tjspiel

Due to some scheduling conflicts I had not been on my year round Sunday group ride since late December. Today was my first day back and I was in for a little surprise.

Typically 20 miles was the maximum winter distance, but the relatively casual Sunday ride had been infiltrated by some very serious older riders since December. So as we were waiting to get going, I hear that mostly the same collection of riders had done 40 miles yesterday. I expressed my concern to the one remaining guy from the traditional ride that I knew. I said, "John, I'm in no shape for 40 miles, especially not on studs".

He assured me that Saturday was their big ride and that they used Sundays for recovery. It would be 30 miles tops and more than likely a lot less. I would do just fine. As I glanced over the bikes, I saw one that I found reassuring. It looked like this:



It was complete with an old mechanical speedometer and the rider was wearing a big old pair of galoshes. How fast and far could he go on that?

Well, it was 30 miles later (according to the Schwinn speedo) when they decided it was time to turn around. By the end I was seriously dragging, which was bad enough but even worse was that the guy on the Schwinn had been kicking my ass the whole way.

monsterpile

I have a couple of those old speedometers.

Part of the reason I am cutting back on my bikes is I hear stories like this about how some old guy with a "beater" old bike etc humbles people and I figure I don't need a bike for every situation. Hopefully you recover fine. I haven't done a long ride like that yet, but I plan to get in some this year.

daveizdum

That's hilarious. That thing has three speeds and the biggest dork disk I've ever seen. It must have been pretty motivating to see a 50lb bike and a pair of galoshes up in front of you.

Sixty Fiver

Um... 5 speeds and a rear derailleur that weighs as much as a new carbon frame.

fuji86

Last summer I had that happen to me on my 30 mile loop, only I was on my 86 Fuji and 3 roadies came up behind me, passed me and I figured I'd try and keep up with their pace. I recall staying with them for about 5-7 blocks and I just couldn't do it any more. One of them was a girl at that. I did notice they were riding carbon frames and had even taller gearing than my old 12 speed. Still they crushed me. That was one group, there were others that I encountered on other days that I overtook on a SS/FG, so it's all relative. Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you.

newenglandbike

LOL that's awesome! thank you for posting this story, humbling as it is. I think it's great to hear about riders breaking the mold so to speak... or, just goes to show you can't judge a book by it's cover.

You did well considering the studded tires and distance.

MNBikeguy

Great story! Absolutely LOVE that picture. Looks all original including the reflectors and the massive pie plate.

tjspiel

The picture's not of the actual bike, but it's pretty much the same thing down to the paint. I don't remember the pie plate being THAT big though. Of course I spent most of my time looking at it from the back...

treebound 

I have a goal: to be the golashes dude some day.

Could it be that he is an Olympic medal winner getting ready for the upcoming velodrome Master's season and lost a bet, the bike and golashes are the penalty. I'm wondering what the bet was over.