In Memoriam: The bikes we have lost

[IvonaDestroi]

I was thinking about my old bike this morning, In fact, I realized that not a day goes by that I don't miss her. She was old and rusty, but she was literally made for me. I could sit perfectly straight up on her, and she even had a cup holder for my coffee. $12 out the door at goodwill. She was my fist 3 speed, and I don't think I can ever replace her.

1977 Columbia Sports 3
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd241/IvonaDestroi/Me/325959960_1114031094_0.jpg

About 6 months ago I went out to a party. There was a large collection of bikes in the front yard, behind a large ramp that led to the porch, mostly unlocked. Since I hadn't felt like lugging my big heavy chain lock that night, I brought a little wire wrap around master lock instead that I usually used for quick release seats. I locked her up in the bike pile and figured she was safe.

A bit later, I went out front and noticed 2 gang banger-ly dressed young children. One was about 12 years old, sitting on a mountain bike, the other maybe 8, sitting on his handlebars. They were eyeballing the bikes. I even said something to them, I don't remember what. Something about riding on handlebars. I figured she was safe, there was a multitude of party goers out front, they couldn't possibly steal something with so many people there. so I went in the back.

5 minutes later the announcement was made that a bike had been stolen. They had cut her lock and taken her. We rode around a bit looking for her, but she was gone:(

I miss you Columbia Sports 3!

[Trek420]

1997 Trek 420 memorialized here:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=711

[OakLeaf]

My first ten-speed, a green Peugeot UO-8. I was 13 years old and I saved up all year from my part-time jobs to buy her used from a colleague of my mom's. I'd made a piggy bank from a laundry detergent jug and my bike money went in there a couple of dollars at a time.

I rode her all through high school and college and about a year after I graduated. Commuting, day riding, just tooling around surveying my domain. I don't even remember what service she needed, but a friend of mine was supposed to work on her for me. She was stolen out of his shed. :(

Fast forward 25 years. I'm walking around town one day and there's one of my riding buddies. I only knew his newer road bike. But he's riding a green Peugeot UO-8! Not mine, one size larger frame - that would've been too much of a coincidence. But oh, seeing that bike made my heart hurt and brought back great memories all at once.

[Trek420]

Nice bike :cool:

http://www.geocities.com/randyjawa/PeugeotFrenchwhiteUO8Half.jpg

[grey]

1993(92?) Fuji Monterey hybrid bike.
I was 15 - I saved up all summer for a bike - mowing lawns, babysitting, etc. Paid $350 for her from the local bike shop. I tried out just a few bikes, but once I tried her, I knew she was it. She was silver-grey (like me!) and had accents and lettering in that same bright green all the businesses are using for their logos now. The bike owner tried to talk me out of it, because it was a "boy's bike" and here he had another bike that "rode like a Cadillac."

Dear Heavens.... I'm 15 and I live in South Florida. Cadillac is synonymous with blue hair!

I named her Greyfell - I had just been reading Sigfried, and that was his steed.

I rode her everywhere. She was pretty fast, she could go off the roads... She was my companion throughout college - we'd take 10miles each way to school in Gainesville, FL, and then braved the early morning rush hour traffic in Tampa.

For a while, I let her be stored in my parent's garage. One day I came looking for her and... my dad thought I no longer wanted her, and had thrown her away!

:eek:

I still miss her -nowadays I would have fitted her with baskets or saddlebags and she'd be my grocery-getter.

I can't even find a photo. If ANYBODY has one sitting around...

[wackyjacky1]

How I miss my 1985 Peugeot Orient Express! I bought that bike when I was still in college using my tax refund and the proceeds from selling my sturdy ol' Nishiki Sport (which I also miss, but not as much as that Peugeot). I rode that thing everywhere and loved every second.

A few years later, I let my boyfriend at the time use the bike one night. He locked it to a pole outside a bar, got drunk and forgot about it, and it was left there overnight. When he went back the next day to get it, naturally it had been stolen. I was heartbroken! :(

I've never had a bike I loved as much as that one, although the way I feel about my current bike is awfully close. :)

[kathybiker]

Hey Grey,

Oldtenspeedgallery.com has a grey Fuji Monterey with some green in the trim, though it doesn't look like a hybrid. See:
http://oldtenspeedgallery.com/owner-submitted/hugh-has-another-gem-fuji-monterey/

Also, jaxed.com offers a way to easily search for a bike on both ebay and craigslist in multiple cities. Here are curent listings for Fuji Monterey:
http://www.jaxed.com/cgi-bin/mash.cgi?cat=cpbike&itm=fuji&loc=&fil=monterey&ys=&ye=

I hope that at least a picture of your bike turns up.

