Remembering The Old School

Back in the day, this was my bike. Really!

I was up at the shop yesterday to bail out a customer that needed a special cassette built up from something he had brought in. While I was assembling that, I noticed a Surly Ogre, (yeah......hard NOT to notice that box!), and it needed assembling. So I stayed and started piecing it together.

I was twiddling wrenches when I looked up and saw a "customer" approaching the counter. Suddenly I recognized the figure as a person I hadn't seen in 18 years! It was an old riding buddy of mine. What an awesome surprise.

Well, it didn't take long before we were deep into the "old daze" when we both did a lot of riding together. Trips, night time rides, and after work jaunts in Geo Wyth. For a brief look at one adventure I wrote up a few years back, see here. Those night rides were actually instigated by this old friend, which is something I just learned yesterday. It was really fun to remember those times when riding was just for fun and adventure and mountain biking was still evolving at a breakneck pace.

It's funny to look back on it all now. In some ways, the whole suspension, free ride, and racing deal back then kind of messed up what was simply a great time. We didn't let it get to us, well......not too much. But as with anything, things change and we all went our different ways. It's all good......

It was great to reconnect after all these years and catch up, and who knows, maybe someday we'll be rolling wheels together again on another adventure.