Categories: Accessories and GearTechnologyThe BikesTradition

We Were Young and Totally Rad

Awesome enough for Briko Shots

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.

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/cycling past/”/]

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next Reverence: Sigma 1100 »

Previous « Technology Simplified: The V-Meter.

View Comments

Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Dec 22 2010 at 3:53 pm

@frank
The very exact same bike? Like the same bike. Hmmmm.
jacquie phelan says:

Dec 23 2010 at 7:52 pm

Cindy Whitehead is stacking in the first turn, and Hannah North has the skid lid, and the awesome Chris culver is chasing, along with "Polly Preaux"(peggy herzog)l. I have some nice shots where I'm beating all the men, if you want...jacquiephelan.com is my blog by the way...
jacquie phelan says:

Dec 23 2010 at 7:54 pm

Cindy Whitehead is stacking in the first turn, and Hannah North has the skid lid, and the awesome Chris culver is chasing, along with "Polly Preaux"(peggy herzog)l. I have some nice shots where I'm beating all the men, if you want...jacquiephelan.com is my blog by the way... PS that is the 1985 National Championships, being contested in Santa Barbara somewhere....not the rainy horrible race of 1983, but the nice overcast one...I forget which guy won..oh, wait. Joe Murray.
Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Dec 24 2010 at 1:20 am

@jacquie phelan
Hail to thee, Alice B!

You rocked the Bell V1 Pro. That was, by far, the best looking racing helmet of '85-'86. Skid Lid? Ewwww. Brain bucket.

Cindy Whitehead. Any relation to Mark Whitehead (ex-Mr. Rebecca Twigg)?

I speculate that Tomac and Yeti stole the whole drop-bars-on-mountain-bike design from you. I hope they wrote you a check.

Should some freakish disturbance in the Universe fling you toward the hole that is Houston, I would be honored to share a cup of tea and a bike ride (mountain or road--your choice) with you.

Happy Trails!
jacquie phelan says:

Mar 4 2011 at 10:46 am

@Jeff in PetroMetro
Jeff
I need a shop to 'need' me...In the mid-nineties i did two year's worth of weekend clinics in Houston--made actual money, had actual Other Person (Lance Smith, thank you very much, dude!) orgnizing it. I just sailed in, taught, and met folks,and kept a nice check. If the universe re-aligns (Enron disaster ruint my annual visits) I would happily be back...
Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Mar 4 2011 at 1:45 pm

@jacquie phelan
Hmmm. Intriguing. Enron was so 90's. The PetroMetro is economically rocking along these days. $100 per barrel oil does that here. I'll check 'round to see what the market might be for a mountain bike clinic and high tea. It might be a Spring or Fall thing as it tends to get a tad hot from mid-April until October. But I won't know until I ask.

Me gots ur email address @batnet. I'll be in touch within a couple of weeks.

Muchas Gracias.
mouse says:

Jul 1 2011 at 6:30 pm

@frank

@Dan O

Even so, still had much fun back then, as now - maybe even more so. Mountain biking was all new and minty fresh.

Incredibly rad picture. That was a really cool time; I got into it just a little after that, but it was really cool to be at the sharp end of the stick, trying to figure out how to ride things not many people had ever done before.
You had people like Jacquie Phelan riding the shit out of all these men who thought they had the sport figured out. So cool.

The Charlie Cunningham bike she rode - Otto - was a pretty freaky contraption:

Freaky contraption?
No Frank, that is a beautiful thing.
For a bike nearly on 20 years old I sit here gobsmacked at how right the proportions look to me.
I love the Charlie Cunningham frame that looks as good if not better than most modern mountain bike frames.
I also like the cyclocross bar end shifters and the placement of the rear brake.
I remember reading about Jacquie back then. Awesome that she has graced us with her presence.