As I mentioned some time ago, Grant Petersen of Rivendell recently sent me some Soma chainstay kickstands, one of which I put on my RockCombo:
Well, this past weekend I received a parcel from Classic Cycle:
In which Paul excoriated me for defiling an important piece of cycling history with a non-period correct component:
I shall of course install it as soon as I have a moment, and maybe I can convince Outside to run the Ultimate Kickstand Shootout. After all, my bicycles do seem to be sprouting the things at an alarming rate, and at this rate I’ll soon by cycledom’s foremost Kickstand Fred.
Speaking of the RockCombo, last week I facetiously pointed out that I’ve single-handedly made them cool again (if they ever were in the first place)–and now hey would you look at that, one of those tribute bikes has won the big race:
I take full credit of course, and I also await acknowledgement that said tribute bike is, above all, a tribute to me.
One bike of mine that won’t be getting a kickstand is my Midlife Crisis Fixie Mark II (aka my Soma Rush), upon which I surveyed Upper Manhattan and the Bronx early this morning:
I will say that riding a fixed-gear bicycle in an urban environment is quite satisfying–not because it’s a “zen thing,” but because the whole point of riding one is to stop and take pictures of it in front of stuff. Here it is in front of the High Bridge:
Here it is in front of the dungeon in which they keep the troll who lives under the High Bridge:
Here it is in front of the delightful water feature meant to evoke the fact that the High Bridge was once an aqueduct that carried clean drinking water to the growing City of New York:
And here it is in front of some flowers:
I did change one of the badly aging Specialized Armadillo tires before heading out (it was flat and I took that as a sign that I should finally decommission it, which was confirmed when I removed it and it basically fell apart), and I changed the other one after getting home, replacing both with less-worn specimens from my formidable Tire Pile. Indeed, if nothing else, everyone should have a fixed-gear bicycle to serve as sort of a tire waystation–a bike that gets the tires that aren’t quite worthy of service on the geared bike anymore, but are not yet worn enough to be consigned to the trash. Given that I don’t skid (never really understood the appeal) I figure at this rate I’ll churn through my entire Tire Pile within the next 30-35 years–though unfortunately between this bike and my Artisanal Singlespeed I’ll probably have churned through both my knees by this coming fall, even without the skidding.