Vintage Find: My Guerciotti

Vintage Find: My 1986 Guerciotti made by Alan

Here is another one of my Campagnolo equipped "grail" finds, my 1986 Guerciotti. This was the first attempt at buiding an aluminum road bike. The frame was built by another company called Alan, which specialized in making lighter composite frames for various bicycle manufacturers. This frame was built by a special process in which the frame tubes are actually screwed and glued into the frame lugs. This process was known as bonding, and was also the process used to build the first carbon fiber frames.

Today I rode this beauty down White Rock Lake. I saw another rider on a steel Guerciotti.  Guerciotti bicycles are a rare bird, so I grabbed his attention and pointed at my bike. He said "An aluminum Guerciotti still on the road?". Apparently there were a few bad apples made that really destroyed the reputation of bonded frames. There are stories of riders flexing the frames with their own weight and frames simply snapping under too much load. I am not the lightest that I have been in a while. Yet this frame holds my 190 pound weight really well. If I had any complaint about it, it would be that the bike is actually almost too stiff for me. It accelerates wonderfully because there is direct power transfer due to it's stiffness. It also is an amazing climber. I was suprised at how quickly I was making it up some of the hills on the lake.  I rode 28 miles in under 2 hours, stopping to take pictures along the way. To me, that's a pretty good speed. If a person weighs more than I do, they should probably not ride this bike anyway. There are Surly Long Haul Truckers that can hold their weight wonderfully.

I'll not abuse this bike very much, to me this bike is like the Ferrari that only gets driven on Sundays. Since I will never be able to afford a Ferrari, this is the closest I will probably get to owning Italian luxury.

It's fun to own bikes almost as old as I am and still be able to enjoy them. There is joy in the hunt when looking for bikes like these, but there is also joy to be had in owning the bike and riding it. People like to accessorize their shoes, suits, hats and even their cars. I accessorize my bicycle. I tend to get bored of only one bike, although if it came down to it I could probably only live with one. But there would be no fun in that. I can't say this will be the last bicycle that I will keep to myself, but definitely one of the last, because I don't plan on making this a long term hobby (and I mean years). I have to focus my attention on other projects and pursuits in the near future. In the meantime, check out some more photos of my vintage Guerciotti.

Guerciotti Headbadge.

Cinelli Criterium Handlebars.

This bicycle is fully equipped with a Campagnolo Victory drivetrain and Campy Record brakes.

Taking the Schwinn out for a Spin

Lately I find myself riding my old steel bikes for than my aluminum bike with clipless pedals. After a five mile run earlier this morning, I hopped on my Schwinn Le Tour and did 3 laps around White Rock Lake. I must say the run did take a lot out of me, but overall I feel I had a good ride. Here's a video I took with my Go Pro camera. Enjoy. Here is a link to the video directly on Youtube if for some reason it's not visible on this page. See link

Passed a Roadie on my old vintage bike=feel good.

Why passing Roadies on expensive road bikes makes me feel good.

I ride at White Rock Lake trail a lot. White Rock Lake is a lake with a beautiful bicycle and pedestrian trail located in the nicer, upper echelon part of Dallas. It's  an almost ten mile loop around the lake, and can be a good workout if you lap the lake several times, as I do on my old, steel and vintage bicycles.

Today I was on the lake riding along when out of my peripheral vision I saw a Dura Ace crankset and a carbon fork come up next to me as the rider yelled "On your left!". My guess is he was expecting to fly by me and take control of my lane. Under normal circumstances, I abide to these rider's requests with no problem. There was nothing wrong in the way he engaged me, and I actually thought he was polite. But today I had a score to settle with the roadies on the lake. Maybe it's buildup from having so many of them pass me and scoff at me and my bike. Today my legs were good and they were well underneath me, my knees riding parallel to my frame, and I felt they could give a lot more. Today he would take the brunt of my frustrations with roadies.

So I said no to the rider's request. I didn't say no physically, I sped up and didn't let him in my lane. He wasn't going to have it his way today, not with me anyway. As I sped up so did he, and I finally offered him entrance into the lane. He denied, so I went into a full sprint. I didn't see him again until after I had arrived at my car, within 3 minutes of my arrival.  As I left him and he posse of carbon and spandex behind me, I was later told that words were being shouted and hand gestures were raised. That made me feel even better. Perhaps they weren't expecting the surprise that I gave them. Perhaps it was the way I blew them away on 30 pounds of 30 some odd years of steel. Perhaps its because I spent $20 on my bike and spent another $200 in the restoration cost, while they spent about $5,000 each on their "steeds". Today at least that group of roadies got a wake up call. They are not the fastest, most omnipotent things on the lake that can just weave in and out of their constituents without confrontation. 

