Blogbert™: These Pictures Tell A Story

I purchased a used 2003 Bianchi Eros today. (I think) It's a very cool bike, and it's unfortunate it won't be permanent. Naturally, I tested out my sweet new ride with a trip over to In 'N' Out.

I haven't ridden a "nice" road bike for more than a few minutes... Even though the fork is carbon and it's much too small, I love it. The ride is amazing. Back in good old SD, Chris once told me "But Robert... riding a nice road bike... it's different." I guess I didn't really take it to heart, but I should have. I always kind of imagined that whatever you can do on a twenty or thirty year old steel bike, you can do on a $4,000 bike, and that the difference between the Tour de France riders and everybody else was in training and preparation, not in shaving grams and the like. But the performance gains were huge, and this isn't some space age super light carbon job, it's a steel frame and carbon fork. And while on the topic of shaving grams and the like... WTF?

Three key words have emerged as the theme for the 
latest DURA-ACE system: Speed, Smooth and Strength.

Does Shimano really say things like that?

Anyways, after riding this just a few miles I've gained a lot of respect for expensive, new, properly maintained, whatever, bikes. I'm not used to having a 30/42/52 triple and a 13-26 rear cassette at my disposal. Oooh, and light weight, true wheels. And brakes that function properly. Crazy delicious. Shifters that work. After just a couple miles of flat, rough, pothole ridden yet remarkably smooth (on this bike) Colorado Blvd on the cruise over to In 'N' Out, I decided to head north on Lake to find the top of the nearest hill. Milkshake in cupholder, prepared for the worst.

It's the first time I've used an SLR while riding a bike. I got that "Oh shit, I can't do that" feeling (you know, like when you try to coast on a fixed gear going over a bump?) when I tried to brake with both hands and at the same time keep one on the SLR fastened around my neck.

Anyways, I started out hauling in the middle of my triple and somewhere between 6 and 8, and before N Lake even got steep I was using the largest my rear cassette had to offer. And then... around N Topeka St, I get hit with something, and I feel a sort of cool mist. And laughter coming from kids in a Nissan sedan as they speed away.

It's the second time I've been egged on Lake late at night.

It takes a few seconds (probably about 3) for me to realize what the hell was happening. I crank down on my plastic flat pedals hard and try to shift, and just then, I miss my single speed. The chain slips and the pedals turn an entire revolution without catching. I pause, thinking "Shit, how am I going to catch these guys?", crank down, and the chain catches. I'm hauling ass, probably 20 mph. They pull off the main road and I catch them at Atchison and N Catalina, where I come up behind the car and dismount. They're surprised to see me. Circular, widely spaced reverse lights linger for too long, scare the fuck out of me, it's a Nissan, recent, Maxima or Altima. "Is he seriously going to try to run over me in reverse?", and I creep closer, concentrate hard on the license plate, one passenger is out of the car, they start moving away before he/she is back in. "Quick, get back in the car!" More eggs, pop, pop. Concentrating hard on the license plate. A girl squeals. "It's Like the stupid IQ test. Recite these digits. They have a girl with them? Can you memorize... seven random characters and letters of text? How about with the adrenaline on?" The driver graciously screeches to a halt to allow the partially exterior passenger to enter fully. They swerve off, left, right, left, right left, right, "why?", and they're gone.

They didn't get the bike at all, which is great! Well, I scribbled the cross street and license plate number on an old Metro card, cruised back to Lake looking like an omelette, flagged down a sheriff who told me there wasn't anything to be done, and started the descent back to tech.