After several consecutive days of wearing attack-themed clothing and those types of shoes where they attach themselves to the pedals it was time to change gears–using friction thumb shifters and a low-normal derailleur, of course:
So I packed a small lunch, loaded it into the basket of the Platypus, and headed out clad in the latest technical cycling apparel:
Including the very latest in footwear technology for optimal power transfer:
The cutting-edge cleatless rubber sole grips the pedals, and the open-source “lacing” technology distributes pressure evenly across the foot:
The Platypus feels faster and handles more spiritedly than you’d think on paved roads and trails:
Though a ride on it feels incomplete if you don’t get a little bare earth under your tires:
The tires I’m using are what we used to call “2.1-inch 29er mountain bike tires” back when I bought them, but today would probably be considered “55mm gravel tires:”
I don’t even know what a mountain bike tire looks like today, since “narrow” mountain bike tires are now gravel tires, and plus-size tires went out of style by the end of the last decade, when apparently 29ers came back to replace the 27.5-inch wheels that had replaced the 29-inch wheels in the first place:
Got that?
Of course you don’t.
And it doesn’t matter anyway, because now of course we’re on the cusp of the 32-inch wheel “revolution,” and the only thing I know for sure anymore is that mountain bikers are the most fickle and annoying cyclists on the planet.
Anyway, whatever these tires are, and whatever kind of bike the Platypus is, it carried me swiftly and in comfort over varied terrain to my lunch spot:
That’s called “goal-oriented cycling.”