Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Stops Making Sense: The Brake Debate Goes International

In yesterday's post, I mentioned moustache bars. Subsequently, I checked my email and found the following photo from Slappy, which is easily one of the most magnificent applications of the moustache bar I have ever seen:

The bicycle, of course, is a Y-Foil, which should not be confused with a "wife oil." (To the best of my knowledge, Trek never manufactured a spousal lubricant, though I think "wife oil" may have been used in yesterday's vertical saddle video.) As an enthusiastic Y-Foil spotter, the first thing I look for on one of these beasts is a set of Rolf wheels. After all, a Y-Foil without Rolfs is like Van Halen without David Lee Roth, so I was pleased to find a matching set here. The next thing I want to see is a triple crank, since simplicity is an insult to a Y-Foil frame, and this specimen has one of those as well. (The plastic platform pedals are simply a bonus.) But the real standout here is clearly the moustache bars. It's incredibly rare to see moustache bars on a Y-Foil, since the Y-Foil is in many ways antithetical to the Rivendell-style bike. In fact, I'm sure the sight of this bicycle (complete with non-metal, non-hammered, and non-full "filth prophylactics") would be sufficent to incite Grant Petersen to violence, and I only hope this does not cause him to beat an underling with a Nitto Albatross bar. (This is Rivendell company policy for punishing insubordination.) Also, the moustache bars are upside down, which creates the illusion this Y-Foil is about to take flight like some sort of retro-futuristic pterodactyl.

Alas, one can't help but wonder if, had the UCI not banned this design way back at the turn of the century, the top pros would now be palping Y-Foils in the Tour de France. (You can't even use "wife oil" at the Tour due to the fact it contains both cortisone and hashish.) And speaking of the Tour de France, it's now time for today's "Great Moment in Tour de France History," fake-sponsored by The California Avocado Commission:


(Avocado: Nature x Mushy x Delicious)

Nowadays Tour de France rider take things like safety for granted. However, in the Tour's early days it was a much more dangerous affair. Such was the experience of Ivan Munro, one of two Australians who in 1914 became the first of their countrymen to take the start of the great race. All was going well for Munro until the sixth stage, when the race entered the Pyrénées and he plunged into a gorge. After the race organization's rescue poodles were unable to locate Munro, officials declared him missing and presumed dead. However, though lost, Munro was very much alive, and he eventually encountered a lost civilization of Neanderthals with whom he made his home. While Europe and the world beyond entered into World War I, Muro lived an idyllic existence with these peaceful beings whose way of live was completely untouched by time and uncorrupted by modern society. Taking a bride, he fathered many children, and among them was one who would eventually emerge from the wilderness and go on to win no less than five times the race that forever altered his father's destiny. That child, of course, was Bernard Hinault:


And that's today's "Great Moment in Tour de France History."


While I can't vouch for the accuracy of the above story, I can certainly vouch for the mushy deliciousness of the so-called "alligator pear"--which should not be confused with "alligator pair," a condition suffered by male long-distance cyclists who fail to apply sufficient amounts of chamois cream or "wife oil."

Incidentally, Y-Foils may not be the only bicycle going the way of the Neanderthal. A reader informs me that authorities in Berlin are cracking down on fixed-gears:

Despite what it says above, I believe it's brakeless bicycles and not fixed-gears that are illegal in Germany, since riders whose bikes are impounded must "show an inclination to install brakes on them" in order to get them back. Nonetheless, Berlin's fixed-gear riders are outraged:

Now, if your job is to deliver things by bicycle, and you depend on the income from that job in order to survive, and the city in which you do that job requires that your bicycle have a brake on it, then you should probably use a bike with a brake--or at the very least you should not be outraged when your livelihood is taken from you. ATVs aren't street-legal in most places either. Are the police taking away your livelihood if they prevent you from making deliveries on one of those? Of course, I realize that this is a disappointingly prosaic view of the situation, and it's certainly at odds with the romantic manner in which messengers prefer to think of themselves. Naturally, the messenger rides a brakeless bike because it somehow makes him "more aware," yet everyone else is riding brakeless bikes "just because they've become cool." Surely, he's putting his own livelihood at risk for heightened awareness, and not in order to be cool himself.

