The Canine Days

Typically on a Sunday morning there’s nothing higher than old school street experience…

…on old school street bike:

It’s my present “What, this outdated factor?” bike:

As a former semi-professional bike blogger who was related for a couple of months within the early aughts, I’ve an nearly grotesque number of bicycles from which to decide on; as such, I hardly ever experience the identical bicycle two days in a row. The truth is, whereas I’d by no means say so publicly, I discover the concept of using the identical bicycle two or extra occasions in succession to be slightly déclassé if not downright vulgar, like sporting post-Walton Rapha and using a Canyon with a pie plate:

[I mean I’m sort of kidding, anyway.]

On this specific weekend nevertheless I rode the Faggin no fewer than 3 times in a row–that’s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. (Sure, I take into account Friday the weekend; engaged on Friday can also be déclassé.) I’ve no clarification for why this was, apart from that generally I benefit from the thrum of a 23mm tire and the texture of a Campagnolo Ergo shifter beneath my thumb, and on this specific case it was sufficient to maintain me coming again for extra. And sure, by not licensing “Beneath My Thumb” by The Rolling Stones and fascinating Mick Jagger as a spokesman, Campagnolo missed out on what might have been an outstanding advertising coup for its thumb-centric Ergo shifters:

Certain, it will have price them like a gazillion {dollars}, however maybe in the event that they’d dug deep they’d be nonetheless be the preeminent drivetrain producer as a substitute of only a legacy model. Maybe SRAM would have countered by leveraging the “I contact you as soon as, I contact you twice…” line from Orchestral Manoeuvres within the Darkish’s 1986 hit “If You Go away” in an effort to promote their DoubleTap® know-how, however it will by no means have had the identical influence:

But right here we’re in 2025 and SRAM (to say nothing of Shimano) is consuming Campagnolo’s pranzo:

Look, generally you gotta spend cash to generate profits is all I’m saying.

Anyway, talking of street rides, this previous Friday I discussed a brand new bicycle and pedestrian bridge, and yesterday I rode my very own bicycle over that bridge for the primary time:

It was wonderful:

Sure, it lets you keep away from the doorway ramp to the New York State Thruway, however it’s brief, and in the event you’re touring north as I used to be you need to get throughout the roadway to entry it. Right here’s the Thruway, by the best way, and you may see the Tappan Zee Mario Cuomo Bridge within the distance:

As I gazed at it my ideas turned to the tip of summer time, for it’s this very route we are going to take once we head off on our annual end-of-summer trip. This after all raises the profound and vexing “Which bike do I take with me?” query, and it’s maybe the one time in the middle of the 12 months once I have interaction in something resembling soul-searching or introspection. And naturally since I used to be on a three-day Faggin jag I discovered myself questioning if I ought to simply deliver ol’ Pinky this time:

The thin tires and racy gearing would take sure routes off the desk, however hey, you by no means know.

Talking of introspection, have you ever ever yearned to see the internal workings of an e-Citi Bike? Nicely, because of the stolen Citi Bike graveyard that’s Yonkers, now you may!

Fascinating.