You know the saying, especially if you are a cyclist, “When in doubt, bike it out.” I hit a rough patch of road on life’s journey and it has been challenging to find time to write. Yet every morning come rain or shine I get in the saddle and bike to and from work. The motion of my legs and the energy they’re pumping here and there, up and down, to and fro, hither and yon reminds me that I am alive and it’s all going to be okay.

I have been spending some time in a period called then. We while away time in the now but then is something else entirely. Collins Dictionary says, “Then is used when you refer to something which was true at a particular time in the past but is not true now.”

There is comfort in then because if you’re like me and you have good memories it only stands to reason that then can provide calm in the storm and a sense of self. You can’t live in the past and there is no future in then. So I bike it out and think about now and then almost simultaneously and that motion of brain and body is good therapy.

But what about a antiques show? Those are all about then. Why antique shows are the very life blood of then! Plus there are bikes! I went to an antique show and spotted this Schwinn Corvette.

The Schwinn Corvette was made between 1954 to 1964. In 2010, it was reintroduced as an entirely different bike. This one was 1959 and the man selling it used it as a boy doing his paper route in Sacremento, California. Check out the baskets on the back. He said he’d load up his papers and do his delivery route. He told me his wife put new tires on it and added some things that weren’t bonafide Schwinn but tried to make the bike more comfortable for him.

He printed out a manual for the bike and the plastic bag in the left side of the basket had the old parts. He was selling it for $675 and he was firm on the price. It’s his then and you can’t always put a price on that, right? But it turns out he wasn’t too far off the mark on price. This site has some great details and insight into Schwinn bikes and the price was comparable to what I saw on eBay.

I was very interested. I could give it a new home and bring in up to speed in the here and now. Or I could enjoy a little glimpse at then and keep on walking. Which is what I did.

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But then after looking at old phones, books, denture molds, cash registers and all the Pyrex on the planet I saw this piece of the past. A Gendron bicycle for $600. There was no one around to talk to about its acquisition but take a gander at the pictures. Gendron is from 1872 and initially produced baby carriages. The bike was interesting times five. I couldn’t stop looking at all the odd little details. Check out the light or should I say lantern! Note the port and starboard, red and green domes aside the lantern. What about that pump? The foot rests on the front fork are pretty large and the swoop to the frame is bewitching. What a machine! The Brooks saddle looks like the newest thing besides the tyres. The booklet was on a table and I leafed through it and saw the wide array of products Gendron offered.

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Very interesting to look at and if someone had been present I would have at least asked about a test ride but maybe it’s just as well. Bikes then had a sort of utility that we want our bikes to echo now. Now bikes have modern conveniences and joyous things like belt drives and an array of saddles to fit our bits just right. All the enhancements and advances from then allow us to focus on the journey as well as pick up groceries. It’s fun to think about then but enjoy the here and now.

Have you ever been in the presence of some bikes from back then or are you a collector? What are your impressions of these machines?

Thanks for reading,

Get out there and ride.

Bike Goddess