Way back in the 1980’s SWMBO and I were getting bored, very bored with just about everything we were doing.

Almost everything we did together had lost its lustre. We were at our wits end. How could we reinvigorate our time together.

After talking things through, at length, we concluded that we should take counsel from a valued and experienced friend.

After a couple of sessions he convinced us that a total change of attitude, direction, location, mode of dress and  experience with something totally different from the norm was the answer to our individual and personal dilemmas.

As we travelled home, we reluctantly concluded that we should follow the advice and see where we finished up.

After two long weeks of wrangling, experimentation with different sizes, positions, backside, leg , foot placement and comfort we made our most momentous and life changing decision.

We would immediately take the chance and follow our counsellors advice.

After belong accustomed to the new positions required, for example, hand and finger placement to ensure the fastest tempo change and hip/pelvic movement to ensure overall fluidity of movement we were ready for our first journey into the unknown.

We drove to a secluded area of The Royal National Park near Sydney where there was a rarely used bush track where we could put our new found talents to the test and evaluate each others performance without fear of recrimination and in total privacy in case anything untoward took place.

Initially all went well,  entry was without complication, cadence was achieved without too much huffing and puffing and we were able to communicate coherently.

That is, until I was suddenly thrown off without any warning. It seemed I’d lost concentration, veered off track and as a consequence, the moment was lost.

I was so ashamed. SWMBO immediately came to my aid.

From the look one her face I could see she thought we had made a great mistake to deviate from what we had know as the norm.

She was correct, as usual and I told her so.

We made our way back to the car, determined to make our counsellor aware of our decision to ignore his advice.

You see, we had bought two flat bar mountain bikes.

They were light weight aluminium framed Avanti cycles, all the way from New Zealand, their place of manufacture.

Avanti had only been building bicycles since about 1985, their principal business was the manufacture of aluminium window frames. We purchased ours in 1988.

SWMBO and I were amongst the first in Australia to take a chance on Avanti.

We were delighted. Boredom would disappear. We would enjoy new physical experiences and our comfort levels would improved dramatically.

The following week we sold both of our Avanti flat bar mountain bikes and returned to  our genuine, long lasting,  love affair with road cycling, SWMBO on her Cinellis and me astride my  Colnagos.

It was just good luck that our cameras suffered no damage and we was able to make a few photos of our short affair with mountain bikes.

Hoo roo for now