The Bikes
The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.
It seems in some ways like a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, the way we honor our machines. We love them to a point that lies well beyond obsession. Upon these machines upon we endure endless suffering, but also find an unending pleasure. The rhythm, the harmony between rider and machine, the outdoors, the wind in our faces and air in our lungs.
The Bikes is devoted entirely to our machines. Ours, The Keepers, and yours, the Community. It features articles devoted to our bikes, and proves a forum for uploading photos of your own machines for discussion. We will be harsh, but fair; this is a place to enforce and enhance our observation of The Rules.
If you’d like to submit an article about your own beloved bike, please feel free to send it to us and we’ll do our best to work with you to include it.
- Rule #12 and the Cascade Effect
That is a very reasonable opening salvo for the Rule about bike ownership. Three is good and certainly a minimum, and we are talking road bikes here, if there was any doubt. They naturally become ordered: the #1 is ichi-ban, top dog, go-to bike for every and all rides. #2 was the old #1, ... - Guest Article: Black Is Not The New Black@kogalover is singing my song here. Bikes are beautiful. ’nuff said. VLVV, Gianni With all those posts on riding in winter and being visible, either by putting Eyes of Sauron or other car melting devices on one’s steed, or by even considering a YJA instead of donning plain black kit, it was about time to finally get ...
- Dialing in the StableThis was going to be an article about Rule #45. It is amazing how much time is wasted and matches burned when professionals stop for that second bike change to get back on their #1. With all the jigs available to team mechanics it would seem they could set up five bikes exactly the same. And ...
- Matching the drapes to the rugAs a longtime titanium bike owner, I’ve always been jealous of a beautiful painted frame but Ti and carbon frames don’t need paint like a steel frame needs paint. But I want some painted beauty. It’s like buying a white car; I can’t do white, need some color. So between a Ti frame and a ...
- Festum Prophetae: Waiting for the HourEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. – Mike Tyson The one thing everyone should always plan for is that however well-conceived a program might be, things will never go to plan. The high level plan for my Festum Prophetae Hour Ride was as follows: Have a custom Hour Bike built by Don Walker. Because reasons. Reasons like custom ...
How do you all ride: gloves or no gloves, and why?
All summer I’ve been riding with no gloves on both my road and CX bikes. Maybe it’s the Colorado summer heat, maybe it was watching Boonen when he won P-R with no gloves, maybe it’s the tactile tape I’ve got on my bars. Not sure. What I do know is that it worries the VMH to no end. She views gloves as necessary as a helmet, and to ostensibly protect the hands in case of a crash. I kindly point out both times I crashed this summer, it was the knees and shoulders that took the brunt of the trauma and the only thing that happened to my hands was a slight nick on my index knuckle.
Plus, I don’t like Mickey Mouse hands.
@Marcus While we’re discussing sports that aren’t cycling, Drew Ginn’s blog hurt my back. I rowed through school and Uni, before realising I wasn’t going to grow to 6 foot 4 and 100kg. I should have realised the writing was on the wall putting my boat on the water next to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Waddell.
FML. It was his first season in a Single scull after his heart condition meant he did the lay down Sally on his crew a couple of times.
Needless to say my rowing career shifted to University 8s where at 6 foot and 82 kilos I was the smallest in the boat.
@niksch i’m not a fan of the palm padding & stuff so when it’s hot enough I’ll ride without gloves, then through winter I just have some pad-less long fingered gloves.
@niksch I just converted to gloves. I used to think going bare was for hardmen, thus I tried to go without. Unfortunately, an incidence of wet hands sliding about on my bars, lead me to seek gloves. I still think going without gloves is good for the hardman, though. Yet, I’ve liked having them over the last month or so.
@Mikael Liddy
I agree about the padding, I go no gloves, and in the winter with gloves I find myself using different hand positions than I would otherwise to account for the padding.
@niksch
I use *gasp* full fingered gloves all year, on road and off, even in the heat of summer. Probably from my MTB days. The ones I use are Specialized XC Lite. They have no padding at all, and a very light fabric backing.
