FINDING THE PROCTOR

One of the local bicycle enthusiasts in Thunder Bay has a stunning collection of speciality bicycles, ranging from a Single Speed Yeti mountain bike style Single Speed to a gorgeous Bike Friday tandem.  A mint late model Marinoni Special hangs beside an equally well kept eighties something Cinelli and a mint early eighties Bianchi Pista hangs on the other side of that.  An interesting assortment of NOS Campagnolo and Mavic components peek out here and there from the items stored on portable shelves.  All in all, visiting Lud's Workshop is a treat for a guy like me.

I stumbled across Lud and the Proctor featured here several years before the bicycle actually came into my possession.  Lud, a fellow I met somewhere that no longer comes to mind, was using his early eighties Proctor as trainer in the Winter months, as well as for Spring and inclement weather riding.  Early in our relationship, I expressed interest in his Proctor, should he ever think of selling it.  Lud explained that he had bought the bicycle new, liked its ride very much and had no intention of ever selling the bicycle.  Good enough for me but things can change if one has the right currency to work with...

It was my good fortune, to run across a very nice Marinoni Special one day, while out Yard Sailing.  A brief haggle, soon placed the gorgeous old, Canadian made beauty, in my possession.  As I wheeled the bicycle to my truck, many great features caught my eye, including the first generation Campagnolo Super Record rear derailleur.  But I already had a pretty nice Marinoni in my collection and I hardly needed two.  None the less, I did refurbish the Marinoni and tried riding it for a month or so.  The bicycle was and still is a gem even though it is no longer in my possession.

Sometime later, I was out and about on a ride and happened to bump into Lud which, by the way, is short for Ludwick.  He was riding a Bike Friday folding bike of some kind and checking it over before taking it on vacation the following week.  Lud has an eye for good bicycles and immediately started into a close inspection of the Marinoni "Special" I was riding that day.  He already owned a later model, Brifter equipped Marinoni but expressed appreciation for the one I sat.  A week or so later, he offered me the Proctor straight across for the Marinoni.

Whether or not this was a fair deal for me is up in the air from a dollars and cents point of view.  But for me, I really wanted the Proctor and, after all, I had only paid $20.00 for the Marinoni.  A deal was struck and that was that.  I, at last, was lucky enough to own a Proctor.  Little did I know that after years of searching, I would soon own two more of equal or even greater value, depending on one's point of view.

Today the Proctor is part of my collection, even though I have spent little time with the bicycle.  It came into my possession along with five others in a two to three week period of time.  Far too many bicycles to add to a collection at one time, in my opinion, but certainly fun to do.  Something had to go or, at the very least, could not stay.  The gorgeous yellow and blue Proctor-Townsend was the first to go even though I really like the bicycle.  Ya can't keep em all.

NEXT - TEST BUILDING THE PROCTOR