***It’s the week between Christmas and New Yr’s Day. I’m not formally running a blog and this isn’t a submit. That is simply us hanging round and speaking.***
Additional to yesterday’s non-post, if these are the bikes I might by no means eliminate, then it follows that I might conceivably eliminate the remaining.
However might I?
It’s simple to select the bikes you’d by no means eliminate, nevertheless it’s a lot tougher to stare into the unhappy pet eyes of the remaining and inform them that you’d. Listed below are these puppies:
Litespeed
Navin Johnson all the time wished a tub formed like a clam:
Equally, on the flip of the final century, I all the time wished a snazzy titanium highway bike. Properly, 20 years later I lastly obtained one, and it was the whole lot I hoped it might be.
So how might I probably say I’d take into account eliminating it?
Properly, it’s probably the best highway bike I’ve ever owned, and it’s actually an ideal distillation of the twenty first century highway bike ethos. On the identical time, the Milwaukee can do the whole lot the Litespeed can do, however the Litespeed can’t clear huge tires or settle for fenders, so if I needed to ship considered one of them packing it must be the Litespeed. Not that I need to. However I might.
Soma
I’ve all the time loved fixed-gear bikes, regardless of the various years I spent ridiculing them. Actually, my enjoyment of fixed-gear bikes is exactly why I ridiculed them. It was powerful seeing one thing I loved become this:
Really, that was two issues I loved, for the reason that GT Performer on which the above bike was based mostly was the recent bike after I was a younger BMXer.
Anyway, after not having a fixed-gear for awhile I handled myself to the Soma above, which now that I consider it appears to be like kinda like that Performer homage in case you squint. But it surely wasn’t lengthy earlier than my elder son grew into it, and since he was concerned in Star Observe I mainly turned it over to him. Now that he’s set that apart it’s reverted to me, and I nonetheless get pleasure from it ever time I trip it, however I’d be mendacity if I stated I trip it lots. I like having a set gear, and I’m particularly grateful for it when the climate’s foul, I wish to trip, however I don’t wish to topic a dainty derailleur drivetrain to all that grime. However I don’t trip it almost as usually as my different bikes, and the very fact is that if I have to trip a fixed-gear the State I utilized in that “Tips on how to lock up a bicycle in New York Metropolis” video would in all probability just do as effectively…although if I have been to eliminate a fixed-gear it ought to in all probability be the State and never the flowery Soma:
Possibly I ought to seek the advice of the SomaDex.
The Normcore Bike
Ah, the Normcore Bike: the one bicycle I’ve owned twice. (It’s not the precise bodily identical bike because the one I had a few years in the past, nevertheless it’s the identical bike. You understand what I imply.)
May I stay with out it? Positive. Is the world’s provide of Nineteen Eighties bonded aluminum Treks in any hazard of being depleted inside our lifetimes? Completely not–they’re arguably the cockroach of highway bikes. Am I asking too many rhetorical questions? Properly, I put it to you: is there actually such a factor as too many rhetorical questions? Do you see what I did there? (Don’t reply, it’s a rhetorical query.)
The purpose is I might actually divest myself of this bike nevertheless it’s at the moment my elder son’s faculty commuter now so it’s not going anyplace. Actually I can’t shake the eerie feeling that by some means I’ll nonetheless have this bike even when all of the others are gone.
The Faggin
I first acquired the Faggin as a body in 2007 and constructed it right into a singlespeed for my spouse. Then we moved to the New York Metropolis hill nation so I stripped it down and caught it deep within the closet (see what I did there?) figuring someday I’d construct it up into an Eroica bike or one thing like that. As an alternative I lately created the town runabout you see above, and it’s pleasant in that regard: spritely and modish with out being valuable.
However do I want a sprightly and modish city runabout? Not essentially; the Homer can deal with all my city biking wants and might carry panniers as well. Nonetheless, like leaving a deer hoof within the grill of your automobile, I’m fairly positive it’s a sin to eliminate a basic Italian body:
Additionally, sooner or later it deserves to be reconstructed into an precise highway bike once more, not less than for awhile.
However I don’t want it.
The Engin
It’s a totally customized bike, it’s improbable, and I congratulate myself for it each time I trip it. But it surely’s additionally a singlespeed, so I don’t trip it as a lot as my different bikes. In my peak singlespeeding years we’d pile right into a automobile and go zipping round some mountain bike spot; now I trip to the paths, and doing so on a singlespeed requires an extra time funding–a commodity in brief provide for a middle-aged dad or mum. And on prime of that, the Engin additionally has a stunt double…
The Low-cost Singlespeed
Actually, the jones has me totally lined for mountain bike-type driving, and I don’t want even one singlespeed mountain bike, not to mention two. On the identical time I very a lot get pleasure from singlespeed mountain bikes, and a sane individual would solely have one–you realize, the customized one which’s mainly good. However right here we’re.
The RockCombo
I like this bike. There’s a universe during which this might substitute the Homer, the Platypus, and the Jones. However I don’t stay in that universe. The Rivendells are extra snug and higher at carrying stuff, and the Jones is extra off-roadable. Nonetheless, the RockCombo manages to do all that stuff whereas by some means nonetheless feeling quick like a highway bike, even with heavy treaded tires and fenders and all the remainder of it. It’s additionally a type of bikes I’ve form of ridden into perfection with considered components adjustments.
But it surely’s uncommon, which makes it enticing to sure individuals, and between you and me I’m at the moment “in talks” with a potential purchaser. Although we’ll see. I wouldn’t sometimes write about that form of factor in a weblog submit, however this isn’t an actual weblog submit.
And since it’s not an actual weblog submit, it doesn’t want an actual ending.
And so that you don’t get one.
…
