Trendies...
I have a co-worker I’ll call Jay. He’s a nice guy, really, and I don’t have any beef with him. But he’s also a ‘trendie’, a first adopter of anything new, glitzy, and high-tech. Does anyone make a coffee mug that has GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth? Jay probably has one already, and he’s on the list for the next generation device.
We all know someone like him, and in fact, it’s good to know such people especially if they’re cyclists. They’ll have last year’s titanium widget for sale in order to get this year’s titanium widget. Cycling Luddites (like me!) benefit by getting parts and tools that have already seen some wear, but still have a long, useful life ahead of them.
That’s why I was surprised when Jay asked about riding fixed gears. He strikes me as a full-Campy Litespeed kinda guy. But he was seriously interested. We talked fixies for nearly an hour one morning. I gave him the URLs for some popular fixed gear sites. He made the rounds of the shops and discovered that they stock precious little fixed gear stuff. He did find out that he should be riding a 57-58 cm frame, and that while it’s possible to convert his old Motobecane to a fixed gear, it’s small 52 cm size would make him uncomfortable. Somewhere in the rounds of the bike shops, someone recommended he ride a 61 cm frame! I have to find out who did that!
Down at Tom’s, one of the guys recommended looking on E-Bay. (This is one of the reasons I like that shop so much. They want to do right by the customer rather than make a quick buck. In the long run, that’s the best approach to any business.) Jay found and bought a Takahara in his size, and it should be delivered next week.
Of course, if he rides it a while and doesn’t like it, the bike just happens to be MY size too!
We all know someone like him, and in fact, it’s good to know such people especially if they’re cyclists. They’ll have last year’s titanium widget for sale in order to get this year’s titanium widget. Cycling Luddites (like me!) benefit by getting parts and tools that have already seen some wear, but still have a long, useful life ahead of them.
That’s why I was surprised when Jay asked about riding fixed gears. He strikes me as a full-Campy Litespeed kinda guy. But he was seriously interested. We talked fixies for nearly an hour one morning. I gave him the URLs for some popular fixed gear sites. He made the rounds of the shops and discovered that they stock precious little fixed gear stuff. He did find out that he should be riding a 57-58 cm frame, and that while it’s possible to convert his old Motobecane to a fixed gear, it’s small 52 cm size would make him uncomfortable. Somewhere in the rounds of the bike shops, someone recommended he ride a 61 cm frame! I have to find out who did that!
Down at Tom’s, one of the guys recommended looking on E-Bay. (This is one of the reasons I like that shop so much. They want to do right by the customer rather than make a quick buck. In the long run, that’s the best approach to any business.) Jay found and bought a Takahara in his size, and it should be delivered next week.
Of course, if he rides it a while and doesn’t like it, the bike just happens to be MY size too!
posted by Ed W at 9:36 PM
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