Born in January of 1964, a month after JFK was killed. I rode my first two-wheeler on campus at Michigan State University where I lived with my parents and family in married student housing. That first bike had plastic tires. The succession of bikes went something like this:
- 1968 gold-colored department store bike (plastic tires, training wheels at first)
- 1969 Schwinn Hollywood (maybe, all I know for sure is that it was a blue Schwinn) girl's 20-inch wheeled bike
- 1970 Huffy Dragster (yellow, banana seat, knobby rear tire. Destroyed by paper route.)
- 1973 Schwinn Varsity (turd brown metallic) drop-bar ten-speed
- 1973 Huffy girls 3-speed grownup bike (destroyed by paper route)
- 1974 Torpado (1974-ish) Italian drop-bar ten-speed, campy stuff, aluminum rims
- 1987 late 70's or early 80's Motobecane touring bike
- 1988 Jamis Dakota
- 1990 Cannondale road bike
- 1992 Specialized StumpJumper Comp
- 1996 Rocky Mountain Blizzard
- early 90s Mongoose mountain bike set up as commuter
- 1997 Bontrager Race
- 1998 Bianchi steel Reparto Corse Cyclocross bike
- 1999 Moots YBB
- 2003 '02 Fisher Supercal29 (bigwheel or 700c mountain bike)
- 2004 Curtlo 24 Hour (bigwheel or 700c mountain bike)
- 1965 Schwinn Varsity ten-speed town bike rust relic (free)
- 2004 early 90's Battaglin World Champion
- 2004 Electra Classic Cruiser (3-speed aluminum townie)
- 2005 Surly Long Haul Trucker touring bike
- 2007 Gary Fisher Caliber full-suspension 29er mountain bike
- 2007 Specialized Roubaix Compact Expert Rival
- Hoopty old Trek 8000 converted to Single Speed w/ milk crate
- 2007 Lenzsport Leviathan 4.0 full-suspension bigwheel mountain bike
- 2007 VooDoo Dambala (29) singlespeed
- mid-90s purple StumpJumper 1x8 w/ milk crate*
- 2008 VooDoo Canzo29 full-suspension bigwheel mountain bike
- 2009 Hunter Cycles custom steel adventure touring bike*
- 2010 Specialized StumpJumper29 FSR
- 2011 Tomac Diplomat 29
- 2011 Kona Unit 29*
- 2013 Giant Anthem X29.1
- 2014 Kona Wo Fat Bike*
- 2015 Yeti ASRc
- 2017 Trek Domane SL 6 Disc
- 2017 Pivot Mach429 Trail*
* [still own this bike]
My earliest cycling memories were about things that little kids do like crashing, rolling out into traffic, and taking jumps. Then I had a 7-day-a-week afternoon paper route for several years in West Michigan where I grew up, where it snows. Having that job made cycling an important life skill. I learned about practical cycling, using a bike as a work vehicle, delivering newspapers in all weathers, every damned day.
During that same time when I was in 5th or 6th grade, my dad and his best friend started to do some day touring on 10-speed bicycles. My dad got an orange Velosolex touring bike. His buddy got a strawberry red Schwinn Continental. One sister got a Fuji (Wow! It cost $220! Expensive!!), and another got a Browning. I got a secondhand Schwinn Varsity, because I was still growning. It was the first bike I ever had that I did not like. I really really really wanted to get a 24" wheeled CCM road bike. My dad held me off. I was growing. He knew a 24" bike would seem like a crazy idea almost immediately. In 1974 I finished my first Century Ride, the innaugural Muskegon Seaway Century. I was 10 years old. I did it on that damned boat-anchor Schwinn.
Then I grew a little, and earned some paper route money. I went to Muskegon, MI to a bike shop that sold Italian bikes called Torpados. It was a grimy little hole-in-the-wall shop called Alfred E. Bikes. The Torpado came with Campagnolo components! As I recall, it cost $128 and change with tax and everything. Yellow. I loved that bike!
Then came the gap. High School, a driver's license, partying, and water skiing. Very little cycling. The Torpado was a 21". I still rode it once in a while, but I was 6' tall by the time I was 14, so it was way too small. It was the bike I had until 1986 when I abandoned it in Laramie, WY because I didn't have room to bring it with me when I left there. The bike was a wreck by then anyway. It probably hadn't seen a drop of oil since the Carter Administration by the time I junked it. I left it in the stairwell of my apartment in Laramie.
The resurgance in cycling for me came when I was living in Grand Junction, CO after having walked away from college in Laramie. I was about 23 years old, in medium to crappy condition. I was interested in skiing, but also poor. Skiing has always and will always demand cash flows. Cycling isn't free, but for a shrewd rider and equipment consumer it can be pretty inexpensive. I got back on the bike in '87, riding a second-hand Motobecane touring bike. But then I redisovered dirt in '88. I traded my road bike that year for a brand-new Jamis Dakota 18 speed rigid steel mountain bike.
That Jamis was pretty special. I was 24 years old, and it was only the 3rd brand-new bike I'd ever acquired. It cost almost $600. Seems like nothing now, but I carried a balance on my credit card for several months to pay for that back then.
Mountain biking has brought me lots of joy since then.