the lust began

I think we were about 12, maybe 11. Andy had gone up to Thornberry's Toys and Schwinn authorized dealer (now St Matthews Schwinn) to shop for a new bike. He was sailing into uncharted and strange waters, he wasn't buying a new BMX bike, he was getting a 10 speed. Either a Schwinn or some new company, Cannondale, were the two final contestants. The Cannondales were like nothing I had ever seen before. Huge aluminum tubes with wild paint jobs that were cooler than words (I also thought bandanas looked good tied around the legs and breakin was an ok movie, so taste was relative to the date). For reasons that time has lost to me, he went with the Schwinn Traveler. Its was a strange color of mintish green (Bianchi calls it celeste, for copyright purposes, Schwinn called it something far less red wine and bruschetta).

So the point of this. Up until then, bikes were ridden through the woods and jumped off plywood and cinder-block ramps. The occasional big thrill, not to mention long and dangerous journey, consisted of the 4-6 miles over to Indian Hills for some big time gravity action on 20 inch, skidded bald tires - stem pad optional. Never before was a pure speed, sex machine an option or a consideration. Not sex machine in that we were gonna meet even one lady with it, sexy in a Greg Lemond Tour de France way. Sexy in a faster than we had ever gone on two wheels way. Sexy in a breathin hard doing sprints up and down the street to see who could go fastest (though I dont think we had any way of measuring said speed other than witness' eyeballs, or maybe a second hand on a watch). It was so cool how fast those skinny tires could roll and how hard that big gear was to turn.

Some years later, I discovered mtb racing and once i had become "serious," I was told I needed to train on a roadbike to get better. Funds being what they were, a road bike wasnt an option and the mtb with slicks wasnt fast enough. Andy still had the Traveler, so I borrowed it, slapped on some generation 1 spd's (spuds) and rode. This bike wasnt really my ticket into the uber-cool roadie world with its 5 speed rear cluster and friction shifters, but striving for acceptance, especially from dorks, hasnt ever been high on my list. Besides, getting dropped by, (or not dropping), a guy on an 80's 10 speed hurts a lot more than gettin schooled by a guy on a nice ride, at least then you can tell yourself "it's partly the bike that makes him better than me."

Then the time came, my first road race. Well, TT anyway. There I was, sleeveless jersey, visored helmet (once again I refer you to styles of the day) mtb shoes and 10 pound pedals. I ended up winning my class by a good margin, even besting most, if not all, the cat 3's. How awesome. That did get me into "their" world a bit, or marked anyway. A few months later, I purchased a "real" road bike and the Traveler was once again mothballed.

The Traveler came back around a couple years ago when Andy was cleanin out the basement and saw it as unused clutter. He passed it along and I kept it around for a while figuring I would use it as a comuter, but it mainly sat. So, I ended up donating it to a tenant who didnt have a car and I think he pawned it cuz it disappeared about a week later. Since I did give it to him, I didnt figure it was any of my business what happened to it. I just hope wherever it is now, it's still making a difference. Or maybe it served it's purpose already.