Bikes are the bomb!!

OK - Its a fact. I LOVE bikes!! I ride a bike to and from work every day. In the rare occasion when I don't get to ride to work I'm bummed. Crashes... bad weather... mechanical breakdowns... whatever. None of it curbs my enthusiasm for riding. If a nice looking girl rides by my head will turn... to check out the bike.

Here's a blog entry devoted to my bikes!

The red Vitali is my daily commuter. Its a touring frame rigged up with fenders and a rear rack so I can carry stuff back and forth in my panniers. I have a love/hate relation ship with it. The frame has cracked on me twice and the rear brake bosses are mounted in the wrong spot, but I'm on it twice a day smiling the whole time. The computer shows over 7000km on it in about a year and half.


The Brodie Thumper is a great rig for launching downhill on the North Shore trails. Hydraulic disk brakes, a new double crown fork with 6" travel, 5" of rear suspension travel, and oversized tires... mmmmmmm... I'm forever being blown away at how much abuse a bike like this can suck up and keep on running. Its been dropped on its head from 6 feet in the air, crashed into large rocks, scraped along side boulders, and endured about as much grief as a hack like myself can dole out to it.

This is Rachelle's bike. After not having a bike for years, she thought she should get one for getting back and forth to yoga, and for longer rides in the future. I put the word out that I was looking for a small bike and a woman at work had this Eddie Merckx bike that was gathering dust. She just wanted it to have a good home so she let it go for a song. What an AMAZING deal we got. A replacement Merckx bike for this year would cost over $4000!!! Rachelle definately has the nicest ride in the stable!

Last April I got hit by a car when riding to work. Once I was cleared of any blame, the insurance company immediately paid for a new bike. I went to one of the local roadie shops and put together this custom Marinoni frame, built up with Shimano 105 components. WOW! I use this bike when out on dry evening or weekend rides and for Randonnees. I've joined the BC Randonneurs which is a part of an international organization of people who like to do long rides. The shortest official randonnee is 200km, and they go up to 1200km. There is a minimum and a maximum time, but the ride happens all in one push.

The Marinoni is magical to ride. Its unbelievably light and nimble. The kilometers click off on the computer and I feel as though I'm not working at all. I sometimes feel a bit guilty as though I'm somehow cheating.

Get a bike and use it. Its good for the body. Its good for the soul!