Thanks for the memories

Atop Mont Ventoux

It was a love affair that began in February 2006. 

There is an adventure in group hypothermia known as the Chilly Hilly bike ride. It marks the time when many Seattle cyclists brush the winter dust off their bikes and pump up their squishy tires for the first time in four months. The ride is hilly but really only moderately chilly.  The hypothermia comes into play waiting for the ferry that takes you to the start and later returns you back to Seattle.   Standing outside in the cold for thirty minutes to an hour with little more than a thin layer or two of Lycra leaves a person wondering why they thought this was a good idea. The veterans find someplace warm to hide out to minimize their time in the cold drizzly air.

On that grey and blustery February day, having completed the ride, and with the next ferry still an hour away I loitered in the warmth of a nearby bicycle shop.  On the repair stand in that shop was a shiny new titanium SEVEN Cycles frame being built up for a customer.  The curvy chain and seat stays looked muscular and those strong grey tubes intersected at the rear dropout in an expression of power and elegance that struck me as almost sensual.

I wanted one. 

Fourteen months later, I brought home a brand new SEVEN in my size and after building it up I swung a leg over the sweetest riding bike I could have imagined.  The fit was telepathic and it responded to my every thought.  The handling was quick, yet stable. The ride was plush, yet it seemed so much stiffer than my steel bike.  This was the bike I planned to ride for the rest of my life. I even said this was it; “Finito.”

For the next eleven years that bike was my companion for nice weather training, riding and racing.  It went on adventures with me including taking me to the summit of Mont Ventoux twice in one day.  It would rest, warm and dry in the garage during the wet winters when the weather forced me to ride my rain bike.  Each spring when the warmth returned my appreciation for this machine would be rekindled.  “Gawd, this is a nice bike,” I proclaimed more than once.

I took my companion on long rides in the sunshine and intervals on my local hills. With upgraded brakes the bike performed as good as ever. Then, a wet September rain forced me back on my long dormant disc equipped rain bike.  The cruel truth hit me hard in the face. My cheap, cable actuated (hydraulic caliper) disc brakes were a level of magnitude better (a.k.a. safer) than the top of the line rim brakes on my SEVEN.

In the city brake performance can be the difference between swearing at someone and getting a ride in an ambulance.   I had been working my N-1 project for over a year and up until this point my SEVEN had been at the heart of my long term plans. Now I was questioning that assumption.   

I contemplated having the frame and fork modified to accommodate disc brakes.  The cost made that option pointless. I considered just going disc in front.  That option smelled of compromise with a capital “C.”   Was it time for a new bike?

The axle standards that had been up in the air for a few years had finally settled on 12mm TA (Through Axles for my non geek readers).  That took away one reason to wait.   

I loved the rim brake wheels I had built for my SEVEN and a disc bike would need disc wheels.  I reached out to The Oracle (Horst) and asked him about wheel options.  In the course of few days of email exchanges regarding the wheels - I shared my mixed emotions around the possibility of selling a bike I had shared so much with.  Horst suggested that now was the time to sell my bike because the kind of person who would pay anything near top dollar for a rim brake bike would be someone who is in love with the brand or a collector of vintage bikes.

Hearing my bike referred to as “Vintage” hit me the same way as when a kid called me Mister for the first time many, many years ago, or the first time I got a mail from AARP with my name on it.  My thoughts were the same, “Wait, you must have me confused with someone else…”

McWoodie once likened the increase in the performance of hydraulic disc brakes over rim brakes to the step function of performance when we first used integrated STI shift levers.  The cheapest disc brakes were significantly better than the best rim brakes and in wet weather (did I mention I live in Seattle) the difference is huge.   At my age I prefer airbags to horsepower and when I say performance what I hear in my head is “safety.”  

As often as not, when Hottie finishes a ride on her Hydraulic Di2 Domane, she comments on how much she loves the bike. The brakes get the most praise and more than once she has said the disc brakes saved her life. 

With these thought swirling in my head I looked at my bike and noticed it was a refinement (albeit near perfection) of the Schwinn Varsity Hottie rode in high school which (for reasons I cannot explain) hangs in our garage.  I also looked at Hottie’s Carbon Domane and how different it was from my bike.

I had a unique summer this year.  With weeks and weeks of smoke in the Methow I found myself able to put in more time at work which was also heating up to a level I not seen for many years. The resulting overtime would cover the difference between selling my SEVEN and buying a new bike. It seemed a fitting reward.

With the decision made, I readied the bike for sale.  I felt like I was betraying my old friend. The bike had never let me down.  It had done nothing wrong.  It was an achievement of art and science. Was it vanity that made me want a new bike? Did I want to live out my bike racer fantasy?  Was the move akin to the forty five year old guy buying a Corvette?

No, this was about performance and safety.  A rule I try to follow is not to pay for differences I can’t see or feel.  Disc brakes make such a difference anyone can feel it.

I put the bike up for sale and despite the fair weather riding season being over, before long I found a buyer.  We met and when he rode the bike he had the grin of someone who was excited to get a new bike.  My first instinct was to try and convey to him all the good memories, but then I decided to keep my memories and let him start finding his own.