Memoirs - Cycling Days
(preliminary)

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A large part of my recreational life involved cycling. I started as a kid in Brooklyn on an old 3 speed I got at an auction for six dollars. I rode this bike all over Brooklyn, especially on the long bike trails parallel to the Belt Parkway. I even cycled to Kennedy Airport where I accidentally (on purpose) ended up on a runway.

At one point a guy in my college class and I decided we could go about 50 miles in the "mountains" so we got my dad to put our bikes in the trunk of his big old American sedan and had him drop us off about 1/2 way. We had no idea what we were doing and for a couple of physics majors we were really dumb.

Even in my best years with my 12 speed racing bike this would have been a challenge. As it was with our clunky and heavy 3 speed touring bikes we managed to get a total of ten miles. We than found a phone and somehow got my dad to come and rescue us.

After that experience I found out that there was an organization that was devoted to cross-country biking travel. It was then called the American Youth Hostels. I took a lot of trips with this group mentioned earlier up into Westchester County. The local office was in Manhattan in Greenwich village. This is described in detail in Hostelling Years which covers that extensive period of my life.

Also, around 1982 I had a engineering buddy that owned a nice French racing bike. He let me try it and I was hooked. I ended up buying the model above his which was only one step below actual track racing bikes. I loved this bike. It is light and easy to pedal. It can easily be pushed to around 40 MPH. Although I still have it and used to ride it a lot around Concord, since my hip deteriorated after being broken and fixed once, I have not been able to ride it. It hangs on my wall - hopefully to be used again.

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