In Memoriam: The bikes we have lost

[Trek420]

Nice bike

http://www.geocities.com/randyjawa/P...iteUO8Half.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!



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-...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.cg...nterey&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...a-free-beat-up

[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...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. 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!

[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

[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*