Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Surf N' Turf

You'll be pleased to know that during a little upstate getaway this past weekend I finally found my new bicycle:


It was a bargain at $2,200:


Though of course I talked the shopkeeper up to three grand because buying expensive things makes me feel special.  You'll also note that it's a "signed edition," and while I have no idea by whom it was signed, this only contributes to its mystique.  Anyway, while the rest of you suckers pay city prices for your vintage wares, I'm upstate finding the real bargains.

Speaking of artisanal bikes, this past Friday I indulged in a ride on my hand-curated singlespeed mountain bicycle:


Not only that, but I did so after riding a bicycle with those curly-type handlebars like they use in the Tour de France earlier that morning.  Doubling up like that is something I hadn't done for quite awhile, and there are few things more satisfying than chasing a road ride with a mountain bike ride.  It's basically the cycling equivalent of ordering the surf and turf platter.  Cunningham Park in Queens is also an exceptionally enjoyable place to ride a singlespeed, and probably the most fun place in the whole city to ride a bicycle.  Sure, you won't get to justify your overwrought suspension bike or indulge in that Instagrammable bikepacking bro-down, but despite the park's diminutive size and manageable scale they just keep managing to add more trail in there which makes it the perfect place for a stress-free pop-in ride.  

Of course, to me it seems like only yesterday that the trails at Cunningham Park opened, but in fact it was way back in 2007, a simpler time when the fixies roamed free and cowardly anonymous bloggers emerged to cash in on the phenomenon by making fun of them.  Also in those days the 29-inch wheel was still cutting edge, and wide tires meant anything over two inches:


Now everything's 27.5+ and my singlespeed wouldn't even qualify as a gravel bike.

Nevertheless, I regret nothing.  Indeed I'm glad I preserved the platonic ideal of the mid-aughts 29-inch rigid singlespeed in amber by ordering a custom designer version of it, because I love riding them, and now that they're out of fashion they're getting harder and harder to come by.  I suppose for me it's because I'll always be this doofus:


Though I'm not quite enough of a doofus to go out and buy a BMX at my age.  

Yet.

Speaking of trends, a commenter recently alerted me to this:


And it's been hard not to notice that riding in sandals is now very much in fashion:

Ridiculous as that may sound, signs of change are a(bare)foot — beloved B-list Instagram cycle-touring celeb-influencer Ultraromance has done the seemingly impossible in raising Bedrock Sandals to a status of coolness in certain circles. Stranger things!

B-list?  I'd say Ultraromance is an A-lister by cycling standards.  Everybody knows the B-list is populated by retired pros and washed-up bike bloggers.  In any case, as a bit of an open-toed shoe apologist myself it's good to see people moving past the "OH MY GOD YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE ALL YOUR TOES!" attitude when it comes to riding bikes in sandals, flip-flops, or what have you.

Finally, congratulations to Manual For Speed for accomplishing the unthinkable:


Yes, somehow you managed to turn an interview with the world's most exciting pro cyclist into a video nobody could possibly sit through in its entirety.

Well done.

49 comments:

Watch and Camera Guy said...

Podium?

Jake said...

$2200? That's only a fifth of your wooden whip. I say snap it up.

Anonymous said...

DOOFUS.

asking for a friend said...

Of the two (road ride and not road ride), which is the surf and which is the turf?

CommentFred said...

Wildcat;

Submitted for your disapproval, someone selling traffic cones is now an internet safety expert:

https://www.trafficsafetystore.com/blog/who-causes-accidents/

About 1/3 the way down: "Who causes more accidents, Cyclist Vs. Drivers. Answer: Cyclists"

Dirk Montero said...

The one thing about SPD sandals that I have no use for is the SPD part. Platform pedals work just as well with sandals as they do with shoes. And riding in sandals is awesome.

Dirk

TheAntidoteProject said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dnk said...

You were right about the video. I couldn't even sit through the intro music.

Sheldon Brown said...

Biking in sandals? Yes, a good idea.

Paul de Vivie said...

Faire du vélo dans des sandales? Oui je suis d'accord.

JohnP said...

Snobby did I miss somthing? It is hard for a mortal human to keep up with your multi platform prodigious output, but I thought this was the year of only riding one bike. Did you ditch that plan. If this is another "exception" then you have a future writing IRS code. Your ability to create exceptions is only exceeded by your procreation of children.

Looking back on it all said...

Man how I miss the freedom of being 12 years old and riding all over town on my Schwinn Varsity (in yellow, of course). The zenith of my life.

dancesonpedals said...

Off topic: I just met the nicest people in the world.

EMS workers on a group ride to DC, spotted in VCP

Hal Kitzmiller said...

The kitchiness of the Manual for Speed crew has worn thin, although I don't think there was much meat on that bone when it began.

TheAntidoteProject said...

Maybe signed by Lorenzo Martone? Hey Lorenzo! What pressure you running?

N/A said...

That gold bike is a diarrhea-fest of cheap parts. I embiggened the picture and was looking it over and saw the scribbling on the crank arm. I suppose that's the "signature". Feh.



Your single-speed mtn bike is kinda' like a big-kids' BMX. Put some Klunker bars on it and wear Vans when you're riding it, and that's close enough.

Jack LaLanne said...

"I just met the nicest people in the world."

But not the fittest.

Dooth said...

