Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Something to Ponder: When does a bike's life begin?

In an attempt to gain mastery over my gag reflexes, I was clicking through some of the latest entries on Velospace.org, when I came across this:



While I personally feel that posting a frame and fork on an internet gallery is a bit like announcing your engagement before you've proposed, I realize this is a not uncommon practice in the halls of Velospace, and so I didn't let it concern me. And curious as to what sort of butcher job awaited this particular veal calf, I read on:


Frame:
Trek T1 58cm

Handlebars and Stem:
soon to be... bmx stem and SE mini risers

Fork and Headset:
soon to be... solos with carbon stock fork

Front wheel:
tba

Rear wheel:
black deep v-formula hub

Crankset and Bottom bracket:
soon to be... sugino rd messenger

Saddle and Seat Post:
bontager carbon.

Pedals and Chain:
gusset heavy duty... primo mini bmx

Cog/Gearing et cetera:
46x17

OK, seems like its future is that of a fixed-gear freestyler. I was particularly amused by the "tba" in the front wheel section, as though some highly-anticipated announcement or press release may be forthcoming. I can only speculate as to what sort of revelation awaits us. Has he somehow gotten his hands on an Aerospoke? Will he use a Zipp disc? Or will he blow all of our minds by taking it straight back to the '80s with an ACS Z-rim? Personally, I can't wait to find out, though I admit I was a bit insulted I wasn't invited to the press conference.

But then I read this:

Notes:
Im recieving this friday and it should be built up by monday


What? He doesn't even have the frame yet? OK, posting just a frame is one thing, but posting a frame you don't even have yet is taking things too far. Forget announcing your engagement before proposing--this is like showing naked pictures of your Russian mail-order bride to your friends before your Paypal payment has cleared. I'm assuming then that the picture we're looking at is the one from the eBay auction, or one that the seller sent him, in which case he's getting way ahead of himself. Assuming he even receives the frame, we all know anything can happen during shipping. What comes out of that box is anybody's guess. It could be like going to pick up your mail-order bride at the airport and finding out she's 20 years older than she looked in her picture, bearded, and missing an eye. Lastly, I can think of no better way of tempting fate than by announcing the completion date of a bike build. Anyone who's built a few bikes knows that even the most straightforward project inevitably hits a few snags. Confidently telling the world that the bike will be build Monday pretty much guarantees you're going to strip your bottom bracket threads.

Unwittingly, though, this bike's virtual owner has raised an interesting question: When does a bike's life begin? It's a question I have asked myself often. Does it begin when the order is placed and the money is tendered? Does it begin with the frame, or does it begin when the final component is in place and the bicycle is rideable? Or is a bike's beginning more intangible? Does it begin with that mischevous glint you get in your eye when you decide to build a bike around that spare 26.8 seatpost you've got lying around?

Certainly if you're going to argue that a bike's life begins before it's rideable, then you've at least got to put some time limit on the gestation period. Every cyclist has some spare parts and a harebrained scheme. But until that scheme is a rideable reality, it simply resides in a virtual world of unrealized bar bikes, beater bikes, and rain bikes.

So why is this even important? Is it because we need to determine when a bike is actually a bike so we know when it is acceptable to post pictures of it online? Maybe. More importantly, though, it's vital that we establish when a bicycle is viable so that we know when it is ethical to abort. And while I'm still not sure what the bicycle equivalent of the third trimester is, I'm pretty sure pulling the plug on this particular Trek wouldn't cause any protests.

113 comments:

Anonymous said...

1st again

Karl Rover said...

Nice timing with the Presidential elections and all!

erik k said...

are we all insane?

Anonymous said...

Yeah

erik k said...

the more i read the comment section on this blog, the less im sure, myself included of coarse

Anonymous said...

so close...

Anonymous said...

"this is like showing naked pictures of your Russian mail-order bride to your friends before your Paypal payment has cleared." Another excellent line to add to the Snob "Classics" list. Thanks again.

