Friday Group Ride #110
I am about to buy a new bike. Never mind which bike. It’s a bike that I will love. It’s the one I want the most right now. It’s another bike, but it’s a solution for a problem I didn’t know I had, but am now very concerned about.
Of course, I already have a bike for every reason I can think of to have a bike. I have five of them. I had more, but I gave some away, and I sold others to make room for new ones. They were all, at one time or another, the bike I wanted the most.
And because I’m like you, and you’re like me, there is always that bike, the next bike, and I am always having that internal conversation over which bike it should be and the follow on conversation about how I’m going to go about paying for it.
My latest idea is to sell my vinyl record collection. Let’s not discuss this part of the plan any further. My gatefold, lime-green version of Zen Arcade has been a prized possession since I was about 20. The idea that I am somehow “done with it” has already precipitated an ontological crisis I’m not yet emotionally prepared to share with you.
Moving on.
This week’s Group Ride is a pretty simple one: Of the bikes you own right now, which one is most important and why? Another way to think of the question is this: If you had to get rid of all the bikes you own but one, which would you keep?
I am not concerned with which bike might be the ideal, single solution to riding, racing, and commuting. We all know the answer to that question is a disc-brake cross bike with an internal hub, rear rack and dyno hub. Each of us will buy that bike next year when it makes up 65% of the new bikes on the market.
No. I want to know which of your bikes is most important to you, the one hanging in pride of place in the garage. Or maybe you don’t have a garage, and the bike lives inside with you. It’s house broken. Maybe you even have a nice wooden wall rack for it. That’s the bike I want to know about. Why is it where it is?
I love my Burls custom Ti road/touring bike, i love my marin MV 5.8.
I wouldn’t be happy to see any of them go, but if I only had ONE bike, it would be an MTB, a bike capable of riding rough ground in the woods and forests. It might not be the marin, it could well be the burls, but it would be capable of taking me away from the noise and pollution and cars. And people.
Out in the night, in the rain and in the sun. Out amongst the frosty bracken, the warm pines, the nodding bluebells, the singing larks, the silent deer.
I would be able to take me away, up to the mountain.
To solitude.
I could not sell any of them. I had to in the past to get the latest and greatest and now I find myself searching the internet to find what I had. Even when I sold them I had seller’s remorse. There will always be new bikes I want but I find a way to buy without selling. BTW I have been trying to find a 1986 Gitane Team Pro in blue with Campy Record in a 56. I still am made at myself for letting that one go.
I would keep my Surly CrossCheck, its made of steel, can carry racks/panniers, its a lovely brown color, and most important its the heaviest of my 5 bikes–thereby reminding me that its the rider not the bike–no matter what new or recycled technology I may be pining to own.
I like my Ritte Bosberg the best. As the Ritte ad in May/June Peloton says, “I should train more. or drink less. or eat better. Whatever. At least I look awesome.” Seriously, I like my Bosberg because it has made me a better rider. I’ve got four other bikes and they’re all fun, but the one I end up grabbing most is the Bosberg. But, I really think I need another bike. How am I going to convince my wife?
You should be ashamed of yourselves. Why are you breaching the code ? This is a dumb discussion idea.
Get rid of all but one !!?? Good god man – what if the women get onto this ???
Repeat after me … I NEED ANOTHER BIKE. (or)
…. HEY Honey, I just saved $1000 on this XXXXXX it was on sale ..
I guess my favorite bike is a Schwinn Prologue I got around 1988. It was a nice bike with Tange Prestige tubing, but I broke it in a crash. I got it repaired and turned it into my neighborhood clunker.
That frame received all my discarded parts, and now it has a nice blend.
Dura Ace 39-50 cranks and cartridge square taper BB, Campy Super Record seat post and rear derailleur, Dura Ace front derailleur, Chris King headset, Cinelli Grammo stem, Modolo brakes and anantomic bar, Dia Compe brake levers, Mavic G40 rims laced to 36 hole Shimano Ultegra hubs and a 14-32 mixed cassette, and the best: Turbo Matic 2 saddle, Specialized Tricross clinchers and a Campy bar-end right shifter.
It is my favorite because that is the one I use to play around with my kids. I guess that most people would love their most advanced or exotic bike, but when I think which is the one I look forward to the most… no questions, the clunker for a ride with the kids.
My first road bike. It’s a Giant “Team Edition” with a black and yellow paint job like a wasp. It’s too big for me, the rear hub is creaky and the seat post is pretty much fused but it was my first road ride, until that point no bike had ever propelled me faster or felt as unsteady.
Saying that I will probably try to get rid of it to make room for a new bike!
I once wanted a bike that would be stiff and strong. With looks that could kill and a ride quality of it’s own. A machine where an alchemy of speed and skill are one. Alas, my custom Magna, with cement filled tubes won.
The bike is where it is because I simply don’t have enough room in my small house to keep it & it gets ridden the least. I don’t ride it that often not because it isn’t awesome, but because it is only for the nicest, best days. It’s my Sunday cruiser, my always-polished, always-clean rollin’ machine.
I keep the bikes I ride often at my house while this one sits high on the wall in my riding pal’s garage. It’s in great company, as he has a stable of the nicest bikes I’ve ever seen in one place. It’s about a half hour ride from my place so when I need a fix I ride another bike out there, pull out the ladder, bring the bike down, blow off the pollen, and hit the road for awhile. Then I return, hang it back up, grab my other bike & head home with a huge smile on my face.
The bike is special because when my grandfather died my parents gave me a bit of money he left for his grandkids. My parents said, “Use it for something you don’t need, but something you’d love to have.”
A 1990 Tommasini Diamante with Columbus MultiShape tubing & Campagnolo C-Record gruppo. Yes, I’d like that. No I don’t need it. But, it’s the one that is most important to me. Irreplaceable, totally awesome, & riding it makes me think of the hours of work my grandfather put in as an airline mechanic to earn his money.
Great topic.
I have three bikes that fall into this category… a 1995 Serotta CSI that I rode and raced up to and through my peak fitness era (even though I was already in my 30′s)… a custom steel Curtlo MTB that my brother had made for me for my birthday, circa 2000… and my 1996 Caloi (Eddy Merckx) ex-team Motorola bike that belonged to George Hincapie. The frame followed the stout Columbus Max tube design, but was built with Titanium tubes (speced and welded by Merckx, drawn by Litespeed). The bike originally came from George with a prototype Shimano 9 speed group complete with hand scribed serial (reference) numbers on all the components and frame. The bike had seen some kilometers so I had it re-painted to a better than new state in 2000. I still have all of the original parts, but rebuilt it in 2010 with modern Dura Ace, etc.
I really enjoy the Curtlo because it is versatile, it fits well and will always be sentimental for me. But, the Caloi has such a history, looks, fits and rides great. So, if I had to keep one bike it would be the Caloi. That bike would be hard to replace and will represent a time period that transitioned us to what is now referred to Modern Cycling.
I’m a US expat living in Rome. I came here with one bike; a Moots Vamoots road bike. In the two years that I’ve been in Italy, I have justified purchasing four bikes. That’s one every six months. All finely crafted and beautiful. My wife says that if I buy one more, there will no longer be room for me. I love them all. But if I had to choose one, it would be my Vamoots; we’ve shared too much history.