Geriatric BMX

One of the casualties of my relocation was my BMX bike. I won't bother with the gory details but I will say I'm quite confident one of the packers/movers that handled our move decided to steal it. Atlas Van Lines could not have cared less. They were perfectly happy to offer me a $20 settlement for a $500 bike. Next time you shop for a mover do me a favor and drop Atlas from any consideration you might have.

USAA was amazing as always when it came to settling the claim. I feel so lucky to be eligible for their coverage. I've never had any experience with them that was anything shy of awesome.

I've really missed the bike I had. I'm old and suck almost beyond belief considering what I used too be capable of on a BMX bike but I really do enjoy knocking around the 'hood with Vaughn.

I finally replaced the old bike today. I gotta say the quality of current mid-priced box-stock BMX bikes is amazing. The bikes I raced 30+ years ago were a no expense spared type of deal and this bike largely blows them away. Braking performance, handling, quality of components etc. is nothing short of amazing. It's cool to see V-brakes, Campy style cupless and threadless headsets, cassette rear hubs, European bottom brackets. It's cool to see all the improvements the MTB and road bike world have introduced so widely embraced by the BMX world.

The shop I spoke to said they could have the bike I wanted available the next day. Crazy turnaround until it occurred to me Redline was a local company. What didn't occur to me until I picked it up was that they were based in Kent, Wa. Their corporate headquarters live about 5 minutes from my house. I had to drive farther than that to find a Redline dealer...

I had also forgotten that Redline got their start building high quality motorcycle frames for flattrack, TT, speedway and motocross way back in 1970. It's cool to be able to still throw them a bone.