The Way We Were

So this morning my phone did that weird "Black Mirror"-type thing where it tells you that you have a "memory" and then sends you down a Proustian nostalgia hole by showing you a bunch of photos it has somehow figured out are significant--and as it happens the photos that my phone chose were from a Gran Fondon't some two years back:

A look back into my archives (if it weren't for my phone and my blog I'd remember absolutely nothing) reveals that I billed this particular ride as the "BSNYC BOOMB!* Pre-Fondon't Ride," "BOOMB" being an acronym for "Beers on Old Man Brooks," because we all got beers at the Bronx Alehouse afterwards and I stuck Brooks with the bill.

I then did an extensive write-up for the Brooks Blog, which didn't appear until October, and when it did finally appear they deleted almost all the photos because, as it was explained to me, "the brand have been pushing for using high quality images within our blog articles and the website in general" and "a lot of the pics were not quite up to the new 'standard' as it were."

Of course asking me to blog for you and expecting good pictures is like buying a pet badger and thinking your couch is going to stay intact, but the fact is that there was some staff turnover at Brooks between the time I started blogging for them and the time I got that email, and I suspect the new people didn't really "get" me.  (Or, more likely, they got me perfectly well and realized my shitty sense of aesthetics was fucking up their blog.)

Also, now that I think of it, if I recall correctly a precondition of the ride was that everyone had to take pictures along the way and give them to me to use in the Brooks Blog, so I don't even think it was my shitty photography.  (Not that it matters--though I thought that was a fun element, and it's too bad Brooks didn't appreciate it.)

None of this is to say that I have any hard feelings.  Sure, they really did fuck up what had been a pretty good blog post, but you don't last as a semi-professional curator of words if you're precious about what you write.  And of course Brooks and I did continue to work together.  In fact, since they weren't into my shitty photos, they went so far as to have my next post professionally illustrated:

Still, my stock-in-trade is rambling ride narratives illustrated by shitty photography (whether by me or others), and they wanted me to blog on specific themes that they suggested, so it never really came together.

I still love Brooks and Brooks saddles, and I'm sure they still love me too, because who doesn't?

All of this is to say that the derailleur failures:

And token gravel sections:

And forced dismounts:

And fixie riders feeling justifiably pleased with themselves for braving the OCA on skinny tires:

And of course beer:

Has, until now, been lost in the mists of time.

In fact, it's all enough to make me consider curating another Fondon't, just for old time's sake.

I'll keep you posted.

from Bike Snob NYC http://bit.ly/2vdqlk5