
The Mystery of Tom Pritchard’s Bike - mstats
https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a33995147/tom-pritchard-bike-mystery/
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jonah
What a great man and what great storytelling. Thank you for sharing.

I happen to have an Eisentraut ‘Limited’ of similar vintage. I bought it off
of a retired aerospace engineer a decade ago. It's equipped with the same
classic Campagnola and while the frame is a little tall for me I still get
great pleasure in riding it around town. It is beautifully made, very light,
and a piece of art.

Not mentioned in the story but Albert Eisentraut was building his bicycles in
Oakland.

~~~
jonah
A couple old photos I dug up off my social media accounts:

[https://scontent-
lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/67766_15300271...](https://scontent-
lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/67766_1530027103606_6053859_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=2c4854&_nc_ohc=InYLMbVK968AX-97w-W&_nc_ht=scontent-
lax3-1.xx&oh=3f537ccc2473b482250e07ef0874f772&oe=5F8DDA51)

[https://scontent-
lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e15/1...](https://scontent-
lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e15/11236024_875678062491454_1010697952_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-
lax3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=110&_nc_ohc=Aec0_ndGqUMAX_Ak3lo&_nc_tp=18&oh=df653c0f0f03d2805f2129b4c9f8ab66&oe=5F8FD470)

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orthopodvt
What a great story and an amazing person. It's always nice to read about
someone who was genuinely a good person. I especially liked the quote: “Every
man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived that
distinguish one man from another.”

~~~
fxtentacle
Fully agree. What an amazing read :)

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alister
As to the significance of "5826 D.B.T. 1976", it appears that it stands for
Denver Bicycle Tax. This is probably why the author tried phoning the Denver
police and then the oldest bike shop in Denver.

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dakial1
It seems that you can me make a movie on this guys life. I got to know a few
characters like him and the truth is that they are awesome people but never
stay around for long, as they are always seeking the next adventure.

For those who want more, here's the piece he wrote on Tom:
[https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2009/01/11/moose-and-the-
my...](https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2009/01/11/moose-and-the-myth/)

~~~
rmason
Try this link if you don't want to subscribe to the Tampa Bay Times to read
one story:

[https://archive.vn/QyMnG](https://archive.vn/QyMnG)

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tedmcory77
I've lived in St. Pete since 2000. If Tom was who I think he was, he was
certainly a character. He'd drive around with that d __* jeep blasting flight
of the Valkyries.

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nl
> Eisentraut trained Bruce Gordon, Joe Breeze, Skip Hujsak, and Mark
> Nobilette, among others.

That's
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Breeze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Breeze)
who built some of the first mountain bikes.

~~~
alaxsxaq
I spent half a day with Bruce Gordon and bought one of his bikes a decade or
so ago. He's gone now, but he was an interesting character in his own right -
seems the bike world is full of them.

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dakial1
Here's the piece he wrote on Tom
[https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2009/01/11/moose-and-the-
my...](https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2009/01/11/moose-and-the-myth/)

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TheGrassyKnoll
> "He said he was trying to get the attention of a beautiful young woman who
> was a serious cyclist, and he couldn’t just ride up on a Schwinn Varsity."

So, I had an orange Schwinn Varsity when I was in jr. high school. (40 pounds
of _steel_ baby). Then one year, one of my friends got a 20-something pound
Nishiki. What a revelation that was; the feeling of efficiency was just
incredible.

~~~
Damogran6
When I was in college, I listed after the Bridgestone MB-0....until they got
in a Nishiki Alien.

That thing was mind bogglingly different...I looked it up earlier in the year
and...it's not so mind boggling different
anymore.[http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=230276](http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=230276)

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undersuit
I need to know more about Tom Pritchard apparently, but I've been embarking on
my best attempts to upgrade my bikes on my own. When I saw that 6-speed with
down-tube shifters and the camo road bars! God, it's so fun. I need to redo
the paint on my SE Draft Lite so I can take some pictures and at least try and
feel like I have a cool classic bike.

~~~
SECProto
> I need to redo the paint on my SE Draft Lite so I can take some pictures and
> at least try and feel like I have a cool classic bike.

Or not! To learn from Tom, he had the adventures but wasn't outspoken about
them - the stories were told by others. With a bike, the point is to enjoy it!
I have an 80s steel frame, not as unique, but it gets me around, fast, and
I've had tons of fun with it over the past 15 years. Camping in the woods with
it chained to a tree, riding through 6" of slush on slick tires, wiping out
and learning multiple times... I've touched up scrapes and dings with not-
quite-matching shades of nail polish, my handlebar tape is falling apart, my
bottom bracket sticks out a bit because I did a shit job of replacing it 5
years ago. But I love it anyway. Or as the article said,

> “Bicycles are not built to be used as status symbols,” Eisentraut himself
> wrote in a chapter on framebuilding for a book called Bike Tripping,
> published in 1972. “The cyclist should ride his chosen bike, instead of
> bullshitting about its angles or its chain stay length.”

~~~
undersuit
OK, my green nail polish running out will probably be when I do something
about the brake levers and the damage done to the original paint by said brake
levers.

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jeffreyrogers
This is a really wonderful story. For anyone like me who's reading the
comments but doesn't care at all about bikes: read the story, Tom Pritchard
sounds like a great man.

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austinjp
Many, if not all, lives are as rich as this and would benefit from as romantic
a retelling.

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axaxs
I think that's a bit unfair. Most Americans for example haven't even left the
country(and many, their state), much less try and smuggle hash into Spain.

~~~
ashtonkem
While my story isn’t done being written, I doubt mine would hold up a candle
against what Tom had experienced by my age so far. Some people just live
unusual lives.

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WalterBright
A fine story, and a sweet bike. The engineer in me says "perfection".

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jeffrallen
I also appreciate that the author doesn't wear stupid gaudy bicycle jerseys
and shorts.

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chestervonwinch
Having lived in Florida, I would wager that the author is suffering for
fashion in jeans and a black shirt moreso than he would be in "gaudy"
bicycling attire. Or maybe that's your point -- that we should all prefer
looking hip over dorky-yet-functional?

