Since not less than 2022, I’ve espoused a life-style and philosophy I usually confer with as “Dirtbag Street Using,” and its precepts are as follows:
The concept that street biking is elitist is a fallacy, as a result of proximity to gravel roads and grime trails (or the time and expense required to journey to them) is reserved for the fortunate few, whereas just about everyone is surrounded by roads
Due to the Gravel Inversion (by which gravel bikes have supplanted street bikes because the jumping-off level for novice cyclists), coupled with the rise of “alt biking” (itself a fallacy in that it’s maybe probably the most conformist type of biking), rim brake street bikes with skinny tires at the moment are shockingly low cost on the used market
Whereas Lycra and clipless pedals and footwear do work nicely for driving street bikes, you possibly can put on no matter you need, and also you’ll have simply as a lot enjoyable driving a street bike in a t-shirt, sneakers, and jorts
Whereas they could be “out of date,” the provision of used components for rim brake street bikes won’t be exhausted inside any of our lifetimes, and in lots of circumstances you possibly can combine and match frames and elements from the Nineteen Seventies by the early 2000s with abandon
Outdated street bikes are solely impractical to the extent {that a} extremely environment friendly bicycle that’s low cost and simple to keep up and is straightforward to retailer and carry up stairs in an city setting is impractical
You possibly can simply trip a bicycle with 23mm tires on an unpaved floor and never die, and loads of bikes with short-reach brakes will even take 28s, which till just lately was thought of positively decadent
Because of this I’ll at all times advance the reason for these bicycles, as a result of if nothing else cyclists have a tendency to instantly throw the newborn out with the bathwater when The New Factor comes alongside, and so it’s essential to recollect you possibly can embrace stuff like extensive tires and disc brakes whereas nonetheless acknowledging and even having fun with the virtues of those extremely accessible machines.
And maybe extra essential than any of the above is that, whereas individuals obsess about stuff like titanium frames and supple tires and the way they contribute to trip high quality, the indisputable fact is that nothing rides as properly as a very good cut price. NOTHING. By means of instance, take into account this factor:
Yesterday I discussed GPS computer systems. Right here’s a GPS laptop:
This bike price me lower than the sale worth of that GPS laptop, and that’s together with the obscure Campy spare components I needed to acquire to repair the hubs. Okay, granted I already had the opposite spare components I wanted available to get it operating easily, however even when I’d had to purchase them I nonetheless would have spent not more than the value of the second-cheapest GPS laptop:
Not that I’m giving myself an excessive amount of credit score for my very own resourcefulness and frugality, thoughts you–I imply I used to be as I used to be typing all that, however then YouTube served me this video of a man fixing a automobile with fewer instruments than I carry in my saddlebag:
Additionally, whereas this bike could have price lower than six (6) rear predominant seal replacements in Africa, I even have an entire bunch of different bikes, a few of that are extremely unique:
Wait, mistaken image:
Nonetheless, the very fact stays that if I had something resembling self-control I might be completely proud of simply that low cost Craigslist bike. Properly, I might be joyful, anyway. Okay, I wouldn’t be despondent, let’s simply go away it there.
Plus, even when it weren’t an enormous cut price it rides very properly, which it actually shouldn’t what with these historical “25mm” Gatorskin tires, which if you understand something about Gatorskins are barely even 23s. And what’s extra decadent than a 10-speed triple? Positive, a compact has mainly the identical vary, however the triple is like your outdated racing drivetrain with an entire different Rivendell drivetrain connected to it, and it’s price all these redundant gears to nonetheless have entry to a 42-tooth entrance chainring.
After all one other method to take a look at that is that this bike isn’t a cut price in any respect, because it feeds off of a number of many years’ price of spare components, to not point out all of the issues I needed to smash as a way to discover ways to repair stuff, and in a method that is yet one more in an infinite collection of street bikes I’ve been serially buying and divesting myself of for the reason that late 1900s. Actually, if you happen to merely purchased your self a brand new top-of-the-line Pinarello each couple of years and bought the outdated one I wouldn’t be stunned if, financially, you got here out forward of the ostensibly “frugal” retrogrouchical serial bike tinkerer over the long run. So the one state of affairs that would probably warrant congratulating myself could be if I used to be nonetheless driving the identical Cannondale from the Nineteen Nineties.
Guess it’s time to begin looking for a Nineteen Nineties Cannondale. I wager if I look arduous sufficient and spend sufficient money and time I can discover a actual cut price!
