Sunday, April 10, 2011

A Link to the Past

At Christmas of 1991, when I was in 9th grade, I was really excited to receive a new set of wheels. Not a car, my first of which was still over 2 years away, but a new Huffy Canyon 10-speed mountain bike.



I'd finally had somewhat of a growth spurt, and I was outgrowing my trusty Kent BMX dirt bike that I'd had since (probably) third or fourth grade.

My golden age of, biking, when two neighborhood friends and I would ride all over surrounding neighborhoods and trails and build ever more dangerous bike ramps, was over, but I still got a fair amount of use out of the bike during high school and on trips home from college.

In June of 1999, shortly after graduating from college, I moved away from parents' house to Philadelphia, and left the bike behind, relying only on my feet, my trusty Neon and some not so trusty SEPTA buses for all my transportation needs. I moved three more times since then, including back to the York area, but the bike stayed in my parents' garage until they sold their house in 2006.

Since then, it's languished in our basement, tires dry rotted and brakes squeaky from disuse. Until this day.

My wife, Chris, is training for the Keystone Warrior duathlon in June, and so had gotten new tires on another 1992ish mountain bike that had belonged to my mother or sister. She's gotten new tires, and gone out riding several times over the last two weeks, and I decided I'd join her (on some rides, not the duathlon). We picked the bike up from the shop on Friday, and today after sitting idle since at least 1999, it rides again.

Having not ridden a bike in over a decade, I was not fast, and the bike does not shift well or have front brakes that work very well (which is my fault), but it was fun to discover that something I loved when I was much younger is still fun today.

I rode 5.3 miles, if Garmin is to be believed, in 33:46. I guess my next ride should be scheduled for 2023, but I'll probably try again later in the week or early next.


4 comments:

  1. Good story Brian. It made me think of my old bike. I've been thinking about trying a du or tri so I need a bike, but I don't think my Huffy with the blue banana seat is still in existence. Guees I will go to Wal-Mart and see if I can recapature the magic on an el cheapo bike. If that works I may have a road bike in my future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If I were to ever want to ride in a race, even casually, I think I'd need to get new gears -- the chain got stuck a few times and I could un-stick it by pedaling backwards, and then it came completely out of gear once.

    So it would be a question of is it worth sinking $ into a bike this old (on the other hand, I already bought 2 new tires and the frame is in good shape) or getting a new one.

    Between several generations of shoes, Garmin, and layers of moisture-wicking clothing of varying effectiveness, running has more expensive than I thought it would be, so I'm trying to avoid drooling over the fancy bikes at the bike store.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i had a 1991 huffy stalker mountain bike in my jr high days ..and i had that bike until 1995 and the frame had broke and i got a new stalker frame in 1995 and it was kinda hard to come by but i had got one.but anyways i really loved that bike and i think the last time i remember it had a lot of miles on it ..i think it was like 5,600 miles on it ..but i really like to find a bike like that sometime but iam having no luck of finding one.but i had a 2004 giant boulder mountain bike and it had went everywhere like a long rides and it had like 15,000 miles on it and it still ..well barely ran but i had sold it and right now iam riding a 2001 next dual suspention mt. bike and its been the best bike i ever had and i think the bike cost like around 150 dollars when it was new ..but i had got it for free and put very little money into it to get it to run and i really like the bike ..but people had gave bad ratings on that bike but i think its like a very good bike for being 10yrs old in may of this yr 2011...and its a 2001 bike and please let me know if you can help me find a 1990-91 huffy stalker mt bike with the pro on the top bar and pretty close to oriaginal and looking about spending about 45.00 or so ..well thanks and have a good day .and thats my story..

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hope you find one, but I probably can't help you. This is the only bike I have, and I hope to get a lot more miles out of it.

    ReplyDelete