RAGBRAI 2012: He pedals backwards up hills on 100-year-old bike

Stratford, Ia. (Day 3) — It almost could be the title of a quirky indie film: The Englishman Who Pedaled a French Bike Backwards Up RAGBRAI’s Hills.

Drew Buck from Bath, England, a member of Team Skunk, has been turning heads this year not only for his vintage wool bicycling duds but also his 50-pound, 100-year-old St. Etienne bicycle with all the rust to prove its age.

Buck, 63, not only endured the sun and heat Tuesday on his first RAGBRAI but also traversed the Karras Loop with a stop in Stratford (not, of course, the famous birthplace in his own country).

So he had steep hills to climb — and when he climbs hills, Buck’s bike is geared so that he must pedal backwards to kick in the granny gear. He encouraged me to snap a closeup photo of the rear chain assembly, since so many RAGBRAI riders have been scrutinizing it.

Buck said he paid 200 English pounds (about $300) from a Frenchman at a market in Paris — knew he wanted to buy the bike the moment he saw it.

This Brit has plenty of international hardcore biking cred: Like a few of the endurance athletes I met Tuesday on the Karras Loop, Buck has notched the Paris-Brest-Paris ride that requires 1,200-kilometers in 90 hours — no sleep on the agenda, let alone pie stands.

As for the wool outfit, Buck waves that off. What about the Bedouins of the Sahara Desert? They cover themselves in thick garb to protect their bodies from the heat.

Not that Buck needs to provide any more colorful details for his ride across Iowa, but I shouldn’t neglect the onions slung over his handlebars: This Englishman appreciates the legacy of “Onion Johnnies,” French laborers who crossed the Channel on bikes loaded with onions to sell them door-to-door in Great Britain. More in a short film on Buck:

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