Frankly, I think it's reasonable to require bicycles to have brakes. Furthermore, I think it's also reasonable to enforce that requirement. That said, while it may be reasonable, I don't think it's necessary. First of all, I think people should be allowed to do whatever they want. Second of all, the reasoning of the authorities here is fundamentally flawed. The fact is, they're thinking of brakeless fixed-gears as vehicles used for transportation, and this is not the case. Rather, the modern-day brakeless fixed-gear bicycle is simply a collectible and a customizable accessory, hence all the limited edition "collabos." Complete the set! Collect them all! Really, requiring something like this have brakes or meet some sort of vehicular safety standard is like having a law that "Star Wars" action figures need to conform to obscenity laws and that you can't take your Obi Wan Kenobi action figure's pants off in public. (Assuming of course you have the ultra-rare anatomically-correct removable pants edition.)

If you're a lawmaker or enforcement officer in Berlin and you don't believe me, then consider this Craigslist post from San Francisco, forwarded to me by a reader:


08 Cinelli Superpista - $2700 (inner richmond)
Reply to: [deleted]
Date: 2009-06-30, 1:33PM PDT

I really don't want to do this but I am putting up my Cinnelli Superpista for sale. I bought this bike as my graduation gift to myself when I finished college last year and spared no expense. This bike means a lot to me but I am looking to move abroad so it must be sold. The bike is my daily rider but the only thing on the build which reflects that is the frame, which naturally has nicks and scratches from being locked up. The frame was bought new last september at American and I completely babied it for the first 3-4 months. It is Columbus Zona Steel.

The components on this bike are spectacular. All components were purchased brand new last year and installed professionally. The wheelset was handbuilt at the Freewheel on Hayes. It is Campagnolo Record (32h) laced to Wolber Alpina Super Champion Rims. The rims are a really cool gray ano box profile with no braking surface. Laced with Sapim double butted spokes. The drivetrain is a Phil Wood 17t cog, Izumi Super Toughness Chain, and 49t Campagnolo Record crankset with a Phil Wood Bottom Bracket. The pedals are MKS RX-1s with really white (now gray) leather Campagnolo Straps. The seatpost is a Campagnolo Chorus Titanium seatpost, which I believe is no longer manufactured. It is very light, very strong, and aesthetically, the centerpiece of the groupo. The saddle is a Turbo special Edition. It has some scuffs and a little tear from being locked up but is otherwise in perfect condition.

Right now I am riding on oversize Easton Monkeylite Hi Rise bars with a Thomson Elite stem (100). I have a Nitto Converter for changing 1'' threaded to 1 1/8'' threadless. Also included though are my set of NOS Cinelli track drops(40) with the matching cinelli quill stem(110). They are both stamped with the cinelli logo and were ridden for about a week and look brand new, still. Also included in the deal is a set of aluminum oversize Deda Elementi Pista drop bars so that if you want to keep riding with the thomson stem you can ride with some drops as opposed to risers. The headset is a silver Chris King.

This is an initial posting of this sale. Ideally I'd like to sell the bike on this go round, but if the feedback is negative from the CL community and potential buyers it may change. However, this is a deal and I know the value of the things included so please no lo-ballers. Thanks. I can be reached only via e-mail. If you want additional photos(higher quality) please feel free to include that in your email.

This post exemplifies perfectly the "Collect them all!" mentality. Note how the seller went from shop to shop in search of specific components like a comic book collector visiting hobby shops. Note also the "special edition" saddle, as well as the pride with which he refers to the seatpost, which "is no longer manufactured" and which is "aesthetically, the centerpiece of the groupo." (You may think that if you've seen one metal shaft you've seen them all, but you're wrong.) In particular, note the "really cool grey ano" rims with "no braking surface." (Of course, these rims do have a braking surface, it's just not a machined braking surface. Pretty much all road rims had some kind of braking surface until the geniuses at H+Son finally managed to invent a 580 gram without one.)

