I got back into bikes during undergrad. I was living on campus and a car just didn’t make sense for going to and from classes, the busses sucked, and walking is slow. So I took an old bike from home and rode it for two years. Then, some jackass stole it by braking the bike rack it was locked to. It was a cheap bike, but it was still mine, and I decided I’d replace it.

A friend of a friend hooked me up with his employee discount at a local bike shop, and I had a nice new Giant OCR3. Not an amazing bike by any means, but it was def a step up from the hybrid like bike that had been stolen. I felt like I could just fly on that thing. One of my high school classmates was training for an Ironman, so I rode with him for about a year before the maintenance began to irritate me. Not to say I was lazy, but Florida has rain DAILY in the summer, so cleaning/greasing became a daily practice.

Eventually I went to an Alleycat that the barista from my local coffee shop was putting on. From here I became introduced to the fixed gear / single speed scene and opted to sell the Giant to a friend and get a fixie.

I’m happy about having gotten into the bike scene as I like mechanical stuff (my dad and I took apart and mostly rebuilt an 82 Porsche 911 engine during my last 2 years in college) and biking gave me a way to keep busy. Additionally I liked community that exists in cycling. It’s like having a giant family.

i started riding a bike b/c i used to run every day, and the summer after freshmen year i worked nights at a restaurant. i’d get out late, sleep till eleven or 12, and have to be at work again by 630. it was too hot to run 3 or more miles without passing out, so i dug my dad’s old trek crosstown out of the shed, stuck waterbottles in a bag, threw on some shorts and took off around the jersey countryside.

i wish i had invested in a bike sooner. it wasn’t until i got back to school in the fall that i realized how frustrating it was to rely on getting myself around on foot, as i never much enjoyed the T and rarely used it. i finally got a bike and tagged along on a thursday night ride. i got my ass handed to me and sat off to the side on the beach at castle island, wondering why everyone kept talking about fractions. until i realized people were discussing gear ratios, even though i didn’t know the proper term for it at the time.

i second moscow’s wishing i had got into it sooner. but i’m glad that a bike shop hired me, mainly b/c they found be personable, believed i would be a good worker and knew that i was willing to learn. despite me not knowing nearly enough about bikes. i’m glad that i met the people i did. and i’m glad that i never have to take the T now.

My reintroduction to bicycles since the times of my youth occurred later than robot. I always wish that I had started riding more seriously sooner in my life, but am glad that it happened when it did. I remember when I went on a long ride for the first time. My friend peter invited me to go on a ride with him, and he came over with his kit on and nice cannondale road bike with 600 on it, I remember thinking that he looked dumb in all of that spandex. We went to a bike shop and i bought a pair of cages to attach to an old road bike that was in my garage, and some bike shorts, peter convinced me to spring for the comfort. We went back to the house and I took down the old Sekai Sprint 1000 road bike with old suntour components from the hooks in the garage. I laced up an old pair of nike indoor soccer shoes and we were off. I remember being amazed at how fast we could go. That summer was filled with memorable rides with peter and his father. The bike was improved by removing the decals, some new bar tape, a tune up, some gatorskins, and a longer stem. A couple of weeks after that first ride I got in touch with the head of the athletics department at my alma mater, he took me under his wing, going on a few rides with me, giving me tips here and there. Mr. Montgomery was an older guy and had(has) continued to compete in competitive cycling events across the country, and is still nationally ranked. I didn’t know it at the time, but his son raced track in oregon with robot. That summer Mr. Montgomery let me borrow some old Time shoes and pedals, and the summer after he let me borrow a badass old carbon fiber with aluminum lugged road bike with full 600, and gave me some shoes. I loved stomping around minneapolis/st. paul with that bike, it was white with internal cable routing and said “profile: for speed” on the side, and it had a little bumble bee decal on the top tube. People would always ask me about the bike.
I wish that I would have jumped on the opportunity at the time, and i’ve been kicking myself in the ass for it since, but both my friend peter’s father and mr. montgomery tried to take me out to the velodrome in blaine, mn and get me set up with a bike and give me some lessons, during that first summer. Peter’s father was the commissioner out there, and mr. montgomery was a veteran racer/celebrity out at the track. I still have yet to ride a velodrome.

