WHy is ThIs TItlLE BoUNCinG aLL OveR Oh Now I See I Had The Clutch Lever Switched Off

Hey there!

So what day is it?

Eh, whatever, it doesn't matter.

When last we spoke I'd been taking advantage of the dry/frozen conditions to ride the Jones:

On that particular Thursday, rather than ride the Forbidding Trails Behind The Mall, I continued north on the Old Croton Aqueduct to a small town park:

Which is pleasantly scenic: 

And also contains some fun trails:

A 30-ish mile mixed bag of dirt, pavement, and singletrack, it was the perfect ride for the Jones and exactly the sort of riding you should be doing in January in this part of the world.

Then Friday brought a dusting of snow, which meant more perfect conditions for plus-sized tires, so I met up with a friend for jaunt to the Highbridge trails in upper Manhattan:

Astute readers may have noticed Ol' Piney in the background, and you will be either pleased, saddened, or indifferent to learn that I have transferred custody of said bicycle to said friend.  I'll always love the Marin, but as someone with too many bicycles it made little sense for me to have two similarly-configured 27.5+ bicycles, plus the Marin happens to fit my friend's current needs perfectly.  This way everybody wins, and the world is a better place.  

So thank you Ol' Piney:

You will always be the bicycle that sparked my affection for plus-sized tires, and I know you will be happy in your new home.

Of course, given my demonstrated inability to pare down when it comes to bikes, it probably won't surprise you to learn that as soon as the Marin left my stable another bike rushed in to fill the void.  And since as of last year I'm a born-again Fred who has returned to sucking at bike racing, I've gone ahead an obtained a new road-racing bike.  So what did I get?  Well, I'm not going to tell you right now, for no other reason apart from the fact that my ability to withhold information from you is the only real leverage I have in the writer/reader power dynamic.

Nevertheless, I deemed it necessary to get a new racing bike because the other road-type bicycles I have were sub-optimal for the purpose.  There's the Milwaukee, which of course is fantastic, but which I prefer to keep configured with either fenders for winder riding or plump, soft tires for summer rambling:

Then there's the Renovo:

I did most of my "racing" (if you can call it that) on the Renovo last year, but it's a little short of gear and tall of headtube for that application.  Also, much more frustratingly, it's got that one water bottle cage on the seat tube.  (Or seat trunk since we're talking about a bike made from trees.)  I've mentioned this on numerous occasions, and for mellow rides that placement is perfectly fine, but when you're hunched over the bars and clinging desperately to the wheel in front of you it's roughly a thousand times more annoying to grab a bottle from the seat tube than it is to grab one from the down tube.

And of course there's the Ritte Rust-Bucket:

The problem with that bike is simple: it needs a complete rebuild.  I did most of my early spring riding on the Ritte last year, which included ample helpings of rain, snow, slush and road salt.  That, coupled with my tendency to neglect stuff, meant that by mid-April the bike was totally fucked.  Currently I have it stripped almost down to the frame, and I will likely delve into my parts bin and rebuild it, but when I get around to doing that is anybody's guess.

So instead of doing actual labor I did what any terminal Fred would do and got a new bike.

As for the attributes of the new bike, it's a stock out-of-the-box crabon model, and while I've only had one proper ride on it so far all indications are that it's excellent and that I won't have to change a thing.  Even the saddle seems like it'll work for me.  In fact this new bike feels way faster than any of my other bicycles--which, thanks to Strava, I know is not at all true.  And while succumbing to the crabon may indicate a certain lack of character on my part, at least the bike still has primitive rime breaks and cable-actuated shifting, which I like to think lends me...well, if not integrity, than at least an air of obstinance.

Also, everybody knows aluminum is the new crabon, so in that sense I'm a total retrogrouch.

So I guess what I'm saying is go out there and get yourself a new bike, because you deserve it.