davidbhill

Hi, all.

I've read the forums a bit, got good info, and thought I'd join the fray.

I rode a lot when I was younger (19, 20), had a Sears 26" 3-speed that I rebuilt as a "race" bike, rode it to work every day one year. Actually entered one race (the First Annual Georgia Tech Fourth of July Bicycle Race) and came in fourth. Got excited about riding, bought a decent (Batavus) 27" 10-speed, rode it, wrecked it, mended it and myself.

Then life happened and I quit riding.

Fast forward to 2007. Just married (in August), my wife gets tired of waiting for me to clean up my old bikes and figures out how I can stretch one of hers (Trek 2200, 48cm frame, 650s) to fit me and gets me on the road. Well, technically, it was the Silver Comet Trail.

I had a blast and I've been riding ever since. I backed way off the first part of last year while training for a marathon, started riding seriously again in June, then hit a dog in November (got a concussion and fractured pelvis out of that incident), and finally got back on the bike New Years Day.

Over the holidays, I discovered randonneuring. I am hooked! I've done the motorcycle equivalent (Iron Butt rides), so I know a bit about what's necessary to keep riding for long periods of time, just haven't done it under my own power before.

Met up with some randonneurs for the first time last Saturday. They were riding from Atlanta, GA to Anniston, AL and back, spending the night in Anniston. My wife and I rode along for 22 miles, then turned back. About 5 miles from the end, we stopped to warm up at the Silver Comet Depot bike shop.

I'm a fan of internal hubs, have been ever since that Sears 3-speed I mentioned before. I had been considering rebuilding that 3-speed as an 8-speed using the Shimano hub, had started costing out the parts to do so, and was up over $400 already.

Whenever I go into bike shops I look around to see if they have any internal hub bikes. Silver Comet Depot had a Specialized Globe Vienna 4. My size. On sale for ~$550, because it's a 2009 and they wanted to move it. Looks like this:
GrayEagle.jpg

Well, I'll cut to the chase. It's parked in my living room right now. It's name is "Grey Eagle". I'm setting it up for commuting, but I'm also going to take it out for some long distances and see how I like it for randonneuring. There's a 200K brevet coming up in a coupe of weeks.

I still want to rebuild my old Sears bike, and I'm even looking into doing some brazing and welding and building my own frames, but I now have a *new* bike (my first in 35 years) and I'm excited!

10 Wheels

Welcome David to Bike forums.
Very Nice intro.
Interesting bike you have.
Stay in touch.

RonH

Welcome David. Stop by the Southeast Regional subforum and say hello to the locals in the Atlanta/Decatur thread.