Categories: Anatomy of a PhotoLa Vie Velominatus

Anatomy of a Photo: Bike Love

The look, of love... Photo via Oli's Tumblr

I got new wheels last week and got them mounted with tires by the weekend. Then @Haldy had to help me with a clearance problem on Sunday (27mm FMB Paris-Roubaix’s get to be more like 29mm tires after Francois finishes his lunchtime bottle of wine). When I wasn’t looking, @Haldy put orange cable ends on all the cables. A Velominatus can’t resist doing that sort of thing, you see.

Between the new wheels and orange bits, I feel like I have a new bike. I brought her up into the dining room and have spent yesterday evening and today morning working from the dining room table so I can gaze at her while “thinking”.

I’m tempted to bring her to work today, but I’ve got a few client meetings and I’m afraid my customers might think it a bit strange if I walk into the conference room wheeling my bike. The key thing that separates us from the rest of the world is that we think its normal to stare lovingly at an inanimate object.

We are Cyclists; the rest of the world merely rides a bike. Vive la Vie Velominatus.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

gilly says:

Mar 31 2015 at 12:48 pm

#1 lives in the hall, beneath the Venetian mirror. My wife says the bike dilutes the effect of the mirror; like the mirror, I see the reverse view. I seem to spend a lot of time in the hall... New visitors who visit the house and don't mention my bike rarely become friends. I have a shed and a garage!
Velodeluded says:

Mar 31 2015 at 12:51 pm

All my bikes live in the basement. My wife thinks that Josef Fritzel spentless time "down there" than I do.... I don't understand why she feels that this is odd?
gilly says:

Mar 31 2015 at 12:51 pm
wiscot says:

Mar 31 2015 at 1:05 pm

@gilly

What mirror? (Mind you,. that's a pretty stately hallway you have there!)
wiscot says:

Mar 31 2015 at 1:12 pm

@Ron

wiscot – Very nicely put. And yes, of course a Follower should never be satisfied, always something to change slightly. I guess the myth that I’ll find Bike Harmony is the reason I keep on tinkering! With a new job the Budgetatus has spiked, but mulling over new updates has continued. What fun would it be if you could just buy everything you wanted?

But if you could buy what you wanted, when you wanted it, what fun would that be? The pleasure is in the planning and longing and acquiring and installing and riding. It would be like having July/August/September fitness in January and February - where's the effort, the sacrifice, the meetings with the man with the hammer? True fulfillment shouldn't come easily. It's like people who won't ride until the temperature is over 60 degrees. How can you truly enjoy the good days unless you've slogged through single digit wind chills, snowy/icy roads, and other weather that most folks wouldn't walk the dog in. We deserve our summer riding pleasures because we earned them.
gilly says:

Mar 31 2015 at 1:29 pm

@wiscot What a gent, Mrs G will be pleased. Mind you, the hall looked pretty average until #1 moved in!
oldensteel says:

Mar 31 2015 at 2:11 pm

In my mind, here is the conversation:

Gimondi to Bike: Damn you look good

Bike to Gimondi: #1 plate is on there for a reason, you ready for this?

Gimondi to Bike: Let's blow this pop stand

Bike to Gimondi: One step ahead of you, let's boogie
sthilzy says:

Mar 31 2015 at 2:38 pm

The key thing that separates us from the rest of the world is that we think its normal to stare lovingly at an inanimate object.

Nothing wrong with this picture;
Flatlander says:

Mar 31 2015 at 2:45 pm

@wiscot

@gilly

What mirror? (Mind you,. that’s a pretty stately hallway you have there!)

That mirror reminded me of these for some reason... blurring the bike/art boundary rather nicely.
Flatlander says:

Mar 31 2015 at 2:46 pm

@cognition

In college my dad and I worked together to build a rack/display stand for the two bikes I had at the time — a candy-apple red Paramount and a white Ritchey mountain bike. It was build out of slats of 1×2 that nested together and adjusted the height so that it ran from floor to ceiling. Not only was it one of the last pieces of woodworking that we did together, the thing was just downright pretty, in an almost craftsman style.

But then, hanging two bikes on it…

That stand and those bikes were the center of attention in many apartments for the years afterward. It almost made having the bikes in the living room socially acceptable to the public at large.

Not that I cared about the general public opinion. The bikes were staying in the living room one way or another. But it helped my roommates tolerate them, and the (few) girls that came over didn’t look at me like quite so much of a nutjob.

Sounds very special, was it anything like this...