I am nothing if not a resolute contrarian–unless you call me a contrarian, in which case I will assert with every fiber of my being that I’m not. But yes, ordinarily I will often go out of my way to do the opposite of whatever everybody else is doing. This is why, now that wide tires have taken over completely, I’ve swung just as completely the other way and am “curating” a contest in celebration of road bikes with minimal clearance:
[A recent submission. Owner has been riding it for over 30 years, and it only had to be re-glued once!]
Still, I will very occasionally defer to people–or at least to you, my readers–and give you what you want. To be sure, doing so goes against the very grain of my being (wait, is my being grainy or fibrous?). But the fact that I will defy my own nature just to please you should make it abundantly clear just how grateful I am for your patronage.
So what am I giving you? Well, a lot of you have expressed concerns about this bicycle:
Specifically, you have conveyed your dismay, perturbation, and even extreme agitation over the red hoods. At first, that’s what I liked best about them, and in fact when I put them on in the first place I did so in the spirit of rabblerousing. But eventually they began to bother even me, and so you’ll be relieved to learn I’ve now corrected the situation:
While I was at it, I also replaced the Shimano brakes with a pair of Campagnoli, which I’ve officially decided is the plural of “Campagnolo:”
I acquired these in the same shady backroom deal that netted me the seatpost and saddle now on the Fabrman. The idea was to use all of this stuff together for a project, but I’ve now decided to go a different direction with that project, and so I am spreading the wealth across my clowder instead. (I find it trite to refer to one’s bikes as a “fleet” or a “stable,” and so from now on I’m going with “clowder,” which is the collective noun for a bunch of cats.) And no, there was nothing wrong with the Shimanae (plural of “Shimano”) that were on there, and in fact as a contrarian I relished the offensive Shimanae/Campagnoli admixture, but this frees them up for still another project.
Also, I’m a sucker for the Campagnolo “differential” brakes:
What’s more Campagnolo than reintroducing the single-pivot brake and pretending it’s a bold new invention?
And what’s more cycling industry than foisting disc brakes on us after years of touting weaker brakes as a feature?
By the way, I’m not impugning the “differential” brakes in particular or the single-pivot brake in general. And it really is the ideal rear brake. There’s no reason to have a super powerful rear brake, plus you can set the pads further away from the rim (good for climbing), and it’s self-centering, unlike a dual-pivot brake which will push your rim one way or the other if you don’t set it up perfectly.
No, it’s just the whole using-marketing-speak-to-disguise-the-fact-they’re-simply-bringing-something-back-that-worked-well-for-years that amuses me–though if the bike industry wants to bring back rim brakes and call them An Outer Circumference Hydraulic-less Caliper System With Integrated Oversized Rotors then that’s fine with me.
But yes, the Faggin may still be Pepto Pink, but at least everything matches, and riding it is like lying in a bed of the popular carnival confection that shares its hue:
And of course all this was made possible by the commenter who goes by the sobriquet “Grouchy Doc,” who not only sent me the Super (!) Record drivetrain, but also included both red and black hoods. While I may deride electronic drivetrains, as the immediate beneficiary of one rider having given up mechanical drivetrains in favor of them, I encourage more of you to do the same. Selflessly, I stand ready to accept your unwanted mechanical Super Record, Dura-Ace, and other inferior componentry.
Hopefully Grouch Doc isn’t disappointed that I squandered his largesse on the Faggin, but the fact is the bike has earned it. I acquired the frame almost 20 years ago now–shortly before starting this blog, in fact–and it began its life with me as my wife’s bike. Sadly I have no photos of it from that era, but it was a singlespeed road bike that served her well for transport and rides around Prospect Park.
But then we had kids and moved to the mountains of New York City (the Bronx) which called for gears and kiddie hauling capability:
Then the kids got bigger and she moved on to something sportier:
All that time the Faggin sat tucked away in storage:
Until I resurrected it as a city bike:
I am very much a proponent of the old-road-bike-as-city bike:
It yields a more useful machine than the traditional “fixie conversion.”
But after awhile it began to bother me that in all its time with us the Faggin had never had the chance to live life as its true self, that being a geared road bike with drop bars. So I set it free:
Though things soon got out of hand:
This called for an entirely new approach:
I think we’ve finally got a handle on things now.