Lifetime Achievement

Well, I must be about to retire or die, because CyclingTips have just run pretty much the entire story of my life:

Spare a thought, won't you, for my interviewer Peter Flax, who had to endure two (2) brutal hours on the phone with me:

His name is Eben Weiss, but most cyclists know him better as Bike Snob, a lacerating blogger and book author who has spent a decade taking aim at everything from the absurdity of fixie culture and the consumerist excess of roadies to the overearnest nature of racing fans and the slippery charm of Mario Cipollini. Contributor Peter Flax spent two hours on the phone with Weiss, discussing his early riding life, his emergence as a sort of cycling comedian, and his more recent pivot into advocacy. Here are highlights of that wide-ranging interview, presented in Weiss’ own words.

If you're on Twitter, here's his handle, so you might want to ask him #whatpressureyourunning when you're bored to death.

Anyway, many thanks to Peter and to Neal Rogers for making the best of what was clearly a very slow news day, and special thanks to my son Elliott who took that photo of me.  (Clearly he got his sick bike-handling skills from me, but the keen photographic eye must have come from his mom.)

Moving on, it's a beautiful day, and so in the spirt of being the very best cycling blogger I can be I said "Fuck that" and went out for a bike ride this morning--nothing special, just my usual 20-miler:

I'd have gotten out earlier but I decided to change the saddle on the wood bike.  See, it came with this Selle Italia job:

And while it wasn't causing me any scranial problems or anything like that I wasn't crazy about it, not least of all because it's got a cutout in it:

(If you read the CyclingTips feature you know I'm now a serious writer now, so I won't point out that this saddle looks a little bit like a vagina.)

Hey, what can I say?  When it comes to the road bikes I like my cleats fixed and my saddles solid, it's just the way I am.  So I switched it for this one, which in my opinion did at least as much for the bike's appearance as it did for my personal comfort:

See how the black and white colourwhey picks up the accents on the crabon fribé bar/stem combo?

Sure you do.

Of course changing a saddle is one of those things you always think is going to take five minutes but in reality ends up taking an hour because you've got to get everything just so, and that's what happened to me.  Otherwise I'd have been back earlier--or, more likely, ridden another ten miles.

Speaking of this bike, you'll recall that I'm allowed to ride it in accordance with the terms of my New Year's Resolution, and if you're wondering how that's been going here's your answer:


It also continues to be quite fun to ride, and with spring imminent I plan to really put this bike to the test and subject it to all manner of Feats of Fredness, for with its crabon wheels, lavish appearance and hefty price tag it is the wood-hewn embodiment of the mid-Fred crisis I'm currently experiencing.

So click on the crickets, read the CyclingTips article, and before you know it you'll be taking a refreshing nap.

You're welcome.