FLCC
Home Page

Steven M. Johnson

I went to high school in T-burg, bought my first 10 spd from Shepard’s Bike shop, and rode all over NYS. As a kid I would read in the Journal about all the FLCC events, and wanted to make evening rides. FLCC was the dream down in Ithaca. My hardcore cycling days did not come until I went to college in Wyoming, and started working part time in a bike shop. That Raliegh Record that Ralph Button at Shepard's sold me in 1970, I rode as a town bike until 1982.

When I was racing in Colorado, I always wanted to come back for the race around the lake. Never made it. I did make a club time trial out of Jim Black’s shop once in the early 80s. I had just driven into town from Washington State, and had a bike and had to do at least one FLCC ride.

Now my surrogate club is the Annapolis CC. They have some of the neatest rides around here and are great people. I volunteer for helping out with the cycling merit badge for boy scouts and fix bikes for the Cycle across Maryland. It is tough when you have a club that is a mix of racers and "normal" riders. Volunteering is usually done by a core of responsible selfless people. Having fun sometimes is hard to do in cycling clubs. What keeps me involved is just remembering how hard it was to do (get into cycling) as a teenager living in T-burg.

Hard to believe that T-burg has a bike shop now!

Steve Johnson

What ever happened to Ralph Button anyway? He sure had some nice lawnmowers in that first shop on W. State Street.