By The Dawn’s Early Light

After today I’ll be checking out for the remainder of the week in honor of our great nation’s annual sales event:

On the Fourth of July we Americans celebrate our independence from the hated British. Oddly it took Canada like another century go gain their own independence, and yet their Independence Day comes before ours, which makes no sense:

They like totally shoaled us.

Meanwhile, I’ve been riding in the golden light of dawn:

And on a pair of seemingly down-filled tubular tires:

Back in March, I incurred a flat on the Cervino:

And in an act of profound generosity, a reader sent me four (4) beautiful new Vittoria tubular tires, which apparently he no longer needed:

I was reluctant to deploy such fancy tires in early spring, when the roads are strewn with much debris, so instead I mounted a pair of Continental Sprinter Gatorskins:

In addition to doing a really messy job of it, I found that once installed the tires made kind of a sticky ticking nose when rolling, which sounded like when you get a price tag stuck to the bottom of your shoe at the supermarket. So I peeled them off and reglued them, but the sound remained. At that point I figured I’d just ride them and ignore the sound in the hope it would eventually disappear–but it never did. Moreover, I was unable to ignore the sound, for while I have no problem riding around on filthy, scratched, or even dented bikes, I have little tolerance for annoying sounds. So this week I finally said “Fuck it” and installed the Vittorias.

As usual, I made a mess of it, and at one point I even mounted the tire only to find I’d gotten my own t-shirt stuck between it and the rim. (Also, after gluing the Gatorskins on twice they were so hard to remove I wore holes in both my thumbs and now can hardly even operate a Campagnolo Ergo shifter.) However, overall the Vittorias were a lot easier to work with than the Continentals due to the fact that they’re a lot more supple and stretchy, and most important of all they run completely silently:

Not only that, but they feel fucking fantastic, and it was like I had extra cogs in my primitive 6-speed 13-21 freewheel:

Just check out these blistering speeds!

As a contrarian I’ve often been critical of Supple Tire Mania, and the Rene Herse tires I had on the Eye Of the Tiger Bike never completely won me over, but this bike with these tires evokes every cycling media cliché you’ve ever read:

It’s like angels are carrying me through the heavens on silk ribbons they’ve strung beneath my scranus.

By the way, I know I’ve mentioned this before, but not only does a 10-speed* chain work just fine on an old 6-speed drivetrain, but it transforms the shifting to such a degree that it rivals a modern system:

*Not like it has to be a 10-speed chain, and I’m sure a modern chain regardless of speeds would have the same effect, but the point is that this is easily the cheapest and most effective vintage drivetrain update it’s possible to make.

Clipless pedals are also an improvement over lashing your feet to your bike:

And while these aren’t exactly period-correct they’re the original iteration of the Look pedal and it’s perfectly reasonable to assume a typical Cervino owner would have upgraded to them a few years later after witnessing the exploits of Bernard Hinault: