Homage to My Dearly Departed Commuter Bike

It was a sad Saturday the day I heard an unusual sound from under me. I was turning left off of Hillside onto Shelbourne, riding my trusty commuter bike. It was a Kuwahara Tri-Sport 105, a frameset inherited in 1994 from Graeme. It was thrown together with 105 parts from my first road bike - a 1990 Gardin with Biopace (long since removed). The Gardin met its end in Kingston in 1992 when an eager motorist turned left in front of me. In addition to the parts from the Gardin, I decked it out with 737 clipless pedals from my first Kona (1993) and fenders to survive the Victoria rain.

Through three wheelsets and drivetrains, the Kuwie carried me swiftly and safely from then until now, though winter training rides, commutes to work and school, drunken forays home from parties and pubs, and anything else I threw at it. I would do trials on it outside the Sub at Uvic, back when they had those large concrete steps out front. I ran it down trails many wouldn't consider walking down. Frankly, I kicked the sh*t out of it, and it would simply ask for more. More abuse, more curb-hopping, more slicing and dicing through traffic, please.

Until I heard that clunk. The back tire started rubbing, so I stopped to check it out. Everything seemed fine - I thought the wheel had dislodged from the dropouts, but it was still sitting true between the chainstays. Then I saw it - the seat tube completely disconnected from the bottom bracket. Not simply a crack, but a complete disconnect. I couldn't believe my eyes, and stood there, stunned.



I collected myself, gingerly got back on the bike, and rode home at a leisurely pace as the frame flexed and bowed below me. The ride kind of felt like that time I went with my cat to the vet on the day we put him down. Traffic was light (was there even traffic at all? - I couldn't be sure). I spun along, enjoying the farewell ride.

I have since disassembled the bike, and Straight Up Cycles has kindly recycled the old Kuwie. The other parts are long since obsolete, so no longer will I enjoy the old school downtube shifters, the optional friction shift, and my 7-speed cassette.

On the bright side, I have found a suitable used Canadian-made replacement - a 2004 Devinci Stockholm - to carry me to work and back. And to satisfy my landspeed craving, I broke down and ordered another Canadian bike - a custom-built Marinoni Leggero frameset.