My Bikes

I currently have 3 road bikes and 1 mountain bike, hence my moniker. I'm not riding any of them at the moment, and I don't mean as I type this. It is winter here in the big apple (does anybody call it that anymore?)

The first one is my custom built, hand painted, steel Davidson. I had this one made when I lived in Seattle back in the 80s. Up to that point I had mid-level off the rack type bikes, Austro-Daimler, Atala, Peugeot. Nothing fancy, but decent bikes that I could barely afford. When the last one was stolen, I was finally working after college, in fact it had been a few years already, and I was ready to step up. I had taken a maintenance class at Wright Bros. cycle coop down in what is now the "Center of the Universe", Fremont. It has become well known for another type of riding before the Solstice Parade. For one of the class sessions, we took a car ride down to Bill Davidson's shop south of Seattle where he demonstrated the art of frame building. It was one of those moments where you see something and you say "I WANT that". So, I bought one. Not right there on the spot, but a bit later. I equipped it with a mix of parts, but stuck with Campy NR derailleurs and shifters, the other thing I always wanted. This was in 1981 and I still have it. Over the years I replaced all the parts that wear out, I even had a pair of sew-up wheels built for me, this time on Campy hubs. A few years ago, when I got back into cycling, I was seeing all these much nicer clincher wheels on the road and decided to check them out, and posted on the BikeForums asking what would be good. I had an immediate response from someone that happened to be local, he didn't even know that, and I bought another pair of wheels for my then 20+ year old bike, these were Velomax Tempests. Wow, what a difference. These wheels were smooth and stiff and could really accelerate. And they were cheap. I've also fixed up a few other things recently, like new brakes, saddle, seat post, pedals. It didn't add up to much money.

About a year after I bought the Davidson, my step-father Louie came back from his home town of Cuneo, Italy, with a bike with the name Italo Zilioli on it. He said it was the town fair special. It had everything I drooled over but couldn't quite afford on it. Campy SR pantographed components. Nisi Laser aero rims. Modolo Kronos brake levers with the hidden cables which were new back then. He then basically gave it to me in trade for a mountain bike that he could really ride. I never found out what he paid, but he paid in Lira that he had from his army pension. He only used that money when he went home, so it was like free money to him. So now I had two steel bikes. I never upgraded anything on this bike as it was too nice the way it was, although I put a compatible chain on it so I could ride it with the new Velomax wheels from the other bike.

The third bike is my MTB, which actually has only been ridden by my son Daniel over the last few years. It is a Trek 8000 from around 1994 that I bought for my 40th birthday as a present for myself. I enjoyed riding this one for a while, I even put a child seat on it and I'd take Daniel around the park.

The last one is my Kuota Kredo, a full carbon fiber lightweight. I went almost all out on this one, only holding back on the wheels when the bill got too high. I still lust after better wheels. This is equipped with Campy Chorus all around and other bits of the same type. This one makes all the others seem slow. The only thing holding this bike back is the rider. It also cost more than the other 3 bikes combined. There's one more thing about this bike though and it involves 2 broken wrists. Ouch. I had originally bought a Kuota Kharma in January 2005, a somewhat cheaper frame that was built with those parts, but I then crashed it in June. After I healed and the insurance money came in I bought the Kredo and swapped all the parts over.

Now if I could get to ride any of them that would be great, but at this point I'll be happy to ride once or twice before March. Which one I'll take will depend on how I feel. Since all three are spotless at this point I'd hesitate to take them in the rain or snow.