All About the Bikes: 1

My beloved steel Bianchi.

Bought it new in 1985, still gorgeous, still riding it today.

Lots of upgrades over the years, but the front wheel is original, as are the Shimano 600 cranks, chainrings, front derailleur, and brakes. (That stuff is indestructible.)

Now that it has been retired as my primary race bike (commuter/utility now) I'm thinking of getting it re-painted by Noah Rosen at VeloColour.

Thank you, unknown tourist from 1985!

The back story:
One night in March, 1985, I was staggering back to my flat near the U of T after some term-end party or other. It was around 3 am, and I was with my then-girlfriend (who shall remain nameless) and my pal Phil Kremer.

As we crossed a street, I happened to spot a wallet lying in the gutter. (Right about here, I think.) It had $400 US in it, and no identification except for a card that said something in German.

As somebody who loses wallets on a regular basis and invariably has them returned intact by kindly strangers, there was no way I could keep it.
Way bad karma.

So the next day I sadly turned it in to the local police station, which was just a couple of blocks away. (An obvious place for a tourist to go to find a lost wallet.) I figured there was also a chance nobody would claim it, & if they didn't, I'd get it back in a week or so.  

Sorry, kid, not so fast.
The cop rule was they had to hold it for 3 months. Oh well. So much for that, I thought. At least I got the karma.

As it turned out, nobody did claim it, and 3 months later I got it back. Back then the US dollar was running about $1.20 Canadian so it was worth almost $500. I sunk it all into the bike pictured above.

28 years and thousands of joyful kilometres later I sometimes wonder about the guy who lost that wallet.

Wherever you are, man, I owe you one.