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<\/a><\/p>\nHere’s my first bicycle, a Huffy Convertible, named for the ability to lose its training wheels, (or maybe to use them for other purposes).\u00a0 It’s shown on 27th Street, on the far side of our block in Lubbock, just feet from the spot where a few years later I would break my arm in a skating accident.\u00a0 I don’t recognize the extra fender stays, and I’d forgotten about the bell.\u00a0 The camera was a half-frame 127 model that I think I got in the mail in exchange for box-tops. Circa 1956.<\/p>\n
My second bike was a 24″ Firestone.\u00a0 Santa failed to notice that, unlike the floor model, this one had pink tires as delivered.\u00a0 I worked hard to wear them out as fast as possible, while avoiding being seen by anyone I knew.\u00a0 I know that I was riding this one to school by third grade, because I remember an accident that involved the basket on the front.\u00a0 The bike was stolen once, by an older kid who lived in the next block, but soon brought back, with a few broken spokes.\u00a0 Photo:\u00a0 Kodak Verichrome Pan; Brownie Holiday Flash in open shade, about 1961.\u00a0 This was a square-format 127 size camera.\u00a0 You could buy Sylvania Blue Dot flashbulbs at the neighborhood grocery store!\u00a0 The flash attachment made it look like a tiny press camera, though the neck strap detracted from that image.<\/p>\n The J.C.Higgins Era.<\/strong>\u00a0 The next couple of bikes I had experience with came from Sears.\u00a0 \u00a0My new friend Jim Hudson took pity on me and let me ride his 26″ (at the time I was the taller).\u00a0 Here’s a picture of me in my Little League uniform standing in my front yard with Jim’s bike. Some while later I came into a modest sum of money that I didn’t spend at the hobby shop, and made a trip to Sears in the hope of securing one of those “English Racers” that everybody wanted.\u00a0 Parental opposition made this impossible, and I came home with a chrome-plated bike with a sprung front end, a “tank” with dual headlights, and a carrier that I think had a little taillight built in.\u00a0 I’m not sure that I was happy being seen with this one either.<\/p>\n I got my first grown-up bike, as a second-year law student, in 1977, a “champagne” colored Motobecane Super Mirage. Features included Weinmann rims and center-pull brakes, stem-mounted shifters, brake cheater-bars, plenty of reflectors, and a buffalo-hide saddle.\u00a0 Oh, and cotterless cranks, something of an innovation.\u00a0 \u00a0A hundred and eighty bucks at WheelSport in Spokane\u00a0 —\u00a0 this was a pretty good bike, for store-bought.\u00a0 I built my first pair of wheels in this frame, and kept it for thirty years. For a while, you could still get brown cloth handlebar tape!\u00a0 Photo:\u00a0 Minolta SR-1, Tri-X; exposure not recorded.<\/p>\n One day I was doing a hilly ride with my friend Dave and noticed that he was a lot faster — and never seemed to shift.\u00a0 When I saw my first fingertip shifters (with two or three times as many gears) I knew it was time for me to catch up to the new technology.\u00a0 I tried out a bunch of bikes this time, and got a professional fitting at Gregg’s Greenlake.\u00a0 They had a demo Serotta frame they were selling (hence the green color) and I went all-out.\u00a0 The shiny bits all said Campagnolo and (there being no Chorus triple at the time) some of them said “Record” as well and, without the pedals, the assembly weighed 17.5 lbs., a big step up.\u00a0 Or down.\u00a0 Photo:\u00a0 Canon Digital Elph, about 2004.<\/p>\n My trail bike.<\/strong>\u00a0 We found ourselves moving to Baja California, to a place where there wasn’t a lot of pavement — and there was a lot of dirt.\u00a0 I rode my Serotta to Recycled Cycles and traded it in for a Kona “Blast” (seen here years later, in 2018, photo by Pixel smartphone).\u00a0 The store pays a maximum of $600 for used bikes, so I ended up forking over some cash.\u00a0 When I said I didn’t need the shoes with the cleats any more, the guy handed me another $50, and I realized that I probably could have unscrewed the pedals and gotten another hundred bucks for them.<\/p>\n This hardtail was my first bike with disc brakes.\u00a0 I got the large frame, and the bars were so wide that I ended up sawing a bit off the ends.\u00a0 The tires were fat and gnarly, but not puncture-resistant, resulting in a lot of grief the first year or two.\u00a0 We left Mexico in 2013 not sure if we’d be back, and I essentially abandoned the bike at our old house,\u00a0 What a treat to see it again on a visit years later!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Though still living in Mexico, we started spending our summers in Seattle again.\u00a0 I bought a road bike to ride for a season and then sell — but ended up keeping it for eleven years!\u00a0 A more complete description can be found on a page called My Touring Rig<\/a>.\u00a0 Photo: Olympus VG-130 (2011).<\/p>\n