Jim said...

I don't know where that nice track bike's life begins, but I suspect it's life is over the minute numbnuts gets his hands on it and starts systematically degrading it.

It's not like a bike that's meant to be a hipster ride or an all-purpose, all-weather street fighter. Taking a nice race bike, with a clean design and pure aesthetic, then hanging all sorts of mongrel downscale BMX crap on it, is like pimping out your little sister.

Yeah, sure, you *could* do it. But would it kill you to have just a little respect for what is good and decent in the world?

Art said...

I'd draw the line at a rolling chassis (frame, fork, headset, and both wheels).

Anonymous said...

place posters are gay

Ryan said...

Bike life begins at first time it is pedaled on pavement (or a track, or in the woods).

In the case of Velospace/fixedgeargallery, not only should the bikes be aborted, but perhaps some of the posters. If only time travel was possible, we could single handedly end this fixed gear freestyling crap.

erik k said...

does a bikes life begin at mental conception? if that were true there would currently be several bikes currently living inside my head, but in reality there wheels will never spend due to lack of funds case point, one front dtswiss 190 hub. 345$. I think a project bike's life begins at the moment you commit a large portion of your checking account to it

Chunk said...

i can't believe he's not going to dump the $$$ to powder coat the bike or at the very least sticker over the trek logos lest he want to be ostracized by his local tight pants crew.

Anonymous said...

Here's the eBay listing

http://cgi.ebay.com/Trek-T1-Track-frameset-58cm-Fixed-gear-with-extras_W0QQitemZ190187208325QQihZ009QQcategoryZ98084QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Giles said...

BSNYC -- Can you elaborate on what you mean by "bar bike?" I assume you mean a bike that you don't mind the possibility of laying down on the ride home because you've had a few, but I wonder what you'd have in mind for such a bike.

chi-town fuck shit love said...

16!

LK said...

I know where this guy can get some delicious buttery hubs....

Yikes! Holy bicycle fantasy Snobman! Do you mean to tell me that there really is a live bicycle attached to the pair of old shoes with the Time cleats that I keep around for spin classes? And all the other bicycles in my fantasy life are for real? And that the fantasy Tour is real!

Nah.... Until it's the sum it's just the parts.

LK said...

A bar bike is the one you take home from a bar but not home to meet your parents.

Anonymous said...

Life begins with conception, not the first time you see some girl's boobs jiggling at a bar. You have to get in bed with her and make it happen. Same with a bike. Thus, bike life begins with that first pedal stroke...

mrdterry said...

If you can't ride it, it ain't alive.

Johnny said...

Anon 12:51 pm-

Anon 1:02 pm called you "gay." You too Quentin.

Guys, I'm freaking out! How does Anon 12:51 pm know everyone's sexual orientation!?!??!

Kevin said...

Life begins with your feet on the pedals and your ass on the saddle.

Is it better to abort an unridden bike or let it be born into an unstable, trendy life? In a few years when the tight pants see something shiny, we could have unruly groups of fixies from unloving parents roaming the streets, selling crack and mugging your grandmother.

Discuss amongst yourselves, I'm all vaclempt (sp?)

Chole said...

it begins when someone breaks their top tube protector.

Anonymous said...

22nd! A personal best!

Anonymous said...

Seriously, though - the guy's going to put a BMX stem and risers on that frame. I can't even imagine it.

Anonymous said...

A bike's life begins when the Fizik saddle is broken in and comfortable. Usually about 2 seasons after you start riding on it.

Before then its in its larval stage.

Sore nuts = larva, sore legs = adult bike.

Anonymous said...

frank the tank is gay

Anonymous said...

Hey, just because I prefer the same sex, doesn't mean you have to call me out on it!

Prolly said...

Damn, those treks are nice. Love the top tube. Although I've read it's hard to get a tt pad made because of their profile.

Kinda like a corset for a one-eyed, overweight Russian mail-order bride.

