Northampton Bicycle Breakfast

I like to eat. I also like bikes, and tend to enjoy my time around people who ride them, so yesterday I attended at least my fourth installment of the annual Northampton Bicycle Breakfast, part of Mass Bike's May bike month. It's a good chance to ride my bike in the morning and commune with a bunch of commuters who did the same. I also restock my supply of reflective leg bands to replace the couple I lose or give away each year.

People on bikes can be neat, and sometimes they ride pretty neat bikes. At the breakfast, I reconnected with Jacob who promotes events with the local All Bodies on Bikes group and put up with my quip that I really wish the group's name was All Bodies on ALL Bikes, to support my belief that any bike still faster than walking is fuctional and worthwhile. Jacob also rides neat bikes, including one with the only sets of rollercam brakes I've seen in person.

Sticking to the concept of ALL bikes, I reconnected with two other people aboard my favorite kind of bikes: free ones! I was extremely fortunate to receive free bikes for a number of years, and sometimes it seems I count that as a ride's most valuable (oxymoron?) feature. About a decade ago, when I was more regularly aquiring and selling bicycles, I realized the one that had stayed with me longest was my single speed Schwinn Mirada, built on a frame I'd found under a bridge. It's amazing how weighty a bike with minimal drivetrain parts can be when it also wears a sticker that proclaims, "chromoly seat tube," as in, heavy high tensile steel everywhere else. Alas, that frame broke years ago, but it still finished, even extended, that ride, faster than walking!

Two free bikes and their riders.

The one on the left was originally my find,

before I gave it to its current lover.

I do kinda miss that old, long, slack ride,

that the industry finally remembered works!

I don't miss the chainstay U-brake.

Other highlights of the morning included seeing more old friends, a recovering injured brain that eventually recognized them, learning about a trail expansion in East Hampton, and meeting some new friends, including a Pedal People person I helped sort trash. Also, I ate some food, yum, yum!