28 January 2012

As Good As A Tree...Or A Colnago?

One of the most parodied (and most eminently parodyable) poems in the English language is Joyce Kilmer's "Trees."


Hmm...Even though I know it wouldn't have fit the meter or rhythm of the poem, it might've been better if he'd written, "I think that I shall never see/A bikestand as good as a tree."




Certainly a parking meter isn't quite as nice a stand--although it's a lot easier to loop a chain around it:




The paint job tells me someone was trying to make that bike unattractive to thieves.  However, if that was the owner's/rider's intention, something else on the bike counters it:




Now, if you're going to so much trouble to make the bike unappealing, why would you announce, in screaming red letters, that it's a Colnago?


Of course, the bike is not a Colnago. (I know; I owned and raced on one and have seen many others.) Could it be that it's some kind of post-modern irony (translation: a joke)?  Could this cyclist be saying, "Ha, ha, it's not a Colnago?"

Who'd've thunk it--putting the Colnago name on a bike would make it less valuable?  What if people put Mercedes-Benz stars, or blue-and-white BMW shields, on their 10-year-old Hyundais?  Would that make them less of a target for car thieves?  





Actually, the basket almost made me wish it was a Colnago. It reminded me of the bike someone I met once in Williamsburg (where else?) about ten years ago: a vintage Cinelli track bike (not the ones sold today with the Cinelli label), with equally vintage Campagnolo Pista components and Mavic SSC rims--and a flowered basket strapped to the handlebars.


None of those bikes, though, will ever have a stand as good as that tree on which I leaned Tosca today.

2 comments:

  1. So, if I stick Colnago decals on my Falcon, it will repel thieves or do I also have to stick Columbus decals over the Reynolds?

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  2. Steve, I don't think Colnagos were ever made with Reynolds tubing. So, yes, you'd definitely have to cover the Reynolds sticker. Just make sure, though, that the Columbus sticker is at least an SL--none of that Tretubi or CroMor stuff. I think that, today, Columbus's top steel tube set is the XCr. Come to think of it, you might even want to put a Deccai sticker on instead!

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