I started this blog in January of 2008, mostly as a convenient way to share pictures and build specs for a couple of old bikes, to share some old family pictures, and news of family and friends. I am not a writer. As I have said, for the 50 years leading up to January 2008, I didn't write anything other than personal checks. Over time I started writing a little more and posting some music videos. Slowly people wandered in and sat down, mostly people with an interest in vintage bikes, but not all. Some tired of the BS and drifted away. Others stayed and became friends, if someone you've never seen can be a friend - digital friends, people that aren't actually real - just an email address or a blogsite out in cyberspace. Sometimes I suspect you are all bored middle-aged housewives sitting in front of your computers, smoking Salems in your pink fuzzy bathrobes and bunny slippers, creating a new persona for yourselves so you can come out and live in the edgy, exciting world of vintage bikes and dead music.
In my mind I am writing for relatives, childhood and high-school friends, and another handful of bicycle hacks. Today I noticed on my Blogger Dashboard a category called Stats. I guess I've never paid any attention to it, but today I selected it. I discovered that yesterday 224 people visited 1410 Oakwood. 224 people and it's rapidly increasing! Where the hell did all you people come from? And why aren't you commenting once in a while? While I appreciate that people find something of interest here occasionally, at another level it's kind of unnerving, because I didn't realize it was happening. If I'd have known that people were actually reading it, I wouldn't have been so cavalier in my proof reading and editing.
So, if you chose to, speak up and tell us who you, and what you like or don't (not that it would change my modus operandi anyway). Give us links to your blogs. Hell, we could end up being as creepy as Facebook. I may start another blog to post the more personal and local things. Let me know what you think.
- The Management
Nice Gunnar! I've told you how I found your blog about a year ago. Your writing style was interesting so I stuck around. I need to start blogging again. I've really tapered off lately.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I consider you and Jack as solid I-friends.
I am sitting astride my Supercorsa in my pink fuzzy bathrobe, looking quite svelte if I do say so myself. I am so pleased with my appearance that I did log on 223 times yesterday, but only because my favorite shows weren't on, so don't be so impressed with yourself.
ReplyDeletemw
Well, that explains it I guess.
ReplyDeleteI use to have STATS but it quit working. Google can't fix it I guess as I'm not the only one. That's alright it just gave me the big head.
ReplyDeleteAll my friends and the small amount of family I have lives in this little box under the desk.
I'd wear a pink fuzzy bathrobe if I had one but I gave up Salem's 50 years ago. I do sometimes wear a red and black plaid flannel nightgown when it's cold. I have no shame.
I've been out on the edge but I think I'll sit here next to the fire now and tell lies about it. Keep doing what you're doing.
I also feel it's time to come clean. I'm only here for the cookie recipes. And I only visit when my stories aren't playing.
ReplyDeleteI only check so my girlfriend can see pictures of Bud.
ReplyDeleteActually its a great mix of bikes, beer, politics, Minnesota Twins baseball, life in So. MN, music, and, well...Bud.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I ended up here, probably following a link from another old bike blog. I'm an art prof at University of Manitoba, originally from Illinois. My dad's side of the family came to Blackduck MN from Norway, so there's that angle, too. I ride year round up here, and listen to some nearly and quite dead old guys as well. Prine, Young, Cash, Nelson, Earl, you get the picture.
ReplyDeleteI'll have you know, my bath robe is fuzzy and blue, and my slippers are sheepskin and fleece.
Steve in the 'Peg.
Oh, and my rarely-updated blog about my pottery:
ReplyDeletehttp://ltc.umanitoba.ca/blogs/grimmer
Steve,
ReplyDeleteI know you've commented because I am familiar with the pottery. Very, very nice stuff.
Remember the McLean? You invited me in because you needed some info and the I told you my best friend and College classmate was born in Albert Lea. Blah, blah, blah. Anyway it is all your Damn fault Gunnar! Now I have cyber friends by the name of Barin, Jonny Hamachi, The Rev, MW and the beloved Margadant.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell have you wrought? At the same time you have forced me to get it together with my own blog. Keep the Mo going Neil it has been a great ride so far.
Jack
Thanks Jack. Of all you list, friends I would call them now, only Margadant I have known in the flesh. NEVER under estimate Margadant.
ReplyDeleteI just work here at this Old Man Hawaiian Shirt Vintage Bicycle Bar with its Honky Tonk juke box.
ReplyDeleteHamachi, that's pretty funny.
ReplyDeletemw (michael white)
I am admittedly one of those anonymous lurkers. I stumbled upon the site about a year ago, through some vintage bike sort of link (can't remember). The blog has just the right amount of bike stuff, interesting music, and vicarious living to keep it interesting.
ReplyDeleteErik,
ReplyDeleteYou've commented before haven't you?
Where do you live? Whadda ride? What would like to ride? Who do you listen to? Blog? etc?
Erik:
ReplyDeleteYou've outted yourself, cough up the vital stats.
