Since no less than 2022, I’ve espoused a way of life and philosophy I typically confer with as “Dirtbag Highway Driving,” and its precepts are as follows:
The concept that highway biking is elitist is a fallacy, as a result of proximity to gravel roads and dust trails (or the time and expense required to journey to them) is reserved for the fortunate few, whereas just about everyone is surrounded by roads
Because of the Gravel Inversion (by which gravel bikes have supplanted highway bikes because the jumping-off level for novice cyclists), coupled with the rise of “alt biking” (itself a fallacy in that it’s maybe essentially the most conformist type of biking), rim brake highway bikes with skinny tires at the moment are shockingly low cost on the used market
Whereas Lycra and clipless pedals and sneakers do work nicely for using highway bikes, you possibly can put on no matter you need, and also you’ll have simply as a lot enjoyable using a highway bike in a t-shirt, sneakers, and jorts
Whereas they might be “out of date,” the availability of used components for rim brake highway bikes won’t be exhausted inside any of our lifetimes, and in lots of circumstances you possibly can combine and match frames and parts from the Nineteen Seventies by way of the early 2000s with abandon
Previous highway bikes are solely impractical to the extent {that a} extremely environment friendly bicycle that’s low cost and straightforward to take care of and is straightforward to retailer and carry up stairs in an city atmosphere is impractical
You’ll be able to simply experience a bicycle with 23mm tires on an unpaved floor and never die, and loads of bikes with short-reach brakes will even take 28s, which till not too long ago was thought-about positively decadent
Because of this I’ll all the time advance the reason for these bicycles, as a result of if nothing else cyclists have a tendency to instantly throw the newborn out with the bathwater when The New Factor comes alongside, and so it’s essential to recollect you possibly can embrace stuff like huge tires and disc brakes whereas nonetheless acknowledging and even having fun with the virtues of those extremely accessible machines.
And maybe extra essential than any of the above is that, whereas individuals obsess about stuff like titanium frames and supple tires and the way they contribute to experience high quality, the indisputable fact is that nothing rides as properly as a superb cut price. NOTHING. By the use of instance, take into account this factor:
Yesterday I discussed GPS computer systems. Right here’s a GPS pc:
This bike price me lower than the sale value of that GPS pc, and that’s together with the obscure Campy spare components I needed to receive to repair the hubs. Okay, granted I already had the opposite spare components I wanted available to get it operating easily, however even when I’d had to purchase them I nonetheless would have spent not more than the worth of the second-cheapest GPS pc:
Not that I’m giving myself an excessive amount of credit score for my very own resourcefulness and frugality, thoughts you–I imply I used to be as I used to be typing all that, however then YouTube served me this video of a man fixing a automotive with fewer instruments than I carry in my saddlebag:
Additionally, whereas this bike might have price lower than six (6) rear major seal replacements in Africa, I even have an entire bunch of different bikes, a few of that are extremely unique:
Wait, mistaken image:
Nonetheless, the very fact stays that if I had something resembling self-control I might be completely pleased with simply that low cost Craigslist bike. Properly, I might be completely happy, anyway. Okay, I wouldn’t be despondent, let’s simply go away it there.
Plus, even when it weren’t an enormous cut price it rides very properly, which it actually shouldn’t what with these historical “25mm” Gatorskin tires, which if you recognize something about Gatorskins are barely even 23s. And what’s extra decadent than a 10-speed triple? Positive, a compact has mainly the identical vary, however the triple is like your previous racing drivetrain with an entire different Rivendell drivetrain hooked up to it, and it’s price all these redundant gears to nonetheless have entry to a 42-tooth entrance chainring.
After all one other method to take a look at that is that this bike isn’t a cut price in any respect, because it feeds off of a number of many years’ price of spare components, to not point out all of the issues I needed to smash with the intention to discover ways to repair stuff, and in a method that is yet one more in an limitless sequence of highway bikes I’ve been serially buying and divesting myself of because the late 1900s. In truth, when you merely purchased your self a brand new top-of-the-line Pinarello each couple of years and offered the previous one I wouldn’t be shocked if, financially, you got here out forward of the ostensibly “frugal” retrogrouchical serial bike tinkerer over the long run. So the one state of affairs that might probably warrant congratulating myself could be if I used to be nonetheless using the identical Cannondale from the Nineties.
Guess it’s time to start out purchasing for a Nineties Cannondale. I guess if I look laborious sufficient and spend sufficient money and time I can discover a actual cut price!