It sounds as though your Dad tried to evade responsibility for throwing away something that was yours.

I have a friend who sometimes says "I thought you would want..." and I've come to realize she doesn't just ask me whatever it is I might want because she wants to control the situation.

There are many positive aspects of my friend, while this trait is a bit of a snag, though sometimes laughable.

On another note, I recently met a man in his late 60's who had fought in Viet Nam, only to return home and find that his father had thrown away his Raleigh 10-speed bike.

This happened almost 40 years ago and the sadness and resentment he felt about it was still apparent when he told me about it. I felt his pain. What his Dad did was wrong.

My mother and sister threw away my baseball card collection when I was about 12 years old. I guess they thought it was no longer appropriate for me to have an interest in baseball.

I consider their action stealing; it was wrong and disrespectful. Even so, the richness of experiences I had with my mom and sister certainly outbalance this one negative incident. I love and like them both.

But I would still like to have my baseball cards back, two shoeboxes full of them -- Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Nellie Fox, Roger Maris, a vintage Ty Cobb card, a vintage Babe Ruth card, Yogi Berra, Hank Bauer and many more.

I'm thinking there's a special corner in heaven, call it Cloud 9 Lost and Found, where all the thrown away and stolen bikes and baseball cards and other long gone, lost items will all appear once more.

Then the owners can own what's rightfully theirs once again.

[kathybiker]

Ivona,

I'm sorry your bike was stolen. I don't suppose there's any hope of returning to the area where the party was and hunting down the young gangbangerly kids, maybe buying your bike back from them?

Old bikes from the Goodwill, flea markets and garbage pickings are sometimes the best loved -- $12 was a great price.

I like the way you put your coffee cup holder on the Columbia Sports 3, a modern touch on an old gal of a bike.

Sometimes older Columbia bikes are advertised on craigslist and elsewhere, if perchance you're interested in another of the same model.

A woman in Jamaica Plain, MA offered a Columbia 3 speed for free in an ad last January -- a long shot, I know:
http://www.neighborsforneighbors.org/forum/topics/interested-in-a-free-beat-up

[Trek420]

1993(92?) I still miss her -nowadays I would have fitted her with baskets or saddlebags and she'd be my grocery-getter.

I can't even find a photo. If ANYBODY has one sitting around...

Like this?

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/bik/1135101342.html

[IvonaDestroi]

Ivona,

I'm sorry your bike was stolen. I don't suppose there's any hope of returning to the area where the party was and hunting down the young gangbangerly kids, maybe buying your bike back from them?

Old bikes from the Goodwill, flea markets and garbage pickings are sometimes the best loved -- $12 was a great price.

I like the way you put your coffee cup holder on the Columbia Sports 3, a modern touch on an old gal of a bike.

Sometimes older Columbia bikes are advertised on craigslist and elsewhere, if perchance you're interested in another of the same model.

A woman in Jamaica Plain, MA offered a Columbia 3 speed for free in an ad last January -- a long shot, I know:
http://www.neighborsforneighbors.org/forum/topics/interested-in-a-free-beat-up

Yea you know a few of my friends live around that neighborhood and I always keep a hopeful eye out.

The bike theft problem here is huge (we're kinda in a ghetto)- I see a crackhead on an obviously stolen bike at least 3 or 4 times a day. I always stare them down! Yesterday I saw two of em tryin to steal a schwinn as I rode by. :mad: I gave them a dirty look but they're like creepy old crackheads that were hitting on me so I didn't exactly want to stop and deal with it.

The swap meets here are always full of stolen bikes as well, it's pretty depressing. If I see one that stands out I post an ad on craigslist thinking maybe the original owner will see it. I have a feeling I just might see my columbia riding around here one day... I actually always do a double take when I see some crackhead on a step through frame!

[IvonaDestroi]

1997 Trek 420 memorialized here:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=711

Wow someone just let themselves in to your house while you were home???:eek:

so creepy...

