A sad day
 

Today I had to remove my T-shirt from the 1988 Honolulu Century bike ride from my closet. It did not make it through the last wash cycle. It was the year that they featured dinosaurs in the design. I would have posted a pic but it was so faded it would not have been useful. Fear not however, it will still be with me for a while as I cut it into 18 pieces for bike cleaning.

It was a great ride. Honolulu around the coast counter clockwise to the windward side and back. Did it on a 1981 Alan aluminum frame with Zeus 2000 components (Spanish knock off of Campy Record), Mavic wheels and Look clipless pedals. Did it in under six hours (including breaks) powered by PB&J, bananas and Coca Cola.

I bought that bike in Spain in 1981 when I was stationed there in the Navy. Purchase was from Flores' bike shop in Cadiz. Sr Flores was a retired racer of some fame and when I went into the shop I told him I wanted a Vitus frame. He said no, "You are not strong enough for one of those, you should ride the Alan." He was quite the character and had the amazing skill to accurately add up long lists of numbers nearly instantaneously.

Interestingly I had been riding a Schwinn LeTour when I got to Spain. Rode around in shorts, Bata rubber soled cycling shoes and one of those sytrofoam helmets from Bell. I would always wave at the Spanish roadies, but they would not wave back. That is until I started riding the blue Alan, and got bike shorts (wool with a real chamois) and a real jersey (Miko - Mercier). Then they actually invited me to join their local club and go on rides with them. Best memory was doing a solo century ride through all of those small villages between Cadiz and Sevilla. Little kids would rush out into the streets and clap as I rode by!

I rode that bike until 1990 (with the exception of 22 months when I was stationed in Korea) with rides in Spain, CA, HI and Germany. Finally, I had to retire it. It was aluminum tubes glued into aluminum lugs. The lugs all cracked and could not be repaired

Have great memories of it and the 1988 Honolulu century ride - and now the T-shirt.

I still have my Club Ciclista Portuense jersey and shorts in safe keeping - they will be with me until I am dead.

So, how many rides do you estimate that you put on that shirt?

Not really very many. Kinda kept it as a momento. Over the intervening 19 years it just kinda faded away.

Neat story, I won't have memories that far back about biking, but I am working at making some good ones now!

New ones are often as good as old ones. I have some good new ones from biking in Portland last October.

I have a "CINDERMAN" shirt from when I ran track in High School. It is slighly mosre than threads holding together chunks of material. Each time we clean up the stored off season clothes, my wife wants to put it in the rag bucket. NO F'N WAY! It's now two sizes too small, anf I will keep it until I die.
I understand your loss.

:cry: Thanks for your understanding. :beer:

Have to asdmit that a few years ago- I had to hide my 1975 and 76 24 Heures de Mulhouse "T"'s The wife threatened to wash them and there was no way they would have taken that. So I hid them so well that even I cannot remember where they are. Fond(ish) memories with the 76 one as the Left shoulder has a rip in it that is Blood smeared. I wore it the night after at the Celebration and Apparantly- I had a good time. That is why there are only Fondish memories as I can't remember Anything. Our team was banned from the 77 event.

RMM
I was in Spain from (Rota) 81-84 and I was riding my bike there also, where did you work.
I was in ATOC at the time. We may have passed as we rode. I never got a bike jersey though. :)

Steven

Holy cow! Hope that you had fun. Only place I have ever been banned from is the U.S. Air Force Officer's Club at RAF Mildenhall. Seems that the Air Force officers did not like the antics of the Navy officers. Much more fun over at the Smokehouse Inn and the Brid In Hand anyway (and the beer was better).

81-83 at VQ-2. I was one of the intel officers. Got to fly a lot and the deployments were great. Went back a couple of times. Last in 2005. A fellow VQ-2er became COMNAVACTSPAIN. Was nice to see him. Sorry to see the increase in population around Puerto and Rota. Rota was much nicer than in 1981. Too bad VQ-2 has been moved to the States. Couple of waiters in Puerto remembered me from the 80's and my last visit in 1992.

Have to apoligise about our RAF bods. They can't tolerate any fun coming from the "Senior Service" (Ex Royal Marine) But You missed out on the "Best" food of any of the services. I still dream about the breakfast's.

Actually it was the USAF who disinvited us. Only time we were hosted by Royal Air Force was when we flew out of RAF Whyton. Really enjoyed that. The RAF took very good care of us including introduction to some very nice local pubs!

Great, great memories. You'll be reminded of those even more frequently now will all the times you'll be using the cloth.

It's another small adventure to open a new thread and read through it. A sad day indeed, another sign of the seasons of our lives. In the end, it's largely about the memories we have made. Yours seem quite sweet. Great read, many thanks.

You are welcome. Happy to share. :)

I hate it when old ride t-shirts die. I had one from a ride in Lewisville, Tx that died recently. The ride wasn't that big a deal but it was the same day that my wife and I went on our first date. Because of that she wore it frequently. When it got pretty ragged it became a sleep shirt of hers and then one day it came out of the dryer not enough of a shirt to even call a shirt. She cried. I really love that woman.

I also kept the Hotter N Hell Hundred shirt from the first sub 5 hour century I ever rode and wore it into the ground. Now I kind of wish I'd kept it, unworn, and framed it or something.

I can really undertsand how attached you can get to a ride shirt.

Great time on the century!