Integration Is Great When It Fits

 Hal Ruzal, the recently-retired mechanic and partner of Bicycle Habitat, and I were talking one day about rides, bikes, music and work.  I've always admired Mercians, but I finally ordered my first after taking a spin on one of his.  His other bikes, with one exception (an early Cannondale mountain bike) were also built around steel frames, with various combinations of modern and old-school components.   So it won't surprise you that we have similar attitudes about bikes and equipment:  While most of our preferences run to old-school bikes and parts, or stuff inspired by them, we don't fetishize "vintage" items.  At the same time, we don't prize technology for the sake of technology.

He sighed about "the Wall Street guys" who came into the shop and wanted the most expensive bike. "They thought that's what they needed to get up the next hill," he mused.  What they really needed, he said, was to spend more time riding.

As often as not, they insisted on buying bikes that were not only "more bike than they needed" but that didn't--or, in some case, couldn't be made to--fit them well.  

I thought about that conversation a few months ago, after encountering a guy who wiped out on an L-shaped turn with a sandtrap.  Bleeding from his arms and legs, his first concerns were his $12,000 bike and $200 saddle--and the $300 helmet he wasn't even wearing.

I couldn't help but to think that guy probably hadn't ridden long or far.  He may not have been, in fact,  one of the "Wall Street guys" Hal was talking about,  but he shared at least part of their mentality:  He seemed to think that buying the "best" (read: most expensive) stuff would make him a better cyclist.

It occurs to me now that the bike may not even have fit him well.  That is a common occurence--by whatever ideas about bike fit you subscribe to--more often than one might expect among customers of ultra-high-end bikes. Dave Farmer, owner of Surrey Cycle Works (in Leatherhead, England) says as much.  "People can now buy 6000, 7000 or 8000 pound bikes online."  As a result, he says, many people are "riding around on very high-end bikes that don't fit them."

One problem is that many of those "very high-end" bikes have "integrated" cockpits.  They're great if speed is your primary goal--and if they fit you.

Most people buy bikes--in whatever price range--buy complete bikes.  Folks like me who buy frames and build them are actually a tiny fragment of the market, even at the highest price ranges.  The problem with complete bikes, at any price, is that they are designed for an "average" person--usually male--of a given height.  

Anyone who's ever measured me for a bike, or helped me to make an adjustment has commented on my legs:  They are long for a person of my height.  So the "square"geometry of many stock frames--on which the seat and top tube are the same length--doesn't work well for me, unless I use a stem with a very short horizontal extension.  Likewise, the "sloping" geometry of many modern frames is less than ideal for me.  

Other people, of course, differ from norms in other ways:  short people with wide shoulders, for example.  Then there is the matter of preferences:  You might prefer a different saddle position from someone else, depending on your riding style.

Integration of cockpits means that, on some bikes, handlebars, stems and seatpost can't be swapped out--or making such changes is very expensive.  If the bike has a standard-diameter steer tube, changing the stem isn't a problem--unless, of course, it's of one piece with the handlebars.  So, if you like the width or shape or your bars, you have to find another set that fits your bike.  And on some bikes, once your seat height is set, it can't be changed.

Oh, and don't get me started on internal cable routing:  I still have nightmares about my bikes that had this feature.  I'm glad that I've never had to change a cable that's routed through the headset--or, worse, had to clean or replace such a headset.

Don't get me wrong:  I see the benefits of integration, at least for some riders.  Turning two pieces into one--like the bars and stem--makes them more aerodynamic, stiffer and stronger.  (Remember the "bull moose" bars on early mountain bikes?) That strength makes it possible to use lighter materials which, of course, helps to lighten the bike.

The thing is, most of the benefits of integrated cockpits (and aerodynamic parts) accrue only if you're riding at the speeds, and for the amount of time, pro riders spend on their saddles.  Otherwise, you have to choose between compromising comfort and convenience, or spending large sums of money for replacement parts--and bike shop labor, if you don't do the work yourself.

So, before spending $12,000 on a bike and, potentially, another $2000 to make it fit, ask yourself how much, or whether, you'll benefit--or whether you're trying to impress somebody.

Wednesday's Ride, On Sunday

Yesterday I took another ride to Point Lookout.  It was, in some ways, what last Wednesday's ride would have been had I taken it on Sunday.  

I don't mean to echo Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow."  The coastal jaunt was entirely pleasant:  Clear skies and calm seas formed a peaceful tableau, and the air was warm--that is, until I crossed the Veterans' Memorial Bridge, from a 28C air temperature to breezes from 9C water. So, while the temperature almost certainly dropped as I came to the ocean, it felt even chillier with the breeze--and my apparel (shorts and short sleeves).  

What was different were the throngs of people lining the Rockaway and Long Beach boardwalks.  I shouldn't have been surprised by that: Even with the chilly breeze, it was the warmest Sunday we've had this year, so far. 

Another thing that shouldn't have surprised me, I suppose, is that few people wore masks.  I know the CDC said that it's OK to go unmasked if you're outdoors and keeping the 3meter/6 foot social distance from strangers--which, of course, it's all but impossible not to do on a bicycle.  

Those recommendations are for people who have been vaccinated.  I got my second dose on the 13th, so according to the guidelines, I'm fully vaccinated.  I had to wonder, though, how many of the people I saw were vaccinated.