Now, you can't expect a collector to mar the surfaces of his collectible anodized rims by using a brake, can you? Of course not. But you don't need to worry about that, because not only was the bike "completely babied," but it's also already for sale, which means this rider is probably not a menace to the streets. In fact, he's preparing to "move abroad," which could very well mean he's bound for Berlin. And even if he arrives in Berlin with $2,700 in hand from the sale of his Cinelli and builds up a brand new collectible fixie, he'll almost certainly "baby" that one too. He's a collector, not a threat.

No, if the crackdown continues the city of Berlin will only lend brakelessness some sort of "outlaw" appeal. Here in New York City bicycles are required to have a brake, but it's pretty rare that the police actually enforce this, and already there are signs that brakes are becoming the new brakeless. In fact, I recently saw a fixed-gear rider with a disc brake:


Perhaps soon fixed-gear riders will realize they are running out of components with which to accessorize, and as such they will adopt the disc brake, which will then allow them to enter the bold and exciting new world of cheesy customized rotors:


Disc rims with no braking surface and an AYHSMB rotor? Truly the best of everything.

126 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woot! Woot!

Climbin'J said...

Beatcha! (And I even schluffed all the climbs.)

rezado said...

Top of the pile

Daddo said...

ok 4

Anonymous said...

Goo gah

Lantern Rouge said...

Top 10!

Anonymous said...

kara goucher is hottt!!!

Wes said...

Just back from Glastonbury, top ten.

Wes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
grog said...

STOP HERE

Anonymous said...

Brakeless bikes illegal in Texas. Stupid in all 50 states.

Other Side of the GW said...

The Y Foil and David Lee Roth have one major trait in common; they're both assinine.

I think Sammy Hagar would have a lot less in common with a Y Foil and he would even bring the tequila.

tom said...

No Brakes, per the Offspring

Daddo said...

we like David Byrne again?

tom said...

No Brakes, per the Offspring

tom said...

No Brakes, per the Offspring

Critical Ass said...

Shit. Now I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out what is the aesthetic centerpiece of my groupo. maybe you can help me out. I rock a some wide Cinelli bars on a black 3TTT stem, Shimano 600 FD, long cage 105 RD, Suntour Cyclone cranks, Chorus brakes, Alex rims with the stickers peeled off, Serotta seatpost. I'm really leaning toward the Campy seatpost binder bolt as my aesthetic centerpiece however.

ant1 said...

Ass - the missing stickers are definitely it.

samh said...

Brakes rule.

wishiwasmerckx said...

Sorry I missed the podium today. I was busy wiping the wife oil off of my chin.

hillbilly said...

Man! Ant1 is on FIRE!!!!

mikeweb said...

Dropped on the last climb - damn brakes were off center...

Anonymous said...

wow. I thought yesterdays post was in poor taste, but today you hit a new low. That wife-oil shot makes me want to move to another country...gotta sell my babied SF custom build-up first.

mikeweb said...

ant1 must've visited Dr. Ferrari over the weekend...

Anonymous said...

http://www.velocityusa.com/img/rimDiagrams/B43.jpg

I believe some love should be given to the even deeper brakeless 790 as well.

Krom said...

Mr. Bike Snob I think these folks are less like comic book collectors but hobby HO scale train enthusiasts. They go from store to store looking for the right toy and also sometimes wear cool "train" type clothing like stripped overalls and a nifty engineers hat.

Terwilliger Mephistopheles said...

The fact that these idiots are so bent out of shape about being required to have brakes says that it is strictly a fashion issue. Just because Johnny Law says you have to have a brake doesn't mean you have to use it...

Slappy said...

Outlaws and the collectable fixxees would do well to collect some rollerblades for the inevitable future collab

Anonymous said...

