On the Rivet
I’m proud to declare that I am fluent in three languages: Hyperbole, Dutch, and English. All of them rubbish. The language of the peloton is, by and large, the most beautiful and expressive in French and Italian, which already make anything sound sexy. But they really excel in le langage du peloton: Sur la plaque, La Volupte, Grinta, La Fringale – each of those smash their English translations with pure linguistic voluptuousness.
The exception is, of course, the term “on the rivet”. Don’t ask my why we all slide forward on our saddles when we’re riding hard, but we all do. Slip your saddle forward a bit to accommodate the forward position, and you’ll still slip forward once you start laying down The Five. It’s one of life’s great mysteries, alongside gravity and how the frosting got inside the twinkies.
Saddles used to have a rivet on the front, to hold the the crotch-numbing slab of leather in place because Cycling saddles at the time were modelled after Western horse saddles. And whenever you were well and truly on your limit, you’d have your rump precariously perched right over that brass nubbin. Hence the term, on the rivet.
To kindly demonstrate the point, no one does “On the Rivet” better than former Manchester DC legend, Pete Five Face Boydell. Even his saddle is having a shit.
Hockey? HOCKEY? Get a real (non-cycling) sport – here’s every try the late Jonah Lomu scored in his All Blacks career. RIP.
@Oli
This. Poor old Jonah. I actually saw the great man in a car in Cardiff during the World Cup. Legend.
@RobSandy
Wingers just should not be that big. And though he could run people over he was still the master of what my coach called the zook move. You gotta be fast to beat people with a zook. Perfect ex is try at 2:26 with weak side plus play direct from scrumhalf and boom, with one dude to beat, a zook move, and gone. That’s very cool, I love Rugby @Oli thanks, cheers
@pistard
Awesome job on id’ing the bike. I couldn’t make it out. A Mercian with Nervex lugs? That would be filed under “sweet.”
Pretty sure this guy is on the rivet.
@pistard
Nice one. That was bugging me as I was sure I recognised it but could not quite place it.
@RobSandy
I use Strava mostly because it automatically records everything I used to have to hand write into a training log way back in the day. I mostly care about how far I ride and my total miles for the year. I worry less about how fast I ride because I know I’m not anymore (and that assumes I once was). I keep tabs on friends in my “peer group,” i.e., old guys, and there’s always a little friendly competition among us some segments. I only follow people I know and want to follow. If people I don’t know want to follow me (I don’t know why they would but some do), I’m flattered.
@wiscot
Addiction is exactly what it is! So weird to me. Was walking the dogs this morning with the VMH and a dude went by…leaves falling, along a stream, fall weather…and he was staring at his palm. Good lord.
@chuckp
Nowadays domestiques have those mesh vests to carry water bottles. Back in the day it was a fucking bucket. Try logging that into yer Strava.
@wiscot
And y0u can put ice in a bucket! Can’t do that with a mesh vest.
The bucket thing always happened when you got the cork stuck solid in the neck of your water bottle.
On the bucket > on the rivet.
@chuckp
He can’t be because we can see the nose of the saddle still – to be ‘on the rivet’ it needs to be right up the old chookster!
RE: The Bucket Man – why were they doing clamp on bidon cages at that point? To difficult to build in bosses? Too costly?
Oli? Wiscot?
Both Ron – the braze-ons could often weaken the frames if they weren’t brazed perfectly, plus the extra time they took would ramp up the cost. Also I think it was partly just the fashion of the times; although the French constructeurs were doing amazing things with brazing in terms of add-ons in the randonneur scene, road frames were perhaps regards more prosaically and were hence more workmanlike in construction.
@Oli
Said rivet location……..
Bucket phase 2
@chris
His beard also qualifies him for tending bar in Seattle.
@Apex Nadir
What the fuck is that shit.
@litvi
Which is the opposite of the technique I use when doing intervals, which is where I stare it down and ask it to please stop slowing down and start ticking faster!
@Ccos
This. @RobSandy must have momentarily been hit with the Anti-V stick, which is not unlike the Forget Me Stick.
@EBruner
Sewups, tubs, potato patato. Just don’t fucking ride clinchers and we are good to go.
@chuckp
I kind of feel like those mesh vests are akin to mechanical doping.
@Chipomarc
Strong work all around. I think Strava can be a good tool, but it leads to really bad training habits where you’re always trying to set a PB on all your favorite segments.
I’ve been a self-professed nod-snob for ages, too. It’s practically a moral obligation riding around in V-Kit all the time.
@frank
If you’re not careful you’ll run into his sort in London as well.
@frank
It’s hockey, Frank. And if it’s good enough for Clara Hughes, it’s good enough for me.
@pistard
Luggs. So sexy they need a second G.
@Oli
Watched some of the world cup this year as I was in ZA when it started and the enthusiasm for the Springboks was infectious. Then they even showed the semifinals and finals on TV. Amazing to me the way the game just keeps cruising along and they birth and rebirth that ball out of a pile of men.
@Apex Nadir
FFS. I went to a hockey game for a work function last week. Impossible to (a) follow and (b) give a shit.The only thing I took away from that was the term “penalty box”, in which you will find yourself if you keep posting photos of hockey here.
Also, she must not be very committed to it, thankfully. She’s walking on a carpet FFS. I thought Canadians were born on ice?
@frank
Forgive me @frank for I have sinned.
Better?
@Barracuda
Clearly an inspiration for Sir Brad.
@frank
Also shoes inspired Adam Hansen to make his own.
@Chipomarc
I think it’s a prototype for Fabians BB.
@KogaLover
Fair point; but Rules #3 and #43 don’t mean you have to be an enabler. You’re better off sitting him or her down at the pub and giving them the management sandwich (compliment – criticism – compliment) than encourage them with a nod.
Not to mention, some folks are simply too far gone.
@Apex Nadir
Yes.
without the thing that must not be named we wouldn’t have this, the first six km of the 10km final on the weekend, love veloviewer.
@Teocalli
Assisted bucket drinking:
@frank
I’ll stop chuckling to myself now. I’ll go out and ride many time around Maindy in the rain and wind tomorrow morning as V-Penance.
@frank
Once I have my V-Kit I’ll be able to take my nob-snobbishness to a whole new level. Hint Hint.
@Teocalli
Er, yes I know where the rivets are thanks. I’ve seen one or two Brooks saddles in my time lol. My point is that if you’re ‘on the rivet’ you shouldn’t be able to see said rivet, which means that if you’re ogling a man’s crotchal region and you can still see the nose of the saddle (where the rivet is, as you’ve pointed out in your excellent illustration) then by definition said man cannot be ‘on the rivet’. Ipso facto, e pluribus unum, citizen’s divorce time.
@Oli
Yup – I was only trying to illustrate your point in agreement that if your are sitting on said item you probably should not be looking in other said dark place.
@frank
Spotted in London today – @frank expressing his displeasure at Boris’ Three Point System fail.
@chuckp
I’m new to the site, so I don’t know all the Strava backstory.
For me locally, my team all use Strava and we use it for training, to push each other. It also has made me a better cyclist allowing me to push my self a little harder! We trade KOM’s all the time, then we heckle the losers until, we become the looser and the process just resets. it also is good to see how is sandbagging on ride and how is really pushing the pace.
On top of “on the rivet” this is what I look like in the last lap of any CX race!
@Teocalli
Ah sorry mate, I thought you were schooling me!
@chris
…or expressing his displeasure at the woman ahead of him because she just rode him off her wheel.
@freddy
Nah, its because of the state of that helmet, bloody terrible angle !
@Michael
Sounds like good fun, mate!