Anonymous said...

I have to go with Art and say that once it's a roller, it's alive.

Once I committed to this stance on bike life, I started to think about bike death. When do you pronounce one dead and it becomes an organ donor?

Timothy J said...

A bike's life, like a baby's, starts at conception- when there is insertion, a load is dropped and it is accepted. In the bike's case it is the credit/debit card being inserted, a load of money being dropped, and the acceptance by the merchant/Paypal. At that moment a bike is alive and should not be aborted.

Strayhorn said...

Look at it this way: its first life will obviously be one of pain and hard labor. It will be neglected and eventually end up chained to a stairwell post or leaning up against the back wall of a closet.

And it will be sold, perhaps even on Craigslist, to someone who will strip off the crap, lavish it with attention and quality parts, and ride it with joy.

Thus it will be resurrected. A mythology surrounding second life bikes will develop, and soon people will be wearing small, gold Phil Wood hubs on chains around their necks.

Thus endeth our lesson . . .

Anonymous said...

Just another reason to vote pro-choice in November. Monsters like this should never see the light of day. If he hurries, he can still do the morning after pill.

Anonymous said...

They can die partial-death a million ways. I actually stripped out the threads on my fixed gear..left me spinning in the middle of the intersection (I made a mistake setting it up, don't give me any crap about it). But, they're alive the moment you pedal it and it moves, not a moment sooner.
To Numbnuts, if you want to screw around, get an old Huffy frame and have at it. No matter what you think of Trek, that is a fine frame.

Anonymous said...

Even Pat Robertson would want this thing aborted.

Cafn8 said...

The moment you sling your leg over the seat and stomp on the pedals is where the magic happens. That's where a bike's life begins.

Also, just in case the expectant builder is reading this, PLEASE RECONSIDER YOUR CHOICE OF HANDLEBARS. In my humble old school opinion, riser bars look ugly even on mountain bikes. If you really do need a place to slide those bright yellow Ourys at least consider a nice clean flat bar.

Anonymous said...

okay guys, there's no such thing as a "living" bike. you can love a bike, you can love to ride it and work on it and tinker around with it, but the sucker doesn't have a pulse. for real. it's non-living, as in it never lived and never will, BECAUSE IT'S A MACHINE. and the only living machine i know of is the terminator.

Anonymous said...

I had TBA wheels, they were nice, but I replaced them with TBA SLs, 10 grams lighter and only $700 more.

I love bike build threads, but here it's a matter of "stop, you big lug, you lost me at Trek".

Anonymous said...

Travesty. The box clearly says, "do not stack", and he stacked the frame right on it.
This is how eyes get poked out people.

Sorelegs said...

You are all going to h.e. double hockey sticks. Life begins at conception. That means if you or I can concive of it, it is a bike. To not build it is a SIN! Imagining bikes that will not be built is a sin equal to masturbation. Next time you start thinking about pimping out that Pista you better go take a cold shower or the LORD will take revenge.
Every bike is sacred even the $79 dollar huffy at Walmart made by slave labor in a chineese factory.
Repent sinners repent! It is not too late to save your immortal souls.

Anonymous said...

[url]http://velospace.org/node/2370[/url]

Whoa..this is what happens when first cousins marry.

Anonymous said...

Sorelegs said...

You are all going to h.e. double hockey sticks. Life begins at conception. That means if you or I can concive of it, it is a bike. To not build it is a SIN! Imagining bikes that will not be built is a sin equal to masturbation. Next time you start thinking about pimping out that Pista you better go take a cold shower or the LORD will take revenge.
Every bike is sacred even the $79 dollar huffy at Walmart made by slave labor in a chineese factory.
Repent sinners repent! It is not too late to save your immortal souls.


[knocking on shop door]

"commie, what are you doing in there?"

"don't come in mom!"

"what's taking so long?"

"Don't come in!!"

"AAARRGH!!..my god Ward, he has a 4mm allen wrench in his hand, this isn't normal."