Noticed that a fellow on the new york bike blog got his bike stolen. In the photo he posted looks like someone had already stolen the brakes before hand.

ant1 said...

It must be my new Thomas Dekker training regimen.

Seriously though, you dudes are slacking. I took a hockey puck to the ankle and still can't walk right after a week and I'm winning field sprints. Maybe it's the vicodin TUE.

Surly Bastard said...

I never understood the Rolf wheel disdain, but I gotta admit they somehow look at home on that sweet-ass Y-foil ...

ant1 said...

I've got a solution/collabo/new fashion statement for the brake-averse: wear a parachute.

Christopher Warren said...

Surprised that there is no mention of the cup holder on the moustache bars of that wonderful Y-Foil. Because when you're going that fast, you've got to stay caffeinated.

Anonymous said...

The sweet cupholder on the Y foil is the aesthetic centerpiece of that bike.

Anonymous said...

Moustache Bars = Wolfgang Van Halen

Great pic of Hinault pushing Hincapie off the podium.

kale said...

ant1-

I support mandatory messenger bag stuffing. A few memory foam pillows aught to add some bulge for street cred, as well as absorb some impact when practicing wheelies and such.

Or the freeride/downhill/SCUBA diver look could carry over with the rotors.

mikeweb said...

I know what a gruppo is, not sure what a groupo is though.

Maybe a group of people all showing the ASL symbol for the letter 'O'?

Anquetil's Mother said...

whoa, Ant1, I'd kinda love to see a parachute pant brake.... Some hipster in skinny parachute jeans, the light turns red and suddenly his pants explode and inflate with air.

Only problem with the scenario is that you're assuming these people ride fast enough for a parachute to actually open and fill with air, which they don't.

Anonymous said...

dropped!

mikeweb said...

The centerpiece of my gruppo, BTW, is my limited edition, leopard print lined taint gutter, Bianchi saddle.

Anonymous said...

The centerpiece of my gruppo is my gigantic penis.

Mark said...

Mustache bars are great. Used them on a 75 Raleigh fixed gear conversion that was a blast to ride with all the different hand positions that the bars afforded. Always got plenty of leverage with them. You'll note, there is one brake on that bike.

I think all bikes should have at least one brake because what happens if you are going downhill and you lose your chain, which happened to me yesterday while riding to work. Or sure, I could have just coasted it out and would eventually come to a stop or dragged my feet to stop sooner, but then to have walk back the half mile or less to retrieve the chain would suck!

Test Tickle said...

anon 2:25.

i think that's awesome.

balls.

Test Tickle said...

BTW - I fervently disagree with having many "different" hand positions on moustache bars. I tried them on touring rig and was not impressed. you either have to lean way forward or bend your wrists in a way they don't want to go. sold them on CL. sure, they look hip and retro, but please ... functional!?

balls.

jolene said...

my senter pease is a limited addiction darrell waltrip 1:24 scale die cast replica of the 1983 pepsi challenger

darrell i could just eat

ant1 said...

anquetil - I kinda just assumed that the parachute would just fall straight down and get tangled up in the wheel/drivetrain, bringing the bike to a stop.

Russ said...

All You Haters Suck My Brakes

Anonymous said...

What about Softride bikes? Especially ones set up as fixed gear rides.

http://bostonfixed.us/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1021&page=12

Anquetil's Mother said...

ant1, genius! that never occurred to me but now i love it even more, especially if it were somehow attached to their pants.

displacedcalifornian said...

52nd career best...

Anonymous said...

turgid rucksack

Luck E. Seven said...

FAIL!!! I just Rolfed.


A

hillbilly said...

The NYPD is way too busy harassing women and their dogs on the subway and flying into peds on sidewalks on Ave D to worry about brakes.

kale said...

hillbilly-

Didn't Michael Chabon write a novel about that?

innerlighter said...

"This is Stephan...his name is Stephan...harden the fuck up Stephan"

-Chopper Reid

BiZZiD said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bikesgonewild said...

