Thread: Skip's Angst
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Sir Thomas of Cannondale Sir Thomas of Cannondale is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Aug 2007
Posts: 160
Default Skip's Angst

Captain Roger .. I own a Cannondale touring bicycle. That is why I have
the posting name. I
think my other posting name is in the computer somewhere...

Interesting story behind the Cannondale bicycle name. When the company was
starting out in the bicycle
business, the manufacturing was done in Connecticut. The owner was on a
phone talking to the bank
or somesuch going on about the new bicycle he was going to manufacture [
aluminun, oversized, tubes for the frame ]
and before he hung up they asked "what is the name of the bicycle".. He
looked up at the sign where he was ..

The name of the company was taken from the Cannondale Metro North train
station in Wilton, Connecticut.[1]

He decided to just use the name of the train station ..


====





"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
You know Tom, you would avoid my having a little chuckle at your expense
by using another of your many aliases when you post here. The bicycle I
had as a boy, the one I remember most vividly riding through 8" deep snow
in the dark with the big double baskets filled with newspapers, had a hard
old leather seat. Down the middle of the seat was embrossed the word
"Cannondale". Every time I see one of your posts with that name, I can't
help thinking of "Cannondale" as being a place to put your ass. Now a
bunch of other readers will probably have the same thought so you might
want to switch to something else.

Thanks for reminding me of that bike. I put a sail on it and tried it out
in the strong midwest winds. I went about 30 mph for nearly 5 seconds.
The mast broke when I crashed so I quickly got interested in something
else. I bet a friend once that I could ride it with my hands crossed. I
did but he refused to pay up because he said it had to be longer than 1/2
second before crashing to count as riding.

My father, who was a pretty clever guy, installed a coaster brake inside
the three speed hub. I have now clue how he did it but I may have been
the only kid in the midwest who had what was then known as an "English
Racer" with a coaster brake. Had a generator hub on the front wheel that
was much less drag than the ones that ran on the back wheel. Cool bike,
all 75 pounds of it.

--
Roger Long