Which Way?

Yogi Berra supposedly said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Who Rode It? Who Owns It?

 Sometimes collectors pay hefty prices for bikes because of who rode them. 

I imagine that if you want to own anything Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault pedaled to victory, you would need to win a lottery jackpot or two—that is, if such machines are available. 

Nearly three years ago, a humbler mount—a 1970s Raleigh Traveler—ridden to work by a young woman named Diana Frances Spencer fetched 44000 GBP (about 62000 USD in the exchange rates of the time) at auction. The young lady had a change in her life circumstances and was advised that riding her bike to work—or, for that matter, her job itself (nursery school teacher)—would be “unbecoming” for someone in her new station.

I am referring, of course, to Princess Diana.  Even if she hadn’t ridden the bike, it probably would’ve gone for a lot of money just because of its association with her.

Similarly, another bike up for auction won’t go cheap because of who owns it: Jorge Mario Bergoglio. To the best of my knowledge, no one has seen him riding it. That’s understandable when you consider his age (87 years) and the vestments he’s expected to wear.

He is, of course the Pope. The Pinarello Dogma (Can you come up with a better name for a Pope’s bike?) has a starting price of 9000 Euros.  Experts expect the price could go as high as 25000 Euros. That it probably won’t go for as much as Diana’s wheels has less to do with the Pope’s or Diana’s popularity than with how the bike market has softened since the early days of the COVID pandemic.

Egan Bernal giving Dogma to the Pope

It’s ironic that the Dogma derives more of its value from who owns it than it does from who gave it to him:  Colombian 2021 Giro d’Italia winner Egan Bernal, who is reportedly a devout Catholic. Bernal actually had it made for the Pontiff and painted blue and white to honor his Argentine heritage.

That got me to wondering:  Would the bike(s) Bernal actually rode command such a price?

From Rough Stuff To Gravel

 When you get to, ahem, a certain age, you become very skeptical when you hear the word “new.”  It seems that every genre of bike introduced and every “innovation” coming down the pike has been done decades, or even centuries, earlier.

I am thinking about all of the new and “revolutionary” bike and component designs and materials that appear on the market every year. Carbon fiber frame’s didn’t appear during the ‘90’s any more than the first aluminum frames were made by Alan during the ‘70’s.  Likewise, “rapid rise” derailleurs and disc brakes appeared on bikes decades before they attained their current popularity.

It could also be argued that “mountain” or “off-road” bikes are derivatives of earlier machines made to be ridden away from pavement. Oh, and the newest and latest trend—gravel bikes—is really six decades old, at least.

As a teenager in 1953, John Finley Scott drew a design for a “cow trailing” bike that reflected his interest in riding dirt, gravel and railroad grades.  At that time, few Americans rode bikes once they got their driver’s licenses.  So he looked to England, where there was a culture of “rough stuff” riding. 

John Finley Scott, with his Jim Guard bike as it came from England 

In 1961, he contacted British framebuilder Jim Guard, who brazed together Reynolds 531 manganese-molybdenum steel tubes with Nervex lugs. That was standard for high-quality, high-performance frames of the time.  So was the geometry:  72 degree head and seat tube angles on a 22 1/2 inch frame.  

Little did Guard or Scott know that configuration would become standard for gravel bikes six decades later.

Of course, the frame was outfitted with components very different from today’s.  Disc brakes for bikes were years away.  So Guard brazed on bosses for the most powerful brakes of the time: the extra-beefy cantilevers made for tandems. They, like the Specialites TA Pro Vis 5 (Cyclotouriste) cranks and chainrings Scott chose, would grace early mountain bikes two decades later.

The brakes were originally configured for 27 inch wheels, typical on quality touring bikes in the Anglophone world. Later, Scott had the brake bosses moved to accommodate the smaller-diameter 650b wheels, which allowed him to use wider tires.

Scott rode his proto-gravel bike on and off trails.  He thought it was the perfect way to explore the wonders of the American West. He continued his adventures until 2006, when he was a 72-year-old retired University of California-Davis professor of sociology. He hired a handyman he befriended to trim the trees around his property. That handyman cut down branches—and Scott’s life.

I would love to imagine a 90-year-old John Finley Scott tearing down a mountain pass with riders young enough to be his great-grandchildren on bikes that they probably don’t even realize he conceived, however unwittingly.