Latest story with excitement level of maybe 2 of 10 scale...
Saw where a town north of here about 90 miles was having group rides on Tues/Thurs evenings. They start at a rail to trail trailhead at an LBS there and ride. "All paces welcome" they said. I think I admitted to y'all that I'm new/green as hell. Never ridden a true group ride, although I know of the general protocol(s)/rules, but just haven't experienced them formally. I arrived early and talked to shop folks for a minute who said they usually have about 20 riders, all levels. Great.
5 others show up. That's it. I was number 6. So, I asked if it was ok if I joined in for part of the ride and gained some experience (with respect and apologies). They thought I was crazy to ask and seemed glad to have me join in. I failed to ask how far they were going. I also failed to think about how far my longest ride has been to date.
Anyway, I jumped in and experienced all kind of great hills, high speed cornering (with loose gravel...my pants are still needing to be cleaned) and some good paceline work. Ended up with a MUCH higher avg pace that I've ever had for any ride and right at 30 miles once done. I won't tell you what my longest ride was prior to this. Let's say that it was an evening of personal bests. This wasn't the casual group. Ha! I'm glad too...great way to learn. Good folks.
All that to say, a couple of them were amazed with the bike....hadn't seen one before. They had no idea what it was or how old it was. When I told them the date of 1988, they flipped.
Since owning the bike, which hasn't been long, that ride was the harshest (rough roads) it's been on yet. I had moments where I thought the thing would surely just snap in half on me, but end of the night, I checked it all out and the thing was fine, of course. I was glad to put it through some of those zones for a 30 mile ride.
Hills....even though I had the original more narrow range cassette back on it, it still climbed those hills like crazy. I didn't think I'd be able to keep up, but did.
Still....I'm the engine, and damn...I need work. Great, great evening of learning and learning to dig in more with the bike, seeing what it can do and what I can do. Thanks to you guys who commented on these frames and cornering, etc. Really, I had no problems, but thought about some of the comments made.
Nothing like rolling along about 25mph on country back roads (that gray top, rough junk) coming up on tight corners with loose gravel thrown about, a pack of dogs on both sides and a pissed off HEMI diesel growling right behind you. I've got to grow some thicker skin. But my bike looked the coolest. I had that.