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In 1989, describing
my Oxford road racing bike for the November issue of Bicycling Magazine
in the story “What the Editors Ride,” I wrote, “Good bicycles
turn effort into emotion. They provide the means to reach, and sometimes
exceed, your potential. On a fine bike you can ride better than you ever
thought possible and catch glimpses of extraordinary athletic prowess you
didn’t realize you had. The experience is inspirational and addictive.
You long to sustain it.” I still feel that way. But, even pumping a one-speed cruiser around town at 10 mph is magical to me — the breeze, the feeling of flight with a tailwind or downhill, the joy of zig-zagging or skidding to a stop. The great freedom of being able to go pretty much anywhere you can pedal with little effort and no harm to anything or anybody. Sometimes people come into my garage and house, see all the bicycles and just don’t get it. “Why do you need all these bikes?” they ask. I don’t know how you can even explain it to someone who hasn’t been bitten by the bike bug but I usually ask them if they play a musical instrument or read. If they say yes, I then ask them, “You don’t have only one guitar or one book, do you?” Once in a while someone gets the point: every bike is different and if you’re crazy about two-wheelers you’ll eventually amass quite a collection (I now own twenty four) because it’s very cool having the right ride for every purpose. |
| So
here, I describe some of the wonderful bikes I’ve been fortunate
enough to own, ride or encounter as a road test editor for cycling magazines.
Some are models you’ll find in bike shops. Others, you’d have
to search a long time to find. All of them are keepers in my book. By the way, if you’re buying a new bicycle and aren’t sure which type to buy (or you know someone who is), you should read (or pass along) my How To Buy A Bicycle stories. And you don’t want to miss William Hudson’s definitive bicycle-history article Myths and Milestones in Bicycle Evolution; and the entertaining bicycle-history slide show at the bottom of this page. While featherweight carbon flyers and super-travel all-mountain suspension bikes dominated Interbike, the largest bicycle show in the world this year, the showstopper for me was . . . (more) 1885 Singer British Challenge In the heyday of highwheel bicycles, also known as “ordinaries” or “high bicycles,” the Coventry Machinists’ Company in Coventry, England, was one of the most-innovative . . . (more) In my book, a vacation isn’t much of a vacation without daily rides exploring the area. For this, I strongly recommend a travel bicycle, such as the Airnimal Chameleon . . . (more) Alex Moulton New Series I spent a week in early April of 1998 riding dual-suspended bikes in and around Bradford-on-Avon, England, where Alex Moulton lives and builds his ingenious Moulton bicycles . . . (more) Bike Friday Pocket Rocket In 1990, I set a short-term goal of riding every day and a long-term goal of cycling daily for ten consecutive years. Each ride had to be a real ride, which to me means getting suited up and putting in at least an hour of fitness-pace miles. I’d heard of a runner named Ron Hill who actually ran twice a day for over twenty years, so I knew it was possible. Yet, I figured it would be tougher to bike every day because it requires a place to ride, a proper bicycle . . . (more) Brompton T5 folding bike Everyone should own such a practical bicycle . . . (more) Feast your eyes on this Italian masterpiece . . . (more) You’ll pay $5,200 to $5,400 to get a spanking new Litespeed Vortex built with top-line Shimano Dura-Ace or Campagnolo Record components. That’s a lot of money for a ten-speed. But a Litespeed Vortex isn’t just any bicycle . . . (more) 1979 Peugeot PY 10 CP As a graduation present, in June of 1971, my grandmother gave me ninety-five dollars and I immediately walked down to Ozzie Waite’s bike shop . . . (more) 1970s Austro-Daimler Bicycles Catalog In the seventies Austro-Daimler released one of the nicest 10-speed catalogs ever . . . (more) Rain or shine, every Saturday in Santa Cruz, California at eight AM sharp, a training ride for roadies takes place. It’s called, appropriately enough, The Saturday Morning Ride and it’s been a tradition for over twenty-five years. I’ve been on this ride a few times. It’s a rush. When the weather’s good the group can exceed a hundred athletes including Olympic hopefuls and professionals. The leisurely promenade through town gradually becomes an all-out dash fifteen miles down the road. It’s difficult and prestigious to win this sprint, a high-speed affair thanks to the big pack and the long gradual downhill at the ride’s end . . . (more) Lightning Cycle Dynamics R-84 My favorite loop is called Smith Grade. It covers only twenty-seven miles but includes two thousand feet of elevation gain; five miles of climbing on a dirt road with sand, gravel, mud, roots and rocks; several stomach-tickling corkscrew descents; a five-minute 50-mph plunge to the coast; and a ten-mile finishing stretch, almost always blessed by gale-like tailwinds . . . (more) 1938
Rudge 3-speed Be Sure to read William Hudson’s Myths and Milestones in Bicycle Evolution |