I attempted a few bicycle races in the past without any success. Road bike racing season here in Texas occurs during the same time of year as the rest of the country, which is flawed reasoning if you ask me. Riding in 105 degree weather isn't my forte. Put me in 41 degree weather and sunny, now we are talking! My robust frame handles the cold much better than the heat. While it's funny to see the cold weather blowing roadies and carbon off the trail like a giant leaf blower, I am usually too anchored down by my old bike and riding with too much momentum to be slowed down by headwind.

Maybe I'm just hating. I don't own any fancy bicycles, and the bikes that I do own are cheap by comparison to these newer, high end bicycles. Having been raised up with little means, I took a disdain early on from the mockery proceeding of the preppy, the opulent, the football jocks, and the aristocratic. Although I have nothing to prove to these people, when I am out doing my sport, they are in my territory. It's safe to say that races can and will happen, whether intentioned of not. Sometimes they initiate, sometimes I do. Sometimes it's just getting behind them and drafting on them for a few minutes. Sometimes it's sprint intervals. Either way, these races are real, and for someone without the means to compete professionally, free of admission and registration. Finish lines aren't drawn, these races are simply to see who will crack first. Once the other guy can't respond to a sprint or an acceleration, you know you've won. You can be king of White Rock Lake for a day, leader of your own general classification. 

I ride all year long, sometimes putting up to 90 miles or more in a week when I am seriously "training" (for no reason as I don't compete). I have ridden on some of the hottest days and on a lot of the coldest ones. Just a few days ago it was snowing here in Texas. As the seasons change I adapt with them. Riding my bicycle is simply my routine. I don't log miles, average speeds or calories anymore. I just make sure that when I ride, I am putting my whole soul into it.  I do it because I want to, and since I have nothing to prove, I believe that makes me more formidable than someone who, say, likes to flaunt their wallet on their bike. 

Maybe one day, if I save up enough, I will get my Cannondale Super Six Hi Mod Team Liquidgas edition road bike, and I will join that special club of high end bicycle elitists known as "the Roadies". Maybe one day, even better, I'll just become a tough-as-nails old rider that can smoke anyone on an old, steel frame. I don't know, I haven't decided which way to go on this. Suggestions?

White Rock Lake- The beginings of something good in Dallas.

White Rock Lake Trail

And why Dallas isn't far behind progess.

Today I read a disconcerting article about the City of Dallas. This article placed Dallas in the bottom of the least bike friendly cities in the United States. The perception of Texans from outsiders is that they are a backwards people. They love their guns, ten gallon hats,  SUV's, and their giant steaks. That Texas has 5 of the most obese cities in the United States, so the assumption is that Texans like being fat, and they don't like their cyclists. Even though this couldn't be farther from the truth, the current city council of Dallas is fighting hard to maintain that stereotype. They have all but shelved a recent Bike Plan which would have revolutionized the landscape of Dallas, offering people the same bike transportation alternatives as Portland.  The obstacles they say are financial, yet money is always found to finance the behemoth highways and toll roads which in the long run hurt the small communities that they carve through.  Even though the city approved hundreds of millions of dollars for the Margaret Hill Hunt bridge, there are no bike lane implementations and the money seems to disappear altogether when the word "cycling" is mentioned.

There is a silver lining to all this negative portrayal. Dallas does has an bicycle infrastructure set in place, dormant and waiting to be activated. The place in Dallas where all current trails connect is White Rock Lake. The Lake connects with the Santa Fe, Cottonwood, and White Rock Trail system. It is also a very beautiful recreational trail connecting Dallas and it has the potential to be much more.

Here is a map of a similar route that I took through White Rock Lake today

Find more Bike Ride in Dallas, TX

Along side the trail you will find businesses that cater to the needs of cyclists. Dallas Bike Works off of Lawther road is a great place to stop for a flat, a light or even a new bicycle.  The Bicycle Cafe of Dallas is a match made in heaven for cyclists and coffee lovers alike. Let's take a photo tour of some of the highlights of today's ride around White Rock Lake.

Feeling tired on your bike ride? Stop by Bicycle Cafe for your daily dose of coffee boost to keep you going.

You can stop along the trail and relax on a dock alongside the lake

Sail boating and kayaking are popular activities to do out here as well.

A family spends the evening hours together feeding the ducks

Goose Crossing: You can see some fearless geese crossing the road around this time of day.

Dallas, for the most part, is a beautiful place to ride a bike. Unfortunately it has received a negative reputation due to the less progressive thinkers that are calling the shots. Dallas can continue to shine as it redevelops it's Downtown by including bicycle lane development on it's tab. There is currently a development boom and revitalization effort going on right now in the city of Dallas. Taking Dallas out of the Dark Ages can be as easy or as impossible as people make it to be. The challenges facing Dallas are nothing more than removing the belief that it has to be shortsighted and unfriendly to those who are seeking a better quality of life within it's boarders. As we turn the page into a new decade, let's see if the coming generation can finally bring some much needed changes to make Dallas even more wonderful than it already is.  This is what Dallas wants, this is what I personally hope that it gets.