The woman who became my wife in 1998 and I met literally in the middle of the ‘93 Seattle-to-Portland (STP) 200-mile ride, just before the Centralia half-way stop. Then we got better acquainted as cycling friends over the next few years, culminating in training for, and eventually doing together the one day version of the STP in 1996. We started dating after the cycling season that year, when she was also in the process of ordering a rare-for-her luxury, a custom Erickson bike. Our honeymoon was three weeks bike touring SE France, and we plan to do another self-guided tour in SW France next year.

The Erickson was replaced a few years ago with a custom Independent Fabrication, which I insisted needed the best possible paint scheme to suit her tastes. A few years before that, her birthday present to me was permission to purchase a different frame (the 1987 Marinoni being the result) even though I already had two bikes in our garage-less home. She now also has a backup/fender/ride to the “Y” bike, and I sold one of mine of my own volition, finding that I am extremely happy having just two versatile sports tourers, one fendered/travel bike (Miyata) and the other easy to load in the car (Marinoni).

A long-winded explanation that she is also an avid road cyclist who certainly understands how good and important bicycles can be.

Our agreement is that if a new bike comes in, one eventually has to leave. But she has been fine with the extensive Gugificazione mods to the Miyata, and my occasionally getting different parts for either of mine. She evens listens politely when I talk about fantasy bikes, but that isn’t likely unless one of the existing pair becomes unusable.