Cue howls of outrage from Rule holists…
@niksch For a long while I used to ride without gloves during the summer, mostly to avoid jazz hands. Then I started riding with a bunch of guys, much more experienced than me, who taught me how to brush glass and other debris off my tires using my hand. Until recently that remained the only reason I wore gloves in summer, but now that I have new white Cinelli cork ribbon handlebar tape I now have the additional motivation of trying to keep that protecting from my sweaty palms…
@mouse I think you get a pass when racing cyclocross. Btw, your pink is making me all tingly. Luuuuv it!
Waaahhhwaaahhhwahhhwahhhh triathlon whaaawhaaawaaahwhaaaah sculls whaaahwhaaaah whaaaah. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04&feature=related
I ride with gloves, preferably the elastic type that doesn’t need a velcro. Assos’ summer glove, or PRO Winter Ultimates when it’s cold. If only the Assos glove held up better – it’s amazing when new, but deteriorates quite quickly. I don’t mind riding gloveless on cork tape (or aerobars with Fizik pad upgrades), but after two near-crashes going into the phantoms with sweaty arms, I’m more careful.
My step-father always, always rides with full-finger gloves – being a spine surgeon, his income and people’s health depend on steady, healthy fingers. If that means extra heat in the summer, or an extra 15 seconds in transition – so be it.
@Marcus
I was reading somewhere Kimmage has some agenda running with Sky and Wiggins. Something about he was going to get access to the team during tdf and then it got revoked, not sure. Seems typical Mail propoganda to me, but he does write this at the end
There is nothing to suggest that Bradley Wiggins achieved yesterday’s historic victory through anything other than talent and hard work.
I don’t think you can have it both ways, make a case that Wiggo or the team or whoever is doping, or find something to positive to say about the sport.
@niksch
Gloves. Last crash I had shredded up some of the ungloved part of 2 fingers. I was damn glad I didn’t roadrash the palm of my hand. Before that I did sometimes ride w/o. No more.
@meursault
Yeah it stemmed from last year’s tour from memory, apparently Kimmage was due to have behind the scenes access to the team for the whole tour & then just before the start he was told he wouldn’t be allowed to join them until about stage 10 cos Wiggo didn’t want the distraction in the first week or so…ironically Kimmage has a great deal of COTHO in him once he’s scorned.
@DerHoggz
I’ve managed to get a decent set of full fingered gloves with no padding on them, so even in winter the actual feel of hands to bars is not that different.
@tessar
Hehe you said transition!
Our friends at DeFeet make a great full-fingered glove, comes in both synthetic or wool versions. No padding, and the palm/bottom of fingers are covered in little textured DeFeet logos so your fingers won’t slip off of the shifters/brakes.
These are what I wear all fall/winter/spring when the temperature is going to stay low the whole ride. I’ve had the same set for two years now and they are still holding up well.
Normal partial finger gloves for me. Results in no slips from sweaty palms and still allows me to feel the contour of my beautiful and smooth Campagnolo aluminum levers that are cool to the touch. Mmmmmm.
@Tartan1749
Yeah during the summer/warm weather I wear normal fingerless mitts (I guess that’s the word? I dunno).
A month or so back I happened to forget them at home, which wasn’t a big deal – but the ride was under threatening skies and they made good on their promise and dropped a monsoon of rain for about 15 minutes at one point.
My hands almost slipped off the bars quite a few times – even though I do clean them, I think some accumulated sweat mixed with the water and made a surface that was rather difficult to grip, surprisingly.
@niksch – I ride with gloves. Fortunately for me, all my crashes have been low-speed crashes. That said, my main impact has been the heel of the hand and the elbow. Without the gloves, I would have been nursing roadrash on the hands for weeks. In the end, all I had were nasty bruises.
@DerHoggz – I use mostly un-padded gloves anymore. The Giros I have are really awesome in that they soak up all the sweat, but my hands don’t swim around in them, and the pads don’t bunch up.
