Hey, would you look at that? It's Wednesday already!

As I mentioned yesterday, I managed to work an all-terrain bicycle ride into my day, for which I selected my Marin Pine Mountain 1 (though currently the equivalent bike is simply the "Pine Mountain," and it's green):

It occurred to me as I rode that it's now been just a month shy of two years since I've taken delivery of this bike, I figured I'd update you on matters, since ostensibly this is a bike blog and bikes bikes bikes.  (Also I resent the "review once and forget" approach employed my the rest of the cycling media.)

Here's the bike as I received it:

And here it is now:

It is, I feel compelled to point out, my second-heaviest grey and orange bicycle:

Though both bikes also share in common the fact that the last thing you're thinking about when riding either of them is the weight.  Indeed, here's what I consider a truly complete day of cycling:

1) Deposit human child at Apple factory via WorkCycles;

2) Switch to Ol' Piney for some all-terrain bicycle cycling;

3) Switch back to WorkCycles to collect human child from Apple factory.

Of course I could probably accomplish all of that without the bike switches if I did something like this:

But by the time I actually got around to it my kids would be grown up and there's be no need for it anyway, and with all that time on my hands all my repressed bike-weenie tendencies will finally come gushing out and I'll put together some absurd high-end bicycle that I'll be too old and tired to ride.

It's the Circle of Fredness.

Anyway, besides the obvious stuff like "Is this bike good for the kind of riding I wanna do?" the most important question when considering a new bike is "Is the stuff on it crappy or not?".  Well, in the case of this bike, overall the answer is "not," and here's everything I've changed and why since taking delivery:

--Saddle (personal preference and because I have many lying around);

--Seatpost (no other reason except I was changing the saddle anyway and I had a Thomson which is what all the cool people use, though I guess now all the cool people use droppers, goddamn it I'm still such a loser);

--Bottom bracket (wore out pretty quickly but it's a standard threaded BB shell so no big deal);

--Crank (I swapped the worn bottom bracket with a Shimano one I had and it was not a perfect fit with the stock crank so I swapped it with a Shimano one I had);

--Stem (I needed an extra centimeter in the cocking pit);

--Grips (I enjoy the labial-esque support of Ergons, whaddya want, and again all of this is stuff I have lying around anyway);

--Tires (I liked the stock Schwalbes though the sidewalls did seem to wear pretty quickly.  I'm now using WTB "summer fatbiking" tires which I purchased because they were the cheapest 27.5+ tires I could find.  This is the criteria I use when purchasing all my mountain bike tires and it has yet to fail me.  The tires on my artisanal Engin singlespeed cost four (4) dollars each and my only regret is buying four and not twenty.);

--Rear brake pads.

So really, the only things I've needed to change were wear and personal fit items which you'd change on any bike--oh, right, except for one major thing:

There was a recall on the original fork.  But it wasn't a big deal.  I just kept riding until the new one came, then I swapped it in about five minutes.  It's bikes, and recalls happen.  In fact there's a recall on my Brompton right now:

VOLUNTARY RECALL NOTICE

FAG Bottom Bracket cartridge BB66 (April 2014 – May 2017) 

My understanding is they're going to replace it with one that has a more politically correct model name.

(Hey, it means cigarette in the UK, just a simple misunderstanding.)

As for stuff I would want to change on the bike, I admit I've been considering doing something like this:

Oh sure, they're ugly as hell, but I'd argue there's no such thing as an attractive mountain bike.  Also, while you might think the fat tires would be sluggish on anything but technical terrain, the fact is that the Pine Mountain invites long rides, and I've done some fairly ambitious dirt outings (by parent-with-limited-time standards) on this thing.  And when I have, the only thing I've really wanted for is more hand positions.  I also think that after, say, two hours my wrists and hands would be happier at more of an angle.

I should probably also get a frame bag or two so I can take advantage of the bike's liberal bosses instead of wearing a backpack.

Anyway, this bike's been a pleasure to ride on everything from the technical (at least for me) trails of Blue Mountain to the flat dirt trail that connects me to the various parks with trails in the area, and it wasn't long after receiving it that I determined my hardtail redundant and put it in storage until such time as one of my offspring can avail themselves of it.  Between this and my singlespeed I've pretty much got it covered, and all without having to resort to suspension or other frippery.

And there it is.

I guess what I'm saying is that for all my griping about how there are too many kinds of bikes I think the current crop of rigid metal bikes with fat-but-not-insanely-fat tires is a very good thing.

Moving on to news of international Fred-dom, the French take cheating in amateur bike races really seriously:

An amateur cyclist in France has reportedly been caught using a hidden motor during a Category 3 race in the Dordogne.

The 43-year-old man, who has not been named, is said to have been in the sights of France's national anti-doping agency, the Agence française de lutte contre le dopage (AFLD), for some time.

You'd think involving the police in some Frédéric's ebike scheme would be like having the IRS audit your kid's piggy bank, but apparently that's how they operate over there:

State prosecutor for  Périgueux, Jean-François Mailhes, said: "We were advised by a representative of the AFLD of suspicions of [technological] fraud using an electonic system, in other words a little motor."

After the motor was found in the bike following the race, the rider was interviewed by Gendarmes, who are now trying to piece together his racing history and identify any prize money he may have won due to the illegal assistance.

Clearly the FFC (which I believe stands for "French Fred Coalition") wants to nip this thing in the cliché:

"This wasn't an overnight operation," said the president of the French cycling federation (FFC), Michel Callot.

"My fear is that we'll find a lot of this kind of cheating in the amateur ranks because the technology is becoming accessible and we don't have the same means of detection as in professional cycling."

Just goes to show how subjective our respective existences are.  Legions of e-doping Freds is Michel Callot's greatest fear, whereas it's my wildest fantasy.  Amateur doping among middle-aged cyclists is delightfully satisfying in the same way that watching a stiff breeze carry away someone's toupée.

Finally, here's some moto-doofus in Denver yammering on about cyclists:


In the course of an eight-minute video he manages to catch two cyclists rolling slowly past a stop sign in a manner that poses no threat to either them or anyone else, and while he's blathering on about how he's qualified to deride cyclists because he's "one of them" someone in a Hummer does exactly the same thing:

Putz.

I have to go and ice my brain now.