...i thought moustache bars were trendy gay drinking establishments in nyc...

...guess i'm not very hip...

Anonymous said...

That's one fancy mustache ride...

meh

Anonymous said...

MUST ACHE

Seanywonton said...

When ridiculous bikes with no brakes are outlawed, only outlaws will ride ridiculous bikes with no brakes.

Seanywonton said...

I was thinking the parachute would maybe catch on the closest fixed object and sort of yank them off the bike backwards. It might break a few ribs, but as we know, that's just extra street cred.

db said...

Sad that there's no pie plate on the Y-foil.

ant1 said...

Doesn't the second ammendment say something about the right to bare bars or something?

Wes said...

Seanywonton

I believe the accepted nomenclature is that it might "brake" a few ribs.

Wes said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8125274.stm

Bikes made from bamboo - what will they think of next? Bikes made from a light but brittle metal? Bikes made from a light but delicate plastic? Bikes with some kind of built-in device to retard speed? Nutters.

Fred Blasdel said...

Actually, Grant Petersen DESPISES all metal fenders.

He refuses to sell anything but the craptacular chromoplastic SKS fenders. Since they are only available in 26" and 700c, all the 650b bikes he sells end up with even shittier fender-lines than usual.

Anonymous said...

This just in:
Grant Peterson steps down after confirming that he rode an Argentinian Y-Foil

Anonymous said...

BAM-sixtynined yall

mitch said...

Speaking of brakeless fixies, check out these one legged tricksters and their sweet rides. In 1921. There's a collector's item for you.

bikesgonewild said...

...wes..."Bikes with some kind of built-in device to retard speed???"...

...i've got one a' those on all my bikes & i'm it...

...just sayin'...

Anonymous said...

those rotors are some gay ass shit!

Anonymous said...

mitch-

resplendent

George said...

I think the fixed/disc equation is missing something to complete the gruppo of ridiculosity - it could almost be practical as is. Maybe if you add another impractical trend in there, like BMX or krates or manually pushing down the brake pad while doing an elephant trunk-skid...maybe just decorating your rotor with cool stickers so people can tell you don't use it.

Still, if Sugino drops the Messenger rotor...well, I can only imagine the press release on every fixed gear blog ever.

SuaveDog said...

Your "wife oil" has contains both cortisone and hashish!!??

How old is your wife?

Anonymous said...

Wasn't "Groupo" was one of the Marx brothers?

And didn't he used to say "AYHSMC" -- All you haters smoke my Cohiba?

Anonymous said...

I try to link you to a man who loves his y-foil. be aware, he is serious.

http://www.johno.myiglou.com/yfoil.html

Anonymous said...

Them trixter boys ain't got but one pa'r o' legs twixt 'em! Musta beed blowed off in the war and such...

ken e. said...

that's a lot of hilarity. great post.

"outlaw" appeal said...

The local evening news loved that story and were shown the impounded trophies at a police warehouse. Looked to me like the traffic cops were actually acting as some sort of "style police" ridding the capital's streets from neon-coloured hipster fixies. The legal grounds for this move were shaky anyway.

Anonymous said...

I cringe when I see rotors with lizards or alien heads. It's the Primal Wear of brakes.

Chris W said...

I wondered when this topic would come up. I've been 'rubbing' fixed w/ a disc brake for months...early adopter.

Anonymous said...

explain you to me chris.
-Anon

Al Swearengen said...

Speaking Italian? No?

Then it's fucking pronounced *GROUP*, you bunch of hoople heads...

Anonymous said...

If it ain't fixed, break it.

Holy WTF! said...

is this for real? please comment:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/bik/1249015511.html

Anonymous said...

hey wow, that's the coolest tandem ever!

Meccanico di Veno said...

In Germany the law is and has always been that both wheels must be braked. So if you don't have a front brake on your fixed gear bike it is illegal. You do not have to have a handbrake in the back on a fixed gear, because a fixed gear hub is considered a brake.

Anonymous said...

