From the Files of Oakland Andrew:

(Please be aware that this is the kind of track bike talk we want to hear.)

is it just me or is it really sad that Cinelli makes a bike that says MASH on it?

The first track bike I ever saw was when I was 16 and working as a bike messenger in downtown LA in the summer of 1994.. Kevin Squid came through, I think he was riding a Kamikaze frame. He hung out with us LA messengers and then I guess he rode his bike to Tijajuana.

Its kind of sad that all the mystique of the track bike is gone now that they are all mass produced and shit. They were like treasures.

I got my first one in San Diego, I guess it was in 1996, I was visiting an old Girlfriend and I saw it in the window of a bike shop and had to have it, it was a Green-ish sparkly gold flake paint job with yellow DeRosa decals. It was a 52cm and I rode A 60cm but it didn’t matter. I dragged that bike home on greyhound, back to SF and messengered on it for about a year before i sold it and bought a frame that fit better. The seat post was about 18 inches out of the frame when I rode it, I have a picture somewhere, I have a bunch of pics of mid to late 90 SF messengers in a box. Maybe I will scan them.

Here are the tickets I got on the De Rosa, The first one says,” Vehicle type – Green De Rosa bicycle”.

My dates were off , I got the De Rosa in summer of 98 and probably got rid of it after the 3rd ticket in May 99

The same fucking bike cop gave me all three tickets. He hated me, when he gave me the third one he said he was going to impound my bike so I locked it up to a pole real quick while he was writing the ticket out. Then I took the key off my wrist and threw it in a storm drain. He was so pissed. He said he was going to call the Firre Dept and have them cut the lock off. Then he let the air out of both my tires. I was working at Silver Bullet courier and they had a no fixed gear policy but it was cool with the dispatcher as long as you could pull your weight and still run long tags.

When I called in to dispatch about what happened they decided to fire me.

Which was lame because I had walked off after the cop gave me the third ticket and did a loop around the block and when he was gone I just unlocked my bike with my spare key and pumped up the tires. I only missed like 30 minutes of work but the office manager had heard about the whole thing and that’s who really fired me. The dispatcher was cool but he had to call me in to get fired because the office manager was a dick.

Two other guys quit that day in protest of me getting fired and I think I went to work for NOBS after that.

I fought all the tickets and they were all thrown out. I told the judge that I was obviously able to operate a “brake” because I pulled over for the cop all three occasions. The judge was confused and didn’t want to deal with any of it so they were just dismissed.

-Oakland Andrew

(Its scary when the bus moves forward and the gap shrinks. I got caught like this here on Broad and Walnut. Forget about the doors-ask Marcus)