it’s too easy to add more shit things, so here’s some yin from me too:
steel perkins road frames with modern groupsets (jeremy’s!) - actually, perhaps all perkins frames, cause benzy’s looks freaking hot too. mavic ellipses on the street. low flange hubs laced to low profile rims. chrome chris king headsets. campbell’s gold bars that have had the anodizing worn off them. i like a little wear and tear on a frame - a touch of road patina adds class, like on tara jayne’s rensho. tom hall’s bike (stickers!). road drops. the old white-on-black hillman logo [actually, like hiz has (had?) on her bike]. bikes that fit the rider. bikes that look ridden. bikes that get ridden. cyclists who wave hello to other cyclists.
nods from other cyclists (and nodding back) - esp when you are out in the sticks on a good stretch of road
coming home muddy after a good trails ride (x100 if you are with mates who are equally muddy)
old guys who ride nice old bikes and look like they have done so for a while
good cadence
a well done wheelie
on-bike high fives as you pass people
the burn in your legs when you come back from a good, hard ride
taking a different route on a regular ride and discovering something rad
How’s this for weird. I’m an atheist and a total skeptic, so poo poo superstitions as ya would.
But I’ve got these 2 personal superstitions that i’m a slave to. #1 Always put the right shoe, boot ,sandal whatever on first.If , and I rarely do put on the left one first, then I take it of and start over with the right one. #2 always the left glove first.
Goes back to my motorcycling days in late teens when I got my road licence.
My rational brain tells me that messing with this regime will not mean diddly squat, as there is no universal importance or divine luck placed on such innocuous habits.But do you think i can bring myself to test it?
I’m fucked up,… I know.
What I like the most is seeing kids on bikes. That gives me hope for cycling into the future.2 wheels is the bestest fun a kid can have.
Superstition:
Gloves on last, always, so that I never forget them.
Negative:
Unplugged bars. Go tapeless all you want, but don’t fucking bodyplug yourself when drunk and then use my taxpayer dollars in the hospital because you couldn’t put the corks from your passion pop into your bar ends
The word “hipster”. Can we get over it?
Positive:
Watching someone get overtaken and give it the freaking beans to try and stay on the overtaker’s wheel, whether or not it succeeds
Hill climbing on one-gear bikes (fixed or SS)
Track bikes actually being used on a track
People slowing down to chat to you when you’re on an early morning ride
People stopping to ask if you’re all good when you’ve flatted
The Bad Hi Viz knob heads who want to suck you wheel
The Good anyone who enjoy’s there bike and keeps me employed fixing them
Habit Modifying any bike I ride
I can’t believe no one has said this already. Pet Peevs: Douche bags riding SS with only a front brake (esp when they’re riding a conversion or ‘fixie/SS’ and have wilfully removed the back brake). EIDIOTS. I have two friends that do this and I just wanna SLAP EM!
+1
Tom. Is he talking about you?!
I am so wearing my Hi Viz and riding <1cm off your back wheel on our next ride, You just wait Slinky
Pet peeves:
Front brake only single speeds (the rung below recumbants)
Flat bar roadies in full team kit
Squeaky chains with full team kit
Commuters that rings their fucking bells at everything
Guys that ride with their knees out at right angles
Cyclists that bitch about other cyclists
Not using the ‘search’ function
