Again in Could, I used to be the fortunate recipient of a Marinoni, which I set about rehabilitating to the most effective of my meager skills:
The top end result was a bicycle I very a lot loved driving:
However as I’m doing my finest to maintain the overall variety of bicycles I personal in examine I finally determined to public sale it and give the proceeds to the Star Observe Biking program, as they had been elevating cash to ship youngsters to Junior Observe Nationals:
It ain’t a lot, however I ain’t a lot of a human being, and promoting beat-up bikes I obtained at no cost and making a gift of the cash is about as philanthropic as I get.
“So who gained the bike?,” you’re most likely not questioning. Properly, it was some man from upstate who you might know from the feedback as “Some Man From Upstate,” and this previous weekend he got here downstate to gather his prize. Out of respect for his privateness I avoided sticking a digital camera in his face to seize the second, so as an alternative right here’s a random image of somebody receiving an award:
The plan was to do the ceremonial Passing On Of The Bicycle after which go for a trip, so we headed over to so-called “River Street,” the favored roadie route proper throughout the George Washington Bridge:
[River Road in autumn]
After days of rain the climate was positively spectacular, however we quickly realized the onerous means that River Street was closed, which I might have recognized had I believed to examine beforehand:
Often when River Street is “closed” you simply go across the boundaries and maintain driving, however this was unhealthy sufficient they’d individuals standing there to show you away and all the pieces:
Clearly we completely might have ridden that on gravel bikes, however since we had been on mere street bikes we circled and as an alternative headed over the mighty Excessive Bridge and into the Bronx for an impromptu tour of town’s most chronically obstructed bike lanes:
[The High Bridge many, many years ago]
On the conclusion of the trip I then tried to persuade him to take George Plimpton’s Y-Foil As a substitute, however being possessed of unusual restraint he insisted on sticking with the Marinoni:
[Subtlety On Wheels]
That is most likely a very good factor, since there’s clearly a marketplace for George Plimpton memorabilia:
And absolutely his Y-Foil will solely proceed to extend in worth till someday I’ll do an public sale with Basic Cycle and we’ll use the proceeds to construct Star Observe a model new indoor velodrome which we’ll name the “Plimptonium:”
[Architectural plans for The Plimptonium, a.k.a. “The House That Wife Oil Built”]
However pending that, because of Some Man From Upstate for not solely serving to Star Observe but additionally liberating up a slot on my bike rack and bringing my complete variety of basic lugged metal street racing bicycles all the way down to a extra manageable two, these being the Faggin:
And naturally the Cervino:
Of the 2, the Cervino is the (largely) period-correct one, and being barely bigger than the Faggin it affords me a considerably extra age-appropriate driving place:
Due to the voluminous tubular tires it floats over just about all the pieces:
And whereas it might be missing within the low gear division the refreshing simplicity of working a six-speed friction drivetrain with one hand makes up for it:
Six-speeds are the brand new singlespeeds.
