That's not a robot right there.
Live music is better than recorded music. It’s a given. Having that connection, where you’re sharing the same space as the artist is a unique experience that can’t be replicated on a plastic disc. To receive the gift from the giver personally is a moment of intimacy not possible if it arrives in a package in the mail. To be able to garner instantaneous gratitude, be it by applause, cheers or a smile is the reward that the artist lives for, else they wouldn’t be there. Showing appreciation for the gift returns the favour in kind. The performance feeds the audience, and vice versa.
Vinyl records hold the same sort of appeal that steel bicycles do; both materials revolutionised their respective industries and held the mantle of the best, the only choice, for decades. Then both were usurped by smaller, lighter composite materials and while the convenience and perceived performance they offered took over on a wholesale scale, a handful of purists held on to their Electric Ladyland limited edition LPs along with their Colnago Masters and Merckx Leaders. Vinyl may have been suddenly deemed cumbersome, inconvenient to use and harder to source, but it still offered a timeless sound quality that just had something about it, something that CDs and MP3s would struggle to achieve.
Same with steel bikes. There’s an indisputable and indescribable feeling that comes in the first few pedal strokes on a steel bike, and like pulling out that dog-eared copy of Hunky Dory, you know exactly what you’ll be getting, and you’re gonna like it. Picking up a hand-built bike from the person who made it is like going down to the studio to grab a signed slab of wax that Nick Cave hands to you himself. Straight to you.
Where the vinyl record remains round, grooved and black, the steel bicycle’s tubes remain round, straight and flat. You can’t improve on what’s proven. What’s perfect. Only the touch of the hand of the artist can make each one unique, where things that are really just simple things (a record, a bicycle) can be themselves set apart by the signatures laid upon them by their creators, curating originality (Jagger, Jaegher). To say it’s pretty special to see your own bicycle being made, your name on the tubes as they come together to be joined forever by the heat of the torch and the deft touch of the electrode, would be a modest assessment. To finally ride it, might be impossible to describe.
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@wiscot
There was a helmet debate ?? Thought it was a glove debate ?? Toe covers ??
@unversio
You're just a troublemaker you are. Stirring things up with your talk of toe covers and gloves! Next you'll be advocating that in hot weather we cut the sleeves off our jerseys, roll up our shorts and wear those no-show socks!
How nice it is that we've all settled into the old groove so quickly . . .
People love what they're familiar with. I started racing on Columbus SLX and had my greatest experiences on SLX. Now I search the world like Sauron trying to find the SLX frame of power.
@wiscot
Honestly I wear black arm covers whenever it is feasible -- and 9cm black socks. Another pair that I own are 12cm.
What about a sock debate ?? Apologies to Jaegher...
@unversio
You are Bradley Wiggins, and I claim my free pair of Foster Grants.
@wiscot
Did anyone read where the Prophet endorsed Wiggo to do something at Roubaix this year ??
Beautiful build. Envy and lust do not adequately describe my feelings for your new steed. After a break from the site these are the gems I look forward to coming back to.
Thanks for sharing this with us Brett.
"Cancellara appears more motivated this season and his condition is better than in previous years but Wiggins is one of the riders who I believe can win Paris-Roubiax. The others will have to watch out for Wiggins because he's a great rider and he used Qatar as preparation. He can't be overlooked. I think he’s one of the top favourites for Roubaix."
@markb
It's called geometry and materials science. Oh, and tyres. But mostly, it's called psychology.
If you pull the bikes apart, most custom-geometry bikes have a pretty standard geometry. Unless you're building a truly unique thing (I think one of the Velominati has a disc-brake titanium "do-everything" cross/gravel/road bike?), standard road geometry is a pretty settled thing for the past 50 years.
We all ride frames with 72-73.5deg head angles, similar seat angles, with tubes of a size that's covered by at least one, if not most, stock frame vendors. That extra money you pay for a custom frame usually buys you a slightly longer head-tube to make up for a spacer or two, but can you honestly tell the nuances?
Now, don't get me wrong. I'd love my own, custom, hand-made steel bike. Because it will be unique, a work of art, because I chose every detail and the colour will be just the way I want it - because of love. We don't need to justify love with reasoning against empirical evidence.
P.S: Carbon, handmade custom? Can do! Check out Argonaut, Seven, Parlee, Appleman, Guru, etc. The prices are proportional to the difference between stock and custom steel.