Again in Might, I used to be the fortunate recipient of a Marinoni, which I set about rehabilitating to one of the best of my meager talents:
The top end result was a bicycle I very a lot loved driving:
However as I’m doing my greatest to maintain the whole variety of bicycles I personal in verify I finally determined to public sale it and give the proceeds to the Star Monitor Biking program, as they have been elevating cash to ship children to Junior Monitor Nationals:
It ain’t a lot, however I ain’t a lot of a human being, and promoting beat-up bikes I received at no cost and giving freely the cash is about as philanthropic as I get.
“So who gained the bike?,” you’re most likely not questioning. Effectively, it was some man from upstate who you could 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 digicam in his face to seize the second, so as a substitute 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 Highway,” 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 discovered the arduous approach that River Highway was closed, which I might have recognized had I assumed to verify beforehand:
Often when River Highway is “closed” you simply go across the boundaries and hold driving, however this was unhealthy sufficient they’d folks standing there to show you away and every part:
Clearly we completely might have ridden that on gravel bikes, however since we have been on mere street bikes we circled and as a substitute headed over the mighty Excessive Bridge and into the Bronx for an impromptu tour of the 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 an alternative, 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 certainly his Y-Foil will solely proceed to extend in worth till sooner or later I’ll do an public sale with Traditional Cycle and we’ll use the proceeds to construct Star Monitor 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, due to Some Man From Upstate for not solely serving to Star Monitor but in addition liberating up a slot on my bike rack and bringing my complete variety of basic lugged metal street racing bicycles right down to a extra manageable two, these being the Faggin:
And naturally the Cervino:
Of the 2, the Cervino is the (principally) 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 every part:
And whereas it could 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.
