Yesterday I confessed to inentionally stoking worry of a battery-powered, digital biking future during which metal bikes with rim brakes stop to exist. However how can I not when it’s changing into just about unimaginable to discover a regular street bike? And if you happen to’re questioning what a “regular street bike” is, right here you go:
See that? Regular! It’s metal. It takes mechanical elements. It makes use of quick-release axles. It’s fairly racy and you may trip as quick as you need on it, however you can even set it as much as be snug as you’d like, and it has medium-reach brakes in case you need to use wider tires or fenders. It’s NORMAL.
Sure, there’s the odd firm that will get manner an excessive amount of credit score for nonetheless providing token racy metal street bikes that use rim brakes and are made out of metal (regardless that they principally promote bikes with dick breaks), like Ritchey:
And sure, as a fan of racy rim-brake street bikes I actually acknowledge that it seems like a really good bike:
However it has short-reach brakes, an built-in headset, and a plastic fork–which is okay! Particularly on a racy street bike. In reality a number of the bikes I’ve loved using probably the most through the years have had a number of of these attributes:
Nonetheless, the explanation I now not have that Litespeed however I do nonetheless have the Milwaukee is that the medium-reach brakes particularly make the bike a lot extra helpful, and with completely no drawbacks. I imply I assume a medium-reach brake may be a tiny bit flexier than a short-reach brake, which you don’t discover. It’s additionally a tiny bit heavier, which you additionally don’t discover. But it’s the distinction between becoming 32mm tires with ease if you happen to really feel prefer it versus possibly 25mm or presumably 28mm if you happen to’re fortunate–plus there’s nothing stopping you from utilizing these previous 23s or 25s on a motorcycle just like the Milwaukee anyway, if you happen to’re like me, you might have a bin or two stuffed with them out of your racing days, and also you sort of like using skinny tires typically as a result of they create the phantasm of pace regardless that they’re not likely any quicker while additionally being extremely impractical. (It’s sort of like stuffing your self right into a pair of tight denims in a comical try to reclaim your youthi.)
That’s why after I moved some bikes alongside again in 2024 (which turned out to be an train in futility since I’ve acquired at the least three new bikes since then), the Litespeed went however the Milwaukee stayed. Even within the rim brake days medium-reach street bikes had been considerably scarce, and now that it’s 2025 and more and more the one choices are restricted runs of boutique bikes* I’m taking this one to the grave** with me.
*Sure, after all there’s the much-vaunted Roadini, however that’s a long-reach brake bike and subsequently extra-normal:
And no, I don’t really feel the necessity to justify proudly owning each the Milwaukee and the Roadini. One’s my common street bike and the opposite is my deluxe street bike. Mainly, the Milwaukee has all the things I want, however the Roadini with its lugs and fancy paint and extra clearance and extra snug match is all the things I want and extra:
**This isn’t to be taken actually, for when the Cassette Of My Soul is lastly indifferent from the Freehub Of Existence, I cannot be buried, I can be donating my physique to an unnamed firm that makes use of human bones in its tire sealant.
Anyway, this was the Milwaukee simply previous to its most up-to-date replace, earlier than the Roadini assumed its function as my plump-tired, friction-shifted all-around street bike:
And right here it was again in 2015 after I first received it:
That’s mainly the way it got here from Milwaukee apart from the tires and the saddle, and in reality the saddle that’s on there now’s the unique one which the Cambium changed
After divesting myself of the Litespeed and a number of other different bikes I figured I’d reconfigure it as a contemporary (by my requirements) street bike, although I nonetheless felt prefer it was lacking just a little one thing till I added this sticker yesterday:
That’s irony, after all, as a result of the bike is Shimano by means of and thru:
Proper right down to the hubs:
Total I proceed to favor friction drivetrains at this stage in my biking life. I’m not racing and even making an attempt to maintain up with anyone so I couldn’t care much less if I mess up a shift once in a while, I benefit from the really feel and the method of shifting levers up and down, and I particularly get pleasure from with the ability to use no matter cassette I really feel like no matter speeds. However it’s nonetheless enjoyable to return to built-in shifters, and the 105–which mainly represents the tip of of the street for mechanical rim-brake street bike shifting from Shimano–works very, very properly:
In reality it really works so impressively properly that it’s actually exhausting to think about why anybody who’s not knowledgeable racer may desire a system that requires a battery. Then once more I even have a tough time imaging why you’d need the kind of street bikes they’re promoting right this moment as a substitute of 1 you possibly can simply breathe new life into each decade:
Although as this represents the final of the mechanical street teams I suppose from right here on in it is going to be built-in shifters from the elements bin…or I’ll simply return to friction finally.
