Bike Across America 1965
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- Опубликовано: 2 янв 2023
- This documentary chronicles two young men trying to find their way through the confusing issues of the '60s. One trying to find his father and the other trying to find his future. Neither could have realized the different American cultures they would encounter, which would etch into their lives forever.
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You really don't ride anymore? That summer of 1976 did it for me. I was hooked. I've always ridden. I had a 37-year career in the bike industry. Now retired 8 years. I still ride 6000+ miles a year at age 73. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't still ride. Have well north of 100 vintage bikes to choose from.
"If you're not riding your bike to school
"This was before the Tour de France .... " The first Tour de France was in 1903, and apart from during the two World Wars, has been held pretty much every year since then. It's always been extremely popular in Europe. Perhaps the news didn't make it across the pond till after 1965.
Great story. I am a 73 year old who grew up in the suburbs of NYC and started doing 50-70 mile rides in the early 60's by heading north into Westchester County. I used a 3 speed english bike made to look like a racer from an article I saw in Sports Illustrated about the Tour De France. I did these rides with no planning and suffered mightily, but the sense of freedom was so overwhelming that I did many of these journeys. I stopped riding around '65 because 'it wasn't cool' but picked it up again in the early 70's and started to do competitive cycling. As i aged, long distance touring became attractive again and, to cut to the chase, I rode from Minnesota to California to celebrate my 50th and from California to Minnesota (much easier) to celebrate my 60th. Your story is amazing for me because of your description of road conditions, touring equipment, knowledge of food, etc. The cross country trip is hard and humbling even today.
Mr. Hansen, I remember hearing about your trip in the newpaper when I was 16 - It impressed me. Your story is amazing and I'm glad you and Butch survived being the transcontinental bike pioneers!
I started doing century rides on the East Coast with one of my good friends in 1971. I was 14 and he was 13. My Bike was Schwinn Varsity and he had a Schwinn Continental. We would start our days at 3AM to avoid the bulk of the traffic and cops would almost always stop us assuming we were runaways or mentally defective. No one could believe that anyone was purposefully riding hundreds of miles for kicks. I remember the dog problem, for sure, and the bad road, trash...and the flats. We were so quick at patching flats the they often delayed us only a few minutes. Good memories from back then.
Soon I'm adding day forty two, the day find my father. It is extremely tragic.
Great story. Brings back memories of how things used to be.
What a great story. Loved watching it. I bought my first high end bike in 1973, I was thirteen years old. From 1965 to 1973 not much changed as far as bikes go. Up graded my bike to sew ups. About the single biggest up grade you could do at the time. Wool shorts with a real chamois and wool jerseys. Thanks for sharing.
You Tube is a wonderful thing, here I am sitting on my lap top in England browsing stuff and this gets recommended by the algorithm. Its not often something on you tube grabs me for a full 45 minutes but this did. Really enjoyable and so interesting to understand the context of doing it back in the 60's. Well done to you guys, if only you could meet up with your old Pal it would close the circle.
A wonderful gentlemen. Great story of the old days. 100 pr cent loved it. Hello from Australia 🇦🇺 😊.
The satellite comment rang a bell. As young kids in the 1960s we would hang out talking at night, especially in the winter months when it was dark at 4.30. We'd stare at the sky and might need all night to see a single satellite, often we would see none. Now you'll see a satellite in 30 seconds. Space was virgin territory back then. Today satellites run everything. It's a different world.
This brings back so many memories of my ride on the first Bikecentennial route from Oregon to Virginia in 1976. A small group of us came over from Australia to be part of the 4000 riders that did parts or all of the ride. Loved the dialogue.
I rode Boston to Iowa City in 1970. Beautiful. Small roads with little traffic that are gone or made into 'stroads' now.
Fascinating ! I've never suffered so much listening to someone tell a story. I'm from that era and got into bikes in 69. I owned, eventually an Italian Atala, yellow and green, with a 24 inch frame (now they use cm., so I don't know what it means, I can eyeball a frame and tell what size it is by the length of the head tube),and full Campagnolo set up. I did 100 miles a week, between going to work to 46 st and 5th in Manhattan from Staten Island and back at 5. Weekends i went out all day and hit Central Pk. which closed the drive on week ends for bikes and runners . I'm 75 now and I havent ridden since that Atala, sold it in '70/71. BTW, it cost me 179 bucks, just like yours. I had to save for months for it. If I were 22 again and I heard this story, I wouldn't take that trip even for money. No way I'm gonna willingly suffer so much ! My hat's off to you and your buddy.
I had 42/34 low gear. Never walked an inch. Nowadays I use a triple most of the time.
More than a very interesting story, your tale is a time capsule. More than a description, you present yourself with complete authenticity. A very refreshing experience. Thanks. Ron
Thank you for posting this fascinating story. What was done with that equipment is really impressive. Had a schwinn high sierra f/h.s. & college. Converted to a 1x5, loved it!
Wow, what a story! In 1981 I rode cross-country from Toronto ON to SoCal via Northern BC, about 7000 miles in total, and had the best time. I was on little backroads almost the whole time, except for a few days near Missoula MT when I was on the BikeCentennial Trans-Am route, and local people everywhere would keep asking me where my bike's engine was: they couldn't grasp the idea that anyone, let alone a foreigner, would want to ride so far. I much preferred to not be on the Trans-Am route because the locals were much more generous and welcoming to me as I rode through their little towns; on the Trans-Am route nobody paid any attention to 'just another touring cyclist' pedaling by. I rode my old 10-speed Holdsworth Equipe with a flimsy Pletscher rear rack and a Regina 14-28 5-speed freewheel with Campagnolo Velox derailleurs, so the big climbs out west were tough, especially in the Cascades that were harder than the Rockies (except Berthoud Pass...). After riding in jeans for the first few hundred miles I also bought some Protogs wool shorts with real chamois inserts - ah, bliss! I smiled when you mentioned Red Hill: last year I did a little ride from Albuquerque west and went through there on Hwy.60, and the sole remaining inhabitants of Red Hill NM helped me find a motel in Springerville AZ (thank you, Dan). Lots of good memories! I'm still riding now in my retirement, and I hope to ride the entire US Pacific Coast this year to cover the parts of it that I've not yet ridden.
That was an amazing trip and story. I had a 1967 Schwinn 10 speed that I bought from a friend after he went in the Marines. I had a 3 speed Raleigh first and we rode around in the backroads of Maryland east of DC. We had to ride in the road all the way with almost no traffic that is now jammed with vehicles starting in the 70 s. Our longest ride was over 80 miles round trip to a Chesapeake Bay beach and back home. I think we did it in less than 5 hours. A great memory. No drivers would be distracted by anything but a AM radio so it was probably much safer then.