channeling Dave Stohler

Every so often amidst the wasteland of advertisements for used dept store bikes on sale for their new price, a true gem crops up on craigslist. Within one hour on Sunday, the ad was posted, I saw it, contacted the owner, drove (still working on bike on bike transport, a la moscaline) to his house, and bought the bike. The bike is a 1979 Trek race bike made with Columbus SP tubing with Campy dropouts and mostly mediocre parts. The seller bought the bike brand new in 1979 and replaced a few of the lousier Campy Gran Sport components with middle quality Japanese parts. Here's what it looks like after a good bit of cleaning and overhauling.


Now, Dave Stohler's bike was a red masi rather than a blue trek, I look more like Daniel Stern than Dennis Christopher, I was 3 years old when Breaking Away was released, and I lived in Urbana, IL, rather than Btown, IN. But bikes of this era really speak to me. They're subtle, with smooth curves, sharp angles, and skinny tubes that nicely balance. All the parts are simple to operate and mainain.

Just before buying it, I was thinking of possibly selling it to one of my tall friends. But then I rode it and changed my mind. The plan for now is to lend it to a friend in town so that he can train on it and ride it in the MS-150 ride from ABQ to Los Alamos. He just rode the Abq century on a mountain bike and is thinking a road bike might make the MS ride easier. And how!

My Bianchi is currently loaned out to another friend. He's commuting to work on it until his dad's old bike arrives in the mail. I'm enjoying this role as bike ambassador. It's really nice to see more people using bikes for transportation.

My bike repair business is slowly getting off the ground. This week I was replacing the freehub body on another friend's bike when a neighbor asked if I could fix his bike. Oh yea! Fame and endless riches are forthcoming!