In my sophmore year at university, my dormmate showed up with a brand new
Fuji America touring bike. On the weekends he'd load her up and off he'd go, exploring Wake County, camping and cycling through the countryside of North Carolina. America was in still in the midst of Bicentennial fervor and
Bikecentennial was a big part of those celebrations. I was completely envious and wanted to be a part of it. (Also see:
Bikecentennial: Summer of 1976)
I went home that following summer and quickly realised that I could not afford a Fuji America. However, whilst dreaming of cycle touring, I discovered a bike in the shop window at my LBS (Toga Bike shop). TREK was a much more affordable bike and it looked fantastic. I was sold. I put $50 down and paid her off over the next few months as I worked several summer jobs.
Today, nearly 45 years later, as I write this bio, I realize that I am also writing a bit of my own story as well. Having owned and cycled on the same bike for over 40 years has that effect I guess. She's been with me everywhere, all the places I lived and worked, through the good times and the very difficult. I've always prided myself in owning her for all this time, but as I look back, I also see her as companion... something I've always turned to, time and time again, to get away from it all, to escape. I feel very fortunate.
For the first eight years. "Lizzie" and I cycled mostly around North and South Carolina, sometimes into Virginia. From the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Outer Banks, it was our early years of cycle touring and we did our best to see as much as we could. I was pretty poor during these years and cycle touring was an inexpensive way to explore.
Sometime around 1984-85, I became mesmorized by the shiny new components on display in the glass case at
Cycles de Oro (Greensboro, NC) and splurged on a full Shimano 600EX groupset (including the infamous Biopace triple crankset!) She was like a new bike!
In 1988, we moved to Manhattan where cycle touring was non-esistant. However, I discovered that we could get away from the Big Apple rather quickly on the Amtrak train. Soon we were heading north on the weekends into the Hudson Highlands. Bear Mountain and Harrimon State Park were two popular destinations as we explored the small towns of the Catskills. Life became pretty busy for me during this time and sadly, I didn't ride her as often as I would have liked. New York City was pretty unfriendly to cycling and I found myself mostly pedaling about on an old Motobecane I picked up cheap. (Yes, I wish I still had that beauty!)
In 1996, we escaped "Gotham" and spent an amazing "summer of love" wandering the Mission District of San Francisco and climbing San Bruno Mountain. I was on a work location and I almost didn't come back. We went on several short trips where I quickly discoverd that cycling on the West Coast was like nothing I had every experieced.
We then re-located to Chicago in 1997 where we had a brief and passionate love-affair with Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue. Chicagoland was so surprising. If "New York is Disneyland for the dysfunctional" (as stated by Kurt Vonnegut), then Chicgo is the big city for normal people. I loved it there and rode Lizzie everywhere.
However, my work pulled us back to New York and once again she sat, dusty and neglected for another couple of years in a Brooklyn apartment.
But in 1998 and after 18 arduous years, the miles had taken its toll on her natural good looks. I sent her back down to
Cycles de Oro in Greenboro, North Carolina - back to Dale Brown, the very man from whom she was purchased (then at Toga Bike Shop). Dale went to work on the girl, brazing cable guides to the top tube & bottom bracket, adding integrated rack mounts, additional water bottle mounts, and finally topped it off with a sparkling new re-spray.
In 1999, we moved again. This time to Connecticut where we renewed our love for the open road by wandering through New England again. But by then the Shimano 600 hubs had worn out (after how many miles???), so I again splurged with a lovely set of new Campagnola hubs on Wolber GTX 2 rims! (built by Dale Brown, of course.) We spent many weekends visiting the colonial shipping ports between Bar Harbor and New Haven. Unfortunately, I was then struck by a car on a quiet Saturday morning on Main Street in Old Saybrook. Neither of us were traveling very fast, but I bumped the curb rather severly damaging the front wheel, handlebars, and fork. Needless to say, I had them all replaced. (Thanks again Dale!)
In 2002, we left the "Nutmeg State" and returned to our old stomping ground of the "Tarheel State" where we quickly resumed our rambling along the back country roads we had first discovered so many years ago. During a lengthy ride along the Outer Banks in 2003, the return spring in the Shimano 600 rear derailleur snapped, so I made the questionable decision to replace both the front and rear derailleurs with a NOS Shimano Deore set I stumbled upon in a little bike shop in Surf City, NC. It was a lucky find! (But I should have saved the 600 set...)
However, within a few years we were no longer content with the rolling hills of the Piedmont. In 2005, I boxed her up and we flew down to Cancun where we spent an exciting summer exploring Playa del Carma, Tulum, and the Yucatan Pennisula of Mexico.
In 2006 we embarked on a long coastal drive down the Eastern Seaboard to the Florida Keys. It was a wonderful three months of drifting through the antebellum towns of Charleston, Savannah, and St. Augustine. Riding from Key Largo to Key West solidified our desire for bigger and longer rides.
A boy and his bicycle timeline...
In 2009, we made our first trip abroad; visiting Wales for three weeks and rolling along the Gower, exploring the Pembrokeshire Coast, and climbing the majestic mountains of the Brecon Beacons. It was a life changing event.
Before our return trip the following year, a new Sugino triple-crankset was installed (better gearing for the hills - 46/36/26). We then spent another two weeks exploring the Valleys of South East Wales. These two trips confirmed our desire and by 2011, I could not hold back. I packed up all we could carry in a full set of panniers (even adding a Burley trailer), sold everything else I owned and went to the UK with only a vague notion of our furure.
Lizzie then sat for two years, boxed up and unriden. Meanwhile, life went on. I got married, settled down and purchased a new Dawes Galaxy in early 2012.
In 2013, I finally pulled her out of the box and reassembled her (see:
Lizzie Rolls Again!). For a couple of years I rode her cautiously and only during the summer and only when it was dry (quite limiting in the UK). However, by 2015 Lizzie developed some serious mechanical issues and I was unsure about how to proceed. The rear axle broke and the rims were old-school 27" x 1.25" (not easily found in the UK). I disassembled her again, put away her parts, and hung her frame on our back kitchen wall where she quietly rested for another two years whilst I contemplated her future.
By 2017, I decided to re-build Lizzie (see:
Lizzie Rides Again Part II.) I purchased a replacement Campagnola axle, a new Nitto stem and randoneur handlebars (more in-line with the originals). We cycled over the next couple of years (again only during the dry summer months) until the rear axle broke yet again in 2019. This time the hub shell cracked as well — essentially making the wheel(s) worthless. I disassembled her and once again hung her back on the wall.
Jump forward to 2020 — I made the decision to change her wheel size down to 700c with new rims and hubs and new log-reach brake calipers. It was a difficult decision, but I found a great set of wheels built by
Spa Cycles (where I purchased my Dawes, btw) which included Exal LX17 rims and Zenith wide-flange hubs. I also purchased a set of Tektro R559 Dual Pivot brake calipers. As a final touch, I splurged on a set of Giles Berthoud mudguards which trimmed her out nicely.
Today, I only ride her during the summer months, when the weather is good, and keep her annual milage around 1k. She lives a relaxed life now — rolling along the quiet country lanes of Wales. You can checkout the details of where and when I ride each of my bikes in the appropriately named: "
Rides by Bike". I feel so very fortunate to still have this girl after all our journeys, mishaps, and adventures.
Lizzie seems to be doing quite well here (... as do I.) I am a luck boy indeed.
You can read more about classic TREKs at:
Vintage TREK Bikes.
