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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:27 am 
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Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:29 pm
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It's a different question than simply asking you to tell us about your first bike. What was your first important bike? It might be the one you learned to ride on for the first time. Or it might be the one that gave you independence from your parents as a teenager. Or the one you used to deliver newspapers. Or your first racing bike. Or the one you rode across the country. Or the one which, for whatever reason, was the first bike you really loved. Tell us about your first important bike.


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 Post Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 10:12 pm 
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Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:29 am
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My first important bike would have to be my Raleigh Cadent...it wasn't until moving to Lakewood and buying this bike that I realized just how big a part of my lifestyle cycling could be. I made my first trips downtown on that bike, did many day trips as well as a 250 mile excursion with it.

I managed to find a rubber t-Rex figurine that was small enough to be superglued to the top surface of my bell, and then dubbed the bike "e-Rex". Creative, I know.

I still love that bike, but rarely ride it. I've had the pleasure of loaning it to friends who are bike-less for the past year or so, but look forward to taking it for a spin once again.

Oh, it was also the first bike I tried toeclips on, therefore making it the first bike I bit it on because of toeclips.


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 Post Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:08 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:27 pm
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As for my first “important” bike….

I’m tempted to go with the sting ray my grandpa gave me when I was about 10 years old. It was used and had some rust. So in addition to the bike he gave me a couple pads of steel wool. And a life lesson….

But I’m going with the Gitane Tour de France I bought in 1972 with own money I earned working at Cedar Point. I think it cost $275 new, a huge sum of money for a country boy back then, as I think I was making $1.75 an hour at the time. The bike shop in Sandusky was pretty new and had an OK selection and did have the bike that worked I wanted.

The day I picked it up, I finished my day stint at Cedar Point and walked maybe six miles to the bike shop, picked up the bike, and rode about 15 miles to get it home near Vermilion. I remember all that but I don’t remember how I got to Cedar Point that morning, someone obviously took me cuz I had to pick up that bike.

They say that the every cell in the human body is replaced over a seven year period. But of course after every seven year period you look the same, just a little older. Well that’s the story of my Gitane. I did two things to it early on. Number one, I grew quickly tired of the tubular tires, so I replaced them with a clincher wheelset, which I still have today but I do I wish I had the original wheels. And two, I replaced the original shifters with the (then) new and state-of-the-art Mafac bar-end shifters. So I didn’t have to reach so far down to shift gears. No indexed shifters back then, just friction. Which I still sort of prefer.

Virtually everything else on that bike has been replaced at one time or another, including even the frame (!), about 10 years ago. I think maybe the cranks may be original. And the handlebar. But everything else has been replaced along the way. Of course I still consider it my first bike, the same way I consider my 57-year-old body the same one I was born with.

I still have the bike and ride it now and then. My last serious ride with it was 46 miles a couple years ago on that rail-trail northeast of Cincinnati. Which reminds me, I think the saddle is original too. It is hard as a rock, literally. God my ass hurt. I do like the switch to the tight Gitane feel but I am not sure how many more rides this bike has for me.

Oh, and Erika, my Gitane still has toe clips. As does the bike I ride 95% of the time now. So far I have refused to invest in clipless pedals and shoes. But the bearings on one of the (rattrap) pedals on the Gitane are about to fail completely….

Good luck to the Great Lakes Courier!

Tim Liston


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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 11:41 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:31 pm
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I suppose that my only important bike was the one that I purchased in 1975, the bike that
knew more than I did about where we would go that day. The fluke was that it fit me perfectly.
We would go all day and night, panns and bar bag, out to the islands late in the day on a Friday
and later many a hilly Sonoma weekend. It fit me, we could go all day long, and did. So, of course,
I sold it.

It was one of the last Windsor bikes out of Mexico, and a touring wonder. The thing that I miss so
much is the perfect fit and effortless destinations that we seemed to end up at. Miss the carved
chrome lugs, too. Maybe it was four hundred bucks back then.

Don't let my subsequent bikes read this...


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 Post Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:29 pm 
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Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:29 pm
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Tim, I'd love to see that old Gitane. You said you replaced the frame?! is it still a Gitane?

Russell, I remember those Windsor bikes. I wonder why it is we sell stuff like that. I did it once to a great bike, too.


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