Fall is a delightful time to engage in the riding of bicycles just as long as you can keep yourself from contemplating the fact that those beautiful bursts of color are really the death throes of summer and very soon the landscape will be transformed into a frozen wind-swept wasteland:
Like this:
Though maybe the knowledge that it’s so fleeting is precisely what makes fall so delightful, I dunno.
As for the bicycles I’ve been riding lately, I continue to delight in the diminutive PashMo:
I like it when I’m riding it because it feels fast and smooth, and I like it when I’m not riding it because it takes up very little space in my home, which allows me to violate my “One bike at a time inside my actual apartment” rule. (I store the others downstairs.) Presumably this is why “mini velos” have become popular:
[via Velo Orange]
In fact they even come in full modern integrated eletronic dick-break guise, like this one shared by a commenter:
Though it looks like you’ll have to order it from Dubai:
Just make sure you wear an equally tiny PNS jersey while riding it:
By the way, you might think all PNS models are young and depressed:
But some are old and depressed:
Though they only model the “low-intensity” clothing, which seems ageist:
This must be part of their new JBARA line:
Holy crap, the AI absolutely nailed that.
And you know what’s even wilder? I didn’t mention “Pas Normal Studios,” “Just Buy A Rivendell Already,” or even “bicycles” in the prompt! I just told it to make me an image of a group of Democrats on their way to the polls for early voting.
The above image is also generated by AI, and the prompt was “A pair of Republicans who will be voting on Election Day.”
Besides the PashMo, I also continued to flog my other test-cycle, the Anti-Riv:
Part of the reason I’ve been riding it so much is that it’s fall and lately I’ve been inclined towards what we used to call “mountain biking” back when I was younger, before mountain biking turned into this:
And what used to be mountain biking became “gravel riding,” or just “GRVL:”
But of course I have the Jones for old-fashioned mountain biking, and the other reason I’ve been riding the Anti-Riv so much is that I will tend to fixate on a bike until I’ve got it working just so. I realize this sounds ridiculous given the slovenly appearance of most of my bicycles, but I do have certain standards. However, most of those standards are based on acoustic criteria rather than aesthetic ones, and for awhile the drivetrain of the Anti-Riv was running a bit noisily.
My big fear was that the noise was coming from the i-Drive itself, because the idea of tinkering with it in any way scared the crap out of me:
However, removing, lubricating, and re-tightening the crank and sundries seems to have quieted things considerably–though during the process I did marvel at Shimano’s pathological obsession with splines during the Octalink era. So…many…splines:
The photo above is not of this crank, it is from here. Of course splined chainrings have since become the mountain bike crank standard, but between that and the bottom bracket these XTR cranks are there own universe of obsolete splines. Fortunately after removing the grandparent ring I was able to remove the lockring with a regular lockring tool, and now that everything’s Dumonded and back together and I enjoyed a smooth and quiet ride to the Forbidding Trails Behind The Mall I finally feel psychologically able to set the bike aside.
Thusly liberated, on Sunday I moved on to the Faggin:
Note the saddle, which a reader was kind enough to send me after I mentioned the other day that I liked them. Not only does it make the bike that much more comfortable, but it also rounds off the whole Italian theme–plus, he sent me this pin:
I am extremely fortunate to have such thoughtful and generous readers.
Feel free at any time to send me other things that I offhandedly mention I like that you’ve just got lying around, such as single malt Scotch, luxury watches, precious jewels, or just vast sums of money.