(Disclaimer written in March forgot to publish)
If you apply the rules being used in Canada for how to give back change in the post penny era to age, I'm 40. The actual date is unimportant. The question is how do I feel? I spent much of my 20's and early 30's living a lifestyle that got me away from healthy living and even from riding. Sure I went out for the odd spin, but it wasn't until I was let's say 35 (rounding) that I truly returned to my riding roots.
At that point I was just starting to get back into some semblance of healthy shape. Today I look in the mirror, even with the mid winter under the skin thermal layer and I reflect on not the past but on who and what I am today. I'm in decent shape for a guy my age, and for half the year I get into very good shape for that age.
I kinda like who I am today. I'm comfortable in my own skin. I work in the field of my choice and in the ideal job for me in that field. I don't earn a high wage, but a very good wage for my line of work. It's enough to be comfortable and do the things I want if I follow some semblance of a budget. -just not always in the timeline I want.
As this blog is about bike nurdery I should aim this one sided conversation in that direction. 25 years ago (again rounding) I dreamed of owning a Kestrel. They were the bicycle equivalent of the the Ferrari at the time. Very light and made out of exotic materials. Carbon fibre was so futuristic and it looked incredible how the tubes just flowed together. My cro-molly Fiori Roma with Shimano Exage seemed so Hyundai in comparison. Later I upgraded to a Cannondale R-400 with the 3.0 frame. At last I had the young man's American Built Muscle car -ok it wasn't exactly a Mustang but it was a definite upgrade. Later a cracked frame meant a warranty upgrade to a 2.8 series frame (criterium geometry) with a RX-100/105/600 mix of parts and my big splurge of the day a Phil Wood hub set. and there things sat.
Flash forward about 20 years (I'm done with the rounding thing) and that bike is sitting in the garage in more than 1 piece. I don't know what twigged, but I started reading magazines again, surfing the net etc and voila I'm at a shop with the bike mostly reassembled getting the last few parts to make it road worthy again. Wow the bike was fast, and light (23 pounds LOL). The geometry of the frame made it turn on a dime and accelerate like well i don't have the word for it but it was fast. A few more months and I'v manage to find a 7 spd set of Sora STI levers on line, and I'm off with a couple buddies on a 3 day trip in the Canadian Rockies. That trip showed me a couple things. I'm older than the 20 year old I was, and that a bike frame that is meant to pump around a tight course for 45 minutes is not the best for all day riding.
At which point I claim that I hit my midlife crisis. I honestly hope that wasn't actually the middle of my life by at least a few years but the search began and the dream bike was found. I had my Ferarri Yes its Carbon, no it's not a Kestrel. I bought a 2010 Wilier Izoard, which was warrantied shortly after for a Gran Turismo. Its not a super bike by any standards other than my own. In 1992 you could spend $6000 and buy 2 of what the pros were riding. Today that's only about 1/3 the cost of top level machine. That said my bike today is twice the bike that Lemond was winning his tours on. Tho the rider even when in peak shape would hardly be 1/3 the rider Lemond was. All that aside the bike is comfortable. That was my biggest goal in buying it. A few tweaks to the parts list and it comes in close to the 16 pound mark, and with a fantastic set of circumstances leading me to a great gig as a wheel tester for a new Canadian Company she'll be almost spot on the UCI minimum weight limit. Not bad for a frame that is actually heavy by todays super bike standards.
Flash forward another year and I'm scavenging the old Cannondale for parts as I build up a very inexpensive nashbar cross frame so I can ride thru the winter without abusing my baby. -She's gotta last me 20 years
Today the latest a greatest is electrical shifting and power analysis. I have no desire for the electric shifting at this point. It won't be in the budget for several years anyways. I have a friend who is a man of steel and frequently makes skeptical remarks about the longevity of my plastic bike and its plastic parts. -interestingly carbon wheels havre longer lasting braking surfaces than aluminum hoops. -as long as you take care of them and avoid nasty spills.
Anyways that's straying into other conversations we may have....
I think the point of this is (not that I had a point in mind as I started writing) is that when you reach some point of Maturity in your life it all just kinda comes together.
