Past bikes: Bike #5

I just have to figure out a way to live with the fact that I am not going to spend a bunch of time digging for old bike pictures. Which sucks in a way. Because I know I have pictures of Bikes #4 and #5 somewhere. But freg it.

Bike #5 I bought in my senior year of high school. I got it from Two-Wheel Transit back when it was up on 29th Ave (next to where Miller's Hardware is now). I'd like to think I bought it from Paul Main, but I don't know that for sure. But I'm going with it.

It was a Giant ATX 760. Yellow (second only to white as the perfect mountain bike color). Shimano STX 7 speed.  I think it was about $500. Which was big money. By this time, I was working at Patsy Clark's restaurant and making big money... about $4/hour? Five-hunred bucks is a lot of prep-cooking, salad-making, and Sunday-brunching.

My buddies dropped me off at the bike shop to pick up the bike. They were driving down 29th while I attempted to keep up with them. I don't remember exactly what the hey I was doing, but I'm pretty sure I tried to bunny hop the median in front of (what is now) 5 guys burger place. I totally shit the bed and flopped over my bars. I don't remember much, except that as I opened my eyes, the back wheel of my buddy's car was rolling by about 4 inches from my face.

A buddy at school (Lucus) had also just gotten a mountain bike. We were both taking PE as seniors because we didn't take it when we were supposed to when we were sophomores. I think that was slightly demoralizing. We started skipping PE on a regular basis and riding the river trail instead. Back then, the river trail cut up into a cement factory, then dropped down a wonderful old bit of lush double-track to where the mega-church housing development is today. By the end of the year, we were both looking at failing grades in PE, which would've blocked our graduation. We fessed up to our PE teacher that we were skipping to ride, so it should count. He sort of bought it. He said if we could run for two hours straight in the gym, he'd pass us. Running sucks. But we both passed.

I ended up taking that bike to Germany. I went there to live with my sister in Bavaria during my first year of college. College had turned out to be kind of a bummer. I couldn't find a lot of "mountain biking" per se in the general area, but I enjoyed tooling around the country side and visiting other little villages. This was especially fruitful in the summer months, when just about every little village I rode through had some kind of beer-related festival happening. The area we were in was around Nuremburg, which, aside from beer, is also known for it's super amazing bad-ass bratwursts, unlike ANY bratwursts I've ever found here. What a great country.

I sold the ATX 760 to an American Army dude for about what I paid for it. I needed the money for a plane ticket home.