The end result of this shopping spree might be a nightmare, but shopping around for each component doesn't strike me as an unpardonable sin. I mean, isn't that what the internet is for? I'm happy that I "collected" my fork for a quarter of its retail price.

g-rock said...

The real reason Grant Petersen is bent out of shape is that this guy converted his moustache bar into a pseudo-albatross and he missed out on a sale.

Oh, and Germans big on enforcing rules? There's a shocker.

Mr. Roth said...

I'm waiting to see a YFoil painted in Hammerite.

Jach Horner said...

Over at rivendell our internal disceplinerays consist of forced labour in the PR/website wing

Unknown said...

The funny thing about mustache bars is you can get reasonably aero on them. With your hands way out on the brake hoods (which are much closer together than on drops) your position strongly resembles the triathlete's "leaning on the counter at the post office" aerobar setup.

Their supposed comfort and variability of hand positions is a joke though.

Anonymous said...

Kale,

good point about the bag stuffing. I suppose it explains why even a massive bag (like the discbrake dude photo) can't hold the orange krypto u-lock. Oh, that's just another fixter accessory you have to advertise in your back pocket. I forgot.

I have to admit, I do love the pudgy yuppies and college kids who are on the fixie bandwagon here in NYC. Makes the Bushwick "punk" guys/gals irate tho. Saw a few battle it out on 8th ave this morning. Who has the madder skilllzzzzz?!??! I can swerve through traffic better! I can make pedestrians jump back even though they have the right of way! Also, saw an "edgy crusty underground" duo run a red light, forcing a car to throw on it's brakes.

Fixters: demanding respect while exhibiting none of it themselves. For people who try so hard to be counter-culture, they sure share a lot in common with the *ME* generation, no?

Anonymous said...

I have disliked the fixie boom, but after watching that Armstrong video with the sugary Irish music dubbed on, I suddenly saw fixed gear through Gary Fisher's diamond shaped glasses.

The physical shapes it creates on the streets is a boon for the anti car movement. It forces motorized vehicles into bewilderment.

I now see the whole fixed gear thing as an extension of the Reclaim the Streets / anti-corporate movement which faded out in the early part of the 2000's.

Now that corporations own most of the streets we ride on in big cities, it's just a matter of time before it becomes more economically viable to welcome cyclists. They can fit more into a parking lot, and earn more money for example.

Anonymous said...

i see commiecanuck got delisted. what happened commie??

Anonymous said...

-Kryptonite New York locks are now made in China.

-I beleive the disc front brake on a fixie is called a Mullet.

Anonymous said...

UN sanction

Anonymous said...

"-Kryptonite New York locks are now made in China."

They had to reorganise after that bic pen/youtube video thing.

Anonymous said...

hey...

It still works!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCxHD9_uEf8

Unknown said...

You're a dick.

Disgruntl Ed. said...

peaceful beings whose way of live ?

More importantly, what kind of Neanderthal can ride the hoods on that moustache setup?

Finally, that gray ano box business sounds like some kind of perversion with an elderly Mexican.

No gracias.

Unknown said...

I love my cheesy Dirty Dog rotors!

Unknown said...

Did anyone else notice that the CL Cinelli-seller, despite his long-winded catalog of every detail from the shop that laced his wheels to the stamps on the included-but-not-installed stem, neglected to mention the size of the frame?

I guess it would only matter if you planned to ride it, and that would be dangerous.

Philip Williamson said...

So... "realestatecenterblog.com" republishes today's BikeSnob post and leaves it as a comment on the cheesy-rotor page??

That seems remarkably stupid.

Unknown said...

PS those are not customized rotors, they are stock from Dirty Dog. I have a pair of the Alien variety which are the cheesiest possible and I matched them to a pair of Velocity VXC rims which truly have no braking surface, it's the best!

All you braking-surface-having, cheesy-rotor-hating nihilists can suck my ball bearings!

the bearded one said...

hmm... a fixter-chute may actually warrant use of those top tube pads.

CommieCanuck said...