@Mikael Liddy
And for those not in tune with the nuances of the British press, the Daily Mail is itself a nasty piece of work.
Generally their tone is that cyclists are smug, pinkos in thrall to foreign practices who have nothing better to do than get in the way of good honest British motorists, and frankly if they were all run over then they were probably asking for it.
They hate cycling and they hate cyclists. Kimmage is a c*nt just for writing for them and pushing their snide little agenda.
@ChrisO Yeah well there’s that too, I suppose a bitter & twisted writer determined to push an agenda in the most negative & cynical way possible fits in pretty well there.
OK, thread jack. Interesting discovery: my bike was not Obeying the Principle of Silence strictly. While it went like the whisper jet on the last ride, this was only the case when seated and while I was concentrating on the V-Locus. Any sprint, be it to reaccelerate after passing traffic, avoiding douchebags, or reestablishing the proper tempo on a climb, would bring forth subtle, yet unmistakable crank related … noises. Cutting the chase: the noise was related to flex in the frame and its interaction in the wheel dropouts. Greasing on the offending parts and axels now makes me the silent assassin.
That is all.
@eightzero Nice one. I hope this overcomes my last obstacle in the quest for silence.
@Giles
I cannot over emphasize my burning need for Silence. For some it is merely a ideal, a thing to strive for. For me it is an obsession. If I Obey the Rules, my machine, over which I am absolute Master, must Obey me.
I rule the technology; it does not rule me.
@eightzero Interesting theological question, are we the master of The Bike, subservient to it or do we become one with it?
Whilst I yearn for Silence, I know that is something that can only be achieved through my devotion to The Bike, it’s not something that I can merely expect of The Bike.
Last week I was retarded enough to ride a 10mile TT without the wavy washer having stripped BB/cranks down whilst cleaning The Bike after a wet and gritty club ride. It creaked it’s way round loudly enough that I knew I’d be stripping it down as soon as I got home. I was horrified to find that I’d left the washer out, what a c*nt I am. Schoolboy error.
When I set off to this weekends club ride, The Bike was still grumbling from the BB and I knew that it was letting me know what it thought of me. I took an extended route to and from the start/finish point and spent as much time as I could riding at the front of the group keeping the pace high when ever we weren’t riding through and off especially towards the end when the pace began to slow. (Not so high as to drop other members of the group but high enough to keep it respectable and high enough that I was hurting myself.) As the ride went on the noises lessened until Silence had returned.
This is not a suggestion that I’d mastered The Bike by riding it hard but that I’d gone some way towards making amends for my hideous fuckwitedness earlier in the week and by riding it hard I was honouring it.
The Bike cannot be mastered, though devotion it will acquiesce to our desires and occasionally it will grant us the rare privilege of becoming one with it in a state of enlightenment, la volupte or the tunnel, whatever you might call it.
@minion
A valiant effort, but you’ll get nowhere by comparing Melbourne to Hamilton NZ. Now, like Scarlett Johansson, Melbourne isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but nobody will take the bait if you compare her to Susan Boyle. I think Melbourne is more like Vancouver, only without the mountains, half the charm, five times the smugness, and just as much rain. The only thing Hamilton ON has over Queanbeyan is that it’s on the other side of the world from Canberra. Otherwise, it’s Port Kembla with a University.
In other, bike-related news, I just went for a spin after upgrading from my dealer-furnished wheels to Ksyrium Elites. I wasn’t crazy about the POS-violating ticking hub, but that was quickly forgotten when I lit-up the guns. The difference in acceleration had me grinning like a big idiot. Okay, bigger idiot.
@Chris
Surely you mean V-ological (vee-oh-loj-ic-al), oh I think I may have come up with something that might make it into the lexicon.
@snoov
@snoov
Me likee
V-ology (from the Greek Θεός meaning “Merckx” and λόγος meaning “study of”) is the systematic and rational study of Velo and its influences and of the nature of Velo truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in velo studies, usually on a road or track or col.
