It Runs in the Family

That's my father, Stan competing in the Redmond Bike Derby race sometime shortly after World War II. He won the race that year, which consisted of a single lap around Lake Sammamish, about 25 miles. He was riding a borrowed bike, a single-speed with a coaster brake. He stripped off the fenders to lighten it up, flipped over the handlebars, and pedaled like hell. His best "gym whites" and a pair of Converse Chuck Taylors were all the gear he needed. I suppose he stopped to drink out of a stream along the way.

These days it's easy for cyclists to get caught up in the gear. The riders whirring around Lake Washington on a typical sunny Sunday ride carbon fiber bikes worth thousands of dollars, some with electronic shifting to move the chain through the Nigel Tufnel approved rear cogs ("these go to eleven") and triple front chainrings. Every component on the bike has been optimized, minimized, ovalized or oversized. And of course you gotta have Zertz inserts to keep it laterally stiff yet vertically compliant.

And that's just the bike. Then you load it up with computers with GPS, altimeters, thermometers and power meters to track your speed, position, power output, pop tart intake, slope, altitude and attitude.

You've got bottles, tubes, packets and pockets full of electrolyte sport drinks, energy gels, and power bars. This isn't food, it's high performance nutritional "fuel" and "supplements."

You can't wear plain old clothes on a bike anymore. It's gotta be high performance, technical gear made from merino wool, lycra, spandex, and Thermoroubaix fabric with the logos of your team sponsors. What you wear is not supposed to just cover your naked body. As Assos says, "Each and every item is conceived, designed and engineered to compliment other pieces in the range, so that they function together as a system." Whatever that means... From the top down: helmet, cycling cap, sunglasses, base layer, jersey, arm warmers, jacket, shorts, leg warmers, socks, cycling shoes, and toe warmers. And that's on a nice summer day.

Anyway, I get caught up in it sometimes too. And when I notice it, I like to look at the picture of my dad winning the Redmond bike derby race and then go for a ride on my 1982 Trek. I don't know how far or fast I go when I ride that bike because it doesn't have a computer.