Typically I point the Roaduno away from the city, but yesterday we headed right into its heart:
The reason for the trip was that I was working on a little video project:
And no, I did not take advantage of the flip-flop hub and shoot a sick Rivendell fixed-gear freestyle edit on the mean gentrified streets of Brooklyn.
By the way, do you know Thomas Edison made the first fixed-gear freestyle video in history? It’s true:
That video really was filmed by Thomas Edison, too, though I’m pretty sure the soundtrack was added later.
As for the Roaduno, it was just as happy on the roads of the city as it is on the trails of the “country” (if you consider the northern suburbs the country)–easy to get up to speed and able to keep pace with traffic, yet smooth and stable on the city’s carpet-bombed streets:
I even took in some Bonus Gravel:
Also, I continue to be very pleased with the MicroDrive triple:
The 42×17 is a great city gear, and I shifted only once all day, and that was at the very end of the ride when I got home, because I live at the top of a hill. (I insist on living at elevation, so I can monitor the approach of my many enemies.)
Speaking of yellow bikes, yesterday I shared my latest Outside column about George Plimpton’s Y-Foil, and since then naturally I’ve been checking to see if it’s having any effect on the Y-Foil Index:
[From here.]
That’s a big ask for the lesser Y-66 model, and so I’m going to go ahead and say my story is sending shockwaves through the beam bike marketplace.
By the way, one of the many unfortunate aesthetic side-effects of the Y-Foil’s design is that if you use a longish seatpost it sticks out the bottom of the crabon beam, but this particular seller has chosen to make lemonade out of the situation by using it as a place to mount a light:
It’s a testament to the ingenuity for which we Y-Foil riders are famous.
In other Trek news, someone’s been charged for stealing a bunch of Lance Armstrong’s bikes:
I had no idea Armstrong had been the victim of a heist, and my first thought was that it must have been perpetrated by one of his many disgruntled and destitute former US Postal teammates. In fact, after looking at the mugshot, I still think this may be the case:
He’s got “former professional road racer” written all over him.
At least they didn’t get this one, which is safe at Classic Cycle:
[Photo: Classic Cycle]
No, it’s not actually Armstrong’s bike, but it very much captures the spirit of the era:
[Photo: Classic Cycle]
Subtle. Very subtle.