Originally Posted by
DropBarFan
Older riders & racing fans remember Greg Lemond & his Oakley Pilot sunglasses. Greg helped pioneer the popularity of using shades designed for cycling & undoubtedly boosted Oakley sales by a huge amount.
The Pilot was a great design with maximum coverage of eyes ( ie helped reduce wind draft, glare etc). No problem with top of frame obscuring vision while riding on drops. A nice feature was the extra pair of temples with the soft round-the-ear loops. On long rides that was a lot more comfortable than current shades with temples that grip with compression. Plus they came with a neck cord.
Then Oakley came out with their skinnier stylish shades; IMHO fine for people who want to look kewl but I don't understand why Oakley discontinued the formerly wildly-popular Pilots? M-Frames & Radar seem to have a decent amount of coverage but less than Pilots, plus they lack the ear-loop temples.
I had like 5 pairs of those things when I rode back in the day. I wrote to Oakley once, and told them i was a HUUUGGGGEEEEEEE Greg Lemond fan, and that although I loved their glasses, I couldnt afford them. I went on about how he was such an inspiration in my life, and he's who made me get into riding, and he was my hero, and also, how I made a homemade pair of Oakleys(they werent even Oakleys, some knock off brand, my buddy painted "Oakley" on, and put a white stripe across the top). They hooked me up big time. About 2 months later(I had actually forgotten that I had written them), I received a box in the mail addressed:"To the Biggest Greg Lemond fan we've ever met"(no bull****) it then, had my name on it...I open it up...they sent me like 5 pairs of glasses, 2 shirts, a ton of stickers, some bad ass Lemond stuff(some pics, and a few posters of him) and a cool Oakley hat. Needless to say, they were my hero's then. I eventually got rid of them, as they became scratched, and/or broken from years of moving from place to place, or a drop/crash/etc. They were big time cool with me @ the time, I was 15, and was stoked they were so nice to me. I even wrote them back a "thank you" letter...they responded with a" you're very welcome, enjoy", letter. I wish i still had those sunglasses.
Did the same @ the time(wrote a letter) to the USCF, they took care of me big time too. Sent me all kinds of Lemond goodies, and forwarded a letter I had written to Greg to him, I began to have correspondance with him through the mail. Course, it consisted of me sending him letters, and not getting back anything in return, except a VERY NICE response from his wife Nancy, telling me that he read all the stuff i sent him, I was in shock(literally) when I received it back from her. I used to send letters to his dad Bob Lemond, when he lived in Carson City(he still might live there? not sure), he would then forward them to him, I think. It was very cool. I got a " thank you for being such a huge fan of Greg's" note back one time from his dad too.
My point is......too bad things arent thay way anymore. I would write letters to alot of the pro teams, and get tons of stuff back from them, when I was a kid, and rode. They dont do that stuff anymore, sadly. I wrote to 7/11 one time, and told them i was a huge: Eric Heiden/Andy Hampsten fan, and they sent me back 2 7/11 bike caps, and a t shirt. I even wrote to Peugeuot(sp), and told them how much I appreciated Laurant Fignont(sp) and how hard he rode, they sent me backl a Peugeout Cap.
I miss those days sometimes. Back then, the companies/teams took care of their fans, and custies. My mom would laugh @ the stuff I'd get in the mail from so many people related to cycling sometimes, she'd say" they must really like you, to send you all of this stuff for free?", she would encourage me to write them all the time. It would always be "got something from some bike thing again". No BS on anything I've written here. My buddies were amazed @ how I would get so much stuff from them.
Give it a try(writing them a letter), it couldnt hurt.