Spring is right here in all its glory, so there’s no hazard of skinny ice:
Nevertheless, once I’m on the Normcore Nostagia Bike there’s hazard of skinny tires:
These posed no drawback, however after years of compact crank use the 42×24 “low” gear felt slightly burly, and when you think about what when new this was a mid-level bike marketed to “fanatic” sorts you start to grasp that we’re getting collectively weaker as a society. Certainly, at this time a comparably priced (in at this time’s {dollars}) Trek street bike comes with a luxuriously low 34×32:
So I don’t suppose it’s in any approach an exaggeration to say that each single drawback dealing with America at this time stems from the truth that we’ve been coddled by wide-range gearing, built-in shifting, high-volume tires, and disc brakes.
So yeah, no ice this time of 12 months, however there’s flooding. Right here is the mighty–and mightily swollen–Noticed Mill River which, after two straight days of heavy rain, has burst its banks and subsumed not solely the South County Trailway however this unlucky porta-potty:
With my daintily-tired bicycle I dared not try and trip by way of it, however I did briefly think about using the porta-potty as a canoe and floating downriver.
Talking of “previous” bicycle expertise, this bike makes use of a threaded headset. The opposite day a reader talked about the Chris King Headset Composite Index, and I’m afraid to inform you it’s been blown all to bits by this $700 (!) threaded titanium quantity:
Some individuals argue Chris King headsets are value each penny as they final roughly endlessly with zero consideration. Others say they’re overpriced and overbuilt and that loads of different headsets final roughly endlessly with zero consideration whereas costing a fraction as a lot. However regardless of the place you stand, you’ll little question agree that the titanium taste of Chris King headset was totally ridiculous. Not solely did it price far more than its already indestructible aluminum counterpart, however I’m fairly positive it was additionally heavier. I’ve solely ever seen one titanium headset within the wild; it was on a Merlin, due to course it was. Nevertheless, I admit to being fascinated by the thought of the titanium Chris King as an funding car, because it clearly capabilities principally like gold bullion, but on the similar time, like Bitcoin, it’s past the management of governments and monetary establishments. See, within the occasion of some kind of international calamity it might be simply transported throughout worldwide borders duty-free as you might set up it on a Walmart bike or one thing, and until the customs agent was a complete Fred no person can be the wiser.
Hey, beats smuggling stuff in…different locations.
Sure, between the Chris King Headset Composite Index (CKHCI) and the PistaDex we are able to acquire great perception into the financial system, however should you’re on the lookout for a easy pump-and-dump penny inventory scheme you might all the time speak up some low cost bike to be able to drive up their worth on the used market then money out earlier than the inevitable crash. Proper now ’89 1200s are at 450:
If I can get them as much as $1K then I can promote, roll that over right into a Titanium GripNut, and nonetheless have greater than the unique worth of the bike in liquid property.
Prepare for some fawning posts about its lateral stiffness and vertical compliance and the misplaced artwork of fabricating bikes out of bonded aluminum…
