{"id":7,"date":"2014-06-27T11:21:55","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T11:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/ridelikeaturtle\/sport\/?p=7"},"modified":"2017-11-22T22:54:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T22:54:22","slug":"cycling-days-gone-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/cycling-days-gone-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling Days Gone By…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I really wish I had pictures of the bicycles I\u2019ve had! Now that I consider them, I had quite a few.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>

John at Flat Pass, Moab UT, on his Amp Research B4<\/p><\/div>\n

My bicycle history is, I hope, interesting: the first half-decent bike (and I mean that truly, it was only half-decent) was an old (and I mean old!) second-hand Cannondale that I bought off a fellow Colorado State University student, after my horrible \u201cUnivega\u201d (which I destroyed in more ways than you can imagine) was crudely bent beyond salvaging by some fool (me) who decided to jump it off a burm at the base of the \u201cA-trail\u201d, but didn\u2019t have the talent to land.<\/p>\n

\"Camping<\/a>

Camping in Castle Valley on one of many bike weekends.<\/p><\/div>\n

I then proceeded to beat the crap out of that Cannondale on the trails around Horsetooth reservoir in Fort Collins, Colorado. But with the help of Mark Dinkelman \u2013 who was the manager of a bike shop in Fort Collins who got me parts for that Cannondale, and is still the hardest-working off-road biker I know \u2013 I rebuilt it and turned it into a fairly nice ride.<\/p>\n

After acquiring (for cheap), fixing up and flipping a 1973 Chevy El Camino, I sold the Cannondale and got a very decent bike, a Diamondback <something-or-other> hardtail, which Mark convinced me to upgrade with better wheels\u2026 and boy was it a step up!<\/p>\n

At the same time, Mark had convinced me to get into road cycling, and sold me a \u201cWheeler\u201d with Shimano 105 components. Not a bad intro road bike.<\/p>\n

Now for the good stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not too long after this, Terry Simpkins \u2013 whom I met in the dorm at Colorado State University, and we\u2019ve remained friends ever since \u2013 had seemed to tire of his 1996 Amp Research B4, which he purchased new, but barely rode. I purchased it off him for next-to-nothing, and\u00a0I still have it!<\/em>\u00a0It\u2019s certainly now a classic, and someday (hopefully soon) I might do a nut-and-bolt rebuilt of it.<\/p>\n

Also about this time, Mark was running an amateur cycling racing team, and managed to get sponsored by Klein, meaning he had a 1996 Bianchi Ti Megatube w\/a full Campagnolo component group and carbon fork, just sitting there\u2026 so I bought that off him for next-to-nothing, and\u00a0I still have it too!<\/em>\u00a0Again, certainly another classic. In fact, I might start riding that again the next time I\u2019m in France.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The 1996 Amp Research B4 – a feat of engineering and a classic mountain bike.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The 1996 Bianchi Ti Megatube, another future classic.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I really wish I had pictures of the bicycles I\u2019ve had! Now that I consider them, I had quite a few. My bicycle history is, I hope, interesting: the first half-decent bike (and I mean that truly, it was only half-decent) was an old (and I mean old!) second-hand Cannondale that I bought off a<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}