Bon Ton Roulet: 7/25 There is a Bike Shop in Burdett

One of the really excellent features of the Bon Ton Roulet was it's mechanic. At the final night gathering everyone gave him a huge round of applause and he quietly tipped his beer back at us.

Until the tire episode(s) I had only watched the going on at the green van from afar. Seeing the folks gathered round while picking up the bags, going to the head, or checking on the route. The Van was usually parked near the center of things, with a bike stand, or two, set up and a lost riders flocking around. When the time came to ask if he carried kevlar tires I waited while he spun a hapless derailer, clicking it through the gears and trying to determine the problem while a man, seated in a chair asked him how he got into the business. Politely (although distracted by trying to do his job) he replied that he had intended to be a finish carpenter and had set up his shop in Burdett, NY. When business was slow, and it often was, he'd sit on his front porch and work on this bike. Being on the main drag, and there being no other bike shops short of Ithica, people would stop, ask his advise, or ask him to work on their bikes...and so it came to pass...there is now a bike shop in Burdett.

Burdett, NY was the first town where I ever say a dead deer hanging from a front porch. It's a small town and it could well have been on that porch that the mechanic now repaired bikes. Things do change in 2o something years, I do not believe that in the entire year I lived there I never once even saw a bike, let alone a bike shop.

To be honest - I didn't even ride while I lived there. Have you seen the hills? Huge! Mile long climbs, followed by brake burning descents. And apparently - the need for armored tires which coincidentally the mechanic was out of. He did however have these 'tuffy stips' which he could put inside the tire, and those should protect the tube and save us from another 3 flat day.

And so it came to pass that on 7/25 I headed up, up, up and out of Watkins on a 75 mile ride. We took rt 14 south through Montour Falls and up. I'd seen the route before we left, and I knew the 'hill'. I knew I would be walking. I was wrong! As I rode up the monster, admittedly slower than, hmmm, a mountain goat, I couldn't believe it was happening, just pedaling along, climbing the mile and half long beast. Yeah!!!! After that the route turned North along the ridge, than down then up, then down, then up, then down. I was hurting but pedaling. The reststop at Wagner Vineyards was welcome and extremely hard to leave.

Crossing over to Cayuga Lake we stopped for some ice cream. Very good ice cream, then climbed an agonizingly steep road to the top of Trumansburg Falls. Looked at the Falls then crawled into camp where we commenced the nightime routine, rather sentimentally, for this was the last night.