some things don't change

This weekend they ran the Little 500 at Indiana University in Bloomington. For the uninitiated, this is the race made famous by the Oscar-winning (and, in my case, life-changing) film Breaking Away.














As in past years, each team is comprised of students at IU, and the race is a relay race with hand-offs; every team must ride the exact same bicycle. In the film, I believe the bikes all came from either Huffy or AMF. This year they were provided by Schwinn, which is now owned by Pacific and is not even remotely like the Schwinn company of old.

A closer look at this photo reveals that the bikes haven't really changed much since the late 1970's. They are still single-speed bikes with rear coaster brakes, and -- gasp! -- cheap, one-piece (aka Ashtabula) cranks.









I love how some things -- even goofy things -- don't change.