Ordinarily I don't ride the Renovo in the rain, mostly because all my other bikes are filthy, so it's nice to have at least one bike with fancy parts that's nice and clean. As such, I've never had the opportunity to test the braking on the crabon rims in wet conditions. Well, on this particular ride I ended up getting rained on rather steadily, and guess what?
When it's raining them shits don't stop.
I mean seriously, it was really disconcerting. Indeed, it's clear to see why road bikes are moving to disc brakes. (Though of course it's less clear to see why amateurs insist on using the crabon wheels that necessitate disc brakes in the first place.) Anyway, the upshot of all this was that today I swapped whee's, because I'd like to keep riding the bike through the winter and I'd also like to be able to stop. So here's my modest little winter beater now:
It's worth noting that these cheap out-of-the-box Shimano wheels cost like a tenth of what the crabon wheels do. The difference in ride quality is minor enough that I'm not even sure I feel it, yet the braking is orders of magnitude better, which means on balance the cheap wheels are an upgrade. (I came to more or less the same conclusion last time I switched wheels too, by the way.) Also, the bike is considerably quieter, and I'm pleased to report that on this morning's ride I didn't hear any of the pirate ship sounds that have been plaguing the Renovo as of late.
This could mean that the creaking was coming from the fancy crabon wheels--or it could just be that I'm still kind of soft-pedaling as I continue to recover from my hurty foot and am simply not producing enough POWER to make the thing complain.
Either way, I'm taking a perverse amount of pleasure from the fact that I'm using an artisanal wooden bicycle as my winter bike, and I may have to move upstate and purchase multiple axes now:
Former city people might find themselves chopping wood (even owning multiple axes), growing some of their own food, heating their homes with wood stoves or learning to spot signs of wildlife, like the marks a buck makes when it rubs its antlers against a tree. At parties, they say, people talk about swimming holes and nature hikes rather than what they do for a living, and gathering around a firepit is as commonplace as a Manhattan power lunch.
On second thought, I don't think I could move upstate, because if some former Park Sloper cornered me at a party and started talking to me about swimming holes and deer markings I'd interject with "I'm gonna go ahead and stop you right there" and then split their head open with an axe.
Plus, I'd probably end up burning the Renovo for warmth.
But hey, maybe I just need to loosen up and take a love-letter writing class:
Upstairs from Lite Brite Neon, he and his wife opened Cygnets Way, a studio that offers community yoga and classes in mindfulness practices, like sound healing. Ms. deVries also teaches bead-making and love-letter writing there.
Dear Ms. deVries,
It's horrible up here. Please kill me.
Love,
--Tan Tenovo
from Bike Snob NYC https://ift.tt/2ErLqNE
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