Well it certainly looks like the Perry Ruby was not wanting for excitement:
It’s also strangely comforting to see that for all the so-called “advancements” in bicycle wheel and tire technology, inopportune punctures remain an integral part of bicycle racing. For as Ben Franklin sagely observed, the only certainties in life are death and taxes, but since that time we can add flatting to the list, and possibly also the steadfast refusal to JBARA:
Yes, we’ve seen this bicycle before, but it’s still available and waiting for the perfect buyer, such as a Sponeed model with a lot of cash to throw around:
As for me, I didn’t watch the bike race on Sunday, because I had more important bicycle-related business to attend to over the weekend:
Specifically the riding of them:
As well as the comparing and contrasting of the relative performance of two fine lugged steel bicycles on a variety of surfaces:
Including various types of “gravel”–or, if you prefer, Very Small Rocks:
As you can see, I sampled all the major strains, too:
Since divesting myself of the ISGA, I am certainly wanting for nothing in the Riding On Very Small Rocks department, despite not having an actual “gravel bike.” I could bore you with stuff like geometry, and trail figures, and tubing diameters, and all that other stuff, but I won’t, mostly because I don’t understand any of it. Instead, I’ll say that having these two bicycles is like owning both a 5th Avenue penthouse and a Southampton beach house–and not only because like many people who own 5th Avenue penthouses and Southampton beach houses I don’t actually deserve either of them, having inherited the Karl Farbman, and having obtained the Roadini only after blackmailing Grant Petersen with the threat of revealing that he actually rides a Cervélo S5:
Just kidding:
And I do have to make that clear, because when I joked that he drove a Ferrari people believed me.
But yes, the Farbman is the 5th Avenue penthouse in this scenario, in that the address confers status, and it’s quite luxurious, but it’s also a racing bike, so you’re inclined to ride it at a more spirited pace, just as your schedule’s a lot busier when you’re in town what with business meetings and going to the opera and attending fundraisers for your childrens’ prep school and all that other stuff:
Meanwhile, life at the beach house is still pretty lively, but it’s also more spacious, and generally speaking you’re a little more inclined to slow down when you’re there, so it’s a place you could see spending more and more time as you get older:
As for ISGAs, those are like split level homes in Wantagh, in that they’re perfectly fine, but we riders of fine lugged steel bicycles don’t even notice them as we drive by them on the LIE.
The truth is, it’s hard not to feel like I’ve “arrived” when I get to spend the weekend on bicycles like these, even though I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing in my life, apart from being in one YouTube video that has a decent number of views–though the algorithm served it to me the other day and to my horror I discovered I’ve been replaced by an AI stand-in with a comically large u-lock:
Presumably the AI determined the video would get more clicks if I were trimmer about the midsection and looked a little more like Fidel Castro:
Maybe if I crack a million views I can finally land that Sponeed modeling contract.