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08-16-04, 06:15 PM
I've got an old bike. Most of the time it hangs in the garage and gathers dust. My new bike is nicer. It climbs better, accelerates faster and has perfect geometry...I can ride the new one all day. My old bike has some almost worn out components. The Ultegra STI levers rattle on rough pavement (remember that?) and the Velocity wheels aren't as stiff as the new bike wheels. After four and a half or five hours on the old bike I start squirming around in the saddle. There are places where the sweat is starting to show its caustic values on my old machine. Yet, I ride the old one once a week. On the Monday club coffee rides the old Cannondale comes down off of the hooks and I slide onto the worn out Selle Italia, clip in and off I go. On these rides I remember why I loved that bike. It still moves me over the road at a fast clip. It is like a falcon downhills. The climbing is stiff and responsive. The color of my old bike is flashy and at the time I bought it, it was a better bike than I deserved. This old bike forced me to ride up to its expectations. I went from 1,200 miles a year to over 5,000, then 6,500 miles. These are the reasons I keep this bike and ride it once a week. It is like being friends with an elderly person. Sometimes the thinking is that the usefulness as one gets older diminishes, but there are still values to be learned and friendship has little tangible value. It is still cherished and the ride can still be sweet.