It’s been a while since we’ve had a profile, but Alan recently sent us his story.  Alan is a cofounder of Bici Bicycle Cooperative with Elisa and I, professional photographer, and beard aficionado.  We loves him!

(note: before you proceed, open this link in a new tab and play whilst reading)

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This is the story of Wildcat my 1987 Schwinn Supersport. I inherited Wildcat from my dad in the beginning of 2007 as a classic 12 speed.

Complete with down tube shifters and skin wall tires, I used Wildcat as a way to get to and from school and occasionally would take it out for longer rides. Later that spring I bought a more modern road bike and put Wildcat away until a mechanic friend of mine helped me convert it to a fixed gear.

At this point I stored the road bike and started commuting on Wildcat again. Riding everywhere. To work, to parties, races, and even training rides.

At the end of 2008 I did my first century on Wildcat via the Ladiga-Silver Comet trail. Throughout 2009 Wildcat has started to show her age. First with a number of stripped hubs and then eventually blowing out the bottom bracket, I retired Wildcat this summer. But then as cyclocross season approached I started to imagine the process of converting Wildcat into a cross machine. It took some money and some elbow grease but with some welding and modifying it happened.

I raced all but one race in the season on Wildcat, after which I noticed that again the bottom bracket was broken. So once again Wildcat is benched, but I’m sure it won’t take long for it to come out retirement again.