A comment is not always warranted. I enjoy your site on an almost-daily basis and have recommended it to many colleagues and friends. Honestly,it seems like you have your close-knit group of pals here who comment frequently. I think you're doing okay.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you and your Mrs.
Best,
Rick Moffat
Rick,
ReplyDeleteYou have commented in the past.It's other 200 I'm really curious about. But you have not filed a report on your bicycles, if any.
And keep in mind, I've never met most of these other yayhoos either.
We need more pictures of modern carbon-fiber or ti bikes too.
ReplyDeleteWatch it gang Gunnar is tinkering with the site. Damn now I will have to pay attention. Nice work "G" man.
ReplyDeleteOnly three blog sites do I visit on a weekly, if not daily, basis, Jane Fonda's, Ursula's (my cyber yoga mentor from Germany), and yours, Gunnar.. Don't fluff your feathers too much but I find it one of the greatest examples of our Southern Minnesota local color for Danes as immigrants to Albert Lea from Clarks Grove.
ReplyDeleteDebb
Hi Gunnar,
ReplyDeleteI may have commented once or twice before. I live in New Hampshire, am a former bike shop mechanic/manager, former bike racer, and currently in bicycle limbo. What little riding I've been doing consists of riding local dirt and back roads with my wife and young son on the back of a Surly Big Dummy. I am hoping to restore a thirty year old Holdsworth that I have had since it was new, and which I've somewhat neglected as of late. I've also recently acquired a beautiful, but even more neglected, Roberts frame that is probably from the early seventies. I go back and forth on whether to sell or restore it (someone else in the house has a strong opinion on which I should do). My listening habits would take up even more room, so I'll leave it at that for now.
-Erik
Debb,
ReplyDeleteConsider feathers unfluffed. It's just a silly blog and I know ALL the Danes who immigrated from The Grove to A.L....and they tend to have things in perspective. But if I ever do get famous, I'm going to be unbearable. More unbearable that is.
Jane Fonda?
Erik,
ReplyDeleteOh jeez, this is what we crave. A Holdworth and a Roberts. Robert? British handbuilt right? Man do we want pictures. Even neglected dusty bike pictures!
I have been to the old Holdsworth shop once or twice in Putney (south-central London). Like most of the UK builders, they stopped making their own steel frames some time back, but it's a fun lbs to visit, with a couple original Tour de France bikes (I think from the 60s) in the window. Holdsworth was a very important marque back in the day, since they not only made great bikes, they were the only UK importer of Campy and other Italian parts.
ReplyDeletemw
I have a friend, originally from England, that I've lost touch with. (Dennis Healey call me.)He and his son rode RAGBRAI a few years ago. He loaned his son his purple Holdsworth. He said his kid didn't like riding an "old bike" until people on the ride (probably Jack) started making a big deal of it. It was a sweet riding bike.
ReplyDeleteJack, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Holdworth where McLean Fonvielle cut his teeth?
ReplyDeleteI probably found a link to your blog through the CR list (where I'm a lurker), or some other bike site/blog. Obviously I like the bike content, but your other entries are great.
ReplyDeleteGunnar, you are a writer, and a good one, or people wouldn't come back.
Bored. Yep, that's it -- I check the blog out at work sometimes. Surprise, spending a day in a cubicle, working on manuals for router software can be a bit dull.
Bikes -- nothing super special, and nothing mint. Marinoni, Claud Butler, MKM, Slingshot Mtn., Schwinn Excelsior Autocycle, etc., etc.
Troy
Unenslaved Canadian
Thanks Troy,
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts on writing:
I can't write beyond a paragraph or two. I haven't the skills to make things flow and I rapidly lose interest. So if you really can't write, use pie charts, photos, bar graphs, YouTube videos and articles purloined from the web. It works for me.
How old is your Claud Butler?
ReplyDeleteGunnar: You would be spot on. Nice pick.
ReplyDeleteAlso I believe in this string you asked for Carbon Fiber (Tupperware)pics:
ReplyDeleteHere you go.
http://echelon133.blogspot.com/2010/12/bmc-sled.html
I left my comment before the ink of post was dry.
ReplyDeleteGunnar, I left a message on your Ruby Anderson post a few days ago and it disappeared. I'm a 47 year old old-bike enthusiast in the midwest and first found your blog earlier this year. Been hooked ever since and not for just the bike posts. We've spent the last year battling my wife's cancer and she passed away two weeks ago. Just wanted to tell you that even in the darkest days how much I have enjoyed your blog, keep up the good work.
ReplyDeletetg,
ReplyDeleteI believe your comment was on a posting where I was whining to the world about December and depression. Your posting stopped me short. I realized I have things pretty good. I was deleting myself, not your message.
I know a just a little of what you went through.
http://tinyurl.com/ooophda
Hi Gunnar,
ReplyDeleteI'm a husband, father of two (7 and 2), bass player, grad student, and bike mechanic. I blog infrequently at: http://babypopworkinprocess.blogspot.com/.(The bike in my profile pic is a Francisco Cuevas, made in NYC.) I came here for the bikes a little over a year ago and just stayed for the rest of it. I appreciate your sense and sensibility, and I'm glad you've made the choice to share it. If my lurking makes you nervous, I'll make it a point to speak up from time to time.