[ShubieGA]

It was my red Motobecane 10-speed that I saved up for, to take to college. (yep, it was the '70's). It tipped over in the garage and Mom's car turned it into modern art, as she did not see it when she pulled in. I'm not sure which was worse: seeing the bike or watching Mom try to explain it to me!

[Trek420]

Wow someone just let themselves in to your house while you were home???:eek:

so creepy...

Someone? It's never been proven but the jerk was probably my ex'es good for nothing addict prison tat'ed brother. She'd had him do work on the yard at the time something I never approved of. Did I mention she'd just dumped me and I was in the process of moving out? Did I mention that my Dad was dying at the time?

One day with all this I felt I just needed a ride, went downstairs and :eek: :( :mad:

If she's lurking brphhhhhphtttphhht!! :rolleyes: ;) she should see me now, I have a much hotter ........ bike ;)

But I still miss my Trek. :( When I'm on a hard climb I still habitually reach down for my ol' down tube shifters.

[IvonaDestroi]

Someone? It's never been proven but the jerk was probably my ex'es good for nothing addict prison tat'ed brother. She'd had him do work on the yard at the time something I never approved of. Did I mention she'd just dumped me and I was in the process of moving out? Did I mention that my Dad was dying at the time?

One day with all this I felt I just needed a ride, went downstairs and :eek: :( :mad:

If she's lurking brphhhhhphtttphhht!! :rolleyes: ;) she should see me now, I have a much hotter ........ bike ;)

But I still miss my Trek. :( When I'm on a hard climb I still habitually reach down for my ol' down tube shifters.

what is wrong with people???

[Trek420]

No worries. It's all part of what got me here. :cool: But if you see a purple to green fade 47 cm Trek 420 out there, tackle the guy, hold him down and PM me. I'll be right over to get her back.

[7rider]

I had my first "real" bike stolen.
It was a 1992 Miyata Triplecross hybrid. The first bike I ever bought at a shop after doing research and test-riding, and not a hand-me-down from my sister. That bike really launched me as a rider. Still, when it was stolen, I used the insurance money to buy a Bianchi Eros road bike, which really expanded my range as a cyclist. So, in hindsight, it was actually a really good thing that my bike was stolen.
BTW...the Bianchi was subsequently sold on Craigslist to a college kid from Baltimore. Some days, I still miss that bike, too....

[tulip]

My 1983 Univega Gran Turismo--that was A Bike! It took me on my first tour through France when I was only 15 years old. Stolen (by former boyfriend) when I was in college. bummer.

1983 Vitus. '83 was a good year for classic bikes. I got this one in 1989. It was too big, but I rode it for 15 years anyways. I liked it because it was light and French. I went down in a bad crash, and the frame cracked at the dropouts. I shoulda kept it, though, but I left it behind when I moved on in 2006.


1987 Centurion something. It was bright yellow. Aluminum. snazzy. I sold it. I don't miss this one.

1985 Fuji road bike. My first racing bike. Stolen a year later. It was red and pretty.

Oh, and the kicker! 1989 Bridgestone MB-2 mountain bike. Oh so classic 80s mountain bike! I had to leave it in France when I moved back to the states in 2000. I always thought I would retrieve it, but things didn't work out that way. another bummer.

[Zen]

1973(?) Raleigh Record put on layaway at High's Cycle center.
It probably cost no more than $200 but I worked for it and bought it myself. I rode it 9 miles to school and to my job at McDonalds.
It was a hot July day when I picked it up, rode home, guzzled root beer then puked :D

Sold it to a friend when i joined the army.

[Zen]

No worries. It's all part of what got me here. :cool: But if you see a purple to green fade 47 cm Trek 420 out there, tackle the guy, hold him down and PM me. I'll be right over to get her back.

Idunno...that's my size:D;)

[sgtiger]

Idunno...that's my size:D;)

You know she'll put a hurtin' on ya for it.:D:p

[NbyNW]

My 42 cm Kandy Apple Red Rodriguez was the most beautiful 2nd-hand bike a girl could hope for . . . it was originally custom-built for a lovely woman named Dot who had to stop riding for health reasons. I felt so lucky to find it!

Riding that bike was the first non-PT exercise I was able to do, post sacrum-fracture. Those first few rides, while short, felt so liberating. I had it for one season, and was looking forward to building up to longer rides, when it was stolen from my garage. :(

I've never really stopped looking for that bike.

