WAY TO THE NOT SO SIMPLE BICYCLE

 

Before I get right into it and show you, what the bike looked like, that got me back into the world of cycling that is more based on feeling cycling instead of measuring cycling efforts, I want to present to you a little bit of context. In other words, my cycling history of the last few years.

How did I even get to the point of owning not one single bike? That's a long story, I'm trying to keep it short here. There were times when I had four plus bikes as a minimum, all at the same time. Road bike, Cruiser, Mountainbike, Citybike, Fixed Gear and so on. That must have been when I was still living in a house and having more space that I needed.

Few years later, as I wrote before, I found myself living in a van. So everything in life got intentionally and practically minimalized. I only kept the 'nice' bike stored at my parents place... you know you don't want to keep your good bike strapped to the back of your van, ready accessible for everybody who wants to make it their own. So I ended up buying the cheapest bike I could find and having it as a cruiser for grocerys shopping and getting to the river for taking a shower (this all sounds so romantic now when in real life at this time I felt like a bum LOL).

our car/ house back then, vanessas and my ride together, ready for adventure.

That was the bike, and it was a huge improvement. I even rode it to work in the summertime! Ah, did you know that bicycle commuters are believed to be happier?

Then the time finally came, when vanlife for us was played through and we had to find something new. Some new way of living. And when it turned out that this ment selling all the stuff (also all of the good bikes I had) and packing the rest into a bagpack and moving to south east asia, it seemed like no big of a deal. Sure, it was a big deal for us, but I would have never thought how much I would miss the ability to ride a bicycle.

It was not until six months later, when we came back to germany, that I realized how much I missed riding bicycles. The only thing I rode on the other side of the world was a motorized scooter, wich was fun and reminded my on my motorcycle days.

So, when being back, one of the first things to get was, you guessed it, a bicycle. Didn't had to be something very special. Just something to ride quite fast and soak in some miles again.

the beautiful modern day classic cannondale aluminum road bike with rim brakes, my first bike again.

Before then horribly overcompensating for the long time without a bicycle and going for the full custom formula one bike.

almost like I bought it, before going all in.

Life did go on and kept changing and that's how we found ourselves now living in a flat. Needless to say, made possible for astronomical options to store and own bikes.

And now we're getting closer to the bike that got me feeling the blues on two wheels again...

Before doing so, I did get a lot of miles in with the plastic gravel bike. I rode this thing a ton, on- and off the road. But what I really missed was the ability to wrench on that bike. Sure I could change the seat or handlebars but that was more or less it. It was only a small percentage of the working machine that I could influence or lay my hands on, or even wanted to lay my hands on. Bleeding brakes in the living room? Not for me... don't even wanted to have hydraulic brakes on my chopper, why would I be willing to have it on a bicycle. That's ridiculous.

So I knew one thing. I had done it before and now it was time again to build up a fixed gear bike from scratch. Yes, the most simple bicycle that you can imagine. The most simple machine that is barely rideable. One of the few machines where, when you leave off one single part, the whole bike wouldn't ride anymore. Oh, this fact will get me forever and on top, it's super unpractical... wich makes it even more attractive to me.

nothingness.

Most of the parts I found used online. I had my first fixed gear bike built up in no time and that was it. That was the bike that showed to me that cycling can be so much more. So much more then just chasing numbers. Cruising, having fun, riding without a goal. All of that and so much more. And this did happen on a steel frame, wich was crucial, cause it felt so different.

What followed was the next overcompensation phase. In the next weeks and months I was going through a lot of frames, sometimes buying them used, sometimes trading them. Like I would go through ten years of macaframa mash sf time capsule play. I had all of the frames I would already wanted to have ten years ago. I rode them all, some only a couple of days, some longer, I kept switching parts and loving the flexiblity and wrenchability of these bikes... this again reminded me to the chopperdays. When wrenching was always the same fun as riding bikes.

It was around that time when I first heard of Ron Romance. I watched this particular ted talk of him on youtube:

… and this was, what opened my eyes to a whole other realm inside of the universe of cycling. To this point I still thought, that the best and most expensive parts that the pros ride, must be the best parts that are available cause they withstand the beating of the pros. Turns out I was wrong. If there's any niche in cycling where it is ok when a part fails, then in pro cycling, where you have a car driving behind you, supporting you with a brand new bicycle, everytime you run a flat tire.

How couldn't I see that!?!?

Again, we are all blinded by the light (of our many readily available black screens) and so I was sitting there with my high end formula one bicycle, knowing that seriously and with a swollen chest, riding this thing was not an option any more.

What happend in my brain the following couple of months, finally lead me to my newest project, that had to be a fully mechanical bicycle. Completely build up by myself with the simplest tools and simplest tech that's still available. With no single part of plastic. The bike that is as close as it get's a 'forever bike', if something like this even exists (at least for me). While writing these words, the frame, the heart of the bike, is on it's way to my doorstep. Better get ready, lean back and grab your snacks cause the next time you will read something round here, I will release the first spy shots of this wonderful machine, this work of art and craft. This memory-generating apparatus.

xoxo,

Alex