Also, for clarity’s sake, Bill said his stable is like a closet full of outfits and he has to choose which one to wear [use] any given day according to the Rules. My use of “Cute Bike Outfits” refers to Bill’s BIKES in his closet. Don’t come to me with actual bike clothing questions. I have no idea!
Bill Lindsay is a self-professed Bike Clothes Horse with a plethora of cute bike outfits being held captive to Bill Lindsay’s Arbitrary Rules that he cannot change. Bill Lindsay would have to go to Bill Lindsay to change the Rules, and not even Bill Lindsay is brave enough for THAT.
Leah Peterson, a known lover of cute bike outfits, and first-rate bossypants, is unafraid of her Big RivBros (well, maybe a little afraid of Bill Lindsay) and would like nothing more than to get into Bill Lindsay’s closet and rearrange his cute bike outfits and his mileage pyramid. She would like to move Bill’s Rocket Charlie to the top position, weight him down with some colorful bits, toss out a few of those imposters (several non-Rivs will have to go!) and replace them with a paddle of Platypuses in a rainbow of colors to really brighten Bill Lindsay’s Bike Outfits up and round it all out. Then she would like a photo shoot.
Fortunately for Bill Lindsay, Leah Peterson lives several timezones away and his closet is probably safe for now.
Leah
"How do you have the willpower to keep rotating bikes? If I have a rocket, I’m riding that one."
The answer is I'm not sure how I have the willpower; I just do. Grant once told me: "It must be hard being you". I guess I think about it the way a "clothes horse" thinks about a new outfit. No matter how cute that new outfit is, I'm not wearing it every day. I still pick my spots for when to wear it, and I'm definitely not forgetting about my other cute outfits, nor will I resist buying the next cute outfit.
I'm definitely a compulsive. For a minute there I had four new builds that were off-limits to ride. At the moment there are still three I can't ride. What I've got is a mileage pyramid. One bike is assigned to the 100 mile level of the pyramid, another assigned to 200 miles and so on. Twenty bikes cover 100 miles up to 2000 miles cumulatively on Strava. Above 2000 miles the steps are 200 miles each and there are two bikes up there: one assigned to 2200 miles and the current top of the pyramid is at 2400 miles. That's 22 bikes. I spread the use to get each bike to its assigned level, and I'm allowed some margin over that assigned level, but I won't bleed over to the next level up. That's a no-no. I'm very close to having all those slots filled: My Black Mountain Model Zero needs 48 miles, and my Crust Lightning Bolt Single Speed needs 45 miles. At that point, I add the 2600 mile level to the top of the pyramid and have a wide open stable to ride whatever I like.
The four other builds (22+4=26 bikes) waiting to be used included my Gallop. I have it at the 0 mile level, which means I can ride it, but not over 100 miles because then it would get up into the next level which is already occupied. There are three more bikes assigned to the -100, -200 and -300 levels, which are imaginary, so I can't ride them at all. When I get to ratchet up the framework, then one more bike will be unlocked. The other way to earn the privilege of riding another bike is to sell a bike and make a new vacancy in the pyramid.
Unlocking the stable is really close, but I'm stalled getting those last two bikes over the finish line: The ModelZero has a new drive train set up in the works, and I'm missing a critical part for another week or two. It's in the work stand disassembled. The Crust is stationed at my office in San Jose, and I don't get out there more than once a week, and when I do get to the office it's usually for full-days of meetings and such that make it hard to get out. I can still ride, because I can carefully use up that surplus that each bike carries. That surplus is over 2100 miles, so I can ride plenty and I can ride pretty much any of my bikes. The Gallop carries 88 miles of surplus. I can even do my next 200k brevet using up surplus miles: My Ebisu is assigned to 2200 miles, and it's at 2215 miles, so it is carrying 185 miles of surplus. I can use it for my May 200k, and still have 60 miles of surplus left over.
Don't blame me! I don't make up the rules! (said the person who literally made up the rules)
Bill Lindsay El Cerrito, CA
On Monday, April 14, 2025 at 2:30:15 AM UTC-7 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
A rocket! Pretty exciting! How do you have the willpower to keep rotating bikes? If I have a rocket, I’m riding that one. I don’t know if my Charlie is a rocket; it doesn’t have those tires and certainly weighs more than yours. I was hoping to ride him tonight in the club ride but they’re predicting 37 mph winds. I don’t think that will be fun and it might not even be safe, so we’ll see…
L I hinted that my Charlie Gallop might make its appearance in my rotation this weekend, and it has. I did not ride it up Mount Diablo, but I did ride it down into Berkeley and back. It is most definitely a rocket. Blazing fast down the hill on 700x38 Barlow Pass Extralight tires, and blazing fast up the hills in part because it's so darn light. It'll take a little getting used to the handling with a Jitensha bar, but the fit felt super natural.
I also hinted at a tweak or two, and one of those conceptual tweaks did happen. It turned out I needed a lightish 110BCD crank for a project, so I stole the Silver 3 crank off the Gallop for that application, and put on a White Industries VBC crank with a single 36T narrow-wide ring. That's a perfect match for the White Industries Titanium BB that was already on there, and it dropped ~15g. I don't have new photos yet.
Bill Lindsay El Cerrito, CA
On Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 5:39:41 AM UTC-7 Bill Lindsay wrote:
I've probably disappointed some people because I spent a ton of time talking about my Gallop build and have spent zero time talking about my Charlie Gallop gallops. That's because I haven't ridden it yet. It's not laziness or neglect or a lack of wanting to ride it. It's my weird self-discipline. I have a mileage framework with rules I entirely made up for myself, and the consequence is that I won't ride the Gallop until I can insert it into the framework, and I can't insert it into the framework until I make a spot for it, and the way I make a spot is by riding each of my other bikes to its assigned mileage level. The punch-line is that I'm just a few days away from having a spot for Charlie in my riding framework and then stuff can begin. One of the first things I'll do is gallop the Gallop up Mount Diablo, perhaps as soon as next weekend.
Meanwhile, independent from riding, there are always projects parading through my brain, and some of those thoughts end up happening in my work stand, and there is a real non-zero chance that Charlie is going to get a couple more unconventional tweaks.
Bill Lindsay El Cerrito, Ca
On Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 4:17:52 AM UTC-7 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
Hi Kat! I would have chosen the Roadini if the Charlie didn’t exist. The Charlie is, in size 53, lighter in tubing. And I love a dropped tube. Also the graphics and head badge and horses running along the chain stay are just YUMMY. And who doesn’t love that gold color?
The above all made it the winner.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/0NEP_PxVtP8/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to [email protected].
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/9dcda03f-2a03-4aa2-a511-44180e348003n%40googlegroups.com.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected].
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/0B01D209-E9E5-4075-92FC-2E471189FAA4%40gmail.com.
|
