#2 – French folder, black (technically not mine, but I rode the crap out of it): This was my grandparents’ bike and it had a tire dynamo to run lights (so cool when you’re 9) and big slicks. I ran it off a 3′ jump and landed it solid flat on the pavement in the next cul de sac over. I had to walk it back up the street home.

#3 Trek 820 Singletrack, black: I rode the parts off that bike even though the frame was really about 2″ too big. I got it from a friend whose riding was cut short when he was hit by a van. I rode that all over the place. I rode to nearby towns on my first bicycle excursions outside of town. I rode to find trails to bomb down. I put a profile bar and slicks on it and rode the Seattle to Portland (2-day). I sold it when I got to college.

#4 Barracuda A2B: The first bike I bought myself. It was squirrelly as all get out and I bought one in a size that leaned me over way too far, but I still have it and take it out to go jump curbs or hit the fire roads. It saw life as a commuter for a time. I gave those tires, fenders, and rack to a student who needed coverage for his bike so he could get around when his dad got sick.

#5 1998 Klein Stage: I found this on consignment at a local shop. It sat there and every time I drove by the shop, I’d go in to look at it. They wouldn’t come down off the price for 3 years (!) until I finally let the idea of getting that bike go. I went bike shopping after a heart-to-heart with my wife and a desire to lose some of the extra 25 pounds I was carrying at the time. I went shop to shop and found my Klein Stage still there when I got to that shop. They cut me a deal and I walked out with a new bike. I learned how to ride clipless pedals on a pair of MTB pedals and went from shorts to bike shorts to bibs and full kit on that bike. I rode centuries and club rides. I put thousands of miles on its gloriously stiff frame. I dismantled it when I got a Klein Aura XV frame, then built it as a single speed I used to commute to work after we moved about 1.5 miles from school.

#6 – 2006 Specialized Tricross – I bought this from a shop in Portland that was the first to get the bike in the state as a commuter to take on the 18 mile round trip from our old house to work. I towed my girls on trail-a-bikes behind it. I bombed fire roads on it. It was a workhouse as a commuter but I was never happy with the front brake, which is not a good thing to be unhappy with. I stripped the rack and fenders off an put on the Specialized fork hanger made specifically for this fork (apparently I was not the only one) so I could ride this summer’s Oregon Coast Gravel Epic (come ride it) somewhat comfortably. I raced it this fall in two cyclocross series and beat the tar out of it.

#7 – Klein Aura XV – I picked up this frame off eBay with the intent to build it up. My wife bought me parts for Christmas so it got built early. This is my go-to road machine. I have upgraded it so much the only things left from the original build are the bars, stem, and shifters. The super tight tolerances in the chain stays make fitting a modern, wide rim really tight. It gets washed and waxed more often than my car. On it, I’ve met good riding buddies, met goals, and rode with Team Fatty 5 times.

Bikes really are awesome.

Next up was a Raleigh 10 speed that I took to college, rode to classes and to work at UCSB. Bike clips essential to keep bell bottom pants out of the chain. In 1975 my newly-wed husband and I bought a pair of Araya road bikes in Indiana. They were silver, very light and had cool thumb shifters. We had a grand time touring roads and parks in Wisconsin during 6 mo. stay in Chicago for UCSB‘s time slot at Fermi Lab. Loved seeing fireflies. Humidity,not so much.

Back in CA we put the Aryas to use riding around Isla Vista and UCSB. The series of bike paths that headed off campus through the Goleta Slough and down to Goleta beach always fun. Good bird watching too.

Moved to Oregon and for a long time I didn’t ride. Now I have a Giant Suede which has marked my era of getting back on a bike. The fat tires remind me of the Huffy but the upright position suits me. We have lived at the top of one hill or another for over 30 years. Our current hill has an official 14% grade road marker. You can descend like a maniac heading out but that climb will have to be conquered to get home. I have let that steep hill and the rain talk me out of riding too often. Now I read about riding. Thank you Fatty and FoF for hours of fun and inspiration.

Living in the hometown of Salsa Bicycles, maker of the beautiful Beargrease Crabon (sic) fat bike, I feel strongly that you should have TJHIS fat bike (the 2015 Beargrease Carbon XX1):

I think you can agree that the colors are correct, nay, PERFECT. And the best part is that the orange underbelly is largely seen only by those positioned lower than your bicycle, perhaps as they are bowing to it’s beauty and the awesomeness of it’s rider.

I should probably point out that this rack has my bikes, The Hammer’s bikes, the twins’ bikes, The IT guy’s bike, and The Swimmer’s bikes. In other words, yeah it’s a lot of bikes…but for six riders. – FC

Given all the high end, latest and greatest bikes you’ve owned, Fatty, I’m surprised you haven’t ever gotten a custom frame built up. There are a lot of great builders out there and your stable is missing a nice Ti bike!

I wish I still had my first two “real” bikes:

On my 7th birthday, my Dad took me took me to some guy across Seattle that collected old bike, reconditioned and resold them. I gave my heart to a Raleigh single speed ‘racer’. Bright orange. (drop bars, so it was a racer. It was a junior sized bike, just right for me, with 24″ wheels.

Dad was pushing a 26″ wheels full sized Schwinn cruiser with spring saddle suspension, and a 3-speed bendix hub “transmission”. He felt like I would grow into it and get more use out of it. I was not really charmed by the clunky style – I originally thought I wanted a Stingray (think cheap BMX, but with banana seat and ape hanger handle bars), but Dad nixed that as a stupid fad.

We ended up going home with the Schwinn, and I was still excited about it. But it was so big, that dad had to remove the seat, and I rode around standing up, with a protection rag wrapped round the seatpost top!

Dad was so impressed that I continued to ride the hell out of that thing that he went and got me the Raleigh. I truly loved that bike. But, as he predicted, I outgrew it.

I still wanted a stingray, and I really wanted a cool metal-flake paint scheme, not the dorky red & white 2-tone Schwinn paint job.

Perhaps this was a premonition of my future as a Mechanical Engineer. I completely stripped that frame bare, right down to individual BBs in the bottom bracket, and gave it a Krylon Purple metal flake paint job.

Between apparently unconscious mechanical ability, and inexcusably poor style & taste, I think dad knew I was destined to be an engineer. I got it all back together by myself, though!

I saved up for a white banana seat and a set of ape hangers. I ditched the dorky Schwinn grips and bought something cool.

I had my 3-speed, 26″ Stingray!

Wish it was in my garage, if only to gaze in wonder at how ugly a purple full-sized Stingray with a white banana seat is.

“Trusty Rusty” (my affectionate name for her) has carried my carcass through 20-some RAGBRAIs, a couple of other trans-state rides in the upper Midwest, several editions of the TOSRV, a few dozen “something-a-thon” rides to benefit things like the Am Cancer Society, and countless other club rides, organized century/metric century runs, and the occasional day spent just wandering down a country backroad on my own.  She has been given a place of honor inside my home (no cold garage for her!), and I do take her out for a ride every now and then.

And if the time ever came where I might have to choose between Rusty and my living, breathing girlfriend …… well, there’s a lot of other women out there to pick from.

-”BB”-