On old rides

Back in the spring of 1994 for reasons I do not remember my dad decided to buy me a new bike. He wanted me to buy a mountain bike but even then I wanted a road bike. In those days, like now it seems, mountain bikes were the rage, much like comparing the number of cylinders in a car, people would compare number of gears, (only in those days it wasn't 2 by 9 or 3 by 10, it was called 12 speed for 2 by 6 or 18 speed for 3 by 7).

An aside for anyone who is not an avid cyclist 12 speed or 18 speed is a lie, because there are really only a few unique gear ratios. For example use the big ring in front and a larger gear in back is a lot like the small ring in front and a smaller ring in back. In my experience, I only use perhaps four to six gears on a long ride, and when I am just going to work, on my good bike, Erin, I might use two or three gears, on my old beater bike, I hardly shift the gears, ever.

Anyway returning to that spring of '94, Dad and I went to the bike store, Sport House of Canada, they closed up more than ten years ago, I remember I was admiring the road bikes and Dad was pushing me for mountain bikes, the proprietor, Louis knew my dad well, he had been a customer at Sport House for years before I was even born. Well when Louis (who I should probably add was Italian) found out I like road bikes he became ecstatic and sat me down on a used white Coppi. It was remarkable how willing dad was to listen to Louis sell, well dad really, on that Coppi. To be fair, dad had (still has come to think of it) a Coppi just like the one at Sport house. The one Louis showed us was about $250, far cheaper than the decent mountain bikes and it was made in Italy - an important selling feature if the seller is Italian.

Obviously dad was sufficiently sold on that Coppi that he bought it for me and I loved that bike. I rode it to work at the pool every day that I could in the summers of 1994 and '95, except when I drove (being 17 and having a licence meant the car was always preferred but sometimes not available). In 1996 I was lifeguarding at the outdoor pool when the back wheel seized up, I recall I was able to ride to work but I just could not get the poor thing to carry me to Sport House to get fixed. Ultimately I had to walk it all the way from St. Clair to about halfway between Eglinton and Lawrence because the back wheel was so bad. When Louis saw what happened his fear was the cones were ruined and he would have to send away for new cones from Italy.

It turned out the back axle was broken, it took Louis a few days to get her all fixed up but at least the cones were fine. Well I continued to ride the Coppi, and in the late spring of 2000 that bike saw service as the aircraft used by Air Cole.

Well when we moved to our new house I needed a way to get to work when it rained because it was too far to walk. So I pulled the Coppi out of the basement and started riding it. Before I go any further I think I better compare a bike that is probably close to turning 20 with the sleek Carbon Fibre beauty (AKA Erin) that I also own.

The Coppi has friction downtube shifters and regular handle bar brakes. Erin has STI (or Index Shifting) shifters and brakes. The Coppi has a steel frame, Erin is carbon fibre. The Coppi had a free wheel cassette with six gears, Erin has a modern ten gear cassette. When I bought the Coppi the pedals did not clip into anything, as I wrote earlier that was upgraded, from day one the pedals on Erin were clip in pedals.

That old Coppi was starting to grow on me again, make no mistake, I still love riding Erin, she's smoother, faster and waaay easier to change gears on. But at least now that the I am clipped into the Coppi I feel like I can actually get some real speed happening, which is nice considering the Coppi is for winter and lousy weather riding.

Anyway about a week ago I noticed that pedaling was getting harder, and there was funny noises coming from the cassette. I didn't want to bother with it because the weather was lousy, I was still getting to work and home and the garage is a cold place this time of year. Finally on Thursday I got fed up, getting anywhere was becoming painful, so I took the Coppi to Cycle Solutions around the corner. It took all of about three seconds once I was in the store to figure out one issue, half the sprockets on cassette ring three were rubbing ring four and the other half were rubbing ring two (actually a lot less than half on each, many of those teeth hand somehow chipped right off!)

The mechanic, Terry (sorry if I misspelled the name), took off the wheel to get at the busted free wheel cassette. As soon as the skewer was out of the hub he noticed that the axle had free play, remember what happened in 1996, and how long it took to get a new axle I asked if it was broken, in dread. No, the axle was still holding, but the hub needed to be repacked. I started talking to someone else when Terry started cursing, a part of my hub had disintegrated, around the axle, hence the funny noises and the difficulty peddling. A new hub and labour would exceed the cost of a new wheel, the Coppi got a 700x25 wheel with a modern cassette. (But at least I could save the tube and tire! On the other hand a similar failure on a car would easily cost over a thousand dollars to fix, I was still at only about a hundred bucks.) Then just as Terry mounted the wheel more cursing, the frame was cracked right in the rear drop out.

I am lucky, really, I am, if that crack were on Erin I would have one course of action, cradle my head in my hands and sob like a little girl. As it is, the Coppi is not carbon fibre, she is a steel frame, and there is a place where even as I write these words the rear drop outs are being removed, no doubt with a very large saw and new dropouts are being welded on. All in I expect the repairs to cost me the equivalent of taking the bus to work for two and a half months. That Coppi is an old bike, things break, of course I would rather spend the money on something else, its almost half the cost of a Durace double chain ring for Erin, or a decent bib shorts and jersey. But when I consider what $250 buys in terms of auto repairs and upkeep, well its hardly any question why I love cycling.