Happy Holidays to you and yours.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteWelcome. I added you to the link list. Now get to work.
Nice bike. I'll check it out.
297 count yesterday. I will never look at Stats again. It's spooky and I don't want to skew my outlook up. Any more.
ReplyDeleteI think I started reading your blog after seeing a post on Classic Rendezvous but I may be mistaken. I've commented on akavit and sent you a pix of a combo grass clipper/bicycle. One of these days I may have to start a blog about Moth Boats and other stuff if I can figure out how to do it. I enjoyed your post re: Worth Brewing Co. a while back--wish I could get some Dillon clock stopper or Mr. Chesterfield here in Maryland. As for snow, we might get an inch or so today--just nuisance snow...
ReplyDeleteHar en rikigt God Jul!
George in Maryland
Morning George,
ReplyDeleteI remember the bike mower. And of course the Akavit. Merry Christmas to you all.
It's a Claud Butler Olympic Sprint. I don't know how old it is. I believe a 70s bike boom model -- it had a 27.0 Japanese crown race), and that the name was recycled from earlier pre-Holdsworth Olympic Sprint frames. Those knowledgeable with Claud Butlers/Holdsworths could set me straight here.
ReplyDeleteStill it rides nice. And I had it repainted at Bicycle Specialities before they closed up. So it looks good.
Troy
Yeah, I suppose the 70s would be after Butler sold out to Holdsworth. Are you assuming it's Falcon era rather than a rebadged Holdsworth? which would be a pretty good bicycle. Of course it would be great to have a Claud Butler built bike. Anyway, should a great riding bike.
ReplyDeleteDon't screw with a good formula. If it needs to change it will evolve.
ReplyDeleteWell I post semi regularly, but have never given much about me other than my opinions (which I share freely). I found your blog after reading an intelligent posting you made on the velo orange blog.
ReplyDeleteI am a thirty something Canadian public servant, married with two little girls (2 and 4 years old, although the four year old will tell you that she's four and a half). My wife is also a full time public servant, so we don't have a whole lot of spare time, but what spare time I have is split between bikes and martial arts.
At the moment I have a 73 Raleigh superbe, a 93 miyata 1000, a mid 90s Bertrand (it's my baby....Columbus sl and full dura ace 8 speed), and a 94 miyata 721 which is my current winter beater.
But enough about me..... I can't speak on behalf of anyone else, but I check your blog almost daily because your writing is refreshingly open and personal while, at the same time, being accessible and because I enjoy the eclectic content. Whatever you decide to do with your blog or blogs I'll be here to read and offer my 2 cents whenever the urge strikes me.
Cheers!
Allan Pollock
Well Blog traffic has done it. It has opened everybody up like the proverbial Hamms can opener. 47 posts must be record.
ReplyDeleteWho thought a blog would have a great sense of community but it does. I concurr with Margadant, don't mess with it.... that's a first.
Allan,
ReplyDeleteYou comment enough that I don't consider you a stranger. Damn, there seems to be a high percentage of Canadian readers. Which shouldn't be surprising, I guess. Except for a quirk of history, Minnesotans and Canadians are pretty much cut from the same cloth...except of course for the French Canadians.
Change not thy habits as they are good. Change not thy blog as it is pleasant. I will be thinking of 1410 OakWood as I ride 40 miles of gravel roads tomorrow on my country bike; a 1984 Trek 520 with 35mm tires. Though lowly pedigreed, it will be the only one in the stable to ride like the wind the week before Christmas. The Fuso and the Kellogg and the Romic will all be jealous upon it's return. They are all light and agile but gravel hurts their feet just as the pea bruised the princess. The Trek is the wide hipped Scandinavian broad in the bunch.
ReplyDeleteFeral,
ReplyDeleteThat is one beautiful blog. You have the layout, the proper quotes and a sound philosophy. All you need now is the postings. I'm an optimist, I'm posting a link to your future writing.
And not to be remiss, them's some fine rides you got. But of course, you know that. ;-)
ReplyDeleteFeral,
ReplyDeleteYou from Houston?
The Feral is something with the pros but Feral needs an avatar. How a Manx, Bobcat or Lynx..... Better yet how about Tom of Tom & Jerry. Very chic blog setup and home page. Gunner this chap might just give you a run for your money.
ReplyDeleteWelcome aboard.
I hope the lad does. It's not a contest. Or if it is, it ain't one I'm entering.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think cartoon avatars are gauche.
Lorna doesn't.
ReplyDeleteOry, gun. Checking in here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good words, directly and otherwise. I'm glad we get to spend some time talking.
Thanks, amigo.
af
Abe,
ReplyDeleteI believe the tide has turned. My best to the wife and lads.
I was excited to see you got 57 responses, but I see half of em are from you. Dex
ReplyDeleteAt least half...
ReplyDelete