I love My Country Road Bob!!

I love my Country Road Bob (Van Dessel). I know I've said it before, but I have finally justified my purchase! First, here is a pic of the bike. She sure is pretty, huh? Can you call a bike like a Country Road Bob a she??

Now let me tell you a little story of why I love the C.R.B. I first started searching for the C.R.B. because when commuting in the rain, regular rim brakes would get all gunked up, and make some horrible noises because of road grime and water. This compromised the braking quality and the rim life considerably. I was very specific in what I was looking for, a road geometry frame with drop handlebars, disk brakes and singlespeed gearing. I figured this would prove to be the most reliable configuration and the theory was that disk brakes would keep out of the grime and stop normally during inclement weather. You know the only bike on the planet that had all these things? That's right the C.R.B. Well it's been a very dry winter/spring, and every single day I've ridden since receiving the C.R.B. has been dry as a bone....until last night.
It had been raining heavily for a couple of hours before my commute home last night. The rain had stopped but it was really wet on the road on the way home. So, there I am riding home at after 11:00 P.M. with no starlight, no streetlights with a shiny wet street ahead of me. I was enjoying my ride and the water from the front wheel would spray up in front of my headlight creating a rather beautiful reflection back in my direction. It was quiet out, and I'm pretty much mesmerized by the light show, which is keeping my attention straight down and not out in front of me! I know not smart, but that's what happens after riding the same route several hundred time! I catch something at the top of my vision rapidly approaching! Well I'm rolling along about 18-19mph, and about 20-25 feet ahead is a parked semi tractor where there is never anything parked! I wish I could have seen my face, but my best guess is that it looked something like this........

I immediately smashed the brakes and came to a very rapid, but easily modulated sliding stop rotating 90 degrees and pointing toward the curb with about 2 inches between me and the semi! I know I can't bring back the excitement of the moment, but it was pretty crazy, that I didn't go down, or eat the rear of that truck for a midnight snack! But, the brakes worked flawlessly, and I can guarantee that if I was that stupid on my last bike, I would have been dragging myself off the ground and looking for my teeth under that truck! Did I learn a lesson? Yes! Always spend as much time, effort and money to get exactly what you want, and you can always find a way to justify it later!!!!!