I’ve been using this bike rather a lot:
That’ll change, it at all times modifications. I transfer from bike to bike like a mariachi band transferring from desk to desk. However in the intervening time the bikes I’m using probably the most are that one and this one:
The Milwaukee is the “leisure” one and the Homer is the “commuting” one. I hesitate to make use of both time period as a result of in a means they’re each deceptive: one sounds enjoyable and the opposite sounds onerous, however in reality I take pleasure in them each. If something, it’s the commuting that’s leisure, since I select to do it after I might simply as simply take the subway, whereas the “leisure” using is obligatory, since my each my bodily and psychological well-being rely upon it and for me there actually isn’t any different viable possibility–like, I’m not taking on pickleball. For me it’s bikes or nothing.
Anyway, the upshot of all that is that I’ve been spending in all probability half my using time on the Milwaukee and half on the Homer, and I gotta say in case you wish to experience bikes then you are able to do rather a lot worse.
Given how a lot time I’ve been spending on the Milwaukee, I’ve additionally been serious about rather a lot about highway bikes, and what we usually name “highway biking.” Through the years I’ve had an evolving relationship with highway bikes: I’ve been the solitary younger beginner dork; the intense bike racer dork; the previous bike racer dork attempting to insurgent in opposition to roadiedom by squeezing 28mm tires into short-reach calipers and carrying clothes that doesn’t match; and naturally the solitary outdated seen-it-all dork I’m right this moment. However the one fixed–moreover the sheer persistence of my utter dorkitude–has been the presence of a highway bike in my life, even after I’ve tried to spurn them and switch as removed from them as potential:
For years, highway biking has been synonymous with silly guidelines, excessive anal retention, common humorlessness, and unbearable elitism. Nonetheless, I’ve just lately come to understand that, regardless of the plain existence of riders who exhibit each a kind of attributes, highway biking is essentially probably the most accessible type of using. That is not to say it’s for everyone; in case you hate using highway bikes you hate using highway bikes and I’d by no means attempt to speak you into loving them, in the identical means I hope you’ll by no means attempt to speak me into your recumbent. (In the event you hate highway bikes I’m simply assuming you experience a recumbent.) However it’s to say I’ve realized how a lot I like highway bikes and there’s now not any sense in combating it. Right here’s what I like about them:
Simplicity
I imply certain, they’re not all easy. You possibly can overcomplicate something with batteries and fluids and plastic and stuff:
Basically although they’re very simple machines. Take a look at this one, for instance:
It’s over 50 years outdated. What can’t you do on this factor you could’t do on a highway bike right this moment? Yeah, newer bikes are extra refined, however one factor I’ve discovered from all of the outdated ones I’ve gotten to experience because of Basic Cycle is that no matter you’re using you get used to it fairly fast. For 5 minutes you’re like, “How did individuals ever shift like this?” Then per week later you’re like, “The highway bike was principally perfected 70 years in the past, why do we’d like any greater than this?”
It is because the bikes are easy. A diamond body, a handlebar that enables you a number of hand positions, and some totally different gears. (Whether or not it’s 5 or ten or twelve of them actually doesn’t matter all that a lot.) It’s mild and robust. You should utilize it to experience across the metropolis or to climb a mountain vary. There are bikes that may carry extra stuff or take you deeper into the woods or that could be simpler for the inexperienced bicycle owner to deal with. However I’m undecided there’s some other sort of motorcycle that may enable you to take action a lot with so little.
They’re Quick
Even in case you’re not interested by racing or Strava KOMs or Cat 6-ing individuals within the bike lane it’s good to have a motorcycle that’s quick. It doesn’t should be aero or put you in some loopy place or be uncomfortable or impractical to experience. Any respectable highway bike arrange to fit your needs correctly shall be inherently quick–possibly not as quick because it presumably may be within the “marginal good points” sense (who cares anyway?), however as quick as anyone wants a bicycle to be.
So why is it good to have a quick bike? The identical motive it’s good to have a quick Web connection: extra bandwidth. I couldn’t care much less about being sooner than anyone else, however as an individual with tasks typically I need to have the ability to go so far as I can within the time allotted to me. This isn’t at all times the case–typically I’ll prioritize consolation, or carrying capability, or the flexibility to experience on tough terrain–however after I need most worth out of my biking greenback than nothing beats the highway bike when it comes to sheer effectivity. It’s like ordering a cocktail as an alternative of a beer.
They’re Low-cost
No, they’re not all low-cost:
However because of the ubiquity of the highway bike and the truth that it’s been round for thus lengthy there are numerous low-cost ones available–like cheap-as-the-pedals-on-that-plastic-bike low-cost:
And regardless of what chances are you’ll learn elsewhere you’ll hand over little to nothing over newer, fancier ones–and something you do hand over you’ll greater than make up for in mechanical simplicity and the comfort that comes with it.
You Can Do It Wherever
[My ass, Specialized.]
Far more of us stay surrounded by bizarre roads than the types of huge wilderness areas we see on the bike firm web sites and the outside life-style web sites that peddle their wares for them. Granted, a few of these bizarre roads are fairly horrible–so horrible that possibly getting in a automotive and driving to the huge wilderness space is a horny proposition for you relying on the place you reside. Nonetheless, for these of us whose lives are too busy to afford us a “life-style,” a highway bike is the only option for an journey that may start as quickly as we stroll out the entrance door.
They’re The Essence Of What Bicycles Are All About
See this man?
Snigger if you’ll, however he’s your forebear. That’s the place it began. He’s standing subsequent to the primary pedal-powered machine that would carry individuals effectively throughout lengthy distances. Each race and group experience and biking membership owes its existence to this man and his mustachioed using buddies, in addition to all the ladies riders who ditched their skirts for bloomers. By 1903 his bike would have regarded like this–not all that totally different from a highway bike right this moment, a minimum of in case you squint:
Then over the subsequent few a long time they obtained the gears sorted out, now right here we’re.
This can be a highway bike:
I’d additionally argue that it is a highway bike:
And doubtless what annoys me a lot about gravel bikes is that they’re additionally simply highway bikes, solely with some additional tire clearance, similar to the highway bikes as soon as had apart from the temporary (within the grand scheme of issues) turn-of-the-last-century interval when the trade grew to become obsessive about short-reach brakes for some motive:
Street bikes have at all times been capable of go a lot of locations, which is why we in all probability ought to by no means had began calling them highway bikes and simply known as them “bikes.” I’m undecided when “highway bike” grew to become the dominant time period–in all probability when mountain bikes grew to become a factor and the trade wanted extra express advertising and marketing phrases to distinguish them. (Come to consider it, the mountain bike class might be what triggered highway bike brake attain to shrink.) However sporty drop-bar bicycles are timeless and versatile, and what we now name highway bikes are a lot enjoyable that even individuals who don’t like highway bikes like highway bikes.
So I’ll at all times love highway bikes…till it will get chilly once more, at which level I’ll write just about the identical factor, solely about mountain bikes.
