The Mystery of Tom Pritchard’s Bike • Hacker News Board

Re: The Mystery of Tom Pritchard’s Bike

#21

Post by TheGrassyKnoll » Sun, Sep 20, 2020, 12:24 PM UTC

> "He said he was trying to get the attention of a beautiful young woman who was a serious cyclist, and he couldn’t just ride up on a Schwinn Varsity."

So, I had an orange Schwinn Varsity when I was in jr. high school. (40 pounds of steel baby). Then one year, one of my friends got a 20-something pound Nishiki. What a revelation that was; the feeling of efficiency was just incredible.

Re: The Mystery of Tom Pritchard’s Bike

#22

Post by chestervonwinch » Sun, Sep 20, 2020, 1:13 PM UTC

jeffrallen wrote: post #18

I also appreciate that the author doesn't wear stupid gaudy bicycle jerseys and shorts.

Having lived in Florida, I would wager that the author is suffering for fashion in jeans and a black shirt moreso than he would be in "gaudy" bicycling attire. Or maybe that's your point -- that we should all prefer looking hip over dorky-yet-functional?

Re: The Mystery of Tom Pritchard’s Bike

#23

Post by Damogran6 » Sun, Sep 20, 2020, 1:56 PM UTC

TheGrassyKnoll wrote: post #21

> "He said he was trying to get the attention of a beautiful young woman who was a serious cyclist, and he couldn’t just ride up on a Schwinn Varsity." So, I had an orange Schwinn Varsity when I was in jr. high school. (40 pounds of steel baby). Then one year, one of my friends got a 20-something pound Nishiki. What a revelation that was; the feeling of efficiency was just incredible.

When I was in college, I listed after the Bridgestone MB-0....until they got in a Nishiki Alien.

That thing was mind bogglingly different...I looked it up earlier in the year and...it's not so mind boggling different anymore.http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=230276

Re: The Mystery of Tom Pritchard’s Bike

#24

Post by alaxsxaq » Sun, Sep 20, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

nl wrote: post #19

> Eisentraut trained Bruce Gordon, Joe Breeze, Skip Hujsak, and Mark Nobilette, among others. That's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Breeze who built some of the first mountain bikes.

I spent half a day with Bruce Gordon and bought one of his bikes a decade or so ago. He's gone now, but he was an interesting character in his own right - seems the bike world is full of them.

Re: The Mystery of Tom Pritchard’s Bike

#25

Post by undersuit » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 2:32 AM UTC

SECProto wrote: post #17

undersuit wrote: post #15

I need to know more about Tom Pritchard apparently, but I've been embarking on my best attempts to upgrade my bikes on my own. When I saw that 6-speed with down-tube shifters and the camo road bars! God, it's so fun. I need to redo the paint on my SE Draft Lite so I can take some pictures and at least try and feel like I have a cool classic bike.

> I need to redo the paint on my SE Draft Lite so I can take some pictures and at least try and feel like I have a cool classic bike. Or not! To learn from Tom, he had the adventures but wasn't outspoken about them - the stories were told by others. With a bike, the point is to enjoy it! I have an 80s steel frame, not as unique, but it gets me around, fast, and I've had tons of fun with it over the past 15 years. Cam…

OK, my green nail polish running out will probably be when I do something about the brake levers and the damage done to the original paint by said brake levers.