On An Old Ride

First I should apologize for my last post. I was rereading my post and I realized that is some damn crappy writing. Sorry everyone, I will do better this time or I give someone, anyone!, permission to smack me silly in hopes of knocking some good writing into me.

I am subscribed to a cycling journalist's RSS feed. Now first I have to say, cycling journalist? Lucky bastard, this guy has what must surely be one of the greatest jobs out there. (Okay I suppose if I did not like to write, a cycling journalist might be a pretty bad job... But hey I already am a cycling journalist, just not paid for it, and not widely read either.) I guess my point there is if I could give up on the computers to see the Paris-Roubaix, The Giro and the Tour, and be paid for all of that, holy smokes what a cool job!

Anyway our cycling journalist found a website that rates the top ten guys to ride Le Tour. Now personally I put Fausto Coppi at the top, if World War Two had not gotten in the way Coppi would have probably won more races than any other three other guys, combined. But as it was Fausto's career was delayed by the most significant event of the twentieth century. Apparently Coppi actually spent some of the war at an English POW camp where he was a barber.

Of course I am naturally inclined to throw my minuscule clout behind Coppi, my steel frame was made by a company named after The Champion of Champions. I like that Italian Steel, she's old and uses rain water as lubricant for the chain (yes I know I should throw more lousy weather lube on), her rear hub is toast and the bottom bracket is dying. But that old girl and I have been through a lot together, mostly crashes come to mind, but a lot none the less.

I first got the Coppi from Sport House of Canada (they closed in early 1997) back in the spring of Grade 10. Dad wanted to buy me a mountain bike, I wanted a "racing" bike. The owner of Sport House, Tony, a trusted authority to my dad, upon learning that I wanted a road bike became pleased as punch. Tony is Italian and by then (possibly always was) the only guy selling Coppi's in Toronto. Tony went on a diatribe about how big box stores with their shoddy mountain bikes were killing him. Dad always eager to support small family businesses listened with rapt attention.

Tony showed me a used high end white Coppi, all steel, must have been at most ten years old at the time. It was love at first sight, except, and I did not find this out until just this past winter, Tony gave me a seat post that was 0.2mm narrower than the tube. (Back in those days people rode with the saddle much closer to the top tube so how would anyone know the post was too small?)

A few weeks after I brought my 'new' ride home I had to present an item made in Italy to my Eurasia Geography class. Someone in class literally raised their hand and asked "[Your bike is a] copy of what?!" I did not even know who Fausto Coppi was, I figured Coppi was the name of the guy who made the bikes. Ooops! But I still had a good laugh at the expense of some smart ass.

A year later I was coming to the pool (in little Italy) to teach swimming, it was that day that a parent of one of my students, on seeing the Coppi explained with a religious reverence, that Coppi was a racer, "he was the best of the best".

A few weeks later, June of 1995, I was riding down Bathurst Street on a joy ride. I got caught in the street car tracks at Fleet and crashed. That crash was ugly for me, but the Coppi was fine.

The following summer the axle that runs through the back hub broke, riding became grinding, and then riding became impossible. I had to walk the Coppi from the pool to Sport House. I don't even remember how I got home from there, it took Tony two weeks to fix the axle.

When I went to Waterloo for undergraduate school I feared the Coppi might get stolen so I left her in Toronto and bought a beater of such dubious quality I think I used it all of twice. Pretty much from the day I started at Waterloo I did not ride much, but on a co-op work term during the Victoria Day Long Weekend I went flying, the Coppi was my launch pad and my face was the landing gear. (I was not a pretty picture after that flight.)

My return to athletics was slow, starting with skating in 2004 and rediscovery of the saddle in 2008 with a 2006 model year Specialized Roubaix. I did ride the Coppi a couple times between 2000 and 2008 but not very often, perhaps two or three times in eight years. However once we moved I started riding to work, and not being keen on taking my good bike out in the rain I decided to dig my Coppi up from my parents basement. Adding clip in Shimano Ultegra Pedals and raising the saddle gave that Coppi speed and besides a period when the Coppi was getting her rear drop outs replaced, (the advantages of steel), that Coppi was carrying me to work almost every day through the winter.

I should confess here, in the interests of full disclosure, I did once take the Queen Streetcar, if I were criminally deranged I might tell someone that the Streetcar is a good way to get around. But the fact is, in rush hour, on Erin I can get to the office in about 12 minutes, on the Coppi with a bad drive train, about 15 minutes, in a car 25 minutes, Streetcar 45 minutes and on foot, one hour fifteen minutes. Given that a return trip on the TTC costs $5 you really have to ask yourself as the damned thing stops at every stupid little side street between Coxwell and the office exactly what are you paying for? Because when you do the math the Street Car really is no cheaper than splitting a taxi with three friends.

I have had a crash recently, actually I started working on this blog entry before I had the crash! It was this past Thursday, July 23, there is a drive way coated in a black gooey material that becomes slippery when wet. I was riding, in the rain, and I turned left, well I turned the bars left, the wheel turned left, but the Coppi, she kept going straight until I was on my left side. Luckily for my career this time my face was not the landing gear, the left shoulder, wrist and thigh absorbed the impact and I can still feel where.

That Coppi has endured an awful lot, luckily for me, she's a strong girl, she can take it.