BFisher

It's not always a solo ride. Here are my two oldest out with me today.

eschlwc

i hear ya, velo.

crank_addict

Lonely hobby? Must be a regional thing but certainly not in the Midwest. You might have to travel a bit to join in with fellow enthusiast but I know quite a few within a few miles from me. And then there's others whom you would never guess have a few cool oldies. They see me riding or by chance bikes come up in a conversation. I also noticed the thread about riding vintage on a Century. I usually spot a few and do the same myself. Not that rare.

I enjoy a wide range of bikes including new yet these days 'vintage is cool'. When I'm out riding on something old and interesting, I get compliments and sometimes questions from all ages - very young kids to older folks to even roadies on CF bikes. Its actually led to few others asking if I could help them resurrect their old bike or they have interest in acquiring one.

Anyhow, packing up and heading to BF member iab's hosting: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...19-2014-a.html Taking three rides from the 50's - 60's - 70's. Have a nice weekend

Bicycle Addict

BFisher just out of interest I have started a thread asking members Are you a group cyclist or a solo cyclist, already a few replies, check it out.

gaucho777 

ThermionicScott 

Probably this. In my area, there are a multitude of bike clubs that range from "party" to "serious" to "racing-oriented" and I know cool folks from each. The steel and carbon people generally get along well, too.

I dig that sometimes it's nicer and simpler just to ride by yourself. I do that whenever I commute, and I can set my own pace.

Our group has rides every Wednesday and Saturday -- the get-togethers continue over the winter, even if the bikes stay home.

Velognome 

WAIT!!!!! NE PA is filled with vintage bike guys and gals! Go to a swap meet, search out a vintage friendly shop, go to the V-drome in Trexlertown. There is more rusty lugged bikes in PA than anywhere is the US ( OK I just made that up), but there are a lot of vintage bike guys in your area.

Bicycle Addict

Try going to BikeWB.org seems to be a local Facebook page, BikeWB are trying to get bike lanes in Wilkes Barre, and I would think if you posed a question to them they may know of somewhere, they are trying to make your town more bike friendly and could well do with extra support in numbers to be heard, to start with it can all be from your computer, then who knows. If we make time and enough noise most town planners eventually sit up and listen.

mnmkpedals 

I've found you never know who might be a C-V fan if you expose some friends to it. As evidence, I pestered a few non-cycling friends to do a low key weekend tour out here, none of whom had proper bikes for it. One is borrowing a bike from another friend of ours and for the other guy I found a sweet Shogun 1500 tourer at the coop, fixed it up for him (complete with NOS bright blue bar tape), and he was immediately hooked/in love with it.

Despite having issues getting his brain back around friction shifting after months of group rides on my old Tri bike, he's clearly so hooked that when our other friend offered him a different "modern" tour bike to use for the trip, he opted out. He said he'd rather ride the Shogun and on our last ride he started asking me at length about friction shifting and derailleur function. I started very similarly...

SJX426 

Okay, I confess. I am going to pull a DD of being open and honest. I really don't have any friends except maybe 2. I have traveled around the world with my parents from the age of 13 to 21 with 2 year stays. You really don't learn how to make good friends in that short time period when everyone else is in the same boat of knowing you will probably never see each other again. Military and Missionary brats know what I am talking about. Being an engineer says i am anti-social and socially awkward at best. Being that way, you will except anyone that is nice to you as being a friend!

I took my dad's Rolex apart at a very early age, it is still in a box somewhere with my mom. I love taking things apart and putting them back together. I did that routinely with my first bike, Huffy or Murry. Bicycles gave me a vehicle of independence, exercise and something to tinker with besides 3 in 1 AMT models and Lionel trains.

Like many of you who responded, I prefer to be around my tools and my "stuff" of interest, which is not limited to bikes. My mechanical oriented curiosity developed into more of a mechanical creativity in designing parts for Freightliner to packaging design of Oscilloscopes and Spectrum Analyzers at Tektronix to managing a diverse group of engineers to design and develop functional testers for motherboards at Intel, taking that experience along with some in manufacturing to become a program manager after a stint in sales of CAD/CAM/PDM products. But, my love is using my hands and head to play with parts, and discover others creativity of design. The fun part is in understanding the relationships of the details to the total system at any level along with historical relevence. This applies to business too. Not a whole lot of people I can relate to!

So I enjoy learning more about all of you and your interests and can relate to more of you on this forum than those I see every day, since I am obsessed with bicycles and their variety of applied designs. Thanks!

BFisher

Great post, SJX426! Velognome, I'll just have to keep my eye out. Bicycle Addict, the push to move the area forward with bike friendliness doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I'll support it though!

-holiday76

i guess this isnt the norm for this forum but it's almost always a social thing for me. Sure, I've spent entire days alone on tour, and I've commuted a lot in my life which is almost always a solo endeavor, but I much prefer the company of friends while doing both. Our normal sunday rides are a great time to spend time together while riding, I ride lots with my family, from my kids to my parents to my sister and her kids. My entire family rides.

I used to be into backpacking and it was the same thing. I preferred doing it with other people who i liked.

