Old bikes

Same motor different bikes, 1976-2011 cycling for fun, fitness and friendship.

Andrew Demack's post on  Briztreadley about the bikes he has owned and why he bought them has caused me to fondly reminisce  about my own bikes over the last few decades. My main criteria in buying has always been to get the most bike for my justifiable buck. Only a few of my rides have been purchased new. Maybe there will be a time in my life where I can walk into a bike shop and look at those luscious high end machines with the intention of actually purchasing one, but if that never happens then I will still feel blessed that I have had a rich bicycling life.

I was eight years old in 1969 when my cousin Greg (15 y.o.) went wide on the corner coming down from Old Daybora Rd in Petrie, and under a truck. I remember the phone call from my Aunty Jean saying he was on life support, and then later that night there was another call to say that Greg had died. To our close knit family this was an enormous tragedy. My father had been involved in a very serious motorcycle accident on Annerley Rd in the late fifties, and still bears the disability to this day. These seemingly unrelated accidents left our family wary of two wheeled transport. 

I didn't get my first bike till I turned 15. Mum and dad bought me a Malvern Star 10 speed. It was a beauty, with dynamo lights and a special lightweight frame. My brother and I did a bike tour run by an organisation called ISCF, where we rode from Ipswich up onto the Darling Downs and back to Fernvale via Toowoomba and Esk. My shining silver 10 speed was the envy of many of the school age riders. With typical teenage disrespect I managed to pretty well destroy it within 18 months, riding it off  road and endlessly practicing wheelstands that led to many Sunnybank streets being painted with blood of the Lanham. My last memories of this bike are of me riding to and from BSHS. Our home was in Sunnybank. The original rear wheel and gears were wrecked, and I had fitted a huge rusty 28" fixed wheel monstrosity from my mother’s bike from the 40's. There was no SE freeway and I battled Ipswich and Beaudesert Rd's in peak hour traffic, no brakes, no cycle lane, 16 y.o. and completely bullet proof. I could beat the buses, and on a good day (northerly) I could beat the train home to Sunnybank. Then I got a job, and of course a car.

I don't remember how many bikes I bought or built up in the next 13 years, none were expensive and few got ridden very far, the odd 25km training ride was thrown in when I thought I was getting a bit heavy (like 77kg). I do remember a 12 speed Apollo that  I had bought for about $80. In 1989 it was knicked from our carport and I made an insurance claim. I had to go to a few bike shops to get replacement quotes. At the Pinelands Shopping Centre in Sunnybank Hills was an Allan's Bike shop where they quoted me $439 for a Kojima Eagle. Unbelievably a cheque came through for this and at 28 years old I had my first ever new bike. The Kojima was highly geared and had uncompromising racing geometry. I never took riding it very seriously until my buddy and occasional riding partner (who seemed to know a lot about things like the Tour de France) and I decided that we would sign up for a  cycling tour run by the Bible society. It was called Bikes for Bibles, and we did fundraising and organised training rides for 10 weeks before the event. It was our first experience with bunch riding and there were club racers involved so we were induced into group cycling etiquette.



Andrew and Bruce at the start of the Universities Tour 1993

 The 1993 Bikes for Bibles Universities Tour. (Brisbane-Beaudesert-Warwick -Toowoomba-Dalby-Kingaroy-Kilcoy-Caboolture).

The 10 weeks training of 200km a week saw me trim down to about 75kg and I felt really fit, probably for the first time in my life. After the tour Andrew and I had a bit of an intro to racing, C grade with Kangaroo Point Club. We had a ball, but many readers of this will have been bored already with our recounts of how we went.

Cycling slipped back out of my lifestyle as I was busy with my career and roles at home and at church. Occasionally Andrew and I would organise a bit of an overnight adventure where we would travel with our bikes and a credit card. On holidays we would usually take bikes and have a few rides. My Kojima became a bit worn and I bought a cheap hybrid ($100). I rode this on a couple of our tours. Then one day in 1998 somebody knicked it out of the back of my car. I put in an insurance claim, popped in some money of my own, and suddenly and unexpectedly was the owner of the most beautiful looking cycle I am ever likely to own, an aluminium Trek7300 hybrid. 

Sorry about the shorts. The TREK 7300

This was a solid and reliable bike. I remember riding down Mt Tambourine (where my parents were living) at 83km/h and feeling as steady as a rock. At the time I had left my hard but well paid job at Bradken's Runcorn foundry and was working as a technician for CSIRO while studying engineering at QUT.  I would occasionally commute on the bike to QUT from home or work. And the inevitable happened. One night I came back to where I had chained it up and it was gone. No insurance this time. I have never mourned the loss of a material possession before that night. I experienced all the stages of grief. In fact... if you ever see a beautiful black hyb... shut up Bruce, it's gone. That was 12 years ago!