[Trek420]

You know she'll put a hurtin' on ya for it.:D:p


Me? ;) Naaaaaah, I wouldn't hurt a fly. I wouldn't want to damage the bike ;)

This brings up an interesting subject. How often do we see people riding and think "that's not your bike!"

This is a difficult question to express because I'm not talking class or wealth. For example recently on BART I saw a rider, dressed to the 9's in business garb with a Bianchi cross bike leaning on her knee. The bike had a lot of love and upgrades, didn't take much of an eye to see "these are not stock parts". But the frame and upkeep showed signs of recent neglect. A person who wrapped leather bar tape and a Brooks on a cross would not leave it leaning on poles and let it get scratched ... I don't think this is your bike!

I would never say anything to the rider but if that bike could speak she's saying "take me HOME, please!" :o

[redrhodie]

I left my 1980s Puch MTB in the basement of my last apartment. It was a gift from a now deceased ex-bf, and it was a too sad reminder of his tragic end, and things not working out. It was time to let it go.

[IvonaDestroi]

Me? ;) Naaaaaah, I wouldn't hurt a fly. I wouldn't want to damage the bike ;)

This brings up an interesting subject. How often do we see people riding and think "that's not your bike!"

This is a difficult question to express because I'm not talking class or wealth. For example recently on BART I saw a rider, dressed to the 9's in business garb with a Bianchi cross bike leaning on her knee. The bike had a lot of love and upgrades, didn't take much of an eye to see "these are not stock parts". But the frame and upkeep showed signs of recent neglect. A person who wrapped leather bar tape and a Brooks on a cross would not leave it leaning on poles and let it get scratched ... I don't think this is your bike!

I would never say anything to the rider but if that bike could speak she's saying "take me HOME, please!" :o

Wow, that's so funny you should mention that. I just took BART today and saw a homeless guy on a really nice Jamis. I have a friend that bought one recently for $600 but this one was waaaay nicer then the one she got.

It was funny because I thought you know, that bike was probably stolen at some point but this guy really seems to appreciate it. I don't know why, but he was this dirty old guy wit a bike that he kept pretty pristine. You could see where he had wrapped this dirty old tape around it to hide the name, and he had a patched up magna frame pouch to attach to it.

The rest looked really well kept, just the tape/pouch as one of those "make it look crappy so no one steals it" kinds of moves. I wondered if he appreciated that bike more then the original owner. I got the feeling that he seemed to.

[grey]

Like this?

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/bik/1135101342.html

That's close! Only the paint is different, otherwise, that's my baby! It made me so happy just to see that! I did a Google and couldn't even find a PHOTO - (((hugs))) to you all for helping me find my old baby!

*excited and hopeful*

[besagacious]

Wow, back in 1980 I had my bike stolen and was looking for a new ond. I saw an ad from the the Ski Rack a local bike shop. They were offering free demo days at a local x-country ski area on this new kind of bike in the woods. It sounded so cool. I didn't even know what Mountain biking was back then. It was one of the best rides I ever had. About 10 of us showed up for the demo. All newbies to riding in the woods. We wooped and yelled and hit the trails. After about an hour we came to a pond and a bunch jumped in. It was a day I will always remember, so much fun, energy riding in the woods. Needless to say the next day I purchased my gray Peugeot Orient Express. I still have it today. I can't ride much anymore because of bad shoulders but I keep the bike as I have so many fond memories of riding in the woods, over streams, through cow pastures, getting stuck in the mud, sand..... The Orient Express is 18 speeds and built solid. No shocks back then. It has wide handle bars which I still like today......an amazing bike....so long ago it is "vintage" now...

[Zen]

You think of that bike so fondly that you stopped lurking and made your first post, perhaps?

[Groundhog]

I posted my introduction and bike loss story here... http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=31188

Here's a photo of my bike on our Port Townsend to Sequim family ride.

I always called it "my dorky women's bike." Now after reading this forum I find it's a trendy mixte. Sigh. I'll have to post a pic of my new bike.

[Zen]

Oh Groundhog, I hate to be the bearer of this news but what you have(had?) is a standard womens bike.

This is a mixte (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_m.html#mixte)

[Groundhog]

Oh Groundhog, I hate to be the bearer of this news but what you have(had?) is a standard womens bike.

This is a mixte (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_m.html#mixte)

OK, learning a lot here. I guess it was just me...don't know why I liked it so much but I did...

[Groundhog]

Thanks, Zen.