I ride 2 fixed on topic track bikes on the weekdays, my first documented
bikes on wooljersey, and ride geared on weekends unless i am by myself. It is flat here as the CR members that attended the ride i hosted can
attest. Sometimes one of our illustrious CR members come up for a ride
that is an exception to this weekday fixed rule, all but 2 of my many rides are on topic. When I ride with others, i oftentimes give them the
choice of what i will ride.
For the first time since mid summer, i rode my off topic Orbea Onix.
My assertion is that I love the one i am with. each one is very different, but each is a BLAST to ride. I see Bob Hanson's post this morning with the studded snow tires. Now I want to take one of the frames in my studio, build a new set of wheels, and outfit it the same (but probably fixed for the additional control) to look forward to the sn ow.
For me, it is beyond the spinning of pedals. It is that touch to back off the downshift of a NR rear, the Cooper that never feels that it is going fast even screaming downhill, the liveliness of the ti Raleigh, the less friction on wet roads, keeping up with the pedals on the fixed when it has it's own ideas- and then all the subtle day to day changes in the environment that i am lucky enough to experience here in NJ (chesterfield, usa) gabriel
Chuck Schmidt wrote:
> A friend wrote me this today...
>
> "Bikes improve, but they were nearly perfect by the end of the century
> before last... and these improvements have been mainly in the
> "gadgetry" like the shifting and stopping. Not in the JRA (Just Ridin
g
> Around) where 99% of the cycling experience happens. Look at a 34 yea
r
> old (Colango) Super as the case in point. In fact the JRA has had to
> suffer for those other advances!!!"
>
> Strikes a real cord with me because my daily riding these days is done
> mostly on three 48x16 fixed gear bikes; those or my mid-70s road
> bikes (my Ergo and STI equipped bikes languish unridden for years at a
> time)!
>
> Déjà vu all over again? Preaching to the choir? Comments?
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, CA USA
> http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, t-shirts & timelines)
>
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> _______________________________________________
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gabriel l romeu
± http://studiofurniture.com Ø http://journalphoto.org ±