Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.Shredder3034
02-12-07, 07:32 AM
Really, it's not about me. It's about the bike. For Lance it was not but, with seven tour wins how can it be not? Anyway I have been a cyclist for 17 years seriously. I built bikes as a kid in my neighborhood. In my world at that time, your bike was like your car. My riding memories take me back to 15-20 mile jaunts as a young man to see girlfriends I had met a roller rink.(going way back to mid 80's) Got tied up with the pot people and spent 5 years with no bike. A memory of cruising down a tree covered road with my bike sent me searching for anything with two wheels. A dumpster of fate provided me a powder blue Free Spirit 12 speed. After a week of searching for a bike shop I liked, I started using my expendable cash(pot money) to get my new ride up to roadworthyness.I rode her for two years, the last year saw major upgrades and a paint job. Sold to a friend so I can get a Fuji from a pawn shop. 1 year later saw that bike go to pasture for a raleigh aluminum Gran Prix with 105 components only to be sold for a green Cannondale CAAD2 which shared ride time with numerous heavier bikes for training purposes and kept hard road miles off the dale. Cannondale made a devine departure(ask me in an e-mail and I will share) for a home and better life. Rode an orange Diamond back until I found a desguised treasure. A '92 Cannondale R300. The kind with the tight geometry and protruding dropouts. Sandblasted, powdercoated copper glittercoat and factory Cannondale decals and Campy equipped, it is a cyclists dream. Fast and responsive. Lastly my Dale shares reps with my 05 Lemond Tete' de Course. I have only to date 116 dollars invested in bike with a market value of 2000 bucks, so cool. I feel blessed! I spent time as a pro wrench, which does not pay much, so my career is a service engineer with a Xerox dealer.