At Your Leisure

So the dangerous information is that until you received the giveaway Riv-away yesterday you didn’t win:

However the excellent news is that you would be able to nonetheless purchase your self some credit. That’s referred to as pulling your self up by your bootstraps…or by the straps of your wonderful Sackville bag:

[Photo: Rivendell]

By the best way, I don’t know the way many individuals who entered the Riv-away have been sociopaths, however I do know {that a} full 50% of them had first names starting with the letter “J,” which is outstanding, and all of the proof I would like that I fully personal the coveted Individuals-Who-Experience-Bikes-And-Have-First-Names-Beginning-With-The-Letter-J demographic.

Or, to place it one other means, when you personal a Rivendell and your first title is Jehoshaphat, I can nearly assure that you just additionally learn this weblog.

Talking of Sacked-up Rivendae, I rode this bike to fulfill with a reader yesterday:

Whereas it was leaning jauntily (“jauntily” is the world’s most overused adverb in the case of the act of leaning) on its kickstand outdoors the café, a younger fellow new to biking approached and was slightly effusive over it. “What sort of motorcycle is that?,” he wished to know. “Is it a highway bike?” That’s once I realized that bicycles have gotten to the purpose the place somebody youthful than 40 has most likely by no means seen a bicycle like this, at the least in actual life. Moreover, humanity not even has the phrases to explain a traditional, attractively-painted, sporty but versatile bicycle made out of steel. This consists of me, thoughts you, and I discovered myself blindly rummaging by the darkish, empty area the place different individuals have a mind for the suitable time period.

Finally I gave up, and replied with one thing like, “Yeah, positive, it’s mainly it’s a highway bike, roughly,” although fascinated by it now, I understand it actually doesn’t have a class. It’s only a bike. In actual fact, it’s most likely probably the most Simply A Bike of all my bikes, which is why I journey it as usually as I do, and why it’s as dirty as it’s. It’s sporty and quick like a highway bike, but it surely’s additionally snug. I don’t have to placed on any particular footwear to journey it, and it’s by no means over- or under-geared. It has a headlight in case I get caught in the dead of night, it has fenders in case I get caught within the rain, and it’s simply as suited to driving to the practice station as it’s to longer rides within the “nation.” Actually, the one factor it doesn’t have (at the least as configured) is racks to hold stuff, which I didn’t anticipate to should do on this explicit event, however then the reader I met was form sufficient to reward me a basic Silca flooring pump:

[Those things are real pussy magnets.]

Luckily I had minimal bother driving dwelling with it throughout my handlebars. (The pump, not the pussy.) Anyway, thanks, expensive reader, and it was a pleasure assembly you.

Transferring on, don’t miss your probability to immerse your self within the Essence of Colnago:

It has a real design language, that was designed…intentionally!

The multi-piece development additionally leads the C72 to have its personal “true design language”, the place the lugs turn out to be a function of the bike slightly than a element that’s hidden.

“The result’s a body that feels cohesive and refined – the place each interface is intentionally designed, not merely assembled,” Colnago says. 

I don’t know what any of meaning, however I do know I’m going for the one with the Shart wheels:

Now you’re talking my design language!

I wager with a motorcycle like that I might even sustain with a Spanish Gran Fondo:

Sure, as an American I can verify we’re usually amazed once we journey to different international locations the place individuals barely should work and we expertise what a lifetime of leisure seems to be like:

“This was a neighborhood one, simply outdoors of Girona referred to as ‘La Barroca’,” our US rider defined. “I like to recommend it when you’re ever within the space when it’s taking place. There’s two routes, I did the shorter one which is 90km and 1,230m (of climbing). We completed in 2hr 40 min, 33 kph avg. I by no means drove tempo, simply tried to outlive… these cyclists are constructed totally different!

“That is me merely surviving within the entrance group of a GRAN FONDO in Spain. Why are these individuals so match?”

Although on this explicit case I believe it was principally the medication:

Hey, no person mentioned leisure was straightforward.