerate my pace). Other times I ride with groups of comparatively casual touring cyclists. I do century rides. Several times a year I do fundraising rides for worthy causes. I ride modern bikes and vintage bikes.

It's all good.

I love my vintage steel bikes, and none of them are wall-hangers. I ride them all. I have quite a few and enjoy them all so no single vintage bike gets lots of miles. Some of them can be seen here: http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/David-G-Whites-Bikes/

I probably put as many miles on my time trial bike as any single bike because during the season I race every Thursday plus try to do one or two training runs each week if I can fit them into my schedule. It's a titanium Lightspeed Blade, painted as a Colnago (which is a story of its own).

If I'm riding with the hard core folks I typically ride my 2010 Specialized Roubaix. If I'm doing a major gap ride, I may choose my Merckx Fuga because it has a triple. Late last season I bought a wonderful KOF Ed Litton steel frame, circa 1997. I built it up with a modern 10 speed group and found that it's only about a half pound heavier than my all-carbon Roubaix. It rides wonderfully. It quickly became the bike I grabbed first when heading out on a ride.

Otherwise I mostly ride vintage steel. Among my favorite riding bikes in the stable:

1977 Richard Sachs 1963 Cinelli SC 1981 Ron Stout early 90s KOF Chuleewah 1987 KOF Columbine 1981 Roberson Circa 1980 Cuevas

I look forward to restoring my 1974 Jack Taylor (currently a bare frame) which may be my all-time favorite ride.

Cheers!

David

David G. White
Burlington, VT