Final week I discussed Jobst Brandt and his ideas on lengthy chainstays. Subsequently, I discovered myself studying Jobst Brandt’s ideas on a lot of issues, in addition to Tom Ritchey’s ideas on Jobst Brandt:
As a Cervino rider, the Nishiki jersey and shorts within the above picture caught my eye:
And I think he too could also be using a Cervino, as a result of colour apart, have a look at the shifters:
It’s arduous to inform for positive, however they positive do seem like they’re within the tell-tale jackrabbit place on high of the downtube:
See?
So what’s the importance of all this?
I don’t know, both, although if that’s in truth a Cervino then it represents the one identified up to date picture of 1 within the wild, a discover of main significance to the modern-day Cervino group, which so far as I can inform at present consists solely of me:
[La communauté de Cervino, c’est moi.]
As for the Nishiki rider within the picture, no one is aware of for positive what occurred to him, however rumor has it that he was killed and eaten by Jobst Brant himself, who disapproved of his bicycle’s unnecessarily difficult shifter configuration.
A tall story? Maybe. However there’s no denying that Jobst Brandt is the closest factor the biking world has to Paul Bunyan. 6’5″ tall and with, in accordance with Ritchey, a “voice like Darth Vader,” Brandt didn’t even carry water bottles and as a substitute slaked his thirst by consuming from mountain streams. He additionally broke cranks like they have been matchsticks with a frequency that just about beggars perception:
And like Bigfoot, we solely have grainy “proof” of his existence:
As somebody who used to lurk within the rec.bicycles.tech newsgroup I used to be at all times in awe of his persona, his pragmatism, and his prose, which was as unadorned and purposeful because the tools he favored. It has been awhile since I’d delved deeply into his posts, however happily they’re now archived, so currently I discover myself perusing them once more. As I’ve talked about earlier than, it’s ironic that the gravelistas have embraced Brandt as their “godfather” when a lot in that world runs counter to what he espoused, from overcomplicated bikes with a lot of gears to costly organized rides to advertising run amok:
Mainstream discourse immediately is anodyne and biking has readily embraced the fashionable mandate to not offend, which is ironic since biking is a bodily endeavor that inherently entails problem, even when undertaken casually. Positive, the arbiters of style have at occasions taken this too far, like Rapha within the early days, and maybe they’re rightly feeling a bit penitent for all of the self-wankery:
[Oh for fuck’s sake spare me.]
However on the similar time there now appears to be a pathological aversion to acknowledging that a part of the enjoyment of biking is that it may be a problem. Think about the style wherein we’re promoting our soul to the e-bike, a tool that utterly undermines the human-powered ethos of biking–but Lob forbid you say something detrimental about e-bikes, or query the (sorry) ridiculous declare they’re going to interchange automotive journeys on an enormous scale. We’re actually surrendering our bike lanes to motorized autos for concern of seeming illiberal.
Embracing the problem of biking doesn’t imply it needs to be bodily grueling, neither is it that dirtiest of adjectives: “ableist.” Rivendell doesn’t promote struggling and self-flagellation; they promote using slowly and in consolation. Sure, that’s additionally advertising, however beneath the lugs and the leather-and-cotton baggage is the concept the bike is a machine comprising of steel and cables, and that there’s a satisfaction in working it. In the meantime, SRAM now sells digital shifting on the idea that it’s “meant to simplify the using expertise” and that “riders can deal with their experience, not their tools.” Rivendell might need to preserve you comfy, however that’s completely different from holding your hand; working the tools could be very a lot part of the experience, and that’s a superb factor, not a foul factor. Utilizing a friction shifter as a substitute of merely pushing a button could also be extra “difficult,” but it surely’s additionally extra rewarding. It feels good in the identical method with the ability to play one thing easy on a guitar feels good, whereas the fashionable biking business desires your bike to be extra like the David Lee Roth soundboard.
In latest a long time the thought has been that we’ve acquired to do away with the “limitations to entry” with a view to get extra folks using, however in so doing we’ve overlooked the truth that climbing over limitations is a part of what makes it enjoyable within the first place, whether or not it’s using over an precise mountain or just dialing in a shift. Not solely have we flattened the panorama, however we’ve fetishized the act of doing so, and we’ve changed the limitations that after dotted that panorama with a bunch of meaningless symbols:
1,000,000 firms promoting the identical gravel bike, accent model after accent model, influencers passing themselves off as craftspeople, bike bloggers misplaced up their very own asses, and the umpteenth rebranded Panaracer tire.
Positive, clearly persons are nonetheless boasting about their arduous rides, and you’ll go to sure web sites and see lavish images of peoples’ bike tenting journeys styled like trend shoots (or go to Bicycling and examine some middle-aged man’s designer biking trip), however underpinning it all of the message should be, “You are able to do this too,” and there’s aways a motorbike or a bag or an article of clothes or a life-style on the market together with it. There’s no one telling you that you just don’t want all these gears and also you look ridiculous:
Jobst Brandt was about conserving it easy, however immediately the people who find themselves ostensibly about conserving it easy recoil on the suggestion that possibly you may get by with out a 13-inch gear and denounce it as “highway biking hegemony:”
As for me, Jobst Brant’s loopy gearing is likely one of the causes I made a decision to deliver the Kestrel to Switzerland, and I’m glad I did:
I’m not saying I’d essentially do these climbs with a 42×21 once more, however I’m actually glad I did it as soon as.
And when you suppose saying folks don’t want disc brakes on their highway bikes is edgy, how about saying dual-pivot brakes are for timid novices with weak fingers?
This sounded insanely curmudgeonly even to me, however then I considered it: the only pivot brakes I’ve work simply wonderful. Not solely that, however they don’t must be adjusted to run so near the rim, the brake pads are a lot thicker, they usually open wider to let the wheel out and in–a problem with dual-pivots whenever you’re utilizing fattish tires:
Earlier than lengthy I used to be window-shopping them for my Milwaukee:
[Via eBay]
I’m not saying we must always all return to single-pivot brakes, however coddling folks entails sacrifice on our personal elements, and it doesn’t take lengthy to overlook what we’ve given up. Shedding a little bit rim clearance was arguably well worth the trade-off, however dropping the power to shift with out a battery is probably not.
Typically the very best influencers are probably the most offensive ones.