Still, though, it was a fine ride.  I did the Point Lookout ride for the opportunity to "let loose" on the long flat stretches--and to try something out that I'll write about later.

How Big Are Your Wheels?

Late in the 19th Century, the high-wheeler ("penny farthing") gave way to the safety bicycle, with two wheels of more or less equal size propelled by a chain-and-gear drive.  That, of course, is what nearly all of us ride today.

But the debate about smaller- vs. larger-diameter wheels rages on, with no sign that it will end.

May Day For Today's Workers

Today is May Day.

This day was, and continues to be, a celebration of Spring, especially in northern European cultures.  Some believe it's rooted in a Roman festival for Flora, the goddess of flowers.  

To this day, throughout Italy, Calendimaggio is celebrated with performances, rituals and gifts that are believed to have their roots in Roman celebratory customs.  And, in France, individuals and workers' are allowed to sell lily of the valley flowers--which Charles IX received as a lucky charm and he, in turn, offered every year to the ladies of the court--tax-free. Perhaps the most elaborate celebrations of this day are found in England and Scotland, where children still perform Maypole dances, a "May Queen" is crowned and traditional poems are recited and songs sung.

In 1889, this day became International Workers' Day, celebrated in some countries as Labor Day.  This date was chosen for its proximity to the anniversary of the Haymarket Massacre, in which a Chicago labor protest rally turned into a riot.   The protestors were calling for, among other things, an eight-hour workday. 

The protestors, and those on whose behalf they were protesting, were mainly blue-collar workers:  factory laborers, longshoremen, construction workers and the like.  Many of those workers--and demonstrators--were immigrants.

Most of those jobs have since disappeared.  And the, ahem, complexions of the immigrants have changed*.  So the sorts of people who would have been working in the factories and on the docks are now making deliveries, whether of building materials on Amazon vans, dinner via electric bikes or documents from a Wall Street brokerage to a midtown legal firm via bicycle.  Dmitry Bondrenko seemed to understand as much when he created this poster:

The "alley cat" race announced in the poster was a benefit for Emily Glos, a Toronto bike messenger who was struck by a car. She survived, but a broken wrist and elbow kept her off her bike, and from making a living, for two months.

*-I recently learned that when Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first minimum-wage legislation into law, he got Southern Democrats--at that time, the largest bloc in the party--to agree to it by excluding farm and domestic workers--who, in the South, were mainly black. Also, that exclusion garnered support from the large corporate growers in places like California's Central Valley, where most workers were Mexican migrants.

I also learned, not too long ago, that the roots of South Africa's Aprartheid laws were sown by the gold and mining industries, and were designed, in part, that workers in those industries--most of whom were Black--would be virtual slaves.

Worth Its Weight In...

A few days ago, someone paid $5.2 million for a LeBron James trading card from his rookie year.  While I cannot understand paying that much money for a piece of cardboard, I am not surprised:  Basketball, more than any other team sport, focuses attention on individual stars.  And Le Bron James is arguably the brightest of the 21st Century, much as Michael Jordan, "Magic" Johnson and Julius "Dr. J" Erving were the luminaries of their times.

Of course, if someone can afford to spend that much money on a card, well, who am I to tell them they shouldn't?  I suppose that if I had that much money, I probably would--after I helped people I want to help--develop some collection or another.  And some people would wonder why in the world I was collecting whatever it was I was collecting.

If I were collecting bicycles...hmm...would I want classics?   Bikes from a particular country or region?  Genre?  Color?  Or would I concentrate on really obscure bikes, or ones that were not meant to be ridden?

In that last category might be this machine:

Photo by Lisa Powell, for the Springfield News-Sun

The color on the frame didn't come from a Krylon rattle-can. (Aside:  Graffiti artists don't like Krylon. Don't ask how I know that!)  In fact, it didn't come from any can or brush.  It is actual gold.  

To be exact, it's 14 karat gold plating on a chromed frame.  Very few bikes are chromed these days because it's expensive and some jurisdictions have made it all but impossible to do because of its environmental impact.  Also, if not done properly, it's worse than leaving the metal bare.

Even fewer bikes have ever been plated with gold.  For a time, some Campagnolo parts were available with gold plating; a few bike makers made special-edition machines--sometimes one-offs--with the shiny yellow stuff.  In 1972-73, Lambert of England offered its bike built from "aircraft tubing" with gold plating--for $259.95.  Soon afterward, the price of gold skyrocketed and Lambert discontinued those bikes--which, I am sure, are collector's items.

Most other gold-plated bikes were from makers at the very top end of the food chain.  Note that I said "most":  The bike in the photo is not anywhere near that level.

It is, in fact, a Huffy--the millionth bike produced by the company, on 13 May 1947.

The bike is on display in the Dayton Cyclery Building its namesake city's Carillon Park.  Other bikes in the museum pay homage to Miami Valley's history as a bicycle-making center.  Fabricators included a couple of young men who would parlay their knowledge and skills into another invention that would change the world.

Their names were Orville and Wilbur.  They used, not only the expertise in machinery they gleaned from building and repairing bikes, but what they learned about aerodynamics from different bike designs and riding positions. 

Hmm...I wonder what the Wright Brothers thought about Huffy bikes.  From what I've read, Huffy--known in those days as Huffman--bikes were actually respectable.