The 10 Weirdest Things I've Found On the Road

It was probably my best day of road booty when I found this North Face Gore-Tex jacket.  In the midst of a 70-mile ride from Silicon Valley over to the Pacific Coast and back, I first found a cycling vest with the Markleeville Death Ride livery. On the run in to Half Moon Bay I found the jacket. Almost immediately, there was a Craftsmen socket wrench. When I hit Highway 1 and the coast, I found 20 pairs of new, white, tube socks. Last but not least, there were three $25 Safeway gift cards, which I was ultimately able to return to a food bank for the needy.

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The 2013 Vuelta a Espana Champion, Chris Horner, and I were on my 60th birthday ride when I found this wrench. Chris told me that he sees lots of tools when he rides, but he doesn't pick them up because he doesn't want to carry the weight; I on the other hand just had to snag it. Later, on the final climb at mile 70, I asked Chris if he could dial it back just a bit so I wouldn't get dropped. He looked over at me and laughed, "it's that wrench!" (Get the Bicycling custom-engraved Silca Wrench kit to do your home bike maintenance in style.)

Custom Silca HX-One Essential Kit, $140.00, Bicycling Store

At a Glance

• S2 steel hex keys 2mm-10mm
• Custom S2 steel bit adaptor to standard 1/4" bit
• Engraved beechwood box
• Made in Taiwan

SHOP

I used to do a 125-mile loop from Frisco, Colorado, over Hoosier Pass, down to Buena Vista then back via Leadville over Fremont Pass each Memorial Day so I could view the snow-capped, 14,000-foot peaks of the Collegiate range in all their glory. When I found these gloves outside Buena Vista, little did I know a thunderstorm would hit on top of Fremont Pass and the temperature would drop to about 40F. I wouldn't have been able to descend back to Frisco without those gloves; they ended up being a total lifesaver.

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Besides cycling, rock climbing is my other passion. It's a cool, goal-oriented sport with great views, much like cycling. I was coming home from a ride and was behind Stanford University when I saw a shoe on the side of the road. These days, I don't pick up anything that needs a mate unless the mate's also nearby. About 300 feet up the road, I could just make out something that could have been the other shoe, and darn if it wasn't. And best of all, they fit!

Money is always a great find. One day, I was doing a ride with one of my workmates when I spotted some green. We were about to start a long downhill, so I just scooped it up and stuffed it in my jersey.  I remember seeing a "1" and a "0" so when we stopped at my favorite candy store, I offered to use my found $10 bill to treat everybody. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be $100. I still treated everybody, but I donated the $100 to a local program that fixes up bikes for needy kids and adults.

Since 1977, I have been doing a 105-mile Christmas ride from my home in Mountain View, California, over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and back. I have had many guests on the ride, including Robin Williams (who was no slouch on a bike). On my 35th annual ride, I was returning near Pacifica when I spotted this fender on the side of the road.  It didn't have the rubber ties that hold it to the chainstays, but I scrounged a few rubber bands and got it properly attached to my bike for the trip home. This year will be the 40th annual ride; hopefully I find something just as useful this time around.

I found this computer on a descent. Someone had dumped a pile of garbage over the side of the road and this was sitting on top of it. I took it home, and it booted up! I reported the pile of garbage, and eventually the California Department of Transportation stepped in and removed all the junk.

I wish I had a picture of this find, as you will quickly understand why. One of my all-time favorite rides is a 115-mile loop from my house in Mountain View over to the Pacific Coast, down to Santa Cruz and back. On one of my trips, I was riding down the street in Santa Cruz when I happened upon a one-year-old baby running and screaming down the sidewalk with his diaper drooping down to his knees. I leaned my bike up against a building and after about 30 minutes of searching, I found his mother in her kitchen cooking lunch, oblivious that anything was amiss.

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Sometimes the fun of finding something is figuring out how to get it home. Milk crates come in handy for a number of uses, including storing bike parts. I found this crate in Los Gatos about 20 miles from home. In the midst of a long ride, I was a bit low on energy, but by balancing one side of the crate on my handlebars I was able to get both the crate and myself home in one piece.

This is the road find that started it all: When I was in graduate school at University of Wisconsin-Madison, parking was a problem during the winter months because of the need for snow removal.  So, I used to store my car in my aunt's barn 65 miles southeast in Elkhorn. I was riding my bike back to campus after dropping my car off in the fall of 1978 when I found this tape measure. It been a long, strange road ever since!