Disregard, or deference?
Going against the grain is something I think I’ve been doing with some degree of success for a good portion of my existence. A lot of people look at my life with a kind of disdain, mixed with a hint of envy and a dash of bemusement; how could I not have a wife/kids/mortgage and get to ride my bike whenever I want, and get paid to do it? Why am I the one flying around the world while they have to perform a daily drill that not-so-remotely mimics that of Winston Smith?
For one who has made a life of not conforming as much as the Illuminati would decree, and who was seen as a serial non-conformist, being a conspirator of a cult-like group based on a set of tenets and with a name that mirrors that of an elite ruling class seems almost bizzare. “Rules are meant to be broken” was a mantra of my youth which now is the antithesis of what I espouse here. And being that guy, means that one or two of the very creeds I’ve coined are routinely broken. And if you think others don’t pick up on that and call me out for it, you’d be well mistaken.
My usual response to such examples is “I make the Rules, I can break them”. Sounds a little authoritarian, I know, but it also demonstrates that I, and you, can do whatever the fuck we want. Listening and learning and drawing inspiration is fine, and recommended, but blindly doing as you’re told (especially by those in extreme positions of power and through mediums we use every day) equates to nothing more than rolling over while you’re being repeatedly poked with a sharp stick and asking “please can I have some more”.
In some cases, there are caveats and post-scripts to virtually every Rule written, and circumstances are varied enough to warrant them. Which is why I’m running a frame pump on the $5 MBK that my father procured recently. A classic bike from the 80s that bears little resemblance to a modern bike (ie it looks way cooler), with components that definitely speak of the era from which they are borne. We weren’t rocking C02 or mini-pumps back then, and we didn’t piss around when it came to road-side inflation. In fact, I was rocking the frame pump until the early 2000s, when my frame tubes were still straight enough to accomodate the long pump without a bowed gap between alloy and plastic. It was the advent of carbon that killed the aesthetic, and then the application, and finally the whole concept.
On this bike though, it’s almost as if it’s mandatory. It looks right, and goddamn if using it isn’t the most liberating experience in my recent Cycling history. What a pleasure to feel significant gulps of air being moved into the tube with long, satisfying strokes, the positive resistance at the bottom of each stroke as the spring gives way to the rubber bumper, the way your whole hand can wrap around the grip and you don’t look like you’re stabbing your other hand with a toy knife. It makes fixing a flat an almost enjoyable, curse-free and, most importantly, brief experience.
It reminds you that in many cases, the past had it right and while we think that everything now has to be smaller and lighter and gives the impression of enhancing our lives, sometimes the tried and true is exactly that.
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I'm with @piwakawaka. The classic flouro steel bike is beautiful, and it's perhaps period correct to indulge in some variance to Rule #30 (written IMO to address those who would mount a mini-pump to the frame) but the aesthetics are marred the black horizontal exclamation mark wedged under the top tube. Not as badly as that Dogma (not a fan of that bike but that pump installation almost made me cry), but still... not right.
@fignons barber
@fignons barber, may I call your attention to Rule #25? Simple math: A6 + Trade-In = (n+1)^x
@KogaLover
Ive not heard those words since high school.
@brett
We don't live, we crawl out from under our rocks, get beaten to a pulp by the huge fkn flame thrower in the sky, and crawl back under our rocks at days end.
Refer our Cogal from a couple of years ago.
Brett, are you not liking the Giro d'Italia bars? I have those one my Tommasini. I know they made em in 26.0 and 26.2, did they make different drops/shapes?
Roger was a skinny, tough fucker. Anyone have a good photo of him and his guns next to Eddy? Eddy seems much more stout.
Also, Frank, you tall bastard. Can we get a judgment on The Prophet's height now that you've read books with him? Is he as tall as billed or more of a fibbing on the stats sheet to scare others as they do in some sports? Then again, I don't think anyone needed to embellish Merckx to have him scare the fucking life out of his opponents.
And oh yeah...could Matthews/Gerrans at this year's WCs be compared to the Merckx/Freddy situation?
I'm so fucking pissed off that I've been to Australia twice, New Zealand twice, Tasmania once...and I didn't ride a bike in any of them. How did I go through life as a Non-Follower? Pathetic existence it was.
FFS, even in the gallery the photo of the pumpless bike looks 324 times better than the one with the pump.
@frank
This.
why do we hate Zefal again?
I hated the way my bike looked back then with a frame pump on it. Mind you, I look back now and I really appreciate some things that were common on bikes then and seem to have all but vanished now - chain hanging studs, and my dad's audax bike had a set of braze-ons on the driveside chainstay for carrying a couple of spare spokes...I look at bikes like Giant Defys and wonder where they've got to. And those campag seatposts...why did they stop making them? WHY?