Anatomy of a Photo: Looking Fantastic

Roger de Leginck riding in a Flemish Mirror. Photo: CorVos/Pez

Steel Gazelles, check. Monster fork rake, check. Hairnets, check. North European monsoon, check. Flemish Mirror, check. Chain welded to the Big Ring, check. WTF Leggins affixed to Our Hero, check.

Roger de Vlaeminck does his part to remind us that while Looking Pro isn’t synonymous with Looking Fantastic, being a Level V Badass can make even the most jacked gear look the business.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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  • Great photo - but got to admit that my first thought at reading the title was WTF's a Flesh mirror?! Bike porn being taken too far!

  • @Martin@lejogle
    And then you looked closer and saw that it read Flemish, right?

    BTW, if a Flemish mirror is catching one's reflection in the rain soaked road, what is catching one's reflection in a plate-glass window or own shadow on the road? Admit, you do it when you can.

  • @Marko

    @Martin@lejogle
    And then you looked closer and saw that it read Flemish, right?

    once I stopped squinting yeah!

  • @Marko

    @Martin@lejogle
    BTW, if a Flemish mirror is catching one's reflection in the rain soaked road, what is catching one's reflection in a plate-glass window or own shadow on the road? Admit, you do it when you can.

    good old fashioned narcissism!

  • @Steampunk @frank

    I haven't used the SpiderTech stuff but my physio has been taping my knee using regular tape to achieve a similar effect. As well as the gout and arthritis I seem to have lost some strength and stability through years of relative inactivity. The tape helps provide stability without losing too much mobility. She uses different types/grades of tape depending on which bit of the the knee it's going on. The kevlar fibred stuff looked pretty cool. Between that and acupuncture with electric shocks my knee is much improved.

  • Re the tape on the knees malarkey - my physio is recommending I use it to keep stuff going on in the right place - the word is its pretty good these days (going back 15 years it was nasty!) and if it helps me ride for an extra day or 2 then thats good enough for me!

  • @Martin@lejogle

    My left knee cap sits slightly too far left as a result of other bits not doing their job properly. The tape has been doing that while we've been working on getting the knee cap back in place with lots of exercises that leave the whole thing aching deeply.

  • @Chris
    are you finding it any better? I think when we change anything with our ingrained riding style it takes a while to readjust to it whilst the newly activated muscles get used to the new stresses!

  • @Chris

    It hasn't really affected the riding too much unless I ride when the tape is new on and hasn't had a chance to get any stretch. usually it's been on for a day before I ride. Being relatively new to road cycling, my stroke isn't that embedded so adjustments aren't that big a deal. I think also the muscles are naturally making the adjustments as they get stronger so it's a fairly slow incremental process.

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