It hasn't always been this way, where we thoughtlessly disembogue 140 characters or less in messages sent into a medium where our crimes against language, spelling and grammar will live for ever.

There was a time when we wrote letters. These letters were carefully composed and penned onto thick, quality parchment paper and sealed in wax. These letters were then dispatched to the farthest reaches of the world where they would be carefully read and digested before a response was given. Technology and innovation are often taken as synonyms for progress, but with that progress usually comes the death of ritual and tradition.

As we close the books on the Q4 2011 V-Kit order, we open the books for the Q1 2012 order. Our insistence on the highest quality products made to our exacting standards translates into a long wait while the kit is manufactured. This presents a challenge when loving family and friends want to give the kit as a gift to a velominatus, because the timing of our delivery timetables rarely coincides with the intended occasion. To work around this problem in the past, we have arranged for a letter which is carefully crafted and personalized before being printed on thick parchment paper and sealed with a hand-dripped wax V-Seal for wrapping and giving on the day.

With the holiday season coinciding with our next kit order, we introduce the V-Gift Letter for wrapping and laying under the tree, announcing to the recipient the impending Glory of Merckx which will befall them upon the arrival of their kit several weeks later. We also offer a version of the letter for the Keepers Tour in the event that any loving family or friend intends to make a gift of the ultimate cycling trip to their Velminatus/a. The letter is free, with the cost going towards postage only.

With that, we officially open the 2012 Q1 V-Kit order. The only thing that remains is the choice: Zwarte, Witte, or Winter. However you choose, choose wisely and choose carefully as orders are custom made. Place your order by midnight on January 6 for the next V-Kit shipment, scheduled to arrive in late February.

 

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/V-Gift Letter/”/]

A point of clarification: all packages from the Q4 2011 V-Kit order have been dispatched.

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.

View Comments

  • Merckx! The professionalism is astounding. Might have to foward this to my loved ones as a hint. Mercks know I don't want plates or cookware this holiday season.

  • A few years back I decided I was tired of mainly corresponding with a few of my good friends via email. We've been exchanging letters since and I find it vastly more satisfying to hear from them every month or so and have it arrive in the mail and be thoughtfully composed rather than pounded out in a haphazard second. Letters are awesome!

    Aye, I need to get in on the V-Kit! I'd love, love, love a skinsuit for cx racing! Much better than my team kit.

  • @Blah

    Please tell me this comes delivered by owl.

    Nipple lube, but wouldn't a delivery by domestique be much more appropriate?

  • I have archived my treasured V-Gift Letter in my cycling scrap book that has grown over the last 20 years. As great as the feeling of getting the announcement that the impending Glory of Merckx is about to befall me was, I gaze longingly forward to the day the V-Kit in all of its glory arrives. Legend has it that my V-Gift letter arrived in mid September 2011 tracing its speed of delivery to favorable trade winds that aided the falcon messenger. I trust the V-Kit delay is due to it being shipped across the Atlantic on a Spanish Galleon, and they have encountered heavy seas (or a slow Swiss customs agency).

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