As surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, if you ride a bicycle you can bet your ass against an apple that you are going to get a flat. Not if, but when. Death and taxes, and all that.

This could be Pierre or Antonio or Jean-Michel, most likely a name that rolls off the tongue with the same ease he rolled his dead tubular from the rim. The strokes of the pump as powerful and smooth as the strokes of his guns, as precise and clean as his socks, skin tanned and polished like the shoes on his feet, tough like the gloves on his hands.

This is an ambassador of Looking Fantastic; he would never contemplate turning his steed upside down, and surely this moment was an instigator of Rule #49. And you know that the shredded tub laying there will soon be wrapped around the shoulders in full Rule #77 compliance prior to resuming to Lay Down The V.

Pierre, Antonio, whatever be your name, we salute you for pioneering the Art of Awesome and being Compliant as Fuck in those tough days of yore.

Brett

Don't blame me

View Comments

  • Are CO2 cartridges compliant with The Rules? Or must we always use pumps?

    Also, these things should be mandatory to carry as well. They're enough to get you home in one piece without having to soft pedal too much.

  • @TBONE

    Are CO2 cartridges compliant with The Rules? Or must we always use pumps?

    Also, these things should be mandatory to carry as well. They're enough to get you home in one piece without having to soft pedal too much.

    Prefer to carry a pump thru winter. One tube. One lever. One pump.

  • @TBONE

    Are CO2 cartridges compliant with The Rules? Or must we always use pumps?

    Also, these things should be mandatory to carry as well. They're enough to get you home in one piece without having to soft pedal too much.

    A case can be made for them.

    But then you get times like I did last Thanksgiving, while I was out for a short 'beer in the bidon' ride before that evening's gluttony, and I flatted two times and used all my CO2, then had to call my VHM for a broomwagen (first time that has ever happened). It can leave you stranded if you're not careful.

  • It also made me think of all the times I've been out riding towards the woods/mountains east of Portland, 30-40 miles from home, in areas with little to no cell reception, with only a single spare tube and two cartridges of co2. Lucky I never got proper fucked on one of those rides.

  • I have never used co2 cartridges.  I hear that they are awesome but I just cannot do it. 

    Hell, I still mourn for my silca frame pump "securing nipple" that used to be on my seat tube just below the top tube to help hold the pump in place back "in the day".

    These days I carry a mini-pump and two levers in my back pocket with the spare tub under the seat. 

    So far, so good.

    The cartridges just seem so anti-V and not historically correct to me.

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