Fifty Plus (50+) - Foo: I'm Like Totally Bored with Princess Diana

I've had it with all the news attention given the poor woman. Almost approaching that pathetic creature ANna Nicole. I know that DeeGee has one wall dedicated to the Princess and her accomplishments so I'm sorry to offend. But, it's not like she went to the headsman's block for a poor subject, renounced the aristocratic life, or did the William Wallace thing. So, with all respect to the throngs who leave flowers, teddy bears, and stuff, I no longer wish to hear a talking head on tv intoning sacred platitudes. In fact, I'm bored with the news share given to most socially and spiritually vacuous celebrities. And no, DG, I do not group Diana with Sean Penn, Britney, Paris, and the rest.

This is a useless thread, in fact......it and all such celebrity hoohaw should be thrown out with (bike content) self-adhesive tube patches.

:lol:
Can't wait to see where this one goes......

You are- We've had it for 10 years. In that time I have bought 6 bikes- Changed allegiance- Almost- to road riding and learned to spin at a faster rate than I ever thought possible.

Just wonder what the final decision will be.

This was Princess Di's bike:

http://www.mountfitchetcastle.com/images/news/princessdianabike.jpg

according to http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mountfitchetcastle.com/images/news/princessdianabike.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mountfitchetcastle.com/latestnews.htm&h=288&w=220&sz=96&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=dRfGe9ZMCOtuyM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dprincess%2Bdi%2Bbike%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

I was going to say "Fake" But that model of Raleigh Chopper would have been about when she was riding- Except I would have thought she would have had a Gold Boreas to stay in keeping with her class.

I've been out on my bike. Who is Princess Diana?

I've had it with all the news attention given the poor woman. Almost approaching that pathetic creature ANna Nicole. I know that DeeGee has one wall dedicated to the Princess and her accomplishments so I'm sorry to offend. But, it's not like she went to the headsman's block for a poor subject, renounced the aristocratic life, or did the William Wallace thing. So, with all respect to the throngs who leave flowers, teddy bears, and stuff, I no longer wish to hear a talking head on tv intoning sacred platitudes. In fact, I'm bored with the news share given to most socially and spiritually vacuous celebrities. And no, DG, I do not group Diana with Sean Penn, Britney, Paris, and the rest.

I would much rather the news focus on the accomplishments of such a fine person than their obsession (in the US) with the three stooges (Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton). If the media must be focused on a woman, I'd rather it was a constructive role model than a substance abuser who tries to hide behind their attorneys.
When I get tired of reading/listening to Princess Diana, I change the channel or turn the page.

Di is so 1982

A tandem team I know told me a story I found interesting and I thought I'd pass it along. They were on a credit card tour of Scottish distilleries and castles this past summer. While touring a small distillery, their parked tandem was backed into by a lory. None of their minimal luggage was damaged, but the Santana tandem's frame was bent at about a 30 degree angle right in the middle.

It turned out that both the owner of the lory company and the distillery manager were touring cyclists themselves, and members of the CTC. They put the couple up in a bed and breakfast in the nearest village, and arranged to have the tandem frame replaced by Santana. On top of that, they bought them a used tandem from a local cycle shop to use on tour and take home. So after only a day lay over the couple was back on the road.

The tandem was a real odd ball. While over 25 years old it looked like it had never been ridden. The geometry was basically copied from a Taylor, and the components were top line but not really optimum for tandem use. The paint, while uniform, seemed like it had been put on with a spray can. And the frame was lugged with the most beautiful ornate lugs either of them had ever seen. Well, it served them adequately for the tour and back home until their Santana got fixed.

In late October they got a call from a man who asked about the tandem, and then offered to buy it. They were about to make a deal to sell it for $850 (USD) when the man said he'd need them to ship it to England!. Why would someone want to buy an inexpensive touring tandem and ship it half way round the world? The guy on the phone was very coy, and while he never would say why he wanted the tandem, he jacked his price up to $1500 and then $4000 before the couple said they weren't interested in selling it.

Intrigued, they began to strip some of the spray paint off to find out what the brand was. They found that those beautiful lugs were gold plated! And under the dark green spray paint they found a royal blue tandem with the small decal, "Lipscome-Harrowgate Cycles, London".

A call to a large cycle shop in London brought in a little information on Lipscome-Harrowgate. They were a small shop that built racing bikes favored by young British lads that went off to the continent to try their hand at being professional racers. The bikes were little known because they were usually painted and decaled to meet the racer's sponser's requirements. But the shop said that L-H never build tandems! Later that week they got another call from a man representing "investors" who offered 10,000 pounds for the bike! The couple then called L-H and finally got to talk to Ian Lipscome. He immediately demanded to know how they had the bike, so before they got any information, they had to tell their story. Then Lipscome told them, "I hadn't thought about the tandem we built in several years. I guess I had tried to put it out of my mind. I'm sorry the tandem's story worked out this way, and I can't help but think that things would have been different if it had been ridden by the couple we built it for. Anyway, pull the captain's seat post and fish out the document rolled up inside, that'll explain things, I think."

In addition to a receipt for shipping from London to Balmoral, they found a letter there that said, "Presented to His Royal Majesty, Charles, Prince of Wales, July, 1981, in honor of his marriage to Lady Diana Spencer" followed by the motto of Lipscome-Harrowgate Cycles: "Enfants Perdus".

TCS

What the heck!!

tcs, that was a really cool story!

But what brought up Princess Diana? I had to check the date of the thread to see if it was from the...well... the first week the interent was up.

Good story well told, tcs.............if I'd known Di was a cyclist I would have bitten my churlish tongue. Wonder if she ever rode it. Any dents in the stoker's saddle? Always thought Charles had the aire of somebody who'd ridden too many miles on a seatpost without benefit of a seat being attached.

Q. In what way is Princess Diana like Microsoft Windows?

A. Does nothing useful and crashes spectacularly.

But what brought up Princess Diana?

You obviously don't own a TV, or perhaps it is permanently stuck on ESPN.... ;)

I have Tivo, so I only watch shows I've collected. And there ain't many this summer! Mad Men is good on AMC, The Closer, Monk and Psych while they lasted...

But so is her body missing or something?

I find it interesting and tragic that another woman passed away around the same time, yet the news seldom gives her any acknowledgement. Mother Theresa of India.

But so is her body missing or something?

10 year anniversary combined with a slow news week. (woah, that was 10 years ago already???")

Come on folks - this thread is supposed to have nothing to do with human propelled vehicles, this is supposed to be a protest thread full of mindless drible. Let's stay off topic and get the Foo outa here.

I can't think of anything more loathsome than spending one's spare time thinking about what celebrities, rich people and royals are doing. People who actually work for a living are much more interesting. Lady Di, Paris Hilton-No difference.

Good story well told, tcs

Uh.....I didn't make clear that it was a work of fiction I wrote several years back. Mea culpa. But glad you liked it!

TCS

Suckered in again..................dripping with quaintness and irony, it's very "patness" convinced me it was true. Guess I just wanted to believe. :beer:

She's dead man, cut her a little slack. If nothing else she should be considered a martyr for marrying that goofball prince.