While I’ve generally surrendered to taking the subway for commuting purposes these days, yesterday morning my train went out of service, and so I quickly pivoted and went “multimodal” by riding my bicycle to the nearest commuter rail station instead:
While only a mile and a half away, it’s a dramatic ride, taking me over the Cima Coppi of the Bronx and then dropping me precipitously down to the Hudson River’s edge:
The return trip is a steep, dark ride through twisty, crumbling backroads:
And I was pleased to have both my headlight…
…and my grimy triple:
Actually, that’s sort of a lie, I didn’t even use the grandparent ring.
In any case, further to yesterday’s post, unlike the STI-specific front derailleur on the Roadini the old French contraption on the Homer has no shaping whatsoever on the inner plate, and so it doesn’t care what size rings you use:
Also, in case you’re wondering, yes I know the bike is filthy, and no I don’t have any immediate plans to do anything about it:
Though when I do finally decide to clean it I’ll be sure to read a tutorial first.
In the meantime, I’ve got important projects demanding my attention, and now that the Roadini is nearing completion I’m preparing to move on to the Milwaukee:
Which, thanks to Ben’s Cycle, I will now be thoroughly re-modernizing:
Yep, that’s Shimano 105–when nothing but the most adequate will do. Now that I have more friction shifted bikes than most people have bikes I figured I might as well bring the Milwaukee right up to the minute…if by “up to the minute” you mean 2018. This particular component group is also historically significant in that I think it may be Shimano’s very last mechanical rim-brake racing drivetrain from 105 on up, so I’m counting on it increasing exponentially in value within the next 10 years.
But yes, fin de mécanique drivetrains are destined to become classics–maybe even as classic as the movie Quicksilver:
I was both amused and concerned to learn that car company Škoda maintains a website with the URL “WeLoveCycling.com:”
I was also offended that they call Quicksilver “the worst cycling movie of all time” and qualify that with a bad fixed-gear analogy:
I mean sure, Quicksilver is a bad movie, but it’s our bad movie. Show some respect! How I mean how about that opening scene with Nelson Vails?!?
Why is it that in the movies you can pay a cab driver to do anything and they’ll accept it without question? “Follow that car!” “Race that bike messenger!” “Come in and fix my toilet!” Alas, thanks to Uber, modern movies don’t get to fall back on this plot device anymore, which makes writing them far more difficult. Also, astute viewers will note that Vails performs and upshift before launching his attack…
…but we then see a close-up of a downshift:
Clearly the editor doesn’t know anything about bikes, though it is possible that maybe it was a low-normal derailleur and Vails got confused.
And of course there’s the beret, which Vails loses and Bacon wears when he becomes a bike messenger:
It’s a powerful symbol, either of embracing freedom and self-reliance, or of corporate types co-opting bike messenger culture, depending on how you look at it.
Say what you will about Quicksilver, but we’ll never see its like again, and I don’t see anyone making any romantic action thrillers about corporate types throwing it all away to ride for DoorDash anytime soon.
