11 Replies to “WordPress for BB take 2”

  1. hi mike!

    tis a beautiful bike. I’d have riv envy but am too paranoid to own one. that’s a bike i wouldn’t want to scratch…

  2. Hi, Mike,

    I tried to talk my brother Louis (new father, young college prof.) into the 200k ride you put together, but no dice. Something about tenure and a two-week old child? Madness.

    Anyway, @chef: If you had a Rivendell (or, for that matter any new bike), you’d either get over the scratch paranoia, or sell it. Any nice bike is too much to keep from riding. Unfortunately, my beautiful, wonderful, special one-off machines all look like photojournalists’ old cameras after a year or two. So much for the “all original, down to the tires” resale to a well-heeled collector.

  3. William (and Dave) – more rides in the pipe. Planning to run one of my favorite dirt / mixed routes this fall, when the colors hit. 70 miles or 200k(ish) option. Starts in BTV, runs behind Mansfield and then down to within climbing distance of Camel’s Hump. Dirt, carriage, paved – rolling to hilly and steep depending on which route to ride…

    So talk that brother into it.. 😉

    Dave – good luck with the house… maybe we’ll see you again soon?

    Chef – you’d make a good Riv owner… and no worries about the bikes – just lock it up and keep an eye on it. The Riv pictured gets ridden out to bars and dinner, and locked on Church St. here in town. And John tosses that rig around on the dirt like nobody’s business.

  4. mike, perhaps, and i’d certainly enjoy a riv, but the recently obtained lht is doing the trick. love that bike and don’t think it’ll need replacing for a while.

    wlm – even the lht is too nice to ride, but i’m getting over that. so i see your point. it’s about the ride anyway, eh?

  5. the evening before D2R2 last year, I took said rivendell for a spin and encountered a pack of rogue llamas, which are New England’s equivalent of the Mara Salvatrucha. they were loitering on a bridge over the deerfield river, just looking for trouble.

    notoriously anti-cyclist, they spat at me with incredible coordination and accuracy. it was clearly a well organized and practice gang. temporarily blinded, I had no choice but to lay A.H. Hilsen down and we both slid off the bridge, into the river below.

    In a panic, I rode the riv out of the river (you can do that on a country bike) to dry land and had a closer look at the damage. to my great surprise, i found nary a scratch! but, as I climbed the river bank, i noticed something different about the bike’s handling. what’s this? could it be? I was planing like never before!!

    I never told John about the llama incident. but I did nonchalantly ask him after D2R2 how his bike felt. he just smiled. maybe he knows, maybe he doesn’t. but we both know this – this Hilsen is a better bike because of those llamas.

  6. yes – and behind bars, where they belong. you can just sense the llama/cyclist tension in that photo.

  7. I had suspected such a tale all along.

    There can be no worldly explanation for the fine handling of A.H. Hilsen, other than the ceremonial blessing of a careful concoction of rogue llama spit, and the blood, sweat, and tears recently discovered in the Deerfield River.

    That, and I found a bit of shredded ibex knickers in my chainring.

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