I just want to open this story up with a big Thank You! to the various owners whom I never knew. You folks took exceptional care of her for the last 2 decades, and I want to especially thank Howard on CraigsList in San Mateo, CA who posted the bike for sale. It was a strange chance that was so rare; I would never have found her again otherwise.




The summer of 1991 was an exceptional summer. I was at the top of my academic career, and at the age when men will make their greatest discoveries and give their greatest contributions to science. I experienced many lucid moments about the mysteries of Conservation of Mass, Momentum and Energy that governed all things in the Universe. Much of those lucid moments in the realm of science were only reached in a state while labouring on 2 wheels grinding slowly up hills of the East Bay, California hills as I rode back over from Berkeley to Orinda to Martinez and back to Concord, or roasting exquisitely in parching heat of the Livermore Valley as fierce head winds simulated the effects of being stuck in a convection oven.

The work got lots of recognition. It kept many people hired now on a bigger, grander phase with massive budgets and I decided to reward myself a little with a shopping spree. I got myself a nice new steel road bike to add to my stable of a dozen already. A fine Bridgestone RB-1 in green and white - the current year model at the time. A ride too nice to take to school really, so I had to buy another junker bike as well. A cheap Bridgestone MB-6 just for curb hopping on College Avenue dodging crazy drivers on the daily grind to school.

My source for most of my bikes was Iimura Hiroshi-sensei at Jitensha Studio just across from campus on Bancroft Ave. And I give Hiroshi the title "Sensei" because he truly taught me many things about bikes and I actually would dare to say he had some considerable influence on Grant Petersen at Bridgestone, who was constantly visiting that shop. I heard a rumour that as a young man or even teen, Hiroshi was whole or partly responsible for some of the bikes that won the 1964 Tokyo Olympics where they introduced the Keirin style track back races. How he came to the States and then established his humble shop, I never learned from him. I mainly remember his Bushido work ethic and love of bicycles.

At its height, my collection of Bridgestones was 15 bicycles. Some would think that was crazy and perhaps it was. But I did overcome my addiction for Bridgestones eventually. However, not before I decided that the year-old 1990 model MB-zip in Hiroshi's shop was getting lonely and needed an owner. It was my size and so I bought in in late 1991, after the RB-1 and MB-6.

I rode my Zip rarely, preferring to have rock chips to hit either my vintage 1986 MB-1, or maybe the 1987 MB-1 w/ drops, or maybe the 1988 MB-2. I also had a modified Bridgestone 400 which I brazed on canti-bosses and converted to a CX bike. It had these sweet retro large flange sanshin hubs and Mavic MA-2s. That too was fun to ride. But I mainly didn't ride my Zip because I just loved looking and dusting off my Zip and cleaning the chain, which was rarely ever dirty. The bike was labeled with serial number 0054 of 1000 that were "handmade."

At the time, Jitensha Studio was selling a custom bike frame under the "Shula" brand. Some of these were 650B bikes and that had their own cult like following in the day. And for a time, Hiroshi sponsored a local team that would ride in local criterium and road races under the Shula name. And that's how I got to bump into Robert Kurosawa (Pineapple Bob). Some of them would sport the "Shula" brand and help inside Jitensha Studio. I remember repainting my 400-CX modified frame and before the clear coat went on, I asked Hiroshi for some big Shula decals for the down tube. He gave me some length-wise ones a foot long, and a bunch of small ones. It made for an awesome looking bike. I think PB got a look at it once and from far away, it was pretty cool looking, and P.Bob was sort of a cross-fan when most American riders didn't know what cyclo-cross was.

The cult mentality got the better of me and so I took that small stack of Shula stickers and put them on quite a few of my Bridgestone bikes. It wasn't to mean anything, except sort of like a secret coded message that the bike was purchased at Jitensha Studio and only some of us would know that.

Nothing lasts forever, not even cycling in the US, so I thought, because in 1993, I graduated. No more degrees left. I got the big PhuD factor degree and now it was time to bug out and let other students take my place, which I had occupied for too long. I secured a nice researcher/visiting prof gig at Tokyo Tech in Heat Transfer/Fluid Mechanics under an outstanding professor, and jumped at the opportunity. It would be my first extended stay away from home doing this PostDoc and so in my haste, I had a fire sale. I liquidated all my bikes except for an RB-1 which I kept at my parents' home, and the MB-6 which I had modified with dirt drops and barcons years ago and I donated that to the lab guys for some of the Annapolis Naval Academy Ensigns and Lt.s' that were coming to Cal to get a Masters in Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics.

I debated whether to sell the MB-zip because it was so nice. But in the end, I placed an ad in the paper (there was no internet then yet) and met up with some guy outside of Etcheverry Hall on the Hearst Ave side, and took his substantial cash in exchange for the bike. This was in the Fall of 1993. Shortly after I sold that, I boarded a plane to Tokyo where I partied it up and lived a debaucherous life for part of my 2 yrs there.

Two years in Japan went by in a blur. Much happened. A life-changing cycling crash broke my leg and shredded all the ligaments in the ankle. I went to a Japanese hospital where the doctors made very apologetic sucking sounds as they pronounced that it would be unlikely I'd be walking normally ever again. Some frantic phone calls to United Airlines and less than 36 hrs after breaking my leg, I was on a flight back to the US to see an orthopedic surgeon - who had a bunch of SF 49'ers pictures on his wall. They fixed me up good and I was walking again after 3 months, but not perfectly. And commuting in Tokyo just wasn't fun anymore on the bus and trains. I tried a 60cc scooter for a while, and that got old too. I stayed for less than another year, and resigned and came back, put on lots of weight and drove around like a disabled punk for the next decade, wallowing in self-pity, with a dusty RB-1.

Some years after I got back to the US, I went to visit my Alma Mater, and in the old lab, it was still there. And inside, there was my old MB-6 still hanging there, with a thick coat of dust and a badly bent fork. Apparently, one of the Navy dudes had crashed it on College Avenue. Some lady cut out from a side street and he ran broadside into the car and went over. The ensign walked away with just bruises. But the bike had been toast since that day. I brought that back home, and in an effort to restore that bike, I bent the forks back and got back up on the saddle to test ride it. That made me test it riding to work the next day. And the restoration of that MB-6 was what got me back into cycling again. And that's when I remembered how I had sold the RB-2, the 450, 400, 550, the 700, the T700, the RB3, the MB1, MB1, MB2 and most regrettably, the MB-zip.

In rehabilitating the MB-6, I started to scour Craiglist and slowly bought more steel frame bikes. First a Bridgestone 600, then a couple of MB-3s and an MB-6. A CB-2. I got a couple of Bianchi's as well. Many of the bikes, I restored, updated, for example, to brifters from downtube shifters, and then gave them to family or friends. And with my son now in Boy Scouts and the whole troop doing a lot of cycling, I started helping source low-cost bikes for boys to work on and ride.

A number of years passed. I hadn't been in the market to buy anything, but I always check CL regularly. And then a few days ago, an MB-zip showed up in San Mateo on CL. And in the ad, the seller showed picture of the serial number and distinctive Shula sticker. Immediately I knew I had found my old MB-zip. After 19 years, we were re-united. I went to pick up the bike tonight and pay the seller. When I saw the rims, they were still the originals with these special safety-micro-prism reflective stickers on the insides of the rim which were the same as you'll find on a number of my bikes back in the day.

In a very humble way, I had to count my blessings. I had sold it and let it go. After 19 years, it returned to me and in very decent shape with all original parts. What had been mine long ago, was again mine now. I guess we were meant to be.