I visited First Flight recently

Gotlime?

New member
I'm ashamed that it's so close and I've never been there before. It's literally like 12 miles from my house.

Anyways, weekend before last, the weather was nice for a few hours and the kids wanted to ride around in the Jeep. So we took the backroads and headed up to Statesville.

First Flight was more than I ever imagined. It was like going back in time and being able to take my kids along. So many bikes, parts, forks, jerseys, etc. The guys there were super coola nd answered all the questions we had. And they recognized my Jeep from jeepforum and we spent a few minutes talking Jeeps as well.

My favorite Fat was the solid green one with all the signatures on it. Cool story.

I can't wait to go back!!
 

rick

New member
glad that you finally got to visit FFB; the collection is amazing and the guys are cool too.

Did you see the old Fat Tandem? Very unusual and interesting.
 

fat-tony

Moderator
Staff member
glad that you finally got to visit FFB; the collection is amazing and the guys are cool too.

Did you see the old Fat Tandem? Very unusual and interesting.

Rick:
Those are your FATS in there right? Pretty cool storage if so.........
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
I wonder if that's the tandem I burned my wrist on while welding it. I had the perfect 2nd-degree tattoo of a rear drop on the inside of my left wrist (just above the glove of course) for about a month after I let the first one get away right after I finished welding the stays to the drops. I wasn't used to the length of that size frame and it twisted out of my grip as I went to move it. The not-so-graceful leap out of the chair got me a 2 from the Russian judge. Luckily, no dents in the tubes. oops

I rode my TI bike today for the first time in about 2 years - yeah! The rain finally stopped here. Good thing it wasn't snow

Happy daylight savings!
Scott
 

rick

New member
First Flight Bikes

Tony,

Most of the Fats at FFB are theirs, not mine. I do not know how many they have in the collection, but I think that I only have 7 or 8 there currently. The balance are at my house (and garage, etc). I rotate them sometimes, keeps my wife guessing.

Scott,

I have a regular Fat tandem but the one at FFB is quite different. It is supposedly the first one and it has some elements that resemble a BMX bike. Take a look on their website; I would be interested in hearing your thoughts about it. Wendyll told me that only about 20 or so tandems were made; did you work on most of them?

rick
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
Hey Rick

Since it's doubtful they made any tandems in NY, then it is very likely that I welded most if not all of them.

If First Flight has the first one, that's the one I had my little oops with. Just wasn't ready for it when I flipped it over. ouch

In Oct. 08, I took my son to Charlotte for the Nascar race. I used some free tix I earned on Southwest Airlines so we just went to the Friday night race and did some shop tours on Saturday morning. We went to Evernham (now Richard Petty) in Statesville but they were closed. I wished I had just gone to First Flight instead. By the time I figured out the Evernham was closed, it was time to head to the airport.

I will check out the website for sure. I belong to their vintage MTB group on Yahoo as well.

Got to meet Tony during one of my trips to Alabama a couple of years back too. We didn't have time to ride and it was raining like crazy that night anyway but we went to dinner with a friend of his and had a lot of fun

Thanks
Scott
 

Gotlime?

New member
glad that you finally got to visit FFB; the collection is amazing and the guys are cool too.

Did you see the old Fat Tandem? Very unusual and interesting.

I did not see the tandem. I plan on going back. I'll look for it.
 
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