Yesterday I put the ‘Nonerini up for public sale:
And I’m happy to announce it appears like we’ve bought a winner!
I can solely think about how a lot cash we’d have raised had I auctioned off one thing extra unique, just like the Normcore Bike:
Nevertheless that gained’t be occurring very quickly, as this bike is a priceless piece of velocipedal historical past.
Talking of which, like every bike dork I’ve all the time bought one eye open for fascinating bikes once I’m strolling across the metropolis, and lately this setup caught my eye:
Within the post-integrated shifting period individuals with outdated bikes will usually go to nice lengths to get their gear controls within the neighborhood of their brake levers with out making a expensive funding in STI or its numerous equivalents, and the above is an effective instance. Whereas I admire all types of various shifter, I admit I choose mine within the extra canonical places, and as such I’ve by no means been excited by choices like these from Gevenalle:
I get it, I applaud it, it’s a terrific various to expensive and proprietary built-in levers, however I admit I merely can’t get previous the aesthetics, and when you notice it appears like some form of unhappy robot-insect wanting up at you plaintively you merely can’t unsee it.
I really feel the identical approach in regards to the IRD Energy Ratchet:
Once more, it’s a improbable various to one thing that locks you right into a devoted drivetrain and I’m all in favor of it, however I’m additionally a shallow and self-conscious particular person and lack the boldness to equip my bike with a brake lever that appears prefer it has a windshield wiper.
I used to be excited about all this as I contemplated this specific shifter in addition to the stent that ran underneath its raggedy bar tape, and I puzzled why in the event that they wished extra handy shifting they didn’t simply use bar finish shifters as a substitute:
They’re clean-looking, they’re straightforward to succeed in, and so they don’t require operating cable all the way in which up the bar. So why use these items as a substitute?
Then I figured it out:
Certain, they could not take bar-end shifters, however an underappreciated benefit of the Scott Drop-In bar is that if you yoke your bike to a pole by the stem it’s that a lot tougher to take away the bar to steal the bike:
Except after all the thief merely removes the quill stem, through which case the bike is theirs in a matter of seconds. However at present’s thieves in all probability don’t even know what a quill stem is, and actually I’m fairly sure that nowadays they’re solely excited by e-bikes anyway.
Additionally, it’s no worse than locking your bike to the leg of a mailbox, which is how my very own bike bought stolen again once I labored as a motorcycle messenger:
Both the field wasn’t bolted to the bottom, or else any person unbolted it whereas I used to be inside, however both approach once I got here out my Cannondale was gone. Regardless, as a proud member of the Bonded Trek Siblinghood, I hoped this bicycle didn’t meet with the identical destiny:
Plus, the bike sported not solely the mighty Altus rear derailleur, but in addition my favourite chainstay protector of all time:
See?
There isn’t a design higher than perform particular design.
