Owner's Gallery: Michael M

Finally getting back to you after riding the new bike for about five or six weeks. I think I have about 800 miles on it, but, not sure, because I didn’t put a computer on it. I’m thinking of getting a Garmin device I can take from bike to bike, and heavily hinting for Xmas. Two weeks ago I did one of the most beautiful rides I have ever done in farm and horse country just north of Baltimore. It was a metric century that goes by the name of Larry’s Ride. Highly recommended, especially if the forecast is for a brisk morning and 75 degrees in the afternoon. Just this weekend I did a spontaneous two day ride weekend up in the Saratoga Springs, NY area, where I lived for three years. Great town, great riding. I whipped out the cell phone and got a few shots of the bike. One was taken at a famous overlook in the Saratoga Battlefield National Park at the Bemis Heights, where the American revolutionaries stopped the British march south, and some think assured victory for the revolutionaries in that war. The Hudson river is down below, and the hill in the distance is Willard mountain, which the Strong climbed just the day before.

It’s been a beautiful late summer and early fall this year, and the new Strong has been a joy to ride since I pulled it out of the shipping box in August. Forecast is for another week of 70-80 degree weather, so I’ll try to get as many miles in after work and on the weekends before the season ends and darkness and snow falls. I like the 11 speed Ultegra setup, so, a winter project is to repaint the Serotta and convert the drivetrain over to the same as the Strong, so I have twin bikes, which was the intent in the first place. I’m spending Thanksgiving week in Tuscany. We’re going to rent a car for the second half of the trip and drive around to a few hill towns, so I’ll be researching rides over there I will be doing on the Strong maybe next year or the year after. The bucket list is getting checked off. Maybe the French Alps, too, before I get too old. Some say I am already. Fooey to them.

Thanks a lot for making a wonderful bike for me. If I hit the lotto, I’ll get back to you about a Dura Ace titanium, but something tells me that isn’t going to happen. I’ll just have to settle for two fantastic steel bikes for the next ten or twenty years. Oh well.

Good luck
Mike Mielech