Budget for a new bike was an issue. I set myself $300. For this I managed to get another good machine. It was also a TREK hybrid, a gorgeous metallic green 730 steel framed version that was a few years older than the stolen 7300. It was in good condition, one of those bikes that had no doubt been purchased with good intentions but had then never been ridden much. This bike became my faithful commuter over the next few years.

I wasn't really doing a lot of riding for fitness. Andrew got quite keen and participated in a fund raising ride organised by the Engadine Rotary Club in 2002 (I think). I wasn't much of a companion on his training rides as he was quite fit and ripping my legs off. It sounded like a real challenge and a wonderful holiday at the same time. Andrew won a car for his fund raising efforts and was probably a bit obligated to go along in the following year. I decided to join him. Once again I committed myself to 200km a week of training, and after about a 12 week slog at it I had dropped from 98kg to 88kg. I found the ride challenging but achievable. I was on a hybrid and almost everyone else were riding racers, and Andrew and I rode in group 3 (of 5). Our daily average speeds were around 26km/h. By the end of the week I was feeling very strong and keen for some more bunch riding. I would ride to Tennyson in the morning and jump on the back of the first pack to come past and invite myself to their ride. I fixed up the old Kojima (now 14 y.o.) and found I was going about 2km/h faster on that. Time for a new road bike!



Andrew and I somewhere in NSW, 2003 Sydney to Surfers



A Kojima MTB that I had a bit of fun on in Karawatha and a family holiday in 2003. It was sold to help finance the incoming KHS.




The KHS Flite 800.

 

2003 was a watershed year. I had lost weight and gained a love of road riding. Les Hewett, a work colleague from QMI introduced me to a Star Cafe ride on Saturday mornings, and soon after a wonderful bunch doing a thing called donuts on a Tuesday and Thursday morning in West End. The final hit out up Dornoch Terrace after the 5th lap of the 6km loop eventually became my weekly focus and I recorded my performance against the other contenders to be first up the hill. This may seem a little sad but I had lots of fun. I started shopping around for a new ride. I sold the old Trek (to a mate from church who got another 7 years out of it) and my mountain bike, and a fancy guitar and I was able to buy my a serious road bike. It was a second hand 853 alloy steel framed 9 speed KHS equipped with 105 running gear. I paid $1400. It was comparatively weighty at around 11kg, and had a raked out riding position that none of my friends liked the feel of, but over the next 3 years I rode it 30 000 km and had the best form of my life. My weight averaged 85kg over these years. I did another Sydney to Surfers in 2005, with a faster bunch and our average for the whole ride was over 30km/h. I also had a brilliant around the bay experience with my Southbank Bunch friends.



My current ride, purchased in 2006



 

The KHS was becoming unreliable. I broke some handlebars on a 60km/h decent, the freewheel gave up on an important ride and the shifting gear was pretty flogged. Cycling 3 or 4 times a week had become a lifestyle for me, I had justification for a new bike. I was also earning plenty of money with my new post graduate position working at QMI. The new budget would be $3000. But to get the most bike for the buck, again I went second hand. I found a Campag 10 speed Record Equipped fully carbon Giant TCR, brought out to Australia from the US by a semi-pro racer who was working in bike shops. At least 3 kg lighter than the KHS it felt beautiful to ride, yet strangely didn't seem to go any faster. My number of k's per week was dropping off, and in direct inverse proportion my weight was going up. At a time of my life when I expected the workload at home would be diminishing, in fact it got a whole lot busier. Jenny and I had been fostering for quite a few years but embedding the Arthur sibling group into our lives brought a new dynamic to our household. Part of the motivation for a career shift into teaching was to try and give me more time at home. This hasn't really worked but I am really enjoying teaching and it brings me more satisfaction than any other job I've had. During the last few years I've also done a little mountain biking, mainly with Andrew who is really quite into it and does crazy stuff like racing. He is a good friend and always waits for me. I am finally feeling a little form coming back and am looking forward to some great cycling years ahead. Maybe a new bike soon???

 

 

 



Norco Hardtail. Bought for $100, spent $400 getting it ridable.
Still a servicable bike.

 

My curent MTB, another Norco Hardtail,
with much better brakes and forks.
A much faster bike than I am rider.





 As I have composed this epic I realise that I have done many enjoyable things on a bicycle, but the best part of it has been nothing to do with which bike I've been sitting on, how much it cost or why I bought it.  It has been almost entirely about the people who I have been with. But that is another story.