That Sagan interview was a real test of patience. What an ordeal! And just to learn that Sagan reads Wilde. Mercx read Baudelaire. Coppi read Dante. Armstrong reads BSNYC.

leroy said...

My dog insists he did not leave the comment in the June 2007 BSNYC post from "Hair Replacement In Turkey," but I'm not so sure.

leroy said...

Are SPD sandals SPF compatible?

Asking for a friend...

With sensitive ankles.

Pist Off said...

Sandals on flat pedals are so nice on hot days. There’s about a hundred of those coming up soon.

Anonymous said...

sandals are stupid. Fuck sandals. I hate them. Where is the rest of your shoe, loser! who died and made you Jesus? Spartacus called, and he wants his shoes back! sandals are for old people and best worn with knee high black dress socks. If you're going to look like some kind of friggin doofus you might as well go all in. Fuck sandals.

BikeSnobNYC said...

Anonymous 2:57pm,

Well you read bike blogs so I'm sure you've got unerring fashion sense.

--Wildcat Etc.

E-Scaper said...

Made it as far as the 1st question where the interviewer starts talking taaacos and had to shut it off and agree w /u snobbie.As much as I like Sagan,He just doesn't interview well and probably does what we all would do if given the chance.Fuck with the guy asking the questions!

Anonymous said...

I thought adidas had some SPD sandals a while back but i could never find a pair.

N/A said...

If there's one small comfort of growing into middle-agedness, it's the comfort in knowing that it doesn't matter if you wear black dress socks with your sandals. And that sandals and flat pedals are rad on hot days, especially if ride alongside, say, a river. Also, and this is key, you need to carry beers. And maybe a burrito.

Anonymous said...

Sandals on bike are great until you accidentally scrape half your foot off, Peel off a Toe Nail, Get Sunburned feet or subject strangers to the funk of your sandals. Not sayin don't do it or I won't do it, but it's only a marginal difference compared to a worn in pair of Van's - Mas

Anonymous said...

I have to sympathize with those guys a little, because Sagan is notoriously hard to interview and they did better then most I've seen.
I used to ride in my Tiddies in 1981!

http://www.mytiddies.com/home.php?cat=283


-Mas

bad boy of the south said...

My eyes hurt looking at that golden bike.
Soeaking of knee high dress socks,what's the deal with the running freds and their knee highs?in my running days i didn't run in anything higher than mid calf.perhaps I'm a curmudgeon... could be.two years shy of sixty today.

Pro Growth said...

There's a Big Ripper there for you!

I think the name comes from the farting noises it makes.

@anonymous 3:49 - Grow a pair!

Chazu said...

For the first time in a long time, I was outta the door at 5:50AM today for a curvy-handlebar pre-work bike cycle ride and dammit, this blogular location and the accompanying commentariat had something to do with it.

Mid-life Fredly relapses aren't so bad after all.

Anonymous said...

Here in Hawaii, riding in slippers (what you call flip-flops) is pretty common for transportation cyclists. But slippers are common in any context here. Sandals are "formal wear". Meanwhile dockless electric scooters are the latest menace to all society here.

Anonymous said...

O' feck! after sixty years I am going to be trendy wearing sandals to ride. I used to wear what are called trainers, some sort of oxymoron there I think, but had to give them up when that became the new thing! As I said, o' feck.

wishiwasmerckx said...

BBOTS, those knee-highs you see the runners wearing are actually compression socks or compression sleeves.

You are supposed to be able to run further (and farther) with less fatigue and quicker recovery.

Genuinely therapeutic or placebo effect? Hard for me to know.

This much I do know. Compared to, say, ice hockey, running is stupid inexpensive in the equipment category, so if marketers can upsell you to separate you from more of your green fun rectangles, then by G-D, they're a-gonna do it.

wishiwasmerckx said...

P.S. Should I be worried that captcha always wants me to select store fronts?

Perhaps my wife is correct. Perhaps my shopping obsession has grown out of control.

The first step on the path to recovery is to admit that you have a problem.

Thanks for the free psychotherapy, BSNYC.

Anonymous said...

BTW, the pic for that SPD sandals story features Look-style pedals.

Anonymous said...

What!?! No gold pedals on your upstate find?

HDEB said...

Ride barefoot : )

Unknown said...

Grant Petersen has eschewed the sandel for years, kooky that's is now trendy .what's next? Wool underwear?

Paul Heckbert said...

The color combination (gold, red, silver) on that $2,200 bike is ugly!

bad boy of the south said...

wiwm,thanks for clearing up the knee high socks issue for me.

Adam said...

Yoo Snob, what's up with that brake lever angle?

BikeSnobNYC said...

Adam,

I don't know, what's up with it? Is it different than the brake lever angle on your bike? If so, perhaps that's because it's not your friggin bike.

Does that help clear things
up?

--Wildcat Etc.

Anonymous said...

According to the Vancouver police department, in Vancouver something like 90% of bicycle/motor vehicle collisions are the fault of the motor vehicle driver.

Day Late said...

Scranus and weed and such

Chris P said...

Does your vocabulary reflect your education? Idiot.

Some guy from upstate said...

Upstate getaway? And you didn't stop by? I'm like, right there. I assume you were here for the tulip festival.

And I recommend you put your brake levers wherever you want.

DR said...

Bmx is even complicated these days. You’d have to consider the merits of 20, 22, and 24 inch wheels.

Anonymous said...

I watched the whole interview... but it's only because I really dug the interviewers shirt.