A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to the Rummage Sale

Our local "shopper" newspaper (the Broadcaster) had a section in it for a city wide rummage sale. Laura pointed out that one of the sales had a rode bike on it. Instantly my selfish mind thought "OOOOH....possibly a bike to turn into a single speed or a fixie!" I scouted the place on Friday night with no sign of a road bike. The paper said 10:00 for the start time of the sale on Saturday, but I cruised by at 9:20 and she was putting stuff out and there it was...a Bianchi!

Instantly I could tell it was HER bike and she was not real tall. I checked it out and it was obvious that she hadn't ridden it in awhile (dust, cobwebs, flat tires). It had Campy Daytona components (I believe they may be Centaur wrapped in a different name) and the bike was in relatively good shape. She had an extra saddle to go with the Terry saddle she had put on it, a few tools, tubes, bike computer, and a couple other things.

I called Laura to get her butt over and bring the pump along. She did and I pumped it up and sent her on her way for a test ride. Luckily Laura and the lady are close to the same height and the test ride went fine. Laura said it turns real quick which scared her a little. She's not used to the stiff frame bike. I tested it and thought it rode great. She took it out again and decided that she liked it a lot!

So, the trip that was all about me turned into all about Laura. I'm excited though because the wonderful woman who told me earlier this summer that she couldn't see herself riding anything but the tandem with me, was EXCITED about getting the new (to her) bike. We also picked up a couple of jersey's from the sale that looked as good as new.

As far as I could research, I think it's a 2001 Bianchi Reparto Corse SL that initially retailed around $2000.

Watch out everybody...I think Laura's getting serious about this cycling thing! Pretty soon she'll have her own cycling blog instead of sassing me on mine (hint hint).