That said I hate crowds

Sir_Name 

For me it was a corded drill well before I was 10 (no idea of my exact age at the time). LEGOs and tree-forts as well. At the same time it was bicycles both as a form of independence and self-propelled speed (and idiocy), starting with my parents' 10 speeds, then on to BMX (both for cruising and dirt jumping). Wrenching soon followed as a necessity and interest.

I worked with Oscilloscopes and Spectrum Analyzers from Tektronix in grad school. May well have unpacked some of your work depending on timeframe...

I love working with my hands, unfortunately the industry and company I am currently working for (as an ME) deals more with paper than metal. My eyes are always open to jobs at smaller companies which would allow for creative design work and getting my hands dirty from time to time.

Sir_Name 

Agreed - my closest friends are all interested in bikes (since youth save a few dry-spells here and there), and we're equally interested in backpacking. Both are typically better with friends. Especially those multi-day trips. I do plenty of solo riding, but getting the group together to ride and shoot the shiitake (not on main roads) is always welcome. I would say that this is quite different from the 'organized group ride'.

I hate crowds.

SJX426 

@BFisher - Thanks, I always appreciate good feedback!
@Sir_Name The scope was the 11400 series with the first color raster tube. The packaging came out of my head. I had to buck the requirements from corporate pushing a "standard" approach that had too many parts, not good enough EMI shielding and hard to service the internals. I also redesigned the module EMI strips in the opening. The SA was the 2782. I was the Mechanical Engineering Manager for that product managing both ME's, draftpersons, PCB layout, graphics design, industrial design and technical writers. We made a significant change to the front casting, departing from the 492 series, to save cost and improve EMI shielding. The product was bleeding edge at the time. In fact, we sold 10 pre production units to an empty lot for cash just because of the capabilties it offered.

Can't spell either! One of the attributes of a ME along with bad grammar!

To stay on topic, I ride alone because I can't find anyone to ride with at the time I want to ride. Not that I look very hard or even think about it. The tandem is great because it connects two wide ranges of capability between two people!

In the past it has been an issue of finding people who could keep up. Now it is the opposite....embarrassment!

Bicycle Addict

Hi @BFisher. People thought that about NY, Time square in particular, progress only comes via a lot of prompting, normally the more the merrier.
A lot of major cities around the world are changing the transport structure in the CBD, NY, London, Tokyo, Portland (so jealous of the amount of cycle focus Portlander's enjoy) Melbourne, and Europe as a whole.

Change will only happen when the amount of need becomes apparent, in this case it is the number off people, you in supporting this might go on a group "community" ride(not a road race disguised as a group ride), something you and your kids could go on, I think you will meet a lot of people there, possibly some in the same position as you.

You say not much is happening in WB yet it seems BikeWB are trying to get a lot of rides going, they are also on their Facebook page talking about how a lot of businesses in WB have gone Bike friendly, there is a sticker displayed in the window so that cyclist's can stop for water top ups use the toilet or the phone in emergencies, even just needing shade.
I wish that would take off in Auckland.

I would go to their Facebook page and have a read.

BFisher

Will do, for sure, Bike Addict.

oldskoolwrench

You are not alone, Vixen! I'm just like you, and I suspect there are many like us out there who spend hours in the garage with some good tunes playing, looking over the bike over and over again, trying to make that one improvement for the next ride.

I offer this short video clip as a tribute to all of us out there... it's a classic, and I think fits us C & V folks quite nicely:

reg

The real problem is you are not meeting women.

JohnDThompson 

Put 'em to work early:



(He's currently working as a computer Systems Administrator for the University of Washington in Seattle...)

Steve Whitlatch 

I have meet a couple of people in my area from this forum that I ride with from time to time. Most of my riding is solo though because of schedules and busy lives. I have only made 3 group rides, alll this year. They are a challenge for me. I enjoy them because they push me to get stronger as a rider. The thing I don`t like about group rides is looking 100 to 400 yards ahead of me to see the group I am riding with. In time I will get stronger.

Velocivixen

@oldskoolwrench- the first thing I said aloud when I saw the guy in the video was "He's smearing grease all over the place with that brush!" He's whisking down the chain then. Moves on to the frame and brake levers! I'd have a seperate brush for greasy parts and a different brush for non greasy parts!

I actually get the largest box of Q-Tips available because I use them to clean/dry small parts. I recently bought an ultrasonic cleaner but haven't had too many things really dirty to try it on.

Nice video. Thanks.

Drillium Dude 

Absolutely fantastic picture!

Some day I'd love to go riding with you guys on one of your nighttime rides. I even have the correct t-shirt for it

DD

OrangeOkie

Google covered bridge rides in PA. There are plenty of folks on the big rides around the covered bridges who dig the old bikes.

Antieverything

My c&v obsession is a pretty solitary hobby, but for me that's the draw. I like building at home alone, I like riding solo, I even avoid most LBS. I went through the faze of being a shop groupie, doing weekly group rides, being a local bike club member, IG/FB/Strava segment junkie. I have since pulled away from the majority of contact with others in the hobby locally. I come here because of desire for information and for the anonymity of the internet. I find that I enjoy the hobby more in solitude but then again that's a personal preference that I follow in most aspects of life.