Happy Birthday Bike....

Well my bike is 20 years old now. I got it in college, a reliable aluminum tubed Cannondale ST-400 and it is still going strong. It's amazing that if you buy good stuff (and this bike was a low end 'dale, more expensive than any bike I had bought at the time. but low end comparably.)

Over the years it has been ridden on both coasts, in colorado. It has done many a climb, and descended swimmingly. Amazingly the frame is in good shape, and most of the mechanical components have endured. The bike has lasted longer than some of the companies that made the components. I don't think SunTour exists anymore. I've got new stem, new bars, tuned it up repeatedly and it's still going strong. That's the amazing thing about mechanical things, they can last forever or be retrofitted to work. Truly amazing.

I will have to get clever, as the 27" wheels are harder to find, there are no replacement parts for the 6 speed transmission, now up to 10 or even 11 gears in back. I have a mountain bike that is still going strong at 12 years. It's hard to get rid of them since no one wants them, but there's no excuse to upgrade either.

We had a bike fair at work, and there were these big catalogs of "bike porn" that had sleek new bikes, but something tells me, until i lose a few pounds, it won't matter.

I wonder if the 'dale will last another 20?