Anonymous said...

"It could be like going to pick up your mail-order bride at the airport and finding out she's 20 years older than she looked in her picture, bearded, and missing an eye."

Isn't this stated in the mail-order-bride contract?

It was in mine.

Anonymous said...

Your bike isn't alive til the first time you have bailed while riding it.
You know you never REALLY thrash the thing as hard as you can until you have dumped it at least once. Then it starts to have some personality. First time you
scratch the paint = bikes first breath...

Anonymous said...

i think life begins at conception... so once the frame begins to develop at the factory...(all the rest of those components are just shoes, hats and pants), sometimes in the developmental stage, birth defects do occur (http://www.kestrel-usa.com/bikes/airfoil.php). Then the bike is put up for adoption where it finds a home with either someone who loves it, or, sometimes unfortunately, with an abusive parent. It's all very sad which is why suffering is then de rigeur in cycling.

Perhaps there should be a better adoption screening process...

Anonymous said...

Are bikes alive?

Is it my fault that my bike creeps in a petty pace from day to day? Or will that continue without me to the last syllable of recorded time?

How can that Trek frame be alive?

It's not yet a rolling shadow, a poor player who struts and frets its hour upon Craigslist and then is heard no more.

Isn't the explanation of what that Trek will become full of sound and fury signifying nothing?

Who would tell a tale like that?

Some day we may know the answers.

Until then, Shakespeare's uplifting sonnet of hope put it best: "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I love ya tomorrow. You're only a day away."

Sprocketboy said...

BikeSnob, I think you have overreacted. The Trek Guy wrote "I'm receiving on Friday..." This is surely a reference to that lovely custom of staying at home and welcoming guests, with parasols and suitable visiting cards. Friday is clearly his "At Home" day and we can all go there and look at the frame. I think there was a Seinfeld "We have to see the baby" episode with a similar idea.

On the other hand, if he doesn't actually have the Trek--well, that is a snare and a deceit.

Prolly said...

+1 on the first scratch bringing the bike to life.

It's like hitting your child.

BikeSnobNYC said...

Sprocketboy,

You may be on to something--I hadn't thought of that. It's certainly as ugly as the "Seinfeld" baby, too.

--BSNYC

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 2.13 asks what marks a bike's death, and it becomes an organ donor. Bike death is marked by one of the two following criteria:

1. Frame failure, including your integrated headset wearing out and ruining the headtube.

2. You were an ebay/craigslist doofus and purchased the wrong frame size, but only discovered that on the first test ride after you completed your dream project. Now, every ride reminds you that its life is a reflection of your mistake. So now it's time to donate its organs, and allow the frame to be re-incarnated as someone else's project, OR, the bike can be given a life extension by selling intact to some other hopefully smarter person.

Timothy J said...

Why does the fork on that Trek look amazingly like the fork on yesterdays Surly Steamroller?

Timothy J said...

Oh wait! It is a Carbon Lemond fork on the Surly! Which is another name for Trek, no? An upgrade!

bedeliap said...

If bike life begins at conception and I have already conceived of the bike and gotten a rolling chassis put together, and then I decide to pirate the stem and one of the crank arms for a different project, am I guilty of bike build project abortion? Yes. And if I am, shouldn't that be my choice, or does the bike have a right to live having already been conceived?

This brings up a whole nuther possibility: is taking a living and viable pista and turning it into a chop'n'flop tt pad wearing house paint covered monstrocity tantamount to bike murder?

ratseyes said...

the "when does a bike's life begin" is actually pretty well defined by jean paul sartre's theory that "existence precedes essence". That is to say, it is a bike before we define it as such aka its not a bike until it's called a bike, then once this label is added, it becomes a bike.

Joshua said...

I think my favorite part is his Velospace name - xallhopeslstx. That shit's heavy. And certainly all hope is lost for a young man who can shell out $500 for a frame with which to make a "trick" bike out of.

