I’m presently very deep in a extremely pretentious and deeply hypocritical “An outdated highway bike is all you want” section:
Whereas I do keep that is technically true, it’s each extremely pretentious and deeply hypocritical as a result of the reality is once I not really feel like using the outdated highway bike I’ve like eleventy million different bikes to select from, and that’s not even together with the Traditional Cycle archives, to which I’ve unfettered entry.
I’m actually having fun with the bike although.
And positive, whereas my “austerity” is only performative, I might argue that my dedication to the mechanical bicycle is past reproach, and as such I’m not a part of The Downside.
And in case you’re questioning what the issue is, it’s this:
This grotesquely proportioned freak bike confirms a suspicion I’ve lengthy held, which is that Unbound Gravel, previously Soiled Kanza, is singlehandedly chargeable for ruining bikes. Think about that the primary Soiled Kanza occurred manner again in 2006, and the profitable bicycle appeared like this:
See that? Now that’s a motorbike! And positive, I do know what you’re considering:
“The tires are too slim”
“The gearing is just too excessive”
“The geometry isn’t slack sufficient”
And so forth.
WRONG.
I imply sure, a few of that stuff might make superficial sense, however in apply when you begin permitting for all that stuff then then it’s throughout.
Don’t consider me?
Right here’s the proof:
Hey, you requested for it. Battery powered every thing and it appears like an intergalactic pennyfarthing, however, you recognize, “It rolls over stuff higher” or one thing.
(Although judging by the appears–and hey, that is the Web, judging stuff fully by appears is how we do issues right here–the designers might have achieved the identical impact with normal-sized wheels and an extended wheelbase.)
So sure, I keep that up till 2006 the biking world nonetheless sort of made sense. Nonetheless, post-Soiled Kanza it began to go horribly mistaken. Give it some thought: is it a coincidence I began my weblog only one 12 months later?
Most likely–although if the biking world hadn’t began to court docket perversity on this method I’d by no means have been impressed to start out this weblog within the first place. In fact again then it was fixie mania:
However when you think about that every one the fixie folks ultimately moved onto gravel bikes then all of it begins to make sense.
Talking of the outdated days, Taylor Phinney and his moustache are again:
That is the second-best description of garvel that I’ve learn:
Nonetheless, round doing extra gravel racing — “probably the most severe unserious sport that exists” — over the following months, Phinney is about to go to the wind tunnel in June to refine his aerodynamic place, and there’s a chance that he might compete for Workforce USA on the 2026 Observe Biking Championships in China in October. Whether or not chosen or not, he expects to organize with the squad and go on an altitude camp.
The primary-best (or I assume simply “finest”) being “an elite contest to be underwritten by the individuals who lose,” from that story in The New Yorker:
As a lot as I hate to present The New Yorker credit score for something, I allocate it when and the place it’s due, and on this case it’s positively due.
Anyway, the Taylor Phinney story introduced me again to these heady days when this weblog was nonetheless related and I attended the occasion on the Clinton World Initiative the place Lance Armstrong introduced his comeback alongside a younger Taylor Phinney:
Actually, not solely was this weblog nonetheless related, however names like “Armstrong” and “Clinton” nonetheless had…nicely I don’t know if “credibility” is the appropriate phrase, however they may actually command an viewers.
As for the press convention, along with being the supply of this picture…
…it’s additionally noteworthy as a result of not solely had Armstrong invited me there himself, however he’d additionally advised me personally that he was planning a return to the game nicely earlier than this. On reflection, this was an act of hubris on his half that finally led to his downfall, and if solely I’d satisfied him to not do it and proceed to get pleasure from his retirement (he was flying round on a personal jet, relationship film stars, and making fixe movies) maybe he’d nonetheless have is titles and endorsements and all the remainder of it. The ethical of the story is that you must at all times stop when you’re forward, and the truth that I’m nonetheless right here in 2026 is all of the proof you want.