Thanks to those people for getting me on a bike. I owe them a lot.

In 1991 I rode a track bike that was at a shop that taught me everything I know about wrenching. It was a Merckx with full campy, double straps, and shellac covered cotton tape. It seemed nice. I knew nothing about track racing till 1993. And messengering has always been the one bike thing I haven’t done. that is one of the only reasons I’ve wanted to do it. I hate elevators and offices, so well. No.

haha, when i bought my chrome bag, i felt like a poser with a bag big enough to fit my school stuff in. now that i’ve been working for like a month, i feel like a poser with a job at a messenger company.

Story time? Might as well!

My interest in bikes started when I was really young. I grew up in Pawtucket, RI and the neighborhood kids and I used to spend all of our time riding bikes around town. My father and I used to collect every junked bike around town and fix them up. He taught me all the basics of how to take care of a bicycle and I owned some of the most heinous frankensteined bicycles when I was young. I thought I was pretty cool cool whenever something happened to bike in town because we would take it to my house and I’d fix it for them.

I moved when I was in my early teens into a much more rural town and thats when I made the change to mountain biking. Once again my first mountain bike was a collection of who knows what found hear and there (I think the frame was a roadmaster) and used to ride around the woods behind my house.

During high school I lost track of cycling and only once and a while did I ever ride. When I came to Boston, during my freshmen year, I soon realized that a bicycle was far better then public transportation. Though during my bicycle hiatus my father decided that it would be a good idea to rid ourselves of the some 7-10 cycles we had around our house (including a gorgeous yellow 10 speed with chrome fenders, oh and we’re major pack-rats so you know) and so I was forced to search for a new bike. Thats when I found a horde of bikes tossed to the curb by one house; a small 89′ Schwinn Traveler in excellent condition, an 80’s Marushi in near excellent condition, and a no-name cruiser that had seen better days. I tuned up the two road bikes, gave the Schwinn to my girlfriend (which she still rides now, although I turned it into a SS for her) and also repaired the cruiser (rattle canned it yellow and added a basket) and gave that to her as well (though its seen little use ). The Marushi was mine but soon was replaced by a much larger 80’s Myata that I road for a while.

That takes us to about last summer where I acquired my new collection thats listed in the introduce yourself thread. This past year I’ve gotten far more serious into cycling (I owe people like Greg and Lauren thanks for helping fuel my interest) and finally just joined the WIT cycling team. I hope to be getting in on more group rides and getting to know everyone on the forums. It’s certainly nice to have all these people similar interests to talk about (whenever I talk about bikes in my apartment it soon becomes a joke about how I’m ‘cheating on my girlfriend with my bicycle’).

That went on longer then it should have. Sorry guys.

Ever since I saw Quicksilver I’ve wanted to be a messenger.
I was that kid who showed up periodically at Transerve, hoping someone would hook me up with a job.

When I was 16 I got into road and track racing in a big way.
Having dropped out of high school, I made myself a regular at the bike shop where all the messengers went.
I had a huge crush on this messenger, Natalie.
I listened to everything Jen had to say because she didn’t talk much.
Her boyfriend scared the shit out of me.

Sacha would help me find rides to races and had an instinct for reading the peloton.

In a way, I was their kid brother by proxy.

A different Jen (who I randomly encountered in a bar my freshman year out here) cut my hair into a sweet mullet.
Nacho took me out drinking.
Corey The Kid invited me to a party.
Robin invited me to race in his alleycat.

Man, when I was 16, I hated everything.
And they knew it.

Those awesome yellow Brikos that I rawk, a messenger gave ‘em to me.
Same with my first messenger bag, a Chrome, so big I could have lived in it.

When I was old enough, Stumpy Bob gave me my first work delivering ESL packets to every middle school in the city.

But I was never a messenger, not really.
I’ve always been a pretendenger, a fakenger, a poser, an internet kid.

And I’m grateful for it.
-robot