Anonymous said...

Repent. repent. Leave the stem cell research to the godless chineese. Swithching parts is like playing God. Only He can create a bike.

Every spoke is sacred,
every spoke is great.
If a spoke gets wasted,
God gets quite irate.

Anonymous said...

angelina jolie at 3:16 (I can't believe I'm writing this) has the nub of it. I tend to believe that there is something inside the frame (okay, some frames at least) that carries the personality. As with people, how we feed, raise, and clothe that little persona has a lot to do with how it gets expressed, but it is pretty much always there, always the same.
I have a 1984 Cannondale racing frame I picked up used, which has been the basis of two or three bikes (depending on how you define it)--a 9-speed 105 built road bike, my first fixie (thanks to the eccentric hub revelation) and now a fixed rainy day training bike (I relish showing up for group rides on a contraption that cost less than someone else's handlebars).
In each iteration, the frame's persona has expressed itself: as geared road bike, it was light and fast, especially for the money, and was dedicated to beating my ass to pieces as the miles piled up. In the fixed versions it has wonderful pickup and will probably never be stolen (except that damn ENO hub, worth more than the rest of the bike combined). I can tell it's a little unhappy without gears. And in any version it has almost, but not quite, fit me.
After riding a few bikes and a few different combinations of the same bike, I think we start to get a sense of what the heart of the bike is saying--or what it would say given the chance.
It's central to the comedy of this post that we see a frame that for all appearances wants to ride on a track, with that feeling of pure untethered speed I know from velodrome workouts. We see that frame, we project that ethereal personality on it, and then we imagine the poor thing cowering under a pair of riser bars and giant grips, cowering like a housecat in a harness at the park. This is not pure angry speed, this is something horribly wrong.
The good news is that, barring horrible disfigurement, the poor thing will only need loving care and good parts, not ten years of therapy and medications, to express itself in full bloom.
A bike either begins living as soon as the welds cool (suggesting that carbon fiber bikes are really just action figures of bikes, not living bikes) and just goes through a progression of incarnations, or it is born and dies as many times as someone new comes up, puts an ear to the seat tube, and listens...

"A bomb is made to explode.
That's its meaning, its purpose. Your life is empty because you spend it trying to stop the bomb from becoming.
And for who? For what?
Do you know what a bomb is, Jack, that doesn't explode?
It is a cheap gold watch, buddy."

Cycle Jerk said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cycle Jerk said...

So many questions:

If my bikes are alive, can I claim them as dependants on my taxes?

Does that mean my bikes are self aware?

Can they be self aware without a cyclocomputer?

Anonymous said...

A bikes life begins the first time a rider pedals it someplace.

DrGelato said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DrGelato said...

wait you have an extra 26.8 seatpost?

seriously, here's the link to the original eBay listing (don't ask how long it took me to find it in my browser's history)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Trek-T1-Track-frameset-58cm-Fixed-gear-with-extras_W0QQitemZ190187208325QQihZ009QQcategoryZ98084QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

there are a lot more detailed photos of the frame just incase anyone wants to see what kind of shape the drop outs are in, or what a disassembled cane creek headset looks like.

Anonymous said...

Nerds!!!!

Anonymous said...

All the bianchi pista concepts are alive and all the others are not.

Anonymous said...

http://velospace.org/node/7173

NOT a bike?
Dead?

Matt said...

So, this photo is like an ultrasound photo being passed around the office by the excited admin asst? And it will begin to develop, sprouting cute little crank arms and seatposts ("Look! It's a boy!") until finally it emerges, slimy, noisy and endearing, into the welcoming hands of its parent? For God's sake, you can see the beginnings of a real bicycle already, and even ones with obvious birth defects can be fiercely loved by their devoted parents! Don't abort it! With love and care it might learn to function in an accepting society!

Besides, they're saying we can get more physically fit by thinking we're exercising, surely a bike can therefore exist because we think about it. Me, I've got to go and think about riding.

