The Walker Hour Bike
I won’t hold liking cats against you, but if you don’t like dogs, you’re dead to me. Some things aren’t left to opinions, like whether Star Wars is good or not. You’re free to be an outlier – and I loves me some outliers and I loves me a rebel – but in some cases, being an outlier doesn’t make you clever. It just makes you wrong. Also, the Laws of Physics show that the more lightsabers you have in a movie, the better the movie. Except for Episode I and The Matrix, two anomalies which balance each other out.
Similarly, loving carbon bikes is no crime. They are light, they are stiff, and many (most) are beautiful. My stable is filled with them. But a bike handbuilt by an artisan in a small workshop is something different altogether, and each one’s singular beauty is not a matter of opinion, unless you’re comfortable being wrong. I only have one so far, and it’s the custom steel I had made by NAHBS founder, Don Walker for my failed Hour ride last summer. (I’m planning a rematch with Weather this coming June.)
At this point every bike I own is custom, if only the paintwork. But even then, having a hand in how the bike is finished bonds you to the machine in a way that off-the-peg bikes simply can’t. And my Walker, even though I don’t ride it as much as a practical bike (you know, one with gears and brakes) every time I climb on it, I can feel its magic. There is something about custom in general and steel in particular that feels uniquely magnificent.
We’re in a crisis, my fellow Velominati. The North American Handmade Bicycle Show is only a few weeks away and I just heard from Don that many of the builders who have been stalwarts of the event are struggling to the point that they can’t afford to attend, much less keep a booth there. People aren’t buying bikes as much as they were, apparently, and the bikes that are being bought aren’t custom, handmade ones. We’re buying kittens, not dogs. Cyclists are watching Star Trek, not Star Wars. It’s a fucking disaster.
This isn’t a call to go buy a custom frame, we aren’t made of money. But it is a reminder that there are giant corporations behind some bikes, and there are individuals behind others. And if you’re in the market for a bike, I’m asking you to remember that. And if you aren’t in the market for a bike but love looking at them, I’ll be at NAHBS this year (in godforsaken Salt Lake fucking City no less) and I’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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@Frank
When trawling through the e-dungeons, I noticed that you changed your wheels but also your bars (and the bartape...). What was there no to like before? What gear do you ride now?
Rule #8 poses many challenges in the way it is written. Also the Dutch translation is rather poor; I thought that white bar tape with a black saddle is a no-go, but am glad to see that it is apparently OK to do so. Note: my orange track bike has a white saddle.
@Quasar
Right! This is EXACTLY why I am building out of early 1980's 753 Reynolds.
Not b/c it is the best/fastest/strongest/whatever steel there is out there but because it is exactly what the 1985 LVC team rode. I want it for the Eroica/nostalgia.
Hell, I am 45 years old with 5 young kids and a full time job. I have no time to get in any amount of training for a race.
I ride as much as I can but when I ride, I ride for the open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at my wrist, and the wind in my hair. Not to crush my enemies, see them driven before me and to hear the lamentation of the women!
@Stuart Fairhurst
Wow! THAT is awesome! Cradle to the grave ... hell conception to the grave for you!
@Quasar
The problem with this argument is that YOU are 100 times more aero drag than either frame. Nothing cracks me up more than an aero'd out bike with a nice "comfy" upright riding position. Except old guys on TT bars above the seat. Marketing parted these fools from their money.
My #1 is a completely modern lugged Italian steel bike. I also have a Carbon bike issued to Griepel's team a few seasons back. The steel bike's headtube is about 30mm lower than my carbon bike of equivalent size and the carbon steed is aggressive by modern standards. I've set plenty of PRs on Strava segments on the steel bike on both climbs and on the flats. I can put out the power to flex either frame. I've ridden a bunch of bikes over the years and the modern hollow crank has made the biggest difference in terms of reducing BB flex. It's far more noticeable than the difference in material around the bottom bracket in my experience.
But why you owe it to yourself to ride high quality steel isn't the speed, it is the feel. High end steel provides feedback from the road surface in a way that inspires confidence when deserved, without the vibration grating on your nerves.
At its best, carbon can provide a great ride, no doubt. At its worst it can produce a numb ride or unbearable chatter. To me, the GTR team is one of the best carbon bikes I've ridden (I have a feeling a C60 would change my mind), but it is no match for the ride quality of the Master.
@Buck Rogers
And that is nothing but awesome, there is of course more than one way to enjoy this sport/game/lifestyle/<insert own choice of description>.
@GoldenGorilla
I said "properly fitted" carbon, and I meant that to include the same geometry or at the very least allowing the same riding position. Yes, the rider is a much bigger factor but if you are racing you will of course have sorted clothing and riding position properly already. That is why I stressed the difference being between steel and the right carbon frame for you.
As for feel, which I'm well aware is one of the main reasons people ride steel frames, that does not interest me, beyond the ability to keep riding as long as I want to. Racing speed does.
@asyax
Very nice Jaegher! What size Vittoria G+'s are they? 27mm on a Belgium?
I think what I'd talking about just now is the bike as the proper tool to do the job.
Even with a modded off the peg bike I'm going to get a sweeter deal on a warrantied piece of kit than I will if I'm putting it together from scratch.
This thing has to do 4,000kms in a onner without putting a foot wrong and I'll take reliability and comfort over a "just so" piece of detailing any day of the week. It's also the case that riding bikes in the dark on unpaved roads in forests in Romania isn't going to be respectful of the latest electronic porn from Campagnolo.
However, as with the Spitfire MkXIV and P-51D, there's no reason why a functional mass produced device shouldn't look the tits.
I haven't had the money yet to drop on a custom frame, but I do have a set of custom wheels from Cafe Roubaix and I agree with @frank completely on how they feel tremendous- even magical. Besides being fantastic to ride, I can email the person who built them on advice for maintenance or simply to share pictures of where the wheels have traveled. And let's be honest- having something that nobody else has in your town is cool as hell.
For a minute there I was WTF Romania then I remembered the Transcontinental.
I agree simplicity and reliability is your better option, although TBF that is one of the advantages of steel over carbon.
Have you read Tim Moore's book about cycling on the route of the former Iron Curtain, on an old East German shopping bike. Not a race of course but it's remarkable how things can keep going in all sorts of conditions.