Bike Guy Visits and Rides

Putting together rides, borrowing or renting bikes to go along with a business trip itinerary can always be a challenge when you don’t have the luxury of a Bike-Friday or a travel bike. I have to rely on old friends from back in the day and search local bike shops on Google. On a recent trip that included a weekend in Denver, trade shows in Tacoma, WA and sales calls from Seattle to Vancouver I had my work cut out for me but it all worked out.

First search was WheatRidge Cyclery near Denver to find one of my retired juniors of yesteryear Ron Kiefel. I had not seen Ron since I put together a 20-year reunionn of our junior time trial Bronze Medalist’s team back in 1998. His staff was courteous on the phone when I mentioned I was and old friend and coach hoping to borrow or rent a bike for a Sunday ride. Ron would not be in on the weekend but when I did finally talk with him it was a done deal and we made arrangements to meet for coffee on Monday morning.

WheatRidge Cyclery always maintains a position as one of the top 5 bike shops in the country and when I arrived early Sunday morning it was apparent as to how that was the case. A very large two-story building with arched high ceilings seemed to connect nicely with older framed single story buildings on either side. This was very tastefully done not intimidating but welcoming in appearance from the front entryway to the layout of the floor plan. Charles Van Atta, the certified fit technician, put me on a Specialized Tarmac Demo in one of the 4 fitness stations and began dialing in my seat height and stem length to make sure my ride up Look Out Mountain would be nothing less than spectacular.

It was a warm November day, even for Denver, as I slowly warmed up my jet-lagged legs while riding towards for Golden. It was a painfully slow pace but necessary if I was going to adjust properly to the bike and be warmed up for the climb that I could see in front of me.

Riders were everywhere as I hit the base of Look Out Mountain where the hang gliders were floating above me. I found the 25 checked my heart rate (150) and tried to settle in to a punishing couple of hours going uphill. I was going slow enough to actually get out my camera and take some good shots of the scenery, switch backs and hang gliders, but then a strange thing happened as my pulse rate actually dropped a little and I ventured into the 23 and began standing up over the steeper sections. I started catching and passing tourists who had dropped me near the bottom, and then I actually started catching some serious looking master type riders between stopping to take more scenic pictures of the Coors Brewery and Denver off in the distance.

The Tarmac was light and stiff and I was getting more comfortable on it the higher I went which got me to thinking about how cold and somewhat dangerous the descent would be. I was fortunate to catch and ride with a grizzled local rider who was older than me and as we talked he offered to loan me his outer glove shells for the return down the mountain.

The Tarmac handled flawlessly going into and out of what seemed to be an endless number of switchbacks on the way down while I was doing my best not to look at the spectacular views in between.

The next morning Ron and I got together for a tour of the shop and then went for coffee to talk over old and new times in our lives. His wife was expecting a baby boy within two weeks, it would be his first and we had common ground there in regards to being first time dad’s at a later age. He also reflected back on his racing days, Ron had ridden and completed the Tour de Frances seven times, was the first American to win a Grand Tour stage, (#15 in the 1985 Giro) and was inducted into the US Bicycling Hall of Fame.

This was a very special time between a rider who had a great career and a coach who’s career was from a previous era and not as grandiose as his former junior’s turned out to be. Ron’s face lit up as he talked about the tactics of knowing the right moves and how reacting to those moves was what he missed most about his competitive years in the peloton. I asked about some of his teammates, such as Davis Phinney, Chris Carmichael, and Greg LeMond and how often he had contact with them. As a shop owner with well over 35 employee’s Ron is settled into the community and a routine that is nothing like the years he spent traveling and racing around the world. ‘WheatRidge’ has a few big ‘Professional Rider’ night promotions in the course of the year that have included such luminaries as Eddie Merckx, Lance Armstrong, Chris Carmichael, and Greg LeMond but if they don’t find their way to his shop the years slip away without the opportunity to reminisce like Ron and I were having at this moment.

After the trade show in Tacoma, Washington I spent the weekend with my sister in a little town 30 miles from Bend, Oregon and had arrangements to ride with a very special friend who had just won two Gold Medals at the Paralympics in Beijing China. Barb Buchan’s story is one of incredible focus, discipline and determination to recover from a terrible bike crash, which put her in a coma for many months back in 1986. If you have the Sports Illustrated with Greg LeMond on the cover with is tuxedo and bike from 1986 you will find the story of Barb in that same issue.

She had not been riding much since Beijing but arranged for me to borrow her neighbor’s road bike over the weekend. We went out for a nice easy ride in Bend and then I took some pictures of us and her medals before riding out to my sister’s in Powell Butte.

Back making sales calls north of Seattle I found myself finishing up my last appointment in Port Townsend, Washington with time for a quick ride if I could find a bike at 4:45pm. Looking through the yellow pages I took a chance and called PT Cycles that seemed to be close by. He said he could rent me a bike for an hour or so before he closed up and gave me directions.

As I drove into town along the waterfront I found this classic back alley shop in the heart of the historic district. He had nothing but repair bikes and used bikes nothing new, no dealership of any kind. I felt like I had walked into a time warp with my SPD pedals in hand. I clicked into my ‘throw-back’ mindset and was just happy to get on anything for a quick sight seeing ride before the fog rolled in. Bob fixed me up with a vintage 1980’s era steel Centurion with downtube shifters and off I went. Talk about a flashback, I had my street cloths on with one pant leg rolled up as I kept pressing against the brake hoods each time I had to shift. I was light-years away from the Specialized Tarmac I had ridden in Denver but somehow this old steel machine was waking up some synapses in my muscle memory and I began to flashback to my steel Raleigh Pro that I rode from San Diego to Montreal back in the early 1970’s. I was quickly brought back to reality while descending straight down a bumpy road at what had to be 40mph when I tried the old center pull brakes. Getting thrown over the handlebars was not going to be a problem here.

All things considered it turned out to be an invigorating ride with some sight seeing thrown in towards the end. Once back at the shop the Bob showed me some of his older track bikes (from my era) that are now becoming collectors’ items. He also gave a call to a local historic hotel The Belmont, to hook me up with a nice room on the water at a discount. The charge for the rental was $7.00 and yes I got a receipt, it was a bargain. Right up there with the free 3 hour ride on that somewhat more expensive Specialized Tarmac that Ron Kiefel hooked me up with about 10 days previous.

A few days later while making sales calls in Vancouver on a sunny day I was reminded by a client that if I was going to attempt a bike ride in this ‘Cycling Friendly’ city that I had better do it today as the sun was going to disappear into rain for the next week or so.

I had no time to waste and no time to even think about hooking up with any old timers from days gone by to borrow a bike. There was just time to do the standard bike rental from the typical high volume tourist rental shop next to Stanley Park. I changed into my cycling clothes for this one and off I went on a decent Giant road bike for a sunset ride out on the point of Stanley Park for about 25 miles. I did end up riding with a local cat 3 rider and chatting about the local race scene before I had to get back before closing.

All things considered this was a successful business and bike-riding trip, not as stress free as having my own bike with me, but I got to visit with some old friends and meet some new ones.

Bill Humphreys