In 2024, for the primary time in my life, I noticed by a New Yr’s decision, that being to scale back my complete variety of bicycles. Now, I didn’t precisely reduce it near the bone, however I did handle to get my complete variety of street bikes down to 3–arguably two greater than anyone actually wants, however fairly good for a semi-professional bike blogger and recovering middle-aged Fred. I had the Milwaukee, which was to be my “predominant” street bike:
I had the Cervino, which was my ceremonial cosplay bike, as a result of there’s actually nothing like driving a traditional street bike in wool on a crisp autumn day:
And I had the Faggin, which was my rusty, dinged-up scorching rod, and which additionally has sentimental worth:
Not solely that, however the journey is way extra refined than the bike’s garish look would counsel, and it’s solely enhanced by the latest addition of these Spinergys and their surprisingly springy journey high quality, although the beautiful thrill of realizing it might finish at any second when the wheels collapse is little doubt a part of what makes the feeling so intoxicating.
Please word that the Normcore Bike DOES NOT COUNT, because it’s now my elder son’s bike:
Although there’s one thing each endearing and deserving about this unassuming bicycle, and at some point I’ll take it again and adorn it with one thing ridiculously extravagant like a Campagnolo C-Document drivetrain full with Delta brakes, simply because:
Both that or I’ll simply slap a pair of Spinergys on there and name it good.
Anyway, I used to be fairly happy with myself for consolidating my holdings, and I used to be able to journey these three humble street bikes into retirement–or at the very least till I used to be not in a position to attain the bars and I grew to become a full-time Rivendell rider, whichever got here first. I had all I wanted, and that was that:
However destiny had different plans, and I used to be quickly the recipient of a battered and bruised Shock Marinoni:
In addition to a brand new test-cycle from Basic Cycle:
As soon as once more, I used to be overloaded and over-roaded, and naturally I’m now within the troublesome state of affairs of getting fallen for each. I had loads of frustration in overhauling the ‘Noner, but regardless of myself it’s now operating fairly easily:
And even the 8-speed Ergo levers I’d simply assumed had been moribund really feel improbable after being handled to new hoods, cables, and a liquid lubricant shvitz, and so they miss nary a shift:
As for the LeMond, having eased into an all-steel existence, I figured I’d revel within the materials excesses of the early twenty first century for awhile and ship it again:
However naturally I’ve turn out to be infatuated with it. Not solely is it each roomy and comfy, but it surely’s fairly mild on its ft, and whereas I’ve by no means cared a lot about bike weight or endeavored to construct a superlight bike, after you have one it begins to really feel like one thing it’s best to have at the very least for particular events, in the identical approach you typically really feel like utilizing the flowery wine glasses. It’s additionally like having a second probability on the Litespeed, which I returned after a lot soul-searching, and which is among the few former bikes I nonetheless really feel a pang of eager for after I have a look at it:
I don’t even really feel something after I have a look at the Engin, should you can imagine it, and that was a customized bike made only for me:
However the Litespeed I miss, go determine.
Additionally just like the Litespeed, the LeMond hails from the period that was the excessive water mark of my Fredness, so there’s a sure satisfaction in driving round on a motorbike that I might by no means have dreamed of proudly owning on the time because it was the rarefied area of dentists and different jet-setters who reside impossibly glamorous existence:
So if the LeMond Tete de Course was probably the most unique bike you possibly can buy from the Nice Trek Bicycle Making Firm on the time, does that imply in 20 years I’ll be equally infatuated with the top-of-the-line Teks I scoff at as we speak, reminiscent of the brand new Madone?
Setting apart for the second the very actual chance I’ll be bodily unable to journey such a motorbike in 20 years, I assume I might see it taking place. Apart from it in all probability being loads of enjoyable to journey, I additionally suspect that that by then all of the stuff that at present turns me off about this bike due to my retrogrouchical predudices (the disc brakes, the battery-powered derailleurs, the built-in all the things) will appear impossibly quaint, and I’m certain that by 2044 I’ll be occurring and on about how satisfying it’s to press an precise button to shift as an alternative of adjusting gears by the use of telepathy or blinking or urgent your tongue to the roof of your mouth or clenching your sphincter or nonetheless it’s that drivetrains will work by then. (In all probability some mixture of all of the aforementioned strategies relying on private desire and the way you’re feeling about inserting your “blips” rectally.) In reality it’s solely doable that the very concept of driving a street bike outdoors can be a consider the previous; simply because the “security bicycle” changed the pennyfarthing, so too might the Zwift bike substitute the common street bike:
“Security bike,” you say? Properly it doesn’t get any safer than that.
Then once more, I’m unsure it’s so simple as the passage of time, as a result of I’m unsure that in 20 years a Trek Madone will fill me with a way of nostalgia. The texture of a Dura-Ace 9-speed lever or the look of a Chris King headset in a titanium headtube evokes for me the aspirations of yesteryear and the the satisfaction of getting lastly realized them. Nonetheless I’ve no such associations with internally-routed hydraulic hoses and PNS jerseys, and had already hardened right into a crusty previous fusspot by the point they entered biking, so it’s onerous to think about my present emotions in direction of them evolving into affection.
However you by no means know.
