Recently I mentioned fearing for the future of cycling, but I’m not sure cycling has any future:
I guess the good news is that if there’s no future for cycling then I don’t have to be afraid for it, right?
Of course, it’s all too easy to blame e-bikes for this because…well, it’s all their fault. But as cynical as I’ve become about them I suppose there really are people for whom they can be life-changing:
When you’re already a cyclist it can be hard to appreciate just how unthinkable the idea of riding a bike is to many people, and how profoundly car-dependent they can be:
If you’re a New Yorker renting a car to get around Manhattan is unthinkable, and if you’re a cyclist it’s doubly unthinkable.
I do remain skeptical about e-bikes replacing car trips on a meaningful scale. Generally speaking, from what I can tell, e-bikes are replacing bikes, not cars–and in turn, e-motorcycles are now replacing the e-bikes. But they’re still using the bike lanes and bike racks. Nevertheless, clearly e-bikes do have the power to unlock people’s bodies and minds, because they’ve certainly made the writer’s life better. So I guess we’ll see.
And if I am proven wrong, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. For example, for decades I dismissed the Trek Y-Foil as a rolling joke. Sure, I still think it’s a rolling joke, now I at least understand it’s a joke that’s a lot of fun to ride:
Yesterday nature gifted us an unseasonably warm day, and so I conducted further testing on the Ruby suspension fork by seeking out some rough terrain:
Believe it or not, these quiet meandering lanes are still in the Bronx. This particular sub-neighborhood is one of the last great NIMBY strongholds in the city, and rumor has it that local residents use their influence to keep the streets in a poor state of repair to discourage through traffic. (Ironically, extreme NIMBYs and extreme urbanists are in complete agreement that they should not be subjected to motor vehicle through traffic.) I have no idea if this is true, but I do know that if they’re looking to keep out aging Freds on suspended Y-Foils they’re gonna have to try a lot harder:
Between the beam and the fork I rolled over everything in relative comfort. Of course I also roll over all that stuff in relative comfort on my Rivendae, thanks to their longer wheelbases, wider tires, and leather saddles–plus I’ve got better traction on those bikes since I’m not at triple-digit PSI. In that sense riding the beam-and-suspension Y-Foil is kind of like wearing a pair of Ugg boots over your high heels instead of simply changing your shoes. But that’s not the point. The point is to enjoy the Y-Foil for the late-’90s over-the-top technological dead-end showcase that it is.
Speaking of Y-Foils, the FoilDex remains fairly robust:
That is one heck of a specimen! I think those may even be the original tires. And the US Postal color scheme on the banned frame that nobody bought really drives home the tragi-comic “Stuff that didn’t pan out the way everybody hoped” theme–though I guess US Postal pulled out well before everything fell apart.
Regardless, if nothing else, I’ll always remember 2024 as the year I wound up with both a Y-Foil and a pair of Spinergy Rev-X wheels:
Just a reminder to all you kids out there that dreams can come true. Of course sometimes the dreams that wind up coming true just happen to be your worst nightmares. But hey, a dream realized is a dream realized, right?