Originally Posted by Noschwinns

Brent, I bought my first serious bike from Roger Sands in 1974; a full-Campy 60cm 1970 Galmozzi, for $425. Beautiful bike; I eventually crashed and bent the frame. I was the mechanic at Mountain Cyclery in Felton, roughly 74-76.

Belly Menchine was a mechanic at Bicycle Trip whom I greatly respected. He turned me on to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Something that I've never told anyone, and now, 45 years later I'll reveal it to the world (yeah, right...): Around 1974 I was riding quite a bit in those mountains, and that summer I toured the West Coast route down from Canada pulling my 50 lb. dog in a Bugger trailer, but I hadn't come to see myself yet as athletic and had rather low self-confidence about my physical coordination and capacities. I only occasionally rode with the hotshots out of Bicycle Center, as I saw them as out of my league - after all, they were the racers. Anyway, one day we rode up Hwy. 9 to Felton, and then a few of us continued up Felton Empire to Empire Grade. That was considered the most notorious climb shy of Alta Rd. out of Ben Lomond. I was on a borrowed 64cm db531/Campy Bertin, as my bike was broken. By half way up Kelly Robertson and I were in the lead, and we just kept pushing, and I pulled away from him and beat him to the top. I waited there and when he joined me we simply looked at each other without a word and then continued on.


I tried to upload a photo but no dice...