Categories: General

Canon of Cycling’s Etiquette: The Rules

In the roughly six months since launching the Velominati, we have gradually moved from covering races, rumors, and doping to pouring over the very essence of what makes ours such a special sport – its history, culture, legends, traditions, races, and its physical and cultural challenges – and how those threads fit into cycling’s colorful fabric. It binds us and penetrates us, much like the Force, but for bike weenies.

This is what has, over time, become the Velominati’s raison d’Ãªtre. Brett gave it a name in September when he wrote about the dilemma of handlebar/saddle color selection in a post entitled with the phrase that would become the most important term in the Velominati lexicon. Since then, we have been informally maintaining the canon of cycling’s sacred text: The Rules.

This document has finally reached a stage where it presents a foundation upon which to build and we, the Keepers, have decided the time has come to make it public. This is a living document and will grow and evolve as our sport does. Read it often. Consult it often. Consume it. Worship it. We are the Velominati, the Keepers of the Cog, and it is within our trust that we keep this sacred text. And also to be awesome.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

marko says:

Apr 30 2012 at 3:36 pm

The first dozen or so posts in here take me back. Thanks for revisiting this article.
Dan_R says:

Nov 2 2012 at 1:08 pm

@Oli Perfection!
Deakus says:

Jan 9 2013 at 1:27 pm

I am going to bump this again.....purely because it is absolute dynamite gold. It only makes me sad that I was not present at the birth of The Rules because reading down this post it sounding like a shit load of fun!

And it also demonstrates that we are still debating the correct angle of quick releases!

Which is....