"At the Thursday, 4/21 dinner at Vatan; Ms Kaufman mentionned Schwebers; and I became perplexed as to the origin of the term! Yes, we all know it is the chain/grease marks on legs acquired when ""chain rub"" occurs; BUT does anyone KNOW when the term originaed--where by whom ??????????"
origination of term SCHWEBER???
Fri, 04/22/2005 - 6:47pm
Sat, 04/23/2005 - 5:16am
#1
Schwebers
Ask Ed Fishkin, or somebody who's been in the club a long time. I believe I remember Ed saying that, years ago, there was a guy named Schweber in the NYCC who had a tendency to get those chain marks on his legs, so it was named after him.
Sat, 04/23/2005 - 1:40pm
#2
Ed Schweber, a former club member had a propensity for those grease marks. It's named after him and it's now part of bicycling lexicon.
Mon, 04/25/2005 - 10:52pm
#3
mean spirited...
As I recall, Ed quit the club because of the embarrassment this caused him.
Tue, 04/26/2005 - 12:46pm
#4
As I recall, he was impeached.
Tue, 04/26/2005 - 7:21pm
#5
"As I recall, he ran for President of the club and lost by a large margin. I don't recall seeing him after that.
And he wasn't happy about having ""schwebers"" named after him either.
He was a nice guy and a strong A rider."
Sat, 04/30/2005 - 10:08pm
#6
SCHWEBER
"Yes,... Herb, Bill,Tom, Clay and the rest of us ""old timers"" remember vividly good ol' Ed Schweber back in the late 70's early 80;s. A physics Professor @ Yashiva U. very bright fellow, strong rider but ,as the gang accuratly pointed out, a bit messy w/ the chain grease...aaaaaaa He had the tendency to show up w/ the same orange(whool) jersey w/ grease stains of course. the rest of us pretty much wore the same stuff from week to week ,as cycling clothes were not easy to come by and a bit expensive, but @ least we kept ours grease free .........Whe should start a column in the buletin "" Old timer's tales"" Whooa the stories we could tell... hey Marty (Wolf) remember when we picked a green spot on the then free exxon maps we all carried, thinking it was a park in NJ??? and when we arrived discovered it was a county dump. upon closer examination of the map the ""green spot"" was a piece of lettuce from the previous week's lunch ....ahaha,,,,the good ol' days ... I should dig out my slides of some of the rides we did in those early days. I wonder if I would be able to recognize anyone ??????...And while we are talking about the old days.. Trivia Question... Does anyone remember who organized the first Memorial Day Weekend in the Berkshires?? and for bonus points what year was it ??? Ciao .....Tony"
Sun, 05/01/2005 - 5:22pm
#7
Was it Lee? I don't remember the year. Must be about 15 years ago.
Mon, 05/02/2005 - 7:02am
#8
Sheffield
"Lee Gelobter started the Sheffield weekend, for sure. And I'm pretty sure the fist weekend was in 1985 - might have been in '84, but I'm pretty sure it was '85. I was already an ""old timer"" in 1985.
Also, a little more detail on the orignation of the term ""Schweber"". It was on one of those heroic Delware Water Gap weekend rides that Chris Mailing led. Something like 325 miles in 2 days. Well, poor Ed, his crank or bottom bracket got loose, made the chainring wobble all over the place. All weekend long, Ed kept trying to hammer it in place, banging it and smashing it with rocks he found along the way. Well, it kept wobbling, kept rubbing agains his calf, left what I think was a permanent chainring impression on his calf. Unfortunately, Ed Schweber got a permanent schweber. It was that incident,that ride, more than any other, that defined what a ""schweber"" really is. You could look it up!"
Mon, 05/02/2005 - 8:02am
#9
I swear I was in an out-of-town ride and someone (not an NYCC) member knew what a Schweber was.
Sun, 09/29/2019 - 11:29am
#10
.png "Pre 2011 B-SIG Grad")
Schwebers in southern NJ
I did a ride this weekend in southern NJ. After, stopped for pizza in Ocean City and ended up chatting with two non-cyclists on the boardwalk. As I leave, one points out (with a little concern), the mark on my right calf. I was tempted to say, "we call that a 'Schwebber'".
Sun, 09/29/2019 - 10:15pm
#11
Who's the anonymous poster,
Who's the anonymous poster, and why are so many other posters "not verified"?
Mon, 09/30/2019 - 11:01am
#12
I believe all posters are
I believe all posters are either "not verified" or anonymous, before the message board update in 2010.
Wed, 10/02/2019 - 5:38pm
#15
A Brief History of Schweber (and Lee)
As an NYCC OT perhaps I can shed a bit of light on two items in this antiquated but "revived" thread.
As has been noted, to be "Schwebered" is to wind up the chainring mark on your right calf due to careless leaning the bike onto your leg.
The term arises from a long-ago member, Ed Schweber. Ed was a true indivdualist with some alternative ideas to cycling. One of those ideas was to basically soak his bike chain in something like 80 weight motor oil!
While this did indeed give Ed a smooth ride with an ultra quiet chain -- he invariably on every ride managed to lean the bike against his right calf. This tendency became reknown in the NYCC of the day and hence the term arose.
As to another point, the original Berkshire Memorial Day event was indeed started by Lee Gelobter about 35 years ago. Lee had "discovered" the Berkshires for riding and conceived of a NYCC group ride weekend to share this. At the time Lee was either President or in some other Board position.
Sadly, some years later Lee moved to FL and ultimately passed away. As an original participant of that first Berkshire Weekend I've often wished Lee would be honored by having the event named for him. But now, with many years having past and so few of us OT's around who remember Lee perhaps the time has passed for such a commemoration.
BTW -- one of the "historic" commenters way up the thread, Tony Mantione, was a co-rider of mine as well as Lee and a few others who did "pick up" Saturday rides when we first got started with cycling before then joining NYCC.
Okay, boring history session ended.....
Wed, 10/02/2019 - 6:37pm
#16
Schweber
Ancient history; this is my era.
With some shame I believe that I was the first to have said that I "schwebered" myself after noticing a gear mark on my leg. I said this to make a little fun of of Ed Schweber, a strong rider, ride leader and great guy who just wasn't very tidy. This was around 1983. I had no idea it would catch on. I was young and careless, and not fully aware of the nature of unintended consequences. Still, that's no excuse. If Ed is reading this message board, please accept my apologies, though I understand if you don't.
Then again, I have also claimed that I first thought of using carbon fiber to build bike frames. My memory may not be too reliable.
Lee Gelobter was a great Club President and ride leader. He was the leader of my first NYCC ride, the first spring training ride of either 1982 or 1983.
Wed, 10/02/2019 - 9:07pm
#17
Thanks for your reply.I was
Thanks for your reply.
I was remiss for not also adding that Ed Schweber was an amazingly strong rider. To this day I recall a ride where we were climbing up Closter Dock road towards 9W and the GWB. As I struggled upwards, Ed easily rode by me. I remember yelling to Ed to please toss down his legs for me to use when he got to the top of the climb!
Thanks for the reminiscence.
Thu, 10/03/2019 - 9:56pm
#18
That first training ride
George,
I think you were on that STS ride too.
Josh