@meursault That’s rather good although I’m not sure that you’ve got your Greek translation entirely right. Merckx is the Prophet and as such is merely a conduit sent to us by the Ancients of Mount Velomis to show us the way.
It’s a common misconception that Merckx is a god/one of the gods (depending on your view point) but if he were, who is he cummuning with here?
@frank not sure what’s happened but I seem to have lost the ability to attach photos. Linking them seems to be the only option.
@meursault
@Chris
Damn you both with your knowledge of the Classics. To my great regret my school didn’t teach Latin or Greek which would have helped me greatly when I read philosophy at university, lucky boys.
@Chris
My little camera button is gone too.
@snoov at least you can spell.
@Chris
communing FFS!
@Chris
Merckx is not communing with anyone. Someone is communing with him,. asking advice, seeking guidance on the rules and trying to get some tips for the VSP.
@Oli
Did this ever get answered? I think they are Rigidas (or were labelled as such).
@wiscot – HAH, I read that as, “Merckx is not commuting with anyone.”
@Chris – No camera button here either.
@snoov, @meursault – I’m down with V-ological and V-ology… I say we get @frank to add it in to the lexicon.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Are you sure you don’t want to rephrase that?
@seemunkee
Better than him saying your Brown was making him all tingly…
@Nof Landrien To my knowledge Rgida have never made a chainset, only rims. It’s a Sugino.
@meursault
Yes, yes, I am in accord. As an engineer, I am always the master of my technology. This however, does not prevent me from striving to better myself, so that I may better my technology. So it is with the bike. It Obeys me, but I take my role as master seriously, and undertake the burdens of my role not lightly.
I believe this is as the Ancients intended it. Perhaps with further meditation on the V-Locus, Their true wisdom will be further revealed.
By fuck yeah -the ride tonight on a totally Silent machine was spellbinding, The hiss of the tyres, the roll of the chain on the sprockets uninterrupted by *anything* is indeed a joyful noise.
@Chris
Indeed, absolute Mastery is an elusive, and perhaps unattainable thing. I am of the opinion that enginnering is like diarrhea: it keeps dribbling on. Better becomes the enemy of “good enough.” WIll I be the Absolute Master of the bike? No, for it is a whimsical, etherial creature. Flats are unpredictable, mechanisms wear in different ways, vibrations are functions of age and external factors. Yet the Bike takes me to a plane of existence I never experience elsewhere. That oneness, that self-enlightening moment is sufficient. We one, yet I am still the Master.
Or I could be just full of shit.
@eightzero Heretic, blasphemer!
@ChrisO
Borrowing from Mark Thomas’ People’s Manifesto: “The Daily Mail should be forced to print ‘The newspaper that supported Hitler’ under its title to ensure it contains one item of fact every day.”
Tells you all you need to know about this hateful rag really.
@Chris
I feel the shame of these accusations as deeply as the situation merits.
@Fausto
Like the Sun, Mail and Mirror should have on their mastheads: “The paper that merrily violates your privacy.” ?
Got the Raleigh cabled and bar-taped this evening. I’ll get new tyres and tubes for it tomorrow and plan to have pix up Sunday. Can’t wait to ride it and see if it fits me…
The Raleigh Super Corse has been completely reassembled! Sadly, I believe this machine is too big for me. :-/
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@Xyverz
@mouse – I need to get the damned freewheel off first, lol.
@Xyverz
When you go to do it, put the remover deal and wrench on and then put the QR back on so it doesn’t strip out.
@DerHoggz – Yeah, the instructions for the SunTour Freewheel removal tool said as much. I just can’t seem to break it loose. I think I’ll need a vice or something (that I don’t have)…
On another note, does anybody know if thread pitch for pedals has changed in the last 30 years? For some reason, I cannot seem to get my newer shimano pedals threaded into these old Suntour (or whatever brand this is) cranks. This is the identifying info I’m finding on the cranks:
The print says W9/16×20, if that means anything to anybody.