jasustar

My name is John Schuster. I'm 63 years old and have been commuting to work, year round, since 1970. The first six years of that commuting was in Madison, Wisconsin, where winter weather isn't very accommodating to bicycles (-20°F/-29°Cm snow and "black ice").

In 1976, I relocated to California to the town of Livermore, which is 49 miles/78.86 km due East of San Francisco. While winter conditions don't come close to those of Wisconsin, there is some unpleasantness with which to deal. When I leave for work, in the dark, the thermometer can be as low as 17°F/-8°C with heavy rain or sleet. There is even the occasional patch of "black ice".

Summer brings its own difficulties. While the ride to work is as good as it can get—65°F/18°C with a gentle tailwind—the ride home is a different story, The inland valley where Livermore is located, often sees high temperatures in the range of 115°F/46°C and I am usually fighting strong headwinds.

Luckily, Livermore sits on a perfectly flat valley floor, so i haven't any hills to climb during my commute. When I want to do some recreational hill climbing, it's a simple matter of pedaling to the 3000-4000 ft/914-1219m hills that surround Livermore. For me that is only a fifteen minute ride.

Now for the technical stuff. When I started commuting 42 years it was on a one-speed balloon tire Schwinn cruiser. I soon moved up to Schwinn 10-speed Varsity. It was this 40 pound/18kg best of a bike that introduced me to the joys of bicycling for fun—I was hooked. From that Schwinn Varsity I began a succession of lighter bikes with greater gear ranges, lighter weights, and higher price tags.

However, I soon realized that the crouched position that came with drop-style handlebars wasn't very comfortable for riding in traffic. That's when i began experimenting with mountain bikes—but, something still wan't right. As luck would have it, or because other aging baby-boomer were looking for the same, thing that's when hybrids started showing up. I knew form the first time I saw one, I needed to have a hybrid.

After visiting every bike shop within the vicinity of Livermore, I finally found exactly what i was searching for—a Cannodale Silk Path 700. This was when Cannondale was till making their bikes in the U.S not China. It had a CAD2 handmade aluminum hybrid frame, a DD25 HeadShok which was just perfect for smoothing out the potholes in city streets. The HeadSkok was complemented by a CODA 900S suspension seatpost to give you butt a little comfort. The drive train was composed of a cold-forged CODA 200 crank with separately replaceable chainrings. It had a Shimano STX RC 8-speed rear derailleur and matching STX up front. Shifting was done lightning fast Sachs Powergrip shifters. Braking was handled by a set of Shimano Alivios.

I bought this bike in 1997 and i've loved every second I spent on it. Needless to say, i've taken loving care of it. The only changes I made were to add a Blackburn rear rack with Jannd panniers. I also added Giant LED lights front and rear and a set of DeFender R1/R2 fenders. When I developed arthritis in my 50s, i swapped out the Sachs Powergrips with a set of Shimano RTX thumb shifters. One change I am thinking of making is to swap out the derailleur, chainrings, sprockets, and chain with a Shimano Alfine 8-peed internally geared hub and a Gates carbon-fiber belt. But that's a long way and many of dollars down the road.