My work has me spending much time on college and university campuses. Among the myriad fads that are sweeping the dirtbag and hipster college student sets these days is riding the retro bike around. My feelings on this fad is “more power to them”. I’ve got no qualms with college students on meager incomes recycling old steel bikes found in landfills or yard sales.
Every once in a while a really cool old bike will find its way onto the rack outside my office building. One of my students, a kid named Mike, rides a classy old Flandria fixie. Mostly what I see though are dilapidated rides that leave me wondering if they would even work. That is until I see the bike’s owner pedaling across campus to their dorm or next class.
The Rule violations on these machines are countless. Just look at the picture above. The rider of this bike obviously has no awareness of Rule #48 and Rule #49, let alone an attempt at following them. I ask though, do the Rules even apply to bikes and riders such as this? Probably not. Like the coffee trader in Rwanda, the bike taxi in India, or the messenger in the city, these bikes are merely beasts of burden and serve their riders only in function, ignoring form.
Far be it from me to critique these dedicated cyclists using a canon of Rules they know nothing about. Whatever their motivations are for riding, whether it be retro-posuer style, some ideal of being green, utility, economy, etc., they are undoubtedly riding more than I am through the winter months. I can’t fault them for that.
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@Oli Brooke-White
I'll be danged. You are right. I was so used to seeing Merckx in it that I didn't stop to think the champion's jersey is on a black background. Duh.
So, is Pineapple Bob Belgian?
@Steampunk
If they're already a part of the bike, I'd go with the bullhorns at first. But if you don't like them, there's gotta be a cheap/free straight bar or classic drop out there somewhere.
clearly NOT 5cm behind the BB. The UCI must be pissed.
I too spend a lot of time on college campuses. It generally confuses me how I could pass by so many bicycles and not see a single one that is even worthy of a closer look. Oh well. I don't mind it if it a "beast of burden" ride, but some of them are pretty nice, just uncared for.
Last year I did see a very nice Klein locked up on a campus with only a spaghetti-thick cable lock. And even worse, the beautiful paint on the TT was right against the pole. Ah! If you are going to hand-down a nice older road bike to a child, at least tell them a bit about it.
Oh well.
I will say though that I don't generally buy the I'm-too-poor argument; most kids these days have hundreds of dollars in their hands, between music machines and phones. Sell off that phone and get a nice bike! But, for the most part, I am happy to see people pedaling around.
@frank
Pineapple Bob.
@Oli Brooke-White
Sar-casm
As for the fixsters - I've been in Prague since the beginning of March. I had not seen a single one.
Spring hit, the weather turned a bit, and sure enough I saw one roll by. Narrow bars, fashion bike, beard, tight pants, no helmet in city traffic with tram tracks all over. The craziest thing to me is that I could have seen this same guy in NYC, SF, DC. I just wonder how such a style can travel around the world. I guess the internet can do it all?
The same day saw a guy in a blazer riding a SS with one pink, one white tire. Saw him again the next day. Damn, the world is too small when that happens.
wut?
@Jeff in PetroMetro
+1 what an awesome quote thanks.
FWIW I used bullhorns and a bar end shifter with a pair of TT brake levers on a courier (road) bike. Worked well for a couple of reasons, but with the type of courier bag I was using (satchel style with one strap) it meant I was upright enough that it wouldn't continually slide around my torso. I also appreciated being a bit more upright on the road so I could see better over cars and could look behind me more easily, while still riding a bike frame that was the right size. It was just a tool that best suited the purpose at the time, since I'd never ever be able to use the hoods or the drops on that bike given the type of bag and weight of soem of the loads I was carrying.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
+1 what an awesome quote thanks.
FWIW I used bullhorns and a bar end shifter with a pair of TT brake levers on a courier (road) bike. Worked well for a couple of reasons, but with the type of courier bag I was using (satchel style with one strap) it meant I was upright enough that it wouldn't continually slide around my torso. I also appreciated being a bit more upright on the road so I could see better over cars and could look behind me more easily, while still riding a bike frame that was the right size. It was just a tool that best suited the purpose at the time, since I'd never ever be able to use the hoods or the drops on that bike given the type of bag and weight of some of the loads I was carrying. I can see the appeal of bullhorns on commuters, plus it can be cheaper to get brakes and shifters set up that way.
@Steampunk
A 44 X 18 combination would give you 66 gear inches which would still be pretty good - I'm guessing that you will mainly run it as a singlespeed with the freewheel side of the flipflop- the problem you encounter running fixed on a road frame is the lower bb height which means you run a far higher chance of pedal strike going through turns than on a track frame (as I've learnt from experience).
Put the word out - someone in the community should have a spare set of bars they could part with to save you! I've got some in the shed you'd be welcome to have but the postage from Oz is probably prohibitive no?