Also ran into an older gentelman and friend, 78 year old Jack. Now this dude is one of my heroes. The story you ask? Gina and I met Jack back in 1998 at his age of 65. We had just bought our tandem and were geting pretty good at riding it since we rode tandem for nearly a year straight without touching the singles. Keep in mind, Jack still dresses the same. So he pulls up and inquires about the tandem a bit, then offers some riding tips. Yeah yeah, who is this old guy? He says, "well see ya kiddies later!" Then BAM he's GONE! OK, so maybe this old dude dressing funny does know something about riding. FTR, he was riding an upright at the time and not the bent he rides now.
We see him week after week and jeepers, the dude is fast! We'd leave the coast together and within one mile, he's out of sight, and we were on the tandem thinking we were doing pretty good. Never has he changed outfit styles and rode his bike with his icechest type helmet, a very deceiving dude on a good but not so fancy looking bike. This is the time in your life when you realize, it aint the bike.
So one day he pulls up showing us his computer registering 24 mph AVERAGE on his ride. Holy smokes! 65 year old dude doing 24! Which leads to a funny story. We're at the coast one day and a large group of hotshot race club riders (according to their jerseys) shows up from a local LBS (I won't mention names to save those the embarrassment haha!). The group of about 15 start to headout from the beachstop then Jack says, "well kiddies, let me head on out with these guys and see if I can keep up". I just laughed and said, "take it easy on them Jack!".
A couple of the guys looked at me and laughed as if to say "yeah right". That's the beauty of Jack's ride attire! Gina and I head out about 2 minutes after the group and Jack. We hit the Honda Center Park to refill water and the group is there. I walked up to the guy that laughed when I made the comment to Jack and asked, "where's the old guy?" he just looked at me and said, " that mother (insert word here) took off and dropped all of us!". I just laughed and said, "that's what I thought haha!". Geeze, I hate to see guys get old, especially the old heroes but it happens. But the lesson learned, you can learn alot for the old guys and don't judge a book by the cover, or a rider by his otfit! 78 now and just won a battle with some cancer, the dude still has the spirit of a warrior!
Amazing rider....Jack on his bent.
Lucas with the new wheels
Gina after a Hot ride
My picture, I asked Gina to snap a pic of me with beach scenery in the background. Hey, I had no idea the girl was in the picture, darn Gina!
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