Bike #5: Performance Superbe Pro

My fifth bike was a 1986 Performance Superbe Pro road bike:

As you may have gathered, when I was growing up my family was not all the big on the local bike shop. We actually used to buy a fair amount of stuff at the local shop, but for whatever reason we got me a couple of bikes, one each from each of the bike mailorder houses of the time. Part of the reason that we purchased bikes online had to do with value: this bike was relatively cheap (I think about $550) given how nice it was. Tange chromoly tubing, Suntour Superbe Pro full gruppo, and lightweight Araya rims made this a pretty fast bike. Still back in the days of friction shifting, but quality components for a first road bike.

I remember the first few rides on this bike, and the sensation that every last ounce of effort was propelling me forward.

I did a lot of road riding around Huntington on this bike with my parents. One time I was on a ride with my mom and we were in the left turning lane at a light and when I started to turn this car ran up on me an squashed my back wheel. Luckily this was my only encounter with a car on this bike.

I did RAGBRAI on this bike with my dad, I believe in 1987. During RAGBRAI I did my first century on this bike.

I brought the Performance with me to college, and used it during a brief experiment with participating on the Claremont Colleges Cycling Team. I enjoyed the training rides as I had a close friend on the team (Tina Briones) and I did fine at the second race of the season, a time trial up Mount Baldy. Riding alone, especially along difficult stretches, is something I am good at. But my first two proper road races were a bit of a disaster. My first, in San Diego, ended moments into the race. I had purchased a lightweight "race wheelset" and had put some stupid-small tires on. I had obviously made the amateur mistake of not properly getting the tube into the tire so as soon as I took a turn my tube herniated out and blew up. My third race was another road race, this one an absurdly tight criterium that basically was a loop around a parking lot. I got dropped super early and pulled from the race. Stuck riding in the sketchy lower category races and plagued by American-style crits, I decided road racing was not for me.

By the time I left Claremont skateboarding was the dominant pursuit in my recreational life, and I decided that it wasn't worth shipping the Performance back to Long Island. A fellow student low-balled me on the price, but I let it go.