I'm an older ex-cyclist - in fact, I'm officially a Senior Citizen.
I became very enthusiastic about cycling in the '80s. Worked in a bike shop, rode a bike exclusively for a while (yes - carless!), and was really just way nutty about bikes. Later, a relocation followed by a new relationship made it harder to ride everywhere, and then work made it impossible to commute by bike.
Then, family (as the relationship 'matured') made it tougher to find the time to do even recreational rides. The bikes finally went from the living room to the garage. Some of them moved on to other owners who would ride them. My fleet dwindled until all that was left were a few 'partial' bikes that were all either fixed-gear or single-speeds; three frames that shared enough parts to make two complete rolling bikes at any one time. Ultimately, even those were relegated to hanging from the rafters and gathering dust.
Always, that itch was there...
Now, I'm pretty old to be re-discovering cycling, but my teenage son has become interested in it. A little research and some trips to our local bike shops have lead me to understand that bikes are a LOT more expensive today than 30 years ago. So I pulled down those 1980s frames and some of those old parts and started looking at what I could make usable - for him and for me. Initially, we started puttering around on a couple of single-speed bikes. That's fine for now, but we're running out of room. We live on top of a Mesa, so riding longer distances will involve going down hill then riding back UP the hill to get home. Not easy with Senior knees on a SS bike, so I started thinking about gears.
This blog will deal with my bike and my stories.
