Straightforward Come, Straightforward Go – Bike Snob NYC


Again in Might, I used to be the fortunate recipient of a Marinoni, which I set about rehabilitating to one of the best of my meager talents:

The top outcome was a bicycle I very a lot loved driving:

However as I’m doing my finest to maintain the entire variety of bicycles I personal in test I in the end determined to public sale it and give the proceeds to the Star Monitor Biking program, as they had been elevating cash to ship children to Junior Monitor Nationals:

It ain’t a lot, however I ain’t a lot of a human being, and promoting beat-up bikes I obtained totally free and freely giving the cash is about as philanthropic as I get.

“So who received the bike?,” you’re in all probability not questioning. Properly, it was some man from upstate who chances are you’ll know from the feedback as “Some Man From Upstate,” and this previous weekend he got here downstate to gather his prize. Out of respect for his privateness I shunned sticking a digital camera in his face to seize the second, so as an alternative right here’s a random image of somebody receiving an award:

The plan was to do the ceremonial Passing On Of The Bicycle after which go for a trip, so we headed over to so-called “River Highway,” the favored roadie route proper throughout the George Washington Bridge:

[River Road in autumn]

After days of rain the climate was positively spectacular, however we quickly discovered the onerous means that River Highway was closed, which I might have identified had I believed to test beforehand:

Normally when River Highway is “closed” you simply go across the limitations and maintain driving, however this was dangerous sufficient they’d individuals standing there to show you away and every part:

Clearly we completely might have ridden that on gravel bikes, however since we had been on mere highway bikes we rotated and as an alternative headed over the mighty Excessive Bridge and into the Bronx for an impromptu tour of town’s most chronically obstructed bike lanes:

[The High Bridge many, many years ago]

On the conclusion of the trip I then tried to persuade him to take George Plimpton’s Y-Foil As a substitute, however being possessed of unusual restraint he insisted on sticking with the Marinoni:

[Subtlety On Wheels]

That is in all probability factor, since there’s clearly a marketplace for George Plimpton memorabilia:

And absolutely his Y-Foil will solely proceed to extend in worth till in the future I’ll do an public sale with Traditional Cycle and we’ll use the proceeds to construct Star Monitor a model new indoor velodrome which we’ll name the “Plimptonium:”

[Architectural plans for The Plimptonium, a.k.a. “The House That Wife Oil Built”]

However pending that, because of Some Man From Upstate for not solely serving to Star Monitor but additionally liberating up a slot on my bike rack and bringing my whole variety of traditional lugged metal highway racing bicycles all the way down to a extra manageable two, these being the Faggin:

And naturally the Cervino:

Of the 2, the Cervino is the (largely) period-correct one, and being barely bigger than the Faggin it affords me a considerably extra age-appropriate driving place:

Because of the voluminous tubular tires it floats over just about every part:

And whereas it could be missing within the low gear division the refreshing simplicity of working a six-speed friction drivetrain with one hand makes up for it:

Six-speeds are the brand new singlespeeds.



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