Sean has a point.
If we make brakeless bikes illegal, this will just push brakeless riders underground, or to Canada.

Who will regulate this? Alcohol-Tobacco and Firearms? the ATF? They are too busy. The Canadian equivalent of the ATF, the CBC (Corn syrup, Beaver pelts, and Celine Dion Fake CDs) can't handle this locally either, they are stretched way to thin.

This just means more work for homeland security and the RCMP, the latter of which will just tazer your nuts until you're dead.

Meanwhile, rumors are spreading of a small community outside Tijuana where you can ride brakeless on Mexican-built fake Pistas, using rims without braking surfaces made by rogue factories in Honduras.

It starts here, but five years from now, the new Federal BLP (brakes, Lawyer lips and Pieplates) with be the basis of a new CSI TV-spinoff, marking the return of Eric Estrada.

And soon after, 3 million more Americans will be in jail, while leftists in Washington lobby the concept of allowing brakeless riders, but taxing and regulating them with shock collars that beep, warning pedestrians of the imminent Peysering.

Anonymous said...

i didn't know my bike had a 'drivetrain'. are you sure he didn't mean 'powertrain'? because i got a sweet 'powertrain warranty'.

kale said...

Disc break rotors = "deli slicers" in the parlance of our times.

Anonymous said...

Isn't saying Disc brake rotor the same as saying "The NHC Center". or the National Hurricane Center Center.

I vote for Front Mounted Piza Cutter Stomper Plate Plate.

Anonymous said...

"i didn't know my bike had a 'drivetrain'. are you sure he didn't mean 'powertrain'? because i got a sweet 'powertrain warranty'."

It's called a Tranny.

Anonymous said...

I'm kinda over teh whole brake debate - maybe if you ignore it it will go away.

grog said...

Krom and jolene, the model train guys are not as obsessed collectors as the diecast car guys who admire pretty chunks of painted metal on a shelf. At least velo-collectables are functional in some way. Not to mention the clown outfits (chicken-suits) some of us wear as we do our thing.

Isolation Helmet said...

Snob- I think you are on to something. Next they take up disc brakes and before you know it they have become such collectors that they will mount 11-speed Campy with a triple crank just for the irony of it all. Then they move onto disc brakes with v-brakes then..........

Anonymous said...

occasionally I see hipsters in dc only run a front brake on single speeds to achieve the "fixie" look. Even better when you see a rear brake only single speed. RBOSS

Anonymous said...

It all points to one thing...

Cyclocross.

Matt said...

That y-foil appears poorly locked.

Undo the quick-release, and you'll have enough room to unwind the cable lock from the seat-beam.

Or, if it is in fact just locked to the free magazines, just take the magazine rack, or break one tiny bar in the mag rack.

Act now -- your chance to own a piece of cycling history.

Anonymous said...

Poorly locked is the new Rapha.

ben said...

uhh... you could just stop with a stick (or a goddamn christmas tree)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwVqHaYdC0I&feature=related

Anonymous said...

>First of all, I think people should be allowed to do whatever they want.

LOLZ! I love this, even if its pretty much nonsense.

As for what qualifies as a form of transportation -- its anything which takes you from point A to B. This includes my grandma's rollerskates from the 50's. This includes the little red wagon I use to pull my toddler cousins to/from the park. This includes horses, elephants, even a golden retriever if its chill enough. It most defo includes bikes.

Bikes without breaks in the city are straight foolish and just lucky the NYPD is too busy thumbing each others unbleached arseholes to police anything. But toward month's end when its time to fulfill quotas, they'll take any reason to push tickets: like for not having a bell on the bike. True story.

AnnaZed said...

From a grammatical point of view I'm not even sure what this is:

"Nowadays Tour de France rider take things like safety for granted."

or even what it's supposed to mean.

Unknown said...

wow!So hot...

Wein

outsources BPO & Call Center Solution

Anonymous said...

I will bet you a dollar it is a Surly:)

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Anonymous said...

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