It's been an interesting week in the Velominati Archives of Awesomeness, after a freak discovery of boxes containing “photographs”. After conducting some research, we've come to understand that “photographs” are like pictures, except they are stored neither on the Geekbox nor on the Interwebs, but instead reside on a special kind of shiny paper that tastes funny.
It's a rough ride down memory lane, this, where I'm forced to reconcile what I remember of the past and what is shown in these photos. Here I am, roulin' dirty in my Briko Shots and longish hair, on my beloved Schwinn Whateverthefuck. I don't look nearly as cool as I remember.
It was a completely old-school steel frame with a long wheelbase, borne from the fires of innovation ignited in Marin County. When I first became acquainted with it, it was a bit of a clumsy thing with its long wheel base and tall head tube, but I slapped a road stem on it (which I drilled out for a cable stop) for some good, low-shoulder stability, and a first-generation Rock-Shox. I surmise the frame was made of sand-filled tubes, yet the long wheelbase meant it climbed and descended like it was on fucking rails. Together, we rode some of the most technical singletrack imaginable. And, it being the early Nineties, I naturally knocked on a set of LeMond-inspired Scott AT-4's to get nice and low for a convenient alternative to suicide.
My Merckx, I loved that thing.
When we merge our past and present, we turn up all kinds of delightful conflicts; little bits from the past always turn up which don't fit into the puzzle quite how we remember them and force us to relive those brief moments. Number One Bike Shop Buddy, Saul from SpeedyReedy, sent me a few pictures of himself racing: one of him on his old favorite, a GT Avalanche, and one pushing it LeMond-style at his local State Road Race Championships. After sending me his old Campy downtube shifter, our own Gianni sent me a shot of his young self, riding the Bella which housed that selfsame shifter – taken, I'm guessing, only a few days after Humans invented the Wheel. These are the moments of La Vie Velominatus; Cycling is a lifelong endeavor.
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View Comments
@Cyclops
I know the Velominati have been over this picture before, but there is just too much awesomeness in your 7-11 photo: The Playboy bunny at 1 o'clock to the baby bottle; the Sidi shoes with the tube socks; Winnie the Pooh in a sailor hat; the other Playboy bunny at 12 o'clock to the Christmas bear; two possible Betamax sitings--on the TV and again in the mirror's reflection; and a TV with knobs! Yeah, get the fuck up off the couch and change the channel! I miss the 80's.
I knew I'd seen Gianni somewhere before...
@Cyclops
Those gloves are rad. Remind me of my first pair of euro-bright lycra-backed gloves, which I had forgotten about until just now.
@Marko
No, that's in Ketchum, ID, one of my favorite places to ride. Back in '94, we discovered it, and fell in love; trails graded and built specifically for mountain bikes - until then, we'd always ridden on old motocross trails for good, technical singletrack. Climbing on these trails with perfect hairpin turns was heaven.
We still go out there to this day.
@Cyclops
I don't think it's possible to post those pictures too often.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
We had a remote with a cable connected to the TV. It was chaos. Someone would get confused about if they had to get up to change channels or not. Then someone would trip and put their head through the TV and we'd have to start all over.
That TV of ours had a fucking Oak case. Our current TV is about an inch thick and replaced what feels like an entire wall with "A Sunday in Hell".
@Brett
I just puked in my mount a little bit. Not much, but a little bit.
Negative, the Potato Man is from that Badass country on the upside down part of the world (as opposed to that sissy one across the ditch).
Great old pics. We all look a little less cool then we thought.
May I embarrass myself with this fine example from 1984. My new Miyata Ridge Runner, an actual mountain bike if you will - kinda rare back then. My riding "kit" consisted of OP shorts, tube socks, Nike sneakers, Campy long sleeved t-shirt, and official string back bike gloves. Helmets? Sorry, too early for that.
Even so, still had much fun back then, as now - maybe even more so. Mountain biking was all new and minty fresh.
@The Potato Man
Point taken, but none of that explains Rove.
@Dan O
Dude! OP shorts and tube socks with a fucking Campy long sleeved t-shirt. Did the chicks even know how subliminally cool you were? I bet you got laid right after the picture was taken, huh?