Patience has never come naturally to me – I’m more Calvin than I am Hobbes in that regard. Yet I am meticulous and demanding of myself and those with whom I journey through life. It is a conflict that has caused its fair share of grief; my childhood is piled high with memories of incidents where I made choices and mistakes that robbed me of the satisfaction of a job well done.
One such episode involved my eagerness to have bar-mounted shifters in the early nineties. STI had just come on the market, and they were priced so high it would require disciplined saving in order for me to afford them. Rather than patiently saving, I spent my money on lower-cost options which differed in their implementation but shared in their failure to quench my thirst for STI. At one point, my father pointed out that with what I’d spent on cheaper compromises, I could have already bought what I really wanted.
Some lessons in life are easily learned, but to practice them is another thing altogether. While I have learned patience, it is often stretched to its limit as I have also become more exacting in my expectations. What the Prophet giveth, he taketh away.
I have finally reached the point in my life where I enjoy the journey as much as I do the destination. I can’t imagine buying a complete bicycle and forgoing the process of hand-picking the kit to dress it up in and embarking on the quest to source it. For me, a bicycle begins as an idea which slowly materializes through the curation of its frame and components. The process of assembling it is a ritualistic undertaking, a kind of spiritual offering to the Elders on Mount Velomis. The assembled bicycle marks the end of a journey during which we’ve already bonded.
Only as this journey comes to a close are we ready to begin a new one, one where we evolve through prolonged exposure to The V. The path to becoming a Velominatus is built on taking the time to do things correctly, and building our machines is no exception.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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@Barracuda Ditto the "off the shelf" experience. The exercise was enjoyable as components were swapped out until arriving at the sweet spot. Hence the dilemma when casting lustful eyes on the latest iterations and realizing that the process would begin again...perhaps not such a bad thing. Just can't resist such pretty things!
@The Pressure
Im going the frame only option next time, then sourcing bits independently, gotta be close to same $ value, but much more rewarding.
The Ti factor may blow that theory out of the water though !
"...what I'd spent on cheaper compromises, I could have already bought what I really wanted."
It took me the long way to learn this lesson. I'm just glad it finally stuck.
@Barracuda Sounds like fun. A friend just finished a build of a Spesh Tarmac (after an nasty crash lunched his last ride) after obtaining the frame off e-bay. There was no shortage of high quality, reasonably priced components available (presumably from swappers like us). The result is brilliant. He just has to wait for his collar bone to heal!
@Optimiste
From my favorite Johnny Cash album, The Baron; which is unavailable digitally. I have it on vinyl, but I copied to digital so I could have it in my iTune library.
Call me crazy, but a good chunk of what makes this group tick is this; We not only know how our components work...we understand why they work.
...and in addition to understanding the why and the how, we live to experience the nuances between the gruppo, grup-san, etc. It's one thing to read Penthouse Forum (do they still do that?) and yet quite another to say, "I never thought this would happen to me, but I just experienced something I never thought I'd feel..."
One piece at a time is so approprié...
I kinda want to respond to everyone that's commented. It's all so true.
I've done both off the shelf, fully built rigs and frame up builds. But either way I do it, there's always some change to be made. Something a little better, or the same performance wise, but looks right. And I've found that it almost never ends up being what is the most technologically advanced.
@frank Surely your valves and tire labels are not in violation of rule #40?
Bike #1 is far from complete. when I got it, I got what I could afford and have slowly been making it to my liking. all thats left is wheels, new group(cranks and brakes included). its been fun curating it to my liking.
@frank Is that a Velo Orange seatpost? I love their simple, elegant components.