Back in May, I was the lucky recipient of a Marinoni, which I set about rehabilitating to the best of my meager abilities:The end result was a bicycle I very much enjoyed riding:But as Im doing my best to keep the total number of bicycles I own in check I ultimately decided to auction it and give the proceeds to the Star Track Cycling program, as they were raising money to send kids to Junior Track Nationals:It aint much, but I aint much of a human being, and selling beat-up bikes I got for free and giving away the money is about as philanthropic as I get.So who won the bike?, youre probably not wondering. Well, it was some guy from upstate who you may know from the comments as Some Guy From Upstate, and this past weekend he came downstate to collect his prize. Out of respect for his privacy I refrained from sticking a camera in his face to capture the moment, so instead heres a random picture of someone receiving an award:The plan was to do the ceremonial Passing On Of The Bicycle and then go for a ride, so we headed over to so-called River Road, the popular roadie route right across the George Washington Bridge:[River Road in autumn]After days of rain the weather was positively spectacular, but we soon learned the hard way that River Road was closed, which I would have known had I thought to check beforehand:Storm damages Palisades Interstate Park; woman rescued in Englewood after flooding https://t.co/ny4MqHiiNB pic.twitter.com/dyl8pOXGWv Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) August 9, 2024Usually when River Road is closed you just go around the barriers and keep riding, but this was bad enough they had people standing there to turn you away and everything:A lot of damage at the Palisades Interstate Park as a result of yesterdays storm. The crews with the park commission are now going through and inspecting the trails and the park. However, the rain today and tomorrow could result in even more damage. @ABC7NY pic.twitter.com/STUlwSZhBX Janice Yu (@JaniceYuNews) August 8, 2024Obviously we totally could have ridden that on gravel bikes, but since we were on mere road bikes we turned around and instead headed over the mighty High Bridge and into the Bronx for an impromptu tour of the citys most chronically obstructed bike lanes:[The High Bridge many, many years ago]At the conclusion of the ride I then tried to convince him to take George Plimptons Y-Foil Instead, but being possessed of uncommon restraint he insisted on sticking with the Marinoni:[Subtlety On Wheels]This is probably a good thing, since theres clearly a market for George Plimpton memorabilia:And surely his Y-Foil will only continue to increase in value until one day Ill do an auction with Classic Cycle and well use the proceeds to build Star Track a brand new indoor velodrome which well call the Plimptonium:[Architectural plans for The Plimptonium, a.k.a. The House That Wife Oil Built]But pending that, thanks to Some Guy From Upstate for not only helping Star Track but also freeing up a slot on my bike rack and bringing my total number of classic lugged steel road racing bicycles down to a more manageable two, those being the Faggin:And of course the Cervino:Of the two, the Cervino is the (mostly) period-correct one, and being slightly larger than the Faggin it affords me a somewhat more age-appropriate riding position:Thanks to the voluminous tubular tires it floats over pretty much everything:And while it may be lacking in the low gear department the refreshing simplicity of operating a six-speed friction drivetrain with one hand makes up for it:Six-speeds are the new singlespeeds.