Does a bike have a soul? I can’t make that argument, I don’t think I do either, actually. But we do invest a lot of emotion, pride and dare I say love in our bikes. We form emotional bonds to inanimate objects all the time. My favorite old dead car had to sit in the driveway for another year falling further into rusty disrepair before I had it towed away. On an American call-in radio show Car Talk, a caller asked if the engine was a car’s soul and if the car had a new engine put in, did the car lose that soul? This led to a discussion of where else its soul might be and I was more than amused to have them suggest the soul resides in the headliner of the interior.
My Merlin, with its recently discovered hairline crack can’t go into a dumpster when finally put down. It would be like throwing your dog’s corpse into a dumpster. Hopefully there is a market for alloyed titanium and it can be recycled, re-smelted, reborn as a (gasp) golf club. Or does it go over the mantle? Or out to stud? Or a desperate last ditch back alley surgery?*
Do pros bond with their bikes? They can’t, they are on new bikes every other week. There would be a lot of weeping at the service course if they did.
I’m not quite in the market for a replacement but I could be heading in that direction and it brings me to conundrum number two: what are you buying when you buy a new bike? In the old days if you lusted after a steel Colnago Master you ended up with a steel bike made in northern Italy. You were buying into an Italian artisan fantasy aided by the fact that the coolest professional you liked rode a Colnago. Many years ago a American friend did just that and found out the Colnagos shipped to the USA were made in a second Italian factory, more the apprentice shop. My friend’s Colnago’s rear dropouts were misaligned by almost a centimeter, rideable but not the Italian ideal. Ernesto was not working on his bike. Truth be told, all these bikes were made on some sort of assembly line made by underpaid possibly bored workers. What coming out of a factory isn’t?
Now if I want a Colnago, there is a very good chance it will be made in Taiwan on an assembly line by underpaid possibly bored workers. The same factory will also be knocking out Giants and Scotts. The good news is the rear dropouts won’t be out by a centimeter. They will be close to perfect. My point, if I have one, is the euro-fantasy part of this is gone.
If you need your frame to have a soul there is still hope. I’ve been lucky in that my last two bikes were made in shops I actually walked in, looked at the racks of tubes, spent a little time breathing the air in there. My steel bike was built in a one man shop, a standard 60 cm frame but built for me for $350, a sum at the time which was outrageous to the non-velominati. My Merlin was second hand but I went to the factory and spent some time there helping to restore its luster and put on new decals. If bikes had souls they would be imparted by the builders who put a lot of effort and some love into transforming some uncut tubes into something as fantastic as a frame. The soul might still be there in the small shops like Cyfac in France or Moots in the USA where the person who selects the tubing might be the same person as the one who joins the tubes and worries over that frame’s details. But they don’t have souls or spirits, do they? Native Americans believe inanimate objects do. If a rock does, if a stream does, maybe a bike does. Or more likely I’m full of it, a frame is just a hunk of carbon or metal and it’s all a matter of design, execution and price.
If your Colnago EPS is built in Italy it would be in this place. Does this add or subtract to the euro-fantasy?
*the little known bottom bracket-ectomy, where the old BB is milled out and a larger BB 30 is neatly welded in, voila, ridable bike!
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@Gianni Many thanks for your compliment Gianni. We are very happy with the end result. Tarn Mott the framebuilder and myself have been talking about doing a project together for a couple of years. I have a few frames that he has built for me. We decided upon a lugged frame (because I love them) and stainless steel because it makes such a lovely riding frame at a respectable weight. We felt there was enough demand for a beautifully engineeered frame with a great finish. We are a fan of the brushed finish which we have used on this frame although can do the polished stainless on the lugs and tubes as well as fork crown and dropouts. The polishing will be done by me after Tarn builds the frames. After twenty years in the Navy I am enjoying my second career. I just love beautiful engineering!!
THe old mountain bike frame is getting a strip down in the background to be used as a shop runner with a kids bike sit on the back ...... get my young son on two wheels early ..... the Dodson in the foreground was the first race bike .... retrieved from the back of the shed and about to get cleaned up after being under wraps for some 12 years....... the USPS Trek frame is in hiding awaiting trial , whilst the Fui SST is my new love .... per previous post, its got soul as its allowed the passion to live on after a neck injury left the "too large" USPS Trek destined to a mount on the wall............
n+1 = work in progress, but not soul less
@Mclennan That is a stunning frame ...congrats
@936adl that is a sweet mf ride. Much nicer that that guy Penn's Rourke. LOVE the orange. A lot.
So, it was bound to happen. All Campa cassettes and chains on all bikes wore out the same week. Which means that I just spent more on cassettes and chains than most reasonable people would spend on a bike.
Campa cassettes are massively expensive, so as a cost-saving measure, I decided to put Centaur cassettes on all rain bikes, as the steel will last longer and they cost 1/V as much as the record blocks do. As Keeper of the Stables, the VMH was not consulted in this decision making process, and was merely informed (we operate our household according to a RACI chart, in line with my not having a controlling share on any significant decision-making panel outside of cycling gear).
When I told her that "Evie" (her Bianchi EV4 which serves as her more than modest rain bike) had been given a Centaur cassette that afternoon, I was met first with icy silence and then with a reserved statement, "Did you at least tell her what was going on, so she isn't worried?"
Of course I had, but my Merckx, I love that woman.
@frank ooof, just reading that first sentence my wallet starting edging away from me on the desk. That's a solid credit card statement coming your way next month!
@frank "Please donate to the Keepers Charity Fund. Some Keepers are unable to afford titanium frames and may have to settle for carbon fiber. If you have any Campa Record or Super Record cassettes you can give, please drop them off at the donation center. Anything you can give would be appreciated! But no SRAM, please."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtYS9OHa98Y
@frank Campa cassette "cynosure": find 13/26 bargain buys, remove 23-26 sprocket off the back (sell it or keep it), remove 13t (first position)(sell it or just keep it), place new or good conditioned 13t, 12t and 11t (first position) on the front. Assuming you have an 11t lock ring. Then you have your own 11/21! Or just ride 13/26... or both...
@frank
that raci thing is new to me. Still trying to figure out if there is a way that it softens the ask for forgiveness rather than permission strategy. Gotta love management tools, until they cross the line- then nothing helps. I seem to recall being bludgeoned with one or two that lost their charm- perhaps why i can't remember which ones...
And definitely a nice touch by the vmh, being sensitive to evie's needs...
I think the bike gives the rider soul, to give back to the bike as its soul, no matter where in life you are.
My boys started on balance bikes and it freaks me out at how fast and confident they ride them, and willing to go faster and further. Smiles from the heart as they enjoy a ride down the park.