Autumn by no means has a foul hair day–even when the climate is moist and foggy it appears to be like implausible:
Then once more it’s additionally shedding that hair, and in one other week or two will probably be bald:
In fact autumn additionally means Halloween, and I’m going as somebody 20 years youthful by driving a fixie:
That creaking isn’t the underside bracket; it’s what’s left of my cartilage.
In the event you’re searching for your individual last-minute Halloween costume, I humbly counsel combing my archives for inspiration. Sadly for you, the Diminutive Frenchman is taken:
Having been claimed–if not owned outright–by Paul Johnson of Basic Cycle:
[Photo: Jamie Amador]
I imply positive, you could possibly all the time do the Diminutive Frenchman x Jobst Brandt “collabo:”
[Image by BKJimmy]
Which you’ll discover it at Spirit Halloween proper subsequent to the “Alien Holding You” costumes:
And naturally as Paul jogs my memory there are many different choices from which to decide on:
Talking of Basic Cycle, I’m after all their Outdated Crap Take a look at Pilot:
And it’s a accountability I take extra significantly than some other, which is why I’ve been logging as many miles as potential on the Nishiki Cervino:
[Yes, it can gravel. Tubulars are the new tubeless.]
This Viner-made bicycle is so uncommon it makes the Rock Combo (of which, not less than in keeping with legend, solely 500 had been made) appear to be a Surly Cross-Verify compared:
And between the 2 bikes I discover myself contemplating beginning a set of extraordinarily uncommon bicycles offered by extraordinarily mainstream firms–and once I say uncommon I imply as a result of solely only a few had been ever made, not as a result of they made shitloads however all of them fell aside:
Sure, I had one, and sure, it fell aside. All of them did–although extremely right here’s one on eBay with a kind of bonded Shimano cranks:
Now that’s residing on the sting.
Anyway, I’ve an extended historical past of ironic amassing. For instance, as a youth I had an ironic baseball card assortment comprised of my brother’s cast-offs and based mostly solely on the gamers’ names:
I couldn’t care much less about batting averages and ERAs, but when, say, a participant’s final identify was Beard but he was clean-shaven (in an period when practically each self-respecting ballplayer had not less than a moustache) then so far as I used to be involved that was a keeper. Sadly that assortment is misplaced within the mists of time, but when I might create a motorcycle assortment consisting of extraordinarily uncommon bikes from extraordinarily boring firms it’d start to fill the void in my coronary heart. As for which bikes these could be, I don’t know, exactly as a result of they’re so uncommon–I imply I didn’t know concerning the Rock Combo or the Cervino earlier than Paul despatched them to me both. So I’m open to options. In fact there are bikes just like the XO-1, however that’s extra of a “cult” bike, which is a complete completely different factor, and Bridgestone isn’t practically boringly mainstream sufficient, anyway. And should you’re questioning, there are not any X0-1s on eBay, however there’s an X0-2:
Maybe somebody will step up and provides it the alt-bike Get together Tempo remedy.
Anyway, talking of the Cervino, at first I wasn’t loopy concerning the top-mounted shifters, however now they’re certainly one of my favourite issues concerning the bike. Not solely do I hardly ever even hassle to make use of my left hand to shift the entrance, however typically I even shift the entrance and rear on the identical time:
I suppose new bike tech isn’t all unhealthy in any case.
