This is the only surviving photo of the long lost bike: the Schwinn Super 7 Cruiser. Not to be confused with an actual classic Schwinn, this bike was made in 2001. I bought this new in 2001 and rode it until 2009.
The bike was made to look like an old Schwinn, but had Shimano gears, 7 of them. It was heavy like an old Schwinn, and had a coaster brake. Riding it down the bike path at the beach, it got comments every single time.
Sadly, one day in 2009 I rode the Super 7 to Starbucks. Returning with my double tall no whip extra hot easy mocha (I used to drink one of those every day), I went upstairs to set down the coffee, leaving the bike parked on the sidewalk. I must have become distracted and forgotten I'd left the bike down there.
The next morning, I went to get the bike and.....wait, where IS the bike?
Did I leave it in the hallway? Uh-oh. I left it outside? D'oh!
Maybe it's still out there! It isn't? How could that be? Could someone have taken something that wasn't even theirs? Who would do such a thing?! ;)
For months afterward, whenever I saw someone riding any kind of bike even faintly resembling the Super 7, I would slow down the car and stare. Wait, wait...THAT IS IT. THAT GUY STOLE MY BIKE, um...oh wait....that isn't it. Although even driving away I would still eye the person suspiciously. Maybe they had altered the bike to avoid detection. This was of course either entertaining or annoying to anyone else in the car at the time.
I went through the 7 stages of grief (or some of them anyway) and arrived at Acceptance (assuming that is a stage - as a guy the only ones I know are Denial and Anger. Oh....I am just kidding here! :) )
The Super 7 would never be found.
I resolved to get a new Super 7 Cruiser. But.....turns out they only made them that one year, in 2001. Since that time, Schwinn has been sold, and now makes bikes cheap enough to be sold at Wal Mart. The Super 7 is another bike I search for, but ironically, unlike the actual classic Schwinns, I have never seen a single one for sale anywhere.
