"Any Bike, Anywhere"

L-R: Harry Winand, Gene Oberpriller (One On One Bike Studio, owner), John Stamstad, Chris Kostman at the 24 Hours of Canaan

Ahhh, the late '80s and all through the '90s... some of my fondest memories of riding my bike come from this time. I had my brand new Raleigh mountain bike given to me as a birthday gift from mom, a bike that I had picked out in the Now Sports bike shop in Uptown. The shop was a dealer of many different brands of bikes, but the one brand I remember the most, the one I kept coming back to were the Cannondales. American made, large diameter aluminum tube race bikes with top-of-the-line componentry, bright, metallic paint and skinny, slick tires... "to go fast!" 


For all of my lusting after the mucho dinero C'dales, and begging mom to reconsider, the final decision to get me a 21 speed, steel Raleigh mountain bike was a very wise one. The basic mountain bikes of those times actually were to become--and very commonly used as--fairly decent, durable, all around urban bikes. 90% of my riding consisted of getting around the city, for transport and for recreation. I was even able to keep up with, and in some cases, ride faster than, spandex-clad road bikers on those high dollar race bikes I had been lusting after. The point is, I made due with what I had.


This brings me to one of the best bike articles I have come across on the internets, authored by a man named Chris Kostman:


"Any Bike, Anywhere" 


If you have the time (and I know you do for such a well written and convincing article!) please read it. The moral to all of this is to get out and ride, no matter what bike you have.