All I can do is quote @michael:
$27,250 for this POS. Don’t know if it’s worth an article or just a post, but for that price, I’d like my really cheap saddle set back properly.
The beautiful thing for us is that an Anatomy of a Photo piece can almost be the same as a post, which makes talking about such abominations easy. Helps put @Jeff in PetroMetro‘s $3300 Look 595 in perspective.
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Whooa, little bit of an issue with the cap... but since the rest is so classic sounding it probably should be over looked? I do not know where you are but in my experience someone sporting such good taste and nonchalant cap wearing is usually a denizen of hard core bike shops and usually only let out for lunch time errands when not chained to a bench in the back room?
Gears are good, but I also have to admit to a yearly need for fixed gear mashing. There is something so lovely and essential about a nicely set up track bike. Its the kids who jump on one with no hard core experience that give it a bad name. If you are a bike messenger or a roadie in winter training mode then you know of what you ride.
On the other hand ANY bike that gets the uninitiated to start riding and keep riding should be praised and the whole fixie skidder scene has done that in spades. My other favorite bike web site is LFGSS - not only is it London and Brit humor but they know of what they speak.
@Rob
See, I still like cycling caps. I have one, but don't wear it often... I think I look silly in caps of all sorts, and it doesn't fit well under my current helmet. Maybe my next helmet will allow me to rock a cap under it for added style during rainy riding. I'm in Portland, Oregon so you can pretty much find stereotypical cyclists of every sort here.
I'll give you that fixed gear bikes are not bad per se, but I just don't get the whole urban culture around them, which I'll own to being my own bias. I think they would make a good addition to a bike collection to have one, especially for wet-weather riding since you can just throw it back in the garage with minimal maintenance. I do know several people who race that enjoy them for base mile upkeep during the winter.
@mcsqueak
Re the caps, that's a shame. You obviously need a new helmet and must bring your cap with you when you go helmet shopping. Here is a non-exclusive list of reasons to sport a cap:
--Rain/damp
--Cool
--Low sun angle due to time of day or season
I.e., just about any day in Portland.
But you do look like a bit of a dick, and I say that despite often wearing one myself...
@mcsqueak
I scared myself the other day by considering, for a moment, buying a single gear bike for basic transportation. The Bianchi Pista runs only about $700 and would be great for the 2-5k I ride during the day.
But I'll probably just buy a shorter stem on my 1997 LeMelvis and keep it hobbling along. It's less likely to be stolen off the side of the road. Or if it was, I wouldn't shed a tear.
@mcsqueak
@Geoffrey Grosenbach
There is something about fixed... metaphorically you are transported back to the dawn of cycling and there is also the physical feeling which combines a lightness of the stroke with work/effortlessness at the same time. Not to mention it will teach you to relax as well as keep your stroke honest (no I won't start the VMH jokes now).
I think there is a fear factor in those who have never spent more than 10 minutes on one - after 15 you feel the thrill. It is counter intuitive but you stop pedaling once (in my case the day I bought it, 30 years ago and rode home over the rail tracks I always coasted over and I still remember it like yesterday) and after you realize you did not die, in fact nothing happened it becomes second nature.
I made a few friends living on Long Island for 2 years and left this last fall only to get an email saying the group of 5 I rode with (me on fixed spring and fall) had all bought the same fixed bikes and were now doing the late year weekend rides en masse passing pace lines on their identical bikes! I love the image.
I like that Bianchi by the way.
On the cap, fail on my part I thought the guy was helmetless. Still I too don't carry off the look very well so it is the rare day I wear one. The dude only sounds better for being classy with one and therefor can't possibly be a bike shop drone out for a sandwich without his helmet...
I've got to say that if one should wear a cap off the bike (a la Gianni) it must be old and from some great race/manufacturer, so if you did not do Nationals or own full Campy or such a MacDonalds cap just wont do it.
lets not sentimentalise fixies too much, they are very very good for going extremely fast around a velodrome, and are excellent winter bikes. But I've spent seasons training for track, got back on a road bike and had the jerkiest pedal stroke ever from being set up differently on the track bike. Just remember NOT to be one of the guys in the hipster woolen jumper and flat cap, with your seat way too high grinding a massive gear into a headwind while riding a tubular tri spoke front wheel (bastards - tried to buy one of those lately?) and deep v on the back. They're just not good riders for the most part, and rediculously overequipped.
And also, FML I had to look at that yellow POS and try to figure out if the leather on the handlebar is continuous under the stem or if it's in 2 pieces...
@Nate
Ha, the sun thing is spot on. Originally I bought the cap for late fall rides home from the office, as a fair bit of the ride is directly due west into the setting sun.
@Geoffrey Grosenbach
Just don't buy the clothing that is supposed to go along with it.
@Rob
Yeah, when I have more disposable income I wouldn't mind a cheap fixed ride for fun, and I can see the appeal of the drivetrain setup to mix it up a bit with riding style vs. a standard setup.
I did see a shop guy with an old Team Z/Peugeot cap recently, which was pretty sweet. He had his bill flipped up though, not sure I feel so great about that.
I think wearing a cap while engaged in some sort of cycling related activity, say being the support car for Frank's mountain adventure or working on your own rigs at home is cool.
@minion
Not sure about that cross over to road "jerkie" pedal stroke although my fixed seat height is a little lower so there is no "jiging" on the saddle when the rpm's are high.
+1 on what not to look like on your fixie skidder. On the other side I have seen some amazing bike handling by messenger types in NYC - micro skids on brakeless fixie in traffic at 35 kpm or the guy who stuck his shoe between the tire and seat tube to stop.
@mcsqueak
+1 on the Z/Peugeot cap and agree that you either have to have elan a la Gianni on the mountain or be private in ones own little fantasy world... and I might not limit it to just working on the bikes, if you know what I mean, nudge, nudge, wink , wink...