My Bob Jackson

I have several bicycles. Maybe too many.

This Road bike was purchased in 1978. I was working in Santa Monica at a customer site and on the drive back to Orange County I stopped by a bicycle shop on Wilshire Blvd.

I don't remember why I was at a customer site as I have several customer service people who did most of the field work.

I was such a sucker as I walked into SuperGo not really needing another bike. I had a MotoB a French bike with sewups that always would flat. Then I was mostly running a lot maybe eighty or ninety miles a week.

I was living in Mission Viejo on the golf course and still had my house in Lake Forest that was either rented out or my daughter lived there, not sure.

So I wandered around the bike shop and spotted two frames on a rack that were too sweet. Don't remember the other (curse of old age) but the Jackson had leather handlebars tapes and had been just put back on the rack after appearing in the LA Bike show.

Not sure how I paid for the Jackson as then I had an American Express Card and did not use other credit cards. Anyway I bought the Jackson and took off the wheels and put it in the back of my Corvette. I was driving a 1977 350 with a T-Top. 

The frame was not white as shown and had a set of alloy sewup wheels. Those wheels were good for several years until the spokes kept going loose. Plus I would ride around El Toro Air Station and get flats and walk back or hitch a ride in a truck. Once I flatted down my Laguna Beach and walked several miles barefoot, you can not walk in old style cleats.

Actually you can not walk far in new cleats unless it is a MTB pedal. My office mate used to drive out at times and haul my ass back to the office so I decided to buy a set of clinchers for the Jackson. 

I moved to another house in Lake Forest and still kept the bike. By now the top tube was chipped so I covered the bad spots with decals. I has always been a roller rider since maybe I was 14 and got the rollers from the bicycle shop I worked at in Santa Monica. Riding the rollers with the Jackson cause my sweat to drop on the top tube and it started to get rusty so I put my son's bike decals on it. My mentor Carl Siefert  taught me to ride the rollers. I lived on Olympic Blvd then and would listen to AM radio playing Dixie Land Jazz while riding.

One day when I was out riding the Jackson while I still lived in Lake Forest a young female rider came along next to me an told me "Steel is Real", that made my day. I had a good friend named Clark that ran a front end alinement business and he showed me his bike that he had bought from an Olympic Gold Medal winner. Clark wasn't riding any more and I really like his bike with the carbon frame and other stuff. 

So the Jackson retired for several years. But it was not forgotten.

The carbon frame was ridden a lot but when I moved to South Pasadena the Los Angeles streets started to crack the frame. I still have the frame in my locker is San Pedro but got another road frame to replace it.

While I was living in South Pasadena I decided to paint my 1938 Schwinn Paramount and after that I painted the Jackson. I masted the head badge and decal and the chrome tips were covered. My paint choice was a poor one as the paint never set very hard. 

The Campy wheels were off another bike I was given after my boat was hit by a neighbor. Another story. The wheels came without cogs and all my stuff was Shimano. After an ordeal on EBay I finally got a working wheel set.

The OEM pedals were replaced at one time with 9/16 newer pedals using an adapter but have now been restored to the real ones. Getting cleats for newer shoes and older pedals was also a problem but I have plastic cleats that use modern shoe patterns but still use the old pedal.

Yes after forty years the brakes really work. Probably better than the rider.

Been Off Line

My Flat Tire Special

My German Shepherd likes to go out early in the morning when it is still dark. There isn't any daylight savings here in Arizona and when we go out it is very dark unless we have a bright moon.

During the day he is allowed to roam around but not in the dark. There are coyotes here and I often see them by the house and in the County Road. The little Yorkie can not go out as he would be a tasty meal so we always he an eye on him.

Using blogger with a slow internet connection can be problematic as unless the files size is small enough and has been resized the upload takes a day or two. So for now no more pictures. The air outside when we go out is about 25 degrees. I am not to used to that. The little dog stays inside until it warms up. 

My mailing address shows Sedona but main Sedona is about 10 miles away. The Village of Oak Creek is 2 miles away and many prefer to call this place Big Park. As I may have mentioned earlier this is not San Pedro by any means. Since August I have seen the sheriff's car twice here. 

My daughter's house and my smaller ranch house is located about a tenth of a mile from the County Road where the payment ends. It is not uncommon to walk to the mailbox and see someone who is lost having missed the turn on Jacks Canyon Road. Often you will see people out of their cars taking pictures of the buttes and mountains. Out county road is Lee Mountain Road and we are across from the mountain which is 6250 feet high while the house here sits at 4250 feet.

There is one market in the village that has been remodeling since I arrived. This week they had a grand opening and reduced prices through out the store. Some products here are lower than California and some are higher but the sales tax is much lower. Gas is much cheaper here. Might be four gas stations on the highway in the village Circle K sells liquor so you can fill up the gas tank and also get tanked,

I spend a lot of time changing tires on my 29 inch bike. Yesterday I put on a larger tire and a new slime tube. This is goat head country. If you have never seen these little devils you are very lucky. Beside being a pain in the bicycle tire they stick to your shoe bottoms and get carried into the house where they lie waiting for a stocking foot.