Johnny said...

I think poster #3's prophesy was spot-in.

That trek is not a bike, its a goddam frame. And with the plans numbnuts has in store, it will never be what most of us consider a bike.

Numbnuts project will never be anything more than a toy.

Anonymous said...

every urban fixed-gear freestyler should be aborted.

Anonymous said...

Frank The Tank @ 1:28- I think you were wondering how anon @ 1:02 could divine sexual orientation from a blog post, not my 12:51 post. I figure anon1302 has the same extraordinary skills as the carfucks that pull up next to me and call me "fag" 'cause I'm on a bike. I always wonder why they aren't employing their incredible skills of divination in Vegas, then I remember why: they're just fucking stupid!

Anonymous said...

This bikes life will begin when i throw my leg over it and start riding it down the road!!!! Haha im glad i could amuse you. bikesnobnycs the best.

Anonymous said...

And in Response to FRANK THE TANK. I already have a road bike so your correct this bike is to be used a "toy" if you will. Its for fucking around on with my friends. :D

BikeSnobNYC said...

Expectant Father,

Thanks for the comments! Good luck with the bike.

Can we all come to the briss?

--BSNYC

Anonymous said...

Definitely a great post and an excellent comment section. Pretty cool to see the different opinions on when life begins, with some great expressions posted. Me, I guess I'm sort of an animist so I believe everything has a spirit, and I'll say from when the tubing is joined for the frame. I've had bikes that were malevolently uncooperative and some that bailed my dumb ass out of every moronic situation I created/ encountered on the trail or road. So I give props to Angelina Jolie and Urchin. I also have to agree with Serial Wrecker and Prolly ("like hitting your child" -too funny)- you never really start working it until you've crashed. I had the opportunity to build a cherry picked, top of the line bike and rode it, but treated it like an ICU patient. First real trail ride, about a mile in, launched off a berm and for some reason did a Forest Gump (leaned head onto shoulder) at the high point and hit. Hard. After that, no more stress, all sunshine and roses, but less flesh ;).

Anonymous said...

Bikes are not toys, like dolls to be dressed up or played with.

Anonymous said...

Hahah to BikeSnob.. yes ill send you the invitation immediately im sorry you felt left out before, had i known you were interested i would never have left you out hahahah... Keep up the good work

Anonymous said...

Would have appreciated a [sic] after "recieved". But that's just me.

Nick

Anonymous said...

Since the expectant father is here... Why do you think that we care? I could see if it was gonna be nasty, but it's not...

Anonymous said...

BSNYC wrote:
"I don’t care if Ugo DeRosa himself built your frame while drinking Chianti from a wicker-wrapped bottle, listening to Pagliacci on a warbly phonograph, and discussing the finer points of olive oil with Marcello Mastriani. Bikes don’t have souls"

Bike life?

BikeSnobNYC said...

Anonymous 6:44pm,

You don't need a soul to have a life. Just look at Billy Joel.

--BSNYC

tobeistobex said...

i hope it is a Z-Rim that has been in his freezer for 24 years!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Agree!

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:25 takes showers with little boys.

Anonymous said...

Occasional stray references lead me to suspect that the Snob is Jewish, but then he goes and misspells "bris." Oy vey.

Blogstyle said...

"You're not a person until you're in my phonebook"
Bill Hicks

Anonymous said...

When does the bar wench that you took home last night become your girlfriend, when you get a copy of the clean bill of health. When does your bike become a living entity... when it is safe to ride, not just thinking about it( this goes for bar wenches as well).
All this talk about conception and the beginning of life comes to one penultimate theory "The Big Bike Bang theory (TBBT) when all matter be it aluminium atoms, zirconium atoms carbon atoms etc spun out of the vortex and bike manufacturers caught them in butterfly nets to forge bikes. The TBBT also goes for the bar wench when you finally sight the required documents

Kevin Jaeger said...

gttim at 2:16 said: A bike's life, like a baby's, starts at conception- when there is insertion, a load is dropped and it is accepted. In the bike's case it is the credit/debit card being inserted, a load of money being dropped, and the acceptance by the merchant/Paypal. At that moment a bike is alive and should not be aborted.

