This is the treatment I’ve been subjected to this year. Next thing you know I’ll be as bad as him, riding around with my busted kickstand plate.
Sent from my iPhone On Nov 10, 2022, at 8:36 PM, Joe Bernard <joerem...@gmail.com> wrote:
The lock is touching your (not a) toptube! On the Raspberry Racer!!! I can't look. I'm not looking 🙈 On Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 3:09:50 PM UTC-8 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
There’s something really appealing to me about keeping track of the mileage on your Rivendell, and seeing how far it takes you. Pam has close to 69,000 miles on her Betty and I want to know how that feels to have traversed so much ground together. I bet any other bike she throws a leg over feels foreign. And then that makes me want to preserve the bike as best I can, because nothing else will do, so I must keep it close and keep it nice. And therein lies the vicious, precious cycle.
Today I rode with the other Riv Rider in my city, and we stopped for lunch. There was no bike rack so we locked our bikes together and u-locked my wheel. “It will take a truck to move these bikes,” he said. But as he wrapped his Abus Bordo around my top tube, he noticed my grimaced _expression_. He said it would be fine and it was. I’m working on it, people! I ride my Rivendells for almost everything, but I'm not going to lock them up outside a grocery store or a bar. Or an outdoor music festival, like Austin City Limits with 75,000 people. I have my beater for those things.
The Rivs get 99% of all the riding I do. They get rode hard and put away wet. Grant needent fret.
Jim Austin suburbs, TX Did you read Grant’s Blahg? He covers a lot of ground, but most notable to me was the Please Don’t Be Precious About Your Rivendell section. In sum, Grant is saying it saddens him to think of people riding beater bikes instead of their Rivendells to do daily, monotonous tasks - because those tasks make up a lot of real life. If one “saves” their Rivendell, it will not realize its potential, sit mostly unused and then pass to one’s heirs who will sell it in “near mint” condition on EBay, and how sad. What was the bike for?
I have found myself both guilty and innocent on the matter. My #1 favorite bike is my raspberry Platypus. I ride it all the time, because I bought it to ride it, but I also dread any harm coming to it, and I do guard it from that. I got a second Platypus that I dedicated to shopping and traveling with and promised not to be precious about it. But now and then I still am tempted to backslide. When traveling to the Philly Bike Expo I dithered about which bike to bring. I didn’t want my raspberry Platy damaged while locked up at racks and I feared it being stolen. Roberta said, “I don’t think you have a choice, Leah. That’s the bike people will expect you to bring.” And she was right, and I did.
Then, there is Pam. Pam is at the other far end of the spectrum. Her bike is a model of beausage. Innumerable paint chips and little spots of rust cover her tiny Betty frame. Her Backabike bags are full of holes and the elastic closures are worn out. She locks it up and never worries about it. She did not obsessively stare out the restaurant window to see if it was still locked to the rack while we were at dinner (like yours truly). But she loves her bike, has real affection for it. She looked at me, eyes shining, and said exactly that. Ana, PurpleRiv, is another good example to us. She adores her bike, but has not spared it from hard work. Her bike has hauled obscene loads and taken her everywhere. I remember there was that one fateful camping trip for she 1. Posed it for a photo, only to have it topple and slide down the face of a boulder next to it. I believe she said she sat there and wept for 2 hours over her Joe Bell paint. And who among us would not do the same? 2. Same trip, another photo op, and the bike fell off a cliff.
So, who truly loves their Rivendell? The one who lavishes it with care and protection? Or the one who pulls it out of the garage and into all of life - the mundane and the adventurous?
On one end of the spectrum we have those who will only take a Rivendell out for special occasions so as not to spoil it, and on the other…well, we have Pam and Ana, who will give it a good thrashing. (Oh, don’t take it personally, friends, I’m being funny about both types of owners.)
I find myself wanting to be precious but fighting it and succeeding *most* of the time. I’m lucky that the raspberry paint hides beausage and dirt, so it looks pretty new. But a dent in the top tube or a large chip in the paint would really hurt my feelings. Heaven help me.
Where are you on the spectrum? What words of wisdom might you have? What strategies do you employ? Do you want to change? Or are you unapologetically staying put on the matter? It might be fun to hear perspectives. Leah
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