Sometimes it can be illuminating to do the same ride…
On a different bike:
So what’s the difference between this bike…?
And this one?
Well, there are plenty of subtle differences, but the main ones are that the first bike is lighter so it was easier to carry up the stairs, but the second one is steel and has friction shifting so if you threw them both back down the stairs again it would be safer to ride afterwards.
In other news, 10th Avenue in Manhattan has gotten the city’s first extra-wide bike lane:
Exciting!
The idea is to “more comfortably accommodate the burgeoning number of micromobility users and promote social cycling:”
Which sounds good until you consider that micromobility and social cycling don’t really go very well together. Just try riding two abreast and having a leisurely conversation with someone while a delivery person is riding your ass:
Then again, this is New York City, where our optimism makes delusion look like realism:
I hope that’s a joke because it’s the funniest thing I’ve read all week. Thinking people will stop parking in the bike lane because of congestion pricing is like thinking people will stop manspreading on the subway because of a fare increase, or that people will stop pissing on the toilet seats in bars because they’re paying for their drinks. I’m deeply worried about congestion pricing–not because I think it’ll destroy the city or kill all the businesses or whatever else the Post is saying, but because the smuggies have pinned all their hopes and dreams on it. According to them, congestion pricing is going to get rid of all the cars, fix public transit, clear out all the cars from the bike lanes, and turn the city into the urban equivalent of Amsterdam and Copenhagen 69-ing each other–oh, and let’s not forget it’s going to “fix the climate,” because apparently urbanists think weather works like the thermostat in their parents’ suburban homes. So when none of these things happen the disillusionment is going to be intense, and if that many people all need to go on antidepressants at one time it’s liable to wind up in the water supply and you won’t be able to brush your teeth without tripping for three days straight.
That’s not to say I’m against wider bike lanes, I just think a much better use for a wider bike lane would be to make it two-way. I’ve been saying for years that our network of one-way bike lanes is ridiculous, but nobody listens to me, probably because of all the other dumb stuff I say. One-way streets make sense for cars, not bikes. Not only would two-way bike lanes make it way easier to get around, but they would eliminate the problem of “salmoning” overnight. As for all the “micromobility,” let them ride in the street–or, better yet, let them go start their own city someplace else where they can ride around on their wacky contraptions and build charging stations every two feet and pay for everything in Bitcoin or whatever:
Speaking of chips, and going two ways, instead of ping-ponging between a plastic bike and a metal one, maybe I should just get a bike with a flip chip:
Ah yes, the “purist” dream of owning only one bike… Nobody considering a $4,000 frame is capable of it, but we all like to think we are, so that’s exactly why they sell the flip chip. But we’ll never use it and they know it. They also know we’ll delude ourselves into thinking we’re getting a bargain on a “quiver killer” (barf) that’ll save us money in the long run, like we’re getting some kind of “buy one, get one free” deal. (Meanwhile Kona is actually doing a buy one get one free deal, so perhaps we’ve finally reached Peak Suspension. Or there’s just a glut of them because gravel stocks are so wildly overbought.)
Anyway, the idea of the flip chip is you can make small changes to the wheelbase and other aspects of the bike’s geometry:
Obviously this has never been seen on a bicycle before:
“OK, smart guy, what about the front of the bicycle?”
Yep, also never seen before:
Okay, fine, that was then, this is now. So is the Allied Echo with its flip chip really two bikes in one? Well, you’ve got your Gravel Position:
And then you’ve got your Road Position:
As you can see, this changes the geometry of the bicycle by as much as a few millimeters here and there. So is it noticeable? Well, they did a test, and in Gravel Mode the bike is a little too aggressive:
Whereas in Road Mode it’s a little too tame:
Hmmm. Perhaps they should try riding the gravel in Road Mode and riding the road in Gravel Mode, maybe that’ll fix it. This is like the Monty Python skit where the drunken director has the actors standing on boxes and in trenches in a bumbling attempt to match their heights:
In a moment of pragmatism the star asks, “Say, why don’t I take the boxes off and Vanilla get up out of the trench?” Similarly, an astute reader might be forgiven for wondering why Allied doesn’t just make a bike with a set geometry that works on both.
Of course we all know what to do when you want to make a bike feel different: you wear a different chamois. Ever get new shorts and wonder, “What the hell happened? Who was messing with my saddle height?” It’s like having a flip chip in your crotch.