(no subject)
Hi, I'm Maura Gallagher in Philadelphia. It's been about 5 years since I rode but I'm finally getting back to it, and all exercise for that matter. I was a forced couch potatoe and driver due to an accident, now recovered.
I'm 28 (+ or - 20 years) and used to be a serious road cyclist. I toured, raced and commuted daily regardless of weather. In 8th grade (1972) my dad bought me a really nice Peugot at a yard sale. The bike had been sitting in the persons basement for several years after the son moved out and didn't want it. It turned out to be a highly customized touring bike - with campagnolo parts, etc. The difference in ride between that and my regular bike was so huge that I started to take serious rides with it. It already had front and rear pannier racks, just not the panniers themselves - so we got those and I started going on overnight rides (alone) to our shore house in Ocean City, MD in summer between 9th and 10th grades (1974). From there I just never turned back. In the summer between 10th and 11th grades I got a job building bikes and joined the shops criterium team. It took two years of hard core practice rides every night before I was a starter. In the meantime, during those two years I was the race mechanic - hanging out the side of a moving van adjusting deraileurs, cable play and brakes while the riders are in motion during the race.
After that I raced, mostly east coast events, and toured extensively, up into Canada, down to New Mexico and all over the East Coast. In 1978 I went to Temple, slowing the tours down cosiderably but not the rides. For the first two years I lived at home in the suburbs and commuted on my fixed gear track bike each day - about ten miles each way. I had a car (a Fiat 850) but did really use it all that much. On weekends I would do the various club centuries and metric centuries but didn't do any tours. The racing kept up but the number of races and frequency had for some reason become less and less and each year. It wasn't me not wanting to go, the events just weren't being held as much.
By the first year in college I had built up a collection. I had the original Peugot, a Raleigh Professional, a Raleigh fixed gear track bike, a custom made fixed gear road bike with brakes, and a Corso - which I built with an Italian criterium Frame I got from an importer in Manhattan and finally the first generation Alan aluminum tubed frame with touring geometry. The fixed gear with road geometry was by far my favorite bike. I forget who made the frame, but I never put the decals on it after having it painted. I found a dual thread rear hub so I had both 12 and 16 tooth sprockets - one on each side - for various riding conditons. I'd flip the wheel around to match what I wanted.
After college it all started to come apart - the racing, the tours but the riding for pleausure didn't. I couldn't commute any more because I got into sales and had to wear a suit.
All was going well, still riding almost every day to keep in shape until the day the Septa bus driver decided to drive like a human being instead of the aggressive craziness they usually did. That day I found that although I like kissing a lot, kissing the bumper of a bus just wasn't the same. I had always thought that the knee cap was supposed to stay between the upper and lower leg - apparently they can move with a little persuasion. A few years later, and about 70 lbs later I'm finally back to riding and losing that winter warmth layer.
I'm 28 (+ or - 20 years) and used to be a serious road cyclist. I toured, raced and commuted daily regardless of weather. In 8th grade (1972) my dad bought me a really nice Peugot at a yard sale. The bike had been sitting in the persons basement for several years after the son moved out and didn't want it. It turned out to be a highly customized touring bike - with campagnolo parts, etc. The difference in ride between that and my regular bike was so huge that I started to take serious rides with it. It already had front and rear pannier racks, just not the panniers themselves - so we got those and I started going on overnight rides (alone) to our shore house in Ocean City, MD in summer between 9th and 10th grades (1974). From there I just never turned back. In the summer between 10th and 11th grades I got a job building bikes and joined the shops criterium team. It took two years of hard core practice rides every night before I was a starter. In the meantime, during those two years I was the race mechanic - hanging out the side of a moving van adjusting deraileurs, cable play and brakes while the riders are in motion during the race.
After that I raced, mostly east coast events, and toured extensively, up into Canada, down to New Mexico and all over the East Coast. In 1978 I went to Temple, slowing the tours down cosiderably but not the rides. For the first two years I lived at home in the suburbs and commuted on my fixed gear track bike each day - about ten miles each way. I had a car (a Fiat 850) but did really use it all that much. On weekends I would do the various club centuries and metric centuries but didn't do any tours. The racing kept up but the number of races and frequency had for some reason become less and less and each year. It wasn't me not wanting to go, the events just weren't being held as much.
By the first year in college I had built up a collection. I had the original Peugot, a Raleigh Professional, a Raleigh fixed gear track bike, a custom made fixed gear road bike with brakes, and a Corso - which I built with an Italian criterium Frame I got from an importer in Manhattan and finally the first generation Alan aluminum tubed frame with touring geometry. The fixed gear with road geometry was by far my favorite bike. I forget who made the frame, but I never put the decals on it after having it painted. I found a dual thread rear hub so I had both 12 and 16 tooth sprockets - one on each side - for various riding conditons. I'd flip the wheel around to match what I wanted.
After college it all started to come apart - the racing, the tours but the riding for pleausure didn't. I couldn't commute any more because I got into sales and had to wear a suit.
All was going well, still riding almost every day to keep in shape until the day the Septa bus driver decided to drive like a human being instead of the aggressive craziness they usually did. That day I found that although I like kissing a lot, kissing the bumper of a bus just wasn't the same. I had always thought that the knee cap was supposed to stay between the upper and lower leg - apparently they can move with a little persuasion. A few years later, and about 70 lbs later I'm finally back to riding and losing that winter warmth layer.