Ah, but the new life may not be viable yet at this point. Just 'cause the guy can plunk down for a frame doesn't mean he can follow through with the other necessary components. Or he may not have the wrench-turning skills to actually get it up and rolling out of the garage.

I'd have to say if it's not viable outside of the garage, it's not really a bike yet.

Anonymous said...

How would you perform a briss on a bike?

On second thought, never mind. Don't want to know.

No matter how it turns out, someone's gonna be scarred for life.

Anon 7:54 -- I always thought you could spell it bris or briss.

Do you know the difference between a wedding and a briss? At the wedding, the goyle cuts the cake.

Kevin Jaeger said...

anon 6:44 quotes BSNYC from an earlier post:BSNYC wrote:
"I don’t care if Ugo DeRosa himself built your frame while drinking Chianti from a wicker-wrapped bottle, listening to Pagliacci on a warbly phonograph, and discussing the finer points of olive oil with Marcello Mastriani. Bikes don’t have souls"

Bike life?


No sale, anon, this isn't like a political blog - you can't claim hypocrisy or inconsistency when no such thing is being claimed. This is like the movie Groundhog Day, where new mayhem can be unleashed in any direction with no lasting consequences to be borne from yesterday's shenanigans.

chi-town fuck shit love said...

I love my bike!

Anonymous said...

A guy I knew who raced SAAB's back in the day with Stig Blomquist told me a car doesn't become a race car until you go up to it and whack the front fender with ball peen hammer.

If that's the case, this thing is looking like it's losing all chance of any life it ever had.

Anonymous said...

I'm just sayin' - Snob is either Jewish or he lives someplace where he is around a lot of Jewish people, like, say, I don't know, New York City or something...

LK said...

A vessel is female? Does that make this male steed a vassal? I thought I was the slave.

...Where the fuck is bikesgonewild? Vacationing? Wilding?

LK said...

There is a saying that if you live in New York City then you are Jewish. Eb=ven if you are not Jewish. You are not Jewish if you live outside of New York City. Eb=ven if you are Jewish.
Pardon my typos.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Complaint: Exactly.

Except for the part about living outside NYC.

Anonymous said...

woogie woogie

Bujiatang said...

I know I can't speak with my bike, but we do have a dynamic interaction.

before I had the dropouts realligned it was very dynamic.

Bujiatang said...

sorry to double post.

I'd use some bastard version of Aristotle's Forms to determine when the bike was a bike, rather than a pile of parts. When it refers to the concept that we recognize as being a bike and attempts to be that intangible ideal form of a bike.

bikesgonewild said...

...i have nothing to say until tomorrow, mr complaint....

...doh, see what ya made me do...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reminding me yet again about the two unfinished build projects I have sitting around that have been sitting around for months due to lack of funds/motivation.

One of the frames is even posted on Velospace. Oh the shame.

Anonymous said...

century!

Anonymous said...

Did Urchin really try to make some deep point about a crappy old CDale having a soul using a quote from SPEED?!?

dennis said...

My new frame arrived at the shop this week. Without a fork, and components installed, wheels to be built it's not a bike yet. Can't ride it this way, it's only parts in a box!

Anonymous said...

Perhaps he has the inside track on newly-designed wheels by Michael Ball (the Rock Racing owner) who feels that he has been challenged as a result of sponsor fall-out:
"I'll make a better wheel, a cooler wheel, a more dynamic wheel, a lighter and faster wheel - thanks very much for inspiring me!" he said. "I'll send [Steve Hed] a thank you note!"

Eric Thrasher Troili.. said...

