Secrets of the City

When The Rat was 6 his old man bought him a bike for $10. The….the… doohickey that the pedals are attached to was held together with cotter pins and slipped often. When it slipped there was a good chance the chain would fall off. When The Rat asked his Dad to put the chain back on, he bitched at him.

The End

Another great moment in bicycle prose.

With the $10 came a pair of training wheels, and the The Rat was a skittish, sketchy little dude and wanted to use them. But that wasn’t in The Plan. He rode the bike once up and down that block and the old man took off the training wheels.

“You wanna ride a bike or don’t you,” he said.

Last year I decided I would pull out my glorious vintage trick bike and see how my endo skills were holding up. I got the bike down from the hook where it had hung for well over 15 years and proceeded to shine it up. I wiped it down, adjusted the brake cables and lubed up the chain…what I forgot to do was check to make sure that the 22 year old tires held air.

It turns out that skinwall GT tires from 1987 don’t hold air to well after that long…I got one pass around my driveway before the tire gave out completely. The bike no hangs in my garage rafters waiting for another resurrection.

damn though that is one hot f*cker.

Throw it in the Mississippi River.

Your old man sounds a bit like mine, Rat. Today he really is an old man — it’s his 80th birthday today.

I’m out of rafter space for all the bikes in our family. 4 people, 10 bikes, one burley. Not sure how it happened. Maybe I should buy a Tigershirt and become the Wesside’s answer to Bicycle Steve.

When I used to leave my bike outside instead of putting it in the garage…my old man liked to hide it in the basement and tell me it was stolen.

The first time he kept up the charade for a day and a half. I was about 8 and not happy.

Happy birthday to the old man, Bob.

G Rote I have three complete bicycles and two frames for two people…I might be competition but I prefer the howling wolf or soaring eagle look to the tiger look.

I’ll see him soon. I’m flying to Indy tommorow.

I keep wondering if Steve is around. Steve, you there?! Surely some other people who have looked on craigslist for old bikes would know him.

The important lesson here: you need some understanding of the stuff you use or you are doomed to be a sucker. None of the bike problems listed in Erica’s story are serious defects, which is why Old Red turned out to be a pretty good deal. Choppy brakes probably require new pads or just an adjustment. Bent wheels? Truing can cost a bit and old, worn out rims misalign quickly, but a spoke wrench and five minutes can get you home or maybe keep the wheel sufficiently straight for a week or two. On a budget, fiddling with your wheels for ten minutes with an eight dollar spoke wrench every two or three weeks is still pretty cost effective. These are easy observations for an old fart who’s commuted for thirty years to offer, but let me explain and offer a compliment.The story describes what most bicycle long-term commuters experienced when we started commuting. Erica made good choices and learned what experience teaches. Some don’t. Welcome to the club, Erica, if you care to join.

Rat, my dad swore about bikes and wouldn’t let me get one until I was old enough to covet a car. So there I was, a pre-teen with a bike with training wheels. My dad took them off too. Thanks, Pappy wherever you are. (It’s an open question.)