THE SIMPLE BICYCLE

 

I don't know when exactly this happend, but I did switch from having a very simple bicycle while leading a very complex life to almost the exact opposite. Few years later I found myself with very complex bikes, leading a very simple life. This did not happen intentionally, I have to say. It's just something I realize now, way later. Although I can't really say why I got there. I guess most likely I got heavily influenced by the media that is all around. And what you see there is the latest and best tech, and people having fun on it, more so, almost predicting that only on something like this, you will have fun. Period.

There I was with my Staiger Stepthrough, 3x7 drivetrain, cantilever brakes, a cut up saddle that I later taped with ducktape to prevent rainwater from soaking the foam up like a fresh french baguette and keeping my butt wett for days. Oh, and it had cracks on the tires. It was sitting in the basement from my parents for god knows how long and nobody knew whos bike this was, so I took it (yes, it's basically a stolen bicycle uh uh). I would rather say, I took care of it...

So that's where the story of the simple bicycle started.

optimized for use with sandals.

added lights and fenders again... who would have thought this makes actual sense.

this bike has been everywhere.

look at the gear - what a bummer.

riding trails with the high tech boys... my rear wheel was a noodle after that.

The story of my simple bicycle.

Needless to say I couldn't ride it without altering at least a thing or two... you know, stock is cock. Or fullcustom errythang, or whatever you wanna call it. I simply just can not leave things stock or untouched, no matter what it is. Call it the artist in me or the side of the excentric, outward, showing off that I'm different than everybody else.... I just have the need to customize. Cloth, hair, skin... Look at me! So, riding round on a ten year old crusty womens bike was not for me. At least, not untouched!

Easy going like that, the customization progress started. Who needs to lubricate a chain when you can cut off the chainguard and get rid of ugly fenders and a basket rack in the back?? (I would sooo keep the parts on there now!) while I was at it, the perfectly working dynamo and lights system had to find themselves in the trash can again, cause you know: It's a chopper baby. (LOL)

'upgraded' like that it reminded me on the cruisers I had ridden in my early teens. Maybe more on that later.

The important thing was, after years and years of almost only riding cars and motorcycles... I was on a bicycle again. And that was wonderful to say the least. It's just so different to any sort of transportation, not to be compared with any other way of riding. I'll just stop trying to explain this feeling here. Even in my mothers tounge it would be next to impossible to put into words, how and why and this sound and the speed and temperature of the air that touches your skin while moving forward in time and space, basically without any noice and effort and... and, oops where was I? (...aaah, you felt it too)

Now that you know almost everything about my second honeymoon phase with bikes (the first started when the training wheels came off, obviously), back to my questioning from the beginning. What brought me from bicycle-jesus, riding around in sandals with the hair blowing in the wind, to chasing grams and average speed numbers.

Simple answer: I don't know. I can only guess here, maybe my brain was just so used to being overloaded with complexity that my now easy lifestyle required at least one part to be overcomplicated? Maybe it was the influence of the media, maybe it was having too much money and nowhere to go? (and yes, it was this time around, you remember early 2020, you could literally go nowhere) No matter how, all of it came down to: I wanna be seen as a credible cyclist, if not athletic. Oh and it's made so easy... gear is the keyword. Riding without a helmet? Ha, your looking like riding for no reason. Or even worse, riding a mountainbike helmet on a roadbike, or roadbike shoes on a mountainbike, or even worse: ankle socks! I mean, come on. It appears that it's easier to be a non-credible, non-honorable cyclist then dressing wrong when going to the opera.

All of this didn't happen overnight as you can imagine, this was a slow process, but it happend. It came with a lot of good things, like I did quit smoking to performer better. More so, cycling was definitely my way out of smoking! So I owe cycling my life in some way or the other I have to say.

But yes, for sure, the downsides where not so obvious. That was the time when I really started to invest in gear, and finally... bikes!

The story of the complex bicycle starts here. I don't wanna dive deeper into the details here, cause it would simply be boring. I just wanna show the process, that happend over and over again without me noticing it really.

I always started with a pretty good bike (some were even very good). I rode this bike a fair bit of time before having to change it all up. But afterwards, not really riding it anymore because I liked the versions before better. Ok this makes no sense, but I continued with that, the only thing I changed was, that the bike I started with, did get more expensive every time and maybe the upgrades became more expensive. It didn't change a thing. I was chasing a feeling but chasing on the wrong end. And another thing that really got me upset was the fact that I couldn't wrench on any of my own bikes, I don't even wanted to start investing in special tools for billion standards.

There I was. With my peak tech bike. Living an easy life. No chance of wrenching, customizing or maintaing my bicycle that is more of a formula one car in terms of materials, looks and complexity. Done shaved off the last gram of extraweight. Now only chasing for numbers. More numbers, faster numbers, when I realized that all I wanna feel is the wind breeze tickling my skin. And I realized, that, exactly that feeling was, what I lost.

Good thing about loosing things is... you will find them again!

What made me find this feeling of riding a bike again while actually riding a bike and not only chasing numbers and more precisly, wich bike it was that could lit the flame again... you will read about in the future. Right here.

xoxo,

Alex