***It’s the week between Christmas and New 12 months’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 choose the bikes you’d by no means eliminate, but it surely’s a lot more durable 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 needed a bath formed like a clam:
Equally, on the flip of the final century, I all the time needed a snazzy titanium street bike. Nicely, 20 years later I lastly received one, and it was every thing I hoped it will be.
So how might I probably say I’d think about eliminating it?
Nicely, it’s probably the best street bike I’ve ever owned, and it’s actually an ideal distillation of the twenty first century street bike ethos. On the identical time, the Milwaukee can do every thing the Litespeed can do, however the Litespeed can’t clear broad tires or settle for fenders, so if I needed to ship one in every 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:
Truly, that was two issues I loved, because the GT Performer on which the above bike was primarily based was the recent bike once 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 for those who squint. Nevertheless it 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 journey it, however I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I journey it lots. I like having a hard and fast gear, and I’m particularly grateful for it when the climate’s foul, I need to journey, however I don’t need to topic a dainty derailleur drivetrain to all that grime. However I don’t journey it practically as typically as my different bikes, and the actual fact is that if I have to journey a fixed-gear the State I utilized in that “Find out how to lock up a bicycle in New York Metropolis” video would in all probability just do as effectively…although if I had been to eliminate a fixed-gear it ought to in all probability be the State and never the flowery Soma:
Perhaps 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, but it surely’s the identical bike. You understand what I imply.)
Might 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 street bikes. Am I asking too many rhetorical questions? Nicely, 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 but it surely’s presently my elder son’s college commuter now so it’s not going wherever. Actually I can’t shake the eerie feeling that one way or the other 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 in the future I’d construct it up into an Eroica bike or one thing like that. As an alternative I lately created town runabout you see above, and it’s pleasant in that regard: spritely and modish with out being valuable.
However do I would like a sprightly and modish city runabout? Not essentially; the Homer can deal with all my city biking wants and may carry panniers in addition. Nonetheless, like leaving a deer hoof within the grill of your automotive, 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 street bike once more, not less than for awhile.
However I don’t want it.
The Engin
It’s a totally customized bike, it’s incredible, and I congratulate myself for it each time I journey it. Nevertheless it’s additionally a singlespeed, so I don’t journey it as a lot as my different bikes. In my peak singlespeeding years we’d pile right into a automotive and go zipping round some mountain bike spot; now I journey to the paths, and doing so on a singlespeed requires an extra time funding–a commodity in brief provide for a middle-aged mum or dad. And on high of that, the Engin additionally has a stunt double…
The Low cost Singlespeed
Actually, the jones has me absolutely 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 really like this bike. There’s a universe by which this might exchange 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 one way or the other nonetheless feeling quick like a street 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 even handed components adjustments.
Nevertheless it’s uncommon, which makes it engaging to sure folks, and between you and me I’m presently “in talks” with a potential purchaser. Although we’ll see. I wouldn’t usually 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.
…
