Last week we received this bit of history from Mark:
Hi Roger and Thomas,
I have a rainy afternoon now to write you guys this brief. When I moved back to Ft. Collins, CO and in with my little brother in 1977, my 'adult' cycling began when he 'made' me buy that Zeus. He was a USCF amateur, Cat 3 racer on a good team with minimal budget, and I started going to weekend stage races with them. I was very new to that level of sporting and became very interested, though never intended to race. I was happy to be invited on many training rides and we had great asphalt riding between Boulder and Ft. Collins. That Zeus was overpriced for the Ft. Collins market ( $1,000 ) as it was too expensive for Joe Blow, and it did not have the pedigree of a racing machine. Since that bike shop 'sponsored' my brother's team, I got a sweet deal and my first 10-speed. Four years there, trying to keep up with my little bro and his buddies, gave me great riding miles and etiquette. I moved down to Durango, CO and rode more great asphalt down there, enjoying fun mountain passes and fun rolling 'flats.' I missed riding with brother and pals, as I rarely had a wheel to suck! Between 1986 and 2012, I worked overseas a lot which restricted my riding time to some spring and/or autumn rides. After 2012 and finished with seasonal work, I resumed a 'normal schedule' and rode as a weekend warrior. In 2003, I treated myself to a new road bike (Gios) and the good ole' Zeus got demoted, but not ignored. Zeus was mounted on a basement trainor for off-season spinning, and ridden on the flats when I just wanted to rumble along the valley roads. And the Gios went out when we wanted to climb and descend. I've no way to quantify the miles on the Zeus, but they've been good quality miles. It's never really crashed, but has tipped over a time or two! I've never started a ride in the rain, but have returned home soaking wet sometimes. It's been kept pretty clean, well maintained, taken to shop for occasional necessaries, and always parked indoors. Though not a training fanatic, after Ft. Collins, I've lived in ski towns to satisfy my winter ski needs, so the road bikes 'never' went out from December till April. Oh by the way, I've wanted to add this tid-bit. The Zeus used to suffer from 'ghost shifting' which is the reason I replaced the rear mech, but that didn't resolve. A smart mechanic did fix that by replacing the standard shift cable with a bigger Campy wire cable, and the 'ghost' went away. I'm really psyched that you guys are going to have fun with Zeus and ride it! I'll get this promised hat in the mail to you soon, too.
All my best,
Mark A