I can depend of 1 hand the variety of issues I’ve gotten proper on this lifetime, and one in all them is that this bike:
Astonishingly, I see there are nonetheless Roadinis out there over at Outdated Man Petersen’s Home of Ferrous Velocipedes and Canvas Curios, which suggests to me that individuals have warped priorities as a result of in a sane world they’d have offered out faster than…nicely, than I did when my first e book got here out:
Positive, this weblog has been dropping air ever since, and in reality you would make a fairly robust argument that it’s been rolling on a naked rim for years. However it was all price it. I imply good grief I used to be driving a Scattante in these days for chrissakes!
That was after all the Scattante Empire State Courier. See, again within the early twenty first century, everyone was making an attempt to money in on the city biking craze. Specialised had its metropolis version Langsters:
Felt had…this factor, full with prime tube pad and a handy seat tube-mounted 15mm wrench so thieves may extra simply steal your wheels:
And Efficiency had its personal line of themed singlespeeds, together with the Empire State Courier, full with copy that referenced my then-popular weblog:
I suppose it might have been good in the event that they’d requested me first, however they did ship me a motorbike, which in a manner was much more insulting, like somebody punching you within the nostril after which tossing you a Kleenex. Nevertheless, I did find yourself making good use of the bike, utilizing it for cultural analysis functions:
And to check then-popular gadgets equivalent to Knog lights (a.ok.a. “Hipster Cysts”):
And the then-new Maintain Quick straps, which have been mainly Energy Grips however made out of Velcro:
And finally it simply grew to become the bike I rode in all places, till I needed to clear out my Brooklyn storage unit and donated what was left of it to Recycle-A-Bicycle.
Anyway, whereas I’ll not have a soul or a preferred weblog any longer, I do have a lot nicer bicycles now. However why do I actually need each a Roadini and a Homer?
BECAUSE I PAID MY DUES, DAMN IT! As a result of I used to be driving a goddamn Scattante round New York again when Rapha was nonetheless subtle, brakes have been for “woosies,” and gravel was simply one thing that acquired caught in your shoe! To wit:
I’ve had these footwear since early 2024, and for those who’re in search of a walkable recessed-cleat shoe they could be the very best deal on the face of the Earth:
In fact for the final word in versatility and walkability nothing beats a sneaker, however typically I simply wanna clip in.
Some individuals say you solely want one bike, others say you want no less than three, whereas nonetheless others push that complete “n+1” factor. No matter. So far as I’m involved, it’s best to have precisely as many bikes as you could have pairs of footwear.
