Where Past and Future Coexist

I recently gave in to a romantic urge that’s been burbling beneath the surface for the better part of a year. After almost an hour on the phone with a fellow named Eddie Johnson, head of sales for Vintage Electric, I decided it was time to stop daydreaming about the coolest fusion of vintage and 21st century locomotion to ride on two wheels. Stop considering and start riding! Today’s post offers a fresh look at the sort of timeless commingling — where past and future coexist — that fascinates me (and that occupies much of the reflection on this website.)

There’s so much that wants to come tumbling out in this post, like a logjam that bursts free when snow in the mountains melts and swells the river. So much. But I promise to exercise some discipline and limit the segues (like the fact that Johnson happens to have attended the same Lake Champlain summer camp that I did.)

Let’s start with this:

“Vintage Electric thrives at an innovative intersection of timeless aesthetics and future modernity.” (Source: www.vintageelectricbikes.com)

Although those aren’t my words, they sure sound like they could be. That’s the sweet spot I’ve described so often with respect to Rosslyn in general. And the icehouse rehabilitation. And my passion for adaptive reuse. And our 1949 Riley RMB. And I’ve even mused more than once on the possibility of dropping a 1950-ish Ford or Chevy pickup on top of a Rivian R1T…

“The past and future don’t have to exist mutually exclusive of each other.” – Andrew Davidge, Founder, Vintage Electric

Although the most obvious overlap between our historic rehabilitation of Rosslyn and this Vintage Electric Roadster 2.0 is my fascination with the coexistence and the commingling of old and new, there might be a some other subtle reasons this marriage of modern and vintage resonates with me right now.

Is it time for a Riley redux? Overdue, for sure! This 1949 Riley RM has been part of my family for more than four decades. Lots of nostalgia and sentimentality hiding behind that seductive exterior! But lamentably she’s spent far too many years under cover, alone, collecting dust,… (Source: Riley Redux)

There’s the still unanswered question of whether to restore the Riley or match it with an owner who will do the honors. Sentimentality and an appreciation for the vehicle’s sensuous beauty urge me to find a suitable restorer of vintage British motorcars and bite the bullet. (Turn on the spigot? Mixing metaphors again…) But my practical, more boat passionate than car passionate side is well aware that I’m ever-juggling far too ambitious a project list. And so I vacillate…

There’s also an omnipresent obsession with the aesthetic blending of old and new that informs my design sensibilities at every level. Part wabi-sabi and part narrative curiosity for backstory and history in a world increasingly focused on the future and content to live in the perennial present. Depth, texture, and patina pull me. And the artistic hybrid of old and new is an elusive but winning alchemy to my eye.

But there’s another twinge of 2-wheeled locomotion intrigue that’s exerting its influence as well. An approaching adventure with friends bike packing the west loop of the Sky Islands Odyssey has me brainstorming how to provision for five days and nights in the desert with only the few items I can carry on my mountain bike. Long hours in the saddle, day after day, just might be a nice time to daydream forward to meandering miles on my new Roadster!