Member Profile

James Fitch

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About

I am currently (2021) retired and approaching 70 (how did that happen?). I've been riding bicycles since I was a small child, and did some short tours while I was in high school. In 2004, after an approximately 10 year employment-caused break, I got back into cycling, and quickly lost the 50 extra pounds I'd picked up in the interim. I just intended to do recreational day rides and century rides. When I bought my new bike, I told the vendor that I was never going to tour, so we didn't need to consider that. Wrong! A friend who tours extensively (and is still touring at 81 years), and the journals at CG, caused me to get the touring bug. I built up a touring bike from an old Trek 710, which I used for a couple of short tours. When my wife, Genny, decided she liked bicycle touring too, I got her a Long Haul Trucker. I was so impressed with it, that I got one for myself. Ultimately I acquired a "used" (300 miles) S&S coupled CoMotion Pangea for about half the new price. I still have that if we should ever want to return to fully loaded touring again. But more recently, with Genny about to fully retire, we've been far more comfortable with lightly loaded credit card tours. For those, we ride our Habaneros.