(I’ve noticed that I like Black and White photos at the top of my posts.)
I dusted off the rollers for the first time in a couple of years. They are an old pair of Cortina Folding Rollers with BIG steel drums.
I was 18 and had just moved out of my parents house to Philadelphia. Harry had just hired me to work at the shop and I was 18 year old poor. I was saving for a pair of Kreitler’s but needed so much stuff for my first apartment.
So, I roll into a thrift shop to look for a dresser. I’m rooting through the place and it is huge. Finally at the back of the store, I spot what looks like a pair of rollers folded in a corner behind a bunch of other stuff. I root through and verify that they are actually rollers and then go in search of the owner.
I drag the surly old guy to the back of the store and point at the rollers. The conversation went something like this:
Me: “How much for those?”
Surly Old Guy: “Those things? Five bucks and you can have ’em. I can’t even figure out how to plug them in.”
Me: “Sold!”
Getting them home while riding my bike was not easy, but hey $5!
Random Roller fact:
When I was working at Turin Bicycles in Denver, back in the early 90’s, we bet Larry Woodruff he couldn’t ride his Mountain Bike on rollers. Larry is one of the best bike handlers I have ever met. Not only did he ride on them with Panaracer Smoke Tires, but he rode a wheelie.
True Story.