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Tribute to a bike trunk

The Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society's Lebanon Fall Festival Ride marked an end of an era. It was the final ride for my 10-year-old Lone Peak bike trunk.

I actually should have retired it Friday because the zippers finally gave out before the start of the ride to scout the Tour de Grape route in the Ste. Genevieve, Mo./Chester, Ill., area, but I couldn't make it to a bike shop in time to buy a new one. That meant the trunk had one more day of duty. I had to borrow a couple of safety pins to make sure it still stayed shut and that my cargo -- my camera, my billfold, my tools and spare tubes, a couple of energy bars and my jacket -- didn't spill on the roads between Lebanon and Highland, Ill.

The Lone Peak bike trunk took a lot of abuse. One many of my weeklong tours, I stuffed the bag to the max with my camera, my billfold, my tools and spare tubes, a couple of energy bars or gels, tour maps, my jacket and leg warmers. It survived the heat of Arizona 10 years ago this week. It survived several days of rain on tours in Nebraska, Quebec and Florida. It survived numerous training rides in the Belleville area. It even survived two accidents, with contents intact.

Yes, the Lone Peak shared thousands of miles with me, and it served me well.

The bike shop where I do the bulk of my purchases, Touring Cyclist in Fairview Heights, Ill., no longer carries Lone Peak, so I had to move on. I bought a Banjo Brothers bike trunk. Unlike the Lone Peak, the Banjo Brothers bag expands for those days I need to carry extra gear. It also has side pockets, an inside key clip a loop for attaching my rear light and a shoulder strap.

Here's hoping the Banjo Brothers will survive as long as the Lone Peak.

As for the Lebanon Fall Festival Ride, it was another great day for another great ride. I'm kind of biased about the routes we used because they're the same ones we use for the Tour de Stooges. The Fall Festival ride has the same great scenery without all the frills such as marked routes, SAG support and rest stops stocked with water, fruit, cookies and candy.

It's good every once in a while to be able to actually ride one of the Stooge routes. While I spend plenty of time on the Tour de Stooges routes on the first Saturday in May and the days before the ride, they're in a car marking routes, making sure riders are OK and delivering food and water to and from the various rest stops. I have yet to ride my bike the day of the ride, and I don't anticipate being able to ride it on the first Saturday in May anytime soon.

I and several other people took the 42-mile route, more commonly known as the Shemp Shortcut. My friends Arlene Willmann and Thomas Carter waited for me in Highland, and we took a detour to the House of Plenty restaurant. The restaurant makes tasty sandwiches and even better desserts. The oatmeal pie is a culinary work of art, in my humble view.

After the ride, I took some photos of downtown Lebanon for the Tour de Stooges Web site and took my first-ever tour of the Mermaid House, a building dating the from 1830 best known for the fact Charles Dickens stayed there in 1842.

All in all, it was a good way to say goodbye to the Lone Peak bike trunk.

Roger 1 comments 9:52 AM

Comments:

My condolences...

May yer trunk rest in piece. ;-D

# posted by  Anonymous : 12:16 PM

 

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