MY (PAST)CYCLES

The other day, one of the youth that I work with asked me (actually, this question gets asked a lot period) how many bikes I’ve owned. This got me a thinking. . .

Recently, there’s been Old Red

: Old Red enjoying the view of I-90

I’ve always wanted a touring bike (well. . .not always, more recently, really) and when I got a new job that sort of demanded that I had one, well. . . I couldn’t get just any old thing, right? Well. . . actually, Surly was sold out of the LHT in my size, at that time, and then this little beauty came along. Long story short, Old Red was owned by one of the service managers at Gregg’s and he happened to tell me one day that if I was ever interested, he’d sell it to me. Few days later, it was mine! Highlights include

Steel frame (Steel is reel. Reel heavy and slow. Ha! No, seriously though, I love steel. I do.)

Color red.

Lots of nice stuff.

Red has taken me on some amazing adventures. One of which was this one here. Red makes me want to sing sometimes.

: Me singing.

See?

Let’s see. . . speaking of singing, that pic is from a trip that I took with my good buddy Lance. Lance and I laugh a lot when we’re together.

: Lance and I laughing.

See?

On that trip, I made good use of Shadowfax.

: Here we find Shadow in it’s natural environment.

Shadowfax is a Gary Fisher Paragon 29er that I got through a team deal with the 29er Crew. While my race season didn’t pan out that well (read: at all), the bike has been amazing and a full blown review is in the works.

Speaking of 29ers, the first 29er that I ever owned was this little gem. Didn’t really name it. . . but it rode well. I can say, though, the Genesis 2 Geometry is a huge improvement on the standard Genesis.

: Long and strong. And down to get the. . . well you know. Friction. On.

To clarify my last comment, Genesis Geometry is when Gary Fisher Bicycles tweaks the geometry of it’s 29er frames to make them ride better. And faster. And yeah, it works.

Speaking of tweaking stuff, one of the greatest experiences that a bicycle owner can ever have is that of building up your dream bike piece-by-every-little-piece. This is what you get sometimes. . .

: My one and only true love.

Yeah, this little baby I built up while I was working two jobs. Oh. . . and living at home. Yeah, that helped. Note the pink. . .well. . . EVERYTHING. I feel that a bike like this definitely warrants more pics. . .

: Pink AND Black. Don’t gotta worry about what the new black is that way.

This sucker was hot.

: Bling bling sucka. Rockin’ pink chains!

Oh yeah, and one more thing. . .

: It’s DIGITAL. So you know it’s true. That shit don’t lie.

Anyhoo. That fling was hot and heavy and lasted a little while. But me, being me, once I felt like I was attached to it, I had to get ride of it. So I sold it. Hope that the lady that bought it in Utah is getting good use out of it.

Let’s see. . . I have owned a few Kleins. The only real pic I have of one of them is this one. ’95 Quantum Race with a beautifully functioning complete Shimano 500 gruppo. I didn’t have the ti-spoked wheels on for this pic. Yeah, that’s right, ti-spoked wheels. That was a fun and light bike.

: This bike was fast. And light. Too bad it broke. . .oh Aluminum.

My first road bike, in fact, was a Klein. It was a bit newer though, being a 2005 Klein Q-Pro with Campagnolo Centaur. What a great way to have my eyes opened to the wonders of road biking. You can kind of see it in this pic.

: It was Acid Green. Love it.

Roight, roight, roight. Want to see some bikes that were designed to jump? Yeah! Yeah!

In this pic, which is from the Waaaay Back Time Machine (WBTM), you can see that I am, in fact, riding a bike. It is on a dirt wall, but that is beside the point. The bike that I am riding (however horizontally) was the third (or maybe fourth?) iteration of my Specialized P.3. It was a good bike. Plenty of Avid and Chris King components on that sucker.

: On a P.3, on a wall, in Lithia Park, in Ashland, in Oregon. . . blah blah blah.

I also owned a Kona Cowan once. That was a fun bike. Here it is (in action).

: Here we see the formidable Kona in use.

And again. . .

: Ashland DJ Park. In it’s heyday perhaps? I don’t know. It’s been awhile.

And more.

: I’m wearing a t-shirt that was from a hill climb. Ironic.

More.

: Here we see me doing the “Supercharger”. You should know what that is.

More. . .

: Shady wallride at the quarry. Good place, good times.

I got a lot of good use out of that Kona.

: This pic is a little over-saturated.

Anyhoo, eventually I got the urge to “upgrade” (not sure why cyclists feel that we must do this. . .) and wound up with ANOTHER Gary Fisher. This time a PHD.

: This lil’ guy was a fun toy.

While I have a bitter taste in my mouth from this one, because it heralded in a new ear for me, one of less riding, which ultimately led to the demise of my hopes and dreams of being a pro slopestyle rider. . . oh well. I got good use out of it. It took me places.