BSNYC Friday Fun Quiz! (Wait, sorry, that's a mistake, there's no quiz.)

Well, it's been two days of serious bicycle-cycling here at Bike Snob NYC headquarters.  "Epic" isn't even the word; indeed, "epochal" only begins to cover it.  It all started yesterday, when I used the WorkCycles to attack a serious kitty litter run:

That's 16lbs of cat piss-absorbing power you're looking at right there, and the WorkCycles itself probably weighs a good 50lbs.  Now keep in mind that, according to a popular Internet mapping application, it's a solid 125 feet of climbing from the Petco to my home.  So you can only imagine the massive amount of power I'm now capable of producing.

(I also had a dozen eggs, some chicken thighs, and a six-pack of beer strapped into the baby seat, but who's counting?)

Then this morning I grabbed my other grey and orange bicycle and headed up to the mall-adjacent singletrack that laid me low just a few Fridays ago:

I crossed the New York City line into Westchester early this morning:

And I returned to New York City via a different border crossing a few hours later:

In addition to a tire pressure journal I also keep a detailed log of the time I spend outside the city limits, because I'm hoping if I spend enough time riding in Westchester I can claim residency and stop paying New York City income tax.

It's hard to imagine how I could possibly top all this two-wheeled excitement over the weekend, so I probably won't bother trying and instead get to work on that six-pack.

Speaking of excitement, here's the kind you don't want to experience:

Aaand that's why we wear a helmet.
(via Ethan Fann) pic.twitter.com/68GjRQkIYA

— CyclingHub (@CyclingHubTV) December 8, 2016

First things first, apparently everybody's okay, so thank Lob for that.

So now we can engage in armchair commentary and pass judgment based on a few seconds of film, because that's what cycling and the Internet are all about.

Okay, "Aaand that's why we wear a helmet," really?  Firstly, I object to the wording, because it implies they all share one helmet--which would be awesome, but which is clearly not the case based on the video.  Secondly, the lead rider went pretty wide before diving into that turn, and while using the whole road makes sense on a closed course it's a bit of a gamble on a public roadway when you don't have a clear line of sight.  (And when you've got other riders on your wheel.)  I mean sure, the driver totally cut that turn like drivers do, but I'm not sure the riders should be congratulating themselves for their prudence here.

And that's what you call a "hot take."

While we're on the subject of how shallow and judgmental I am, a reader left the following comment yesterday:

Jeptha Johnson said...

You have talked about this guy in the past somewhat dismissively but a lot of his points seem similar to your own. Just wondering what you think now that he has been given a feature in Bicycling magazine

Thanks

"This guy" is a certain "Mr. Money Mustache," and here's the aforementioned Bicycling feature:

Personal-finance blogger Pete Adeney, aka Mr. Money Mustache, retired at age 30—in part by investing money he saved by riding his bike. He explains how embracing frugality (yes, even at the bike shop) can lead to happiness.

And yes, the guy makes a lotta sense:

You’ve said that no one besides Tour de France riders needs a bike that costs more than $1,000.

For people who haven’t bought their freedom yet, it seems odd to prioritize moving further up the toy ladder. I mean, if you look on Craigslist you can get a kickass mountain bike for under a grand. I think the key is to separate being a bike athlete from being a bike snob. I have a lot of respect for people who become great mountain bikers by getting out there and building the muscle and the skills. The amount they spend on their bike does not increase that respect; in fact I think I’m more impressed by someone who uses a non-fancy bike and is still a badass rider.

Expensive bikes are so common, though. When I go to Hall Ranch, my local trailhead, every single bike is a multi-thousand-dollar one except mine. I feel sorry for these dudes, making payments on their SUV with high-end roof racks, their car, their house, maybe even the bike. And the bikes barely make any difference in your riding—I’ve ridden a $10,000 demo bike and I felt like I could climb technical stuff slightly better, but most of that was just because it had 29-inch wheels.

He's also got an excellent post about bikes on his own site.

Anyway, to address the reader's comment, it occurred to me that the reason I was dismissive was that I had read about him in the New Yorker, a lens through which pretty much everything becomes pretentious and off-putting, so my view of him was thusly prejudiced.  And indeed, it turned out I was even more right than I realized, because Mr. Mustache himself has since annotated the article and it turns out the New Yorker writer is full of shit:

Or maybe they're both full of shit, but I'm inclined to believe Mr. Mustache since the New Yorker writer, Nick Paumgarten, is demonstrably a bit of a putz, as evidenced by his "think piece" on the 25mph speed limit.

So there you go.

Lastly, here's a brief history of Fred helmets to 1995:


After that, the sport basically just imploded.