Feeling Rusty – Bike Snob NYC

And, like all sane bicycle owner (a “sane bicycle owner” remains to be barely lower than an fool on the traditional individual scale), because the storm approached I used to be out for a experience, heading additional and farther from house because the scenario turned more and more dire:

Nonetheless, as soon as the severity of the scenario turned evident, I did at the very least regulate my route in order that I’d be returning alongside the commuter rail hall within the occasion it began raining in earnest and I wanted to abort–and I did have to abort:

On reflection it couldn’t have gone higher had I deliberate it this fashion from the outset–I received most of my supposed experience in, I didn’t get moist, and the previous couple of miles of an extended experience can generally appear a bit funereal anyway, so spending them on the practice as a substitute felt refreshingly decadent:

With direct entry to a practice that runs alongside the Hudson Valley I ought to in all probability benefit from it extra usually by integrating it into my rides:

Alas, that requires far an excessive amount of thought, and so I typically keep inside a 20-mile radius of my house, like a canine with a shock collar.

Even deciding which bicycle to experience requires an excessive amount of thought for me lately, which is why I’ve simply been using the Craigslist Particular.

Plus, there’s much more to bikes than simply using them; there’s additionally sustaining them, and Dealing With All The Stuff, and I’m at the moment within the strategy of culling my very own stuff, which is one thing I’ve been laying aside for years. I’m attempting to be as ruthless as doable when disposing of issues, although I’ll usually discover myself dithering over one thing silly like an outdated frayed shifter cable, as a result of, you recognize, possibly if I lower the top off it I can salvage sufficient of it for a entrance downtube shifter (this in fact being the shortest shifter cable run). Then there are objects which might be largely sentimental, similar to this:

That’s the body of a bicycle I referred to within the early days of this weblog because the Ironic Orange Julius Bike, for causes which might be far too tedious to recount. This was the bicycle upon which I used to be commuting between Brooklyn and Manhattan day-after-day, and it regarded like this:

And sure, it had a set gear, although the fenders, entrance and rear cantilever brakes, grime drop handlebars, and rack set it far aside from the bikes you’d sometimes come throughout through the Peak Fixie period:

As I perceive it, the On-One Pompino (the phrase “Pompino” is Italian slang for a intercourse act and would by no means discover its approach onto a bicycle at the moment) was widespread within the UK, however right here it was one thing of a cult merchandise–a racy singlespeed with 120mm rear spacing, canti bosses, beneficiant (for the time) tire clearance, and rack and fender eyelets, it kind of break up the distinction between a Surly Steamroller and a Surly Cross Examine.

Not solely was this the bike I used to be commuting on after I coined most of what constitutes the trendy city biking lexicon:

However I additionally used it in quite a few prestigious cyclocross occasions, together with the Singlespeed Cyclocross World Champtionships in Portland, OR:

[That’s not the Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships in Portland, OR. I’m pretty sure that’s the singlespeed race at Staten CX on Staten Island.]

And simply typically rode the crap out of it in all types of situations for a few years:

Which is why it now appears like this:

Final time I attempted I couldn’t get that backside bracket out, however possibly if I douse it with some kind of penetrant and double up on the elbow grease the body will relinquish it.

Do I want a rusty outdated singlespeed body?

No, I don’t, nifty segmented building however:

If nothing else, I’ve a extra age-appropriate and much much less corroded singlespeed now:

Then on prime of that there’s the Homer:

That is really the Ironic Orange Julius Bike’s religious successor in that it’s change into the bike I exploit for just about the whole lot:

Which is why the drivetrain appears like this:

I’ve received a model new chain and cassette ready for it as I kind–and but the bike retains shifting, and so I hold procrastinating. (This can be greatest and the worst factor about friction shifting: it simply retains working.)

All of that is to say I ought to do away with the IOJB, or at the very least give it a Viking funeral by placing a pair of wheels on it, dousing it with lighter fluid, setting it on hearth, and ghost-riding it down a hill.

However one thing received’t let me half with it–plus, given its provenance and place in biking historical past, its financial worth is incalculable.

Although I’ll completely give it to anyone who guarantees to do one thing cool with it.