RobbieTunes

So many have come and gone.... but OK, the current crop. It's about people.

1984 Klein Performance from nesteel here on BF. Most challenging build I have ever done, and the only tourer I've built for myself. There were obstacles and limitations every step, every component. I'll have to post a "completed" pic when the final chain ring comes in.

1985 Raleigh Competition Racing USA. I was fortunate enough in my life to make the acquaintance and then the friendship of Coleman Howard, aka. cehowardGS. He collected and liked those bikes, the Racing USA line-up with the chrome stays, in Reynolds 551. I bought this because he thought I should. He'll never care how I build it, and think every version is cool. I'm a better person for having met him, and he makes me smile a lot and shed tears on occasion.

1989 Centurion Ironman Expert. Almost everyone here knows of my predilection for this marque. It was black, came from a BF member, and I built it. I only wish I could remember who sold it to me. There have been so many. I am an everyman, and this is everyman's bike. It's one in a long string of them, almost all from BF members. It keeps me in the cult, grounds me, because it's rusting a bit and I don't care. It has a straight block on it and that used to be fun, then humbling, and now humiliating. So be it.

1988 Centurion Ironman Master. Same addiction, one of several I've purchased from oddjob here on BF. For that reason alone, I dig it. It's also my favorite scheme, the Purple Haze, and I'm running full-on DA 7700 with polished Rolf Vector Pro's. It's hot now, would have been very hot back then, and has been up and down Thunder Ridge with both Campy and Shimano, and over the hills and through the woods of the Dairyland Dare, again with both Campy and Shimano. The fit is just right, and I feel good on it. I can forget things on it. For that reason alone, I ride it. Dave Scott would like it; I have no doubt.

1989 Centurion Carbon R. This is an Asian market update to the Ironman Carbon, which suffered a bit from flex and a pasta fork. The improvements, at least for the 56cm model, were great. It was also from a BF member, Quoung Vuang, and he is a master builder, in my view, in Australia. I paid good money for it, and don't care a whit. The care and time he put into the frame alone were worth it. I hung DA 9000 on it and 2017 Bontrager RXL wheels. Total cost was $1700, less the tricolor group, saddle, and some other stuff, so figure $1350. I've not ridden a better bike for the money, and maybe only 1 or 2 bikes that I liked as much, period. Someday, the carbon will asplode, I'm sure. If I have to pull pieces of carbon fiber out of some tender spot someday, I'll try real hard to laugh and say it was worth it.

2001 Cannondale R800, from Flog00. My respect for Doc Cannondale and qcpmsame kind of led me to this, along with Old'sCool and lest we not forget, mntbiker. It was not a challenge to build, but it was kind of fun, and I built it at my office at nights and on weekends when I really needed the solitude. Not sure when I'll ride it, but it's "tight and right."

That being said, all but the black Ironman are geared for climbing, so anyone that wants to, say, partake of the thrills of Thunder Ridge in May or the Dairyland Dare in August, I've got a huckleberry you can use.