I'm shocked at Snob's sinking into the Pro-Life debate.. The "when does life begin" metaphor is unmistakable.. Has Snob been saved..? Or do we need to be saved from the Evangeli-Snob..?

Anonymous said...

I remember, a few weeks ago, a posting on Velospace entitled 'New Cyclocross Project', which was actually a drawing of how the guy's bike was going to look. A drawing that looked like it had come from the hand of a ten-year-old child.

The notes read:

'So this is my new project. I have all the parts here at home except the frame but i have one back at my apartment back at school. SO...i got bored and drew a sketch. Should be putting it together in the next week or so.'

Yeah? Putting it together in a week or so, you say? SO WHY NOT WAIT A WEEK OR SO AND POST A PICTURE OF THE ACTUAL BIKE?

The posting has since been edited to show a picture of the actual bike, which dispelled my initial notion that it could just have been an attempt to bait BSNYC.

Judi said...

Occasional stray references lead me to suspect that the Snob is Jewish, but then he goes and misspells "bris." Oy vey.>>>

**********
I was thinking the same thing Anon 7:54.

Anonymous said...

There are Jewish people in NYC?

Anonymous said...

I don't know where that nice track bike's life begins, but I suspect it's life is over the minute numbnuts gets his hands on it and starts systematically degrading it.

It's not like a bike that's meant to be a hipster ride or an all-purpose, all-weather street fighter. Taking a nice race bike, with a clean design and pure aesthetic, then hanging all sorts of mongrel downscale BMX crap on it, is like pimping out your little sister.

Yeah, sure, you *could* do it. But would it kill you to have just a little respect for what is good and decent in the world?

INDEED! some people just don't get it. I'm always a fan of the idea that, the ultimate realization of a rear wheel is of course a Velocity Deep-V (non-machined sidewalls of course) and a FORMULA hub (flip-flop). I feel sorry for the wrench that has to build those, and even more sorry if it's this frame ruining freestyler; and even more sorry for the poor 12 year old boys and girls in Taiwan assembling those hubs.

Anonymous said...

Got the Frame its amazing. Everything is one it except my back wheel which is in the mail..
And the main reason im running a bmx stem other than the fact that i love the way they look is because i like it to be a little shorter. I havent found a road stem the length i want...


and to the guy whose complaining about my rear wheel. we cant all afford super expensive parts. so i ordered something that is ok and im gonna go have a ton of fun riding it. :D
bsnyc check back on my velospace on monday for pix hahah

p.s. i just read the aerospoke phenomenon and it is the best article/blog ever!!!!!

sincerely,
expecting father

meh-wee-uhn said...

This won't get read by nobody which makes my mini-rant better/worse.
I own a Trek T1 and I named her Aunt Flo (paid for it on credit card, it's red, and it's between my legs. Totally fucking gross, I know).

Enough about me. Why in the name of god does every twat who wants to ride a fixed gear have to build up a bike that comes with perfectly good, functioning parts, feel the need to go out and replace aforementioned perfectly good, functioning parts with stupid, lame, "I'm a little late hopping on this 'ere fixte bandwagon, but look at my puppy-dog enthusiams! BMX stem! Sugino cranks!"

What is up with all this mastubatory bike building? Kids, stop using the QBP/Merry/Wilson/UBP/etc. like you used your dad's old Playboys and just ride the fucking bikes.

Anonymous said...

Is a baby a human being? Is a small child? Of course not. These are potential human beings. I say that life doesn't begin until you're able to define yourself against the constraints of society as an indivisual: paying your rent, finding a way to earn your rent, or even choosing a more stylish way of avoiding either.

In other words, a person's life doesn't really begin until they've got at least some real world experience. Once they're slightly sullied.

In a loosely similar vein, I say this: a bike's life begins right around the point when a friend wouldn't want to touch your saddle.

Cafn8 said...

FYI, for anyone interested, there's a nice bright red Trek up on "Fixed Gear Gallery" with a frame much like this one. To my relief, it is not sporting riser bars.

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