Some more boat executions, an unsurprising situation, and in the “the stupid it burns” department…
Fifty years ago I was riding across the US of A doing the Bikecentennial on my Peugeot UO8 bike.
As it happens, the Peugeot UO8, a bike I’d bought new in 1971 for $90 bucks, was not the bike I’d planned to be riding on such an adventure. The bike I planned to cross the nation with was a bespoke custom-built touring steed. My dream bike from the British workshop of the great Bob Jackson. A bike with only the best components (Campagnolo). In other words, the perfect touring bike.
A bike that should have been under my sore butt as I climbed yet another hill in the Rocky mountains.
As it happens, my Bob Jackson had gone walkabout. Lost in USA Customs somewhere. Hence the decision to attempt the ride with my less than impressive Peugeot. Which, I should add, most of my cycling friends balked at the decision. The word “insane” was often used.
Still, the Peugeot was the bike I had. So it was the bike I rode.
The first part of the trip was LA to Portland to meet up with the Bikecentennial trail. Everything worked and the only problems I encountered were a couple of flats and a few broken spokes. Luckily, a bike shop in San Francisco let me use their truing stand to rebuild my wheels with beefier spokes. This solved the breaking spokes issue caused by the extra 30+ pounds in my panniers. The only problems I had for the rest of the ride were flats and tires.
The Peugeot performed as well or better than a lot of the top end bikes doing the trail. It also taught an important lesson on want and need. I wanted the Bob Jackson but really only needed a bike up to the task…
The Peugeot.
I would have been a lot better off not buying the Bob Jackson. When it finally arrived in LA, I rode it a bit but the mental cost of constantly worrying about bike theft meant I continued riding the Peugeot. I sold the Bob Jackson to someone who, apparently, needed a top of the line bike but never actually rode it. Depressing that.
These days we have folding bikes that are OK for shopping, a bit of sight seeing, and sorta/kinda fit on the boat. That said, I still regularly find myself checking eBay and Craigslist for fifty-year old Peugeot UO8s…
So it goes…