It was 30 years ago today

Dreamin'

Takes me back, way back to the Sixties. I had a Raleigh Hustler 3 spd, put CX tyres on it and "cowhorn" bars, could wheelie all day! All my m8s had Carlton and Sun racing bikes, they thought I was totally mad! I could only smoke 'em on the mud and ruff stuff, but hey! they all got fat guts, fat wallets and red faces now, me? I weigh the same 40 years on and can still laugh when I fall off!
 
I keep finding old photos.

One of my marketing tools for convincing snobby road riders that these new "mountain bikes" were high performance machines was to ride "century rides" (100 miles) on my Ritchey, and not only keep up, but hammer a lot of riders into the ground.

Okay, I was a little tougher then than I am now.

This photo was taken during the 1981 "Hekaton" Century, which included 8000 feet of climbing and was probably the best time I ever had on one of those rides. I rode my gold-trimmed red Ritchey, and my friend Mark Edwards rode my Breezer #2, and only two riders passed us all day.
 

Attachments

  • Hekaton012.jpg
    Hekaton012.jpg
    108.4 KB · Views: 1,085
I didn't think this one was worthy of posting, but I put it up on MTBR and everyone liked it, so I'll put it up here.

In 1978 there was a local cyclocross race, and Joe Breeze and I entered on our new "mountain bikes." I was DNF with a damaged chainring (wimpy TA stuff) and Joe Breeze finished out of the money, but another rider from our club, Velo Club Tamalpais, won on a regular 'cross bike.

That was my first "date" with the woman who became my girlfriend and co-publisher of the Fat Tire Flyer, Denise Caramagno.

This photo taken after the race shows me, Denise, race winner Joe Ryan (with a cut on his face), and Gary Fisher. According to Gary's watch, the photo was taken at 11:15.
 

Attachments

  • 1978TildenParkCross.jpg
    1978TildenParkCross.jpg
    91.8 KB · Views: 1,050
Starting area of Repack, 1983. Several first generation Breezers, a 1979 Jeffrey Richman (in background), second generation Breezer in the middle with Steve Potts (back turned) on it. Otis Guy (back turned) on the right on his first series Breezer.

Left to right, Alan Zulch, Charlie Castelli, Martin McBirney, Steve Potts, Ross Parkerson, Otis Guy.

All the tires are SnakeBellies.
 

Attachments

  • 1983_Repack.jpg
    1983_Repack.jpg
    131.9 KB · Views: 960
I find that as I get older my face not only gets lower it also gets higher.
Also; when you can finally afford to eat and drink as much as you want...you just cant afford to eat and drink as much as you want.

Umm the earlier hair lines brought this on.
Lid
 
These pics are just amazing! Thanks for taking the time to scan them and post them, I find it all absolutely fascinating :cool:
 
Out of interest, would this be the correct Schwinn Excelsior to build a period correct Clunker from?

04d6_1.JPG


It's on Ebay for $175, which doesn't sound bad at all to me! It's a dream of mine to build a clunker replica. That's almost worht travelling to the USA to get!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
2005 Rotec RL9 rebuild
Replies
6
Views
627
boxxer
B
C
Marin Team Marin DH (FRS DH) - my first DH bike
Replies
0
Views
424
Cloverleaf
C
Once A Hero
1996 Giant ATX 990
Replies
3
Views
1K
STX-RC
STX-RC
C
2011 Intense M9 FRO - owned from new and rebuilt
Replies
4
Views
470
Cloverleaf
C
MuchAlohaNui
Rossin Super Record - 1983
2
Replies
17
Views
3K
N-plus-one
N

Latest posts

Back
Top