Today, a double-feature of sorts – both a vintage bicycle as well as a photo gallery.
Naturally, we study our rider demographics, and this year we parsed out whether anyone had ridden every edition of the ride. Yes, indeed! One is a dear friend of mine since the days I raced Juniors, and I will duly introduce him to you all in a later installment. Another was right in front of our stems: Ben Barnhart, a longtime member of our ride committee and our official ride photographer. Here’s a link to a very beautiful selection of his ride pictures over the years:
Initially the plan was for Ben to select his top 20 pics over the past 20 years, but with his keen eye and years of riding here, we just couldn’t pare it down to 20. So it’s actually a Top 40 list, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy every one of them.
Ben’s story has an unexpected twist. He hasn’t just ridden every D2R2, he’s done all 20 ON THE SAME BICYCLE, his “trusty and indestructible Surly Cross-Check,” upgraded only with compact cranks in 2010 and tubeless wheels in 2019! Yo, bro, say what?! A machine that has withstood 3600K of D2R2? Le voici, mes amis de la route:
I am anything but a poet, but to me there’s something metaphorical about a venerable old machine standing tall against a stack of broken oak logs!
But of course Me the Retro-Grouch would rise from the trash can long enough to grovel, “Twentee yeers? Now I’m super impressed: obviously you never need to shift gears, because we know STI levers blow up within two years!! At least you picked a good color!”
For years I preached the “Rule of 32” (spokes, sprocket teeth, and tire c’s), but perhaps I should have been telling y’all to just get yourselves a Cross-Check! Ben writes that this machine will probably outlive him. My mind flashes forward 3000 years, when the Secretary of American Antiquities announces that in the Valley of the Kinnecticut they have unearthed a mysterious Carbon-Fiber-Age burial where the individual was entombed with an odd, colinear chariot and titanium trinkets….
