Your bike hides no secrets: A mechanic's desire to see well loved bikes

After turning the wrench on bike after bike you begin to notice patterns and anomalies in the sort of lives that bicycles live.  They start speaking to you in differing ways as you nurture them in the stand, attempting to fulfill the love they are so often crying to receive.  Its something that I imagine paralleling a therapist listening to story after story while attempting to navigate the tribulations, secrets, aspirations and difficulties of various patients.  Servicing  peoples bicycles is like having a door opened to the deeper realities of these little machines.  Its as if we mechanics have been granted an intimate tour that tells us of the love and attention or neglect and carelessness that said bikes have experienced.  From severe cases of reoccurring trauma and abuse to paranoia induced cleanliness indicative of overbearing love, we see it all as the bike hides nothing in its varying states.  To the mechanics eyes, ears and hands your bike bears no secret.

Riding on a flat tire to get back home is one of the quickest ways
to throw your wheels seriously out of whack.  Getting a ride or walking
will save you a headache down the road

Your bike wants to be loved

Numerous are the occasion that my soul has been crushed as bike after bike arrives in my stand to share with me their all to often harsh realities.  Skipping gears, bent derailleurs, broken spokes, bald tires, bent handlebars, indexed bottom brackets and headsets: you name it, these are the more obvious first signs that often foreshadow much deeper neglect.  From overambitious and "beyond the intended use" of the bicycle to blatant misuse, I see bikes in states that absolutely amaze me.  Often times I have pondered wide eyed with my peers as we contemplate and imagine the stories behind these bikes.

It seems that basic education, riding technique and simple bike care are often the missing aspects that underscore the varying states of countless bicycles that I and thousands of other mechanics have rehabilitated.  The lack of pre-ride once overs, post ride tlc, post crash inspection, fines in bike handling and the employment of gentle shifting techniques become glaringly obvious as we scan through the aftermath.  Even the best mechanics in the world (no I am not one of them) need your help with preventive maintenance and good riding technique if we are to help keep the gears going as you expect to see a return on the life expectancy of the beautiful bicycle(s) you worked so hard to acquire.

Cyclocross rider Katie Kompton finessing her way through the rough stuff
by letting her body weight off the saddle and her limbs act as suspension

Be gentle and you shall be rewarded

If there is one big drawback (there are many) that modern racing has on recreational and commuter cyclists (no i am not anti racing) its the deeply ingrained mentality that we often have to "mash" and "go hard" at mostly any cost when riding "seriously".  We feel the need to take big risks, push our bodies and gear to their absolute threshold and in turn write off any adverse side effects that incur to our gear as necessary casualties.  "Yeah man.. I totally broke my pedal while I was crushing down that rock garden" is the kind of stuff I hear regularly as some cyclists almost seem to boast about their suffering bikes.  Its as if getting gnarly is directly proportional to how much you can manage to fuck your bike up throughout a season.  Hearing things like "My drive train is totally blown.. I mean I put in so many miles this month on that new cassette" as said rider fails to recognize that shifting under 100% load on uphill pushes will make short use of any cassette/freewheel regardless of how well the shift ramps seem to function is not uncommon.  This is the mentality of a culture that is dominated not only by a hyper disposable/throwaway approach to cycling but by a gear smashing, getting rad at all cost attitude and is reverberated throughout the adverts and rhetoric of the racing world.  The bottom line is that regardless of whether you consider yourself a casual/recreational cyclist or a serious/sporty rider, there is so much that can be done to prevent us from wasting our way through unnecessary amounts of gear by being realistic, riding safely and understanding basic mechanics.

getting aero sometimes means getting air tho....right?

 

  Experiment, watch, listen, learn

As a developing and learning cyclists (and veteran cyclists too for that matter) there should be no shame in asking questions, watching tutorials, attempting to get your hands dirty with basic tune ups and watching experienced cyclists ride.  Learning starts as soon as we open up the doors to criticism, engaging in trial and error and become ready to try new things.  From riding techniques to mechanical advice, there are people out there in the cycling community who want to help you out in any way they can: Forums, local bike shops, group rides and bloggers/vloggers to name just a few.  There is a sea of resource out there to help you give your bike the love it needs in all the good ways you can.  Education is what firstly predicates the subjects discussed in this post and I hope the doors of curiosity and question asking will be the byproduct of my words here.  Please ask! Please help us mechanics take care of your bike as we want nothing more than to see it in a healthy state of being!

Is recreational cycling just a rich boys club?

Cycling as a sport has historically been predicated on racing.  We have modeled our bicycles and appearance as cyclists (both on and off the bike) for decades now after our favorite racing heroes.  We have measured our physical efforts by the same athletes and in turn molded both our rides and riding styles with performance based metrics and goals in mind.  The bicycle lifestyle has become a pseudo carbon copy of what we see on euro-sport/sporza, read in bicycling times/dirt rag and lust over in bike shops the world over.  Entry cost into this sport of ours soars easily into the quadruple digit figures before factoring all the cycling apparatus, lifestyle gear and accessories. 

Being taken as a "serious cyclist" even within the supposed "non-racing" cliques has become increasingly difficult as bloggers work diligently to bombard our desktops with images of the slickest, newest, most stylish buzz-kit of the moment.  Acceptance into these uber-chic cycling communities seems to be a silent rite of passage dictated by monetary status, physical ability and lush amounts of leisure time.  Seldom do we see features of "serious" riders/rides with people who use lots of "dated" second hand gear, lack adventure/racer cred or have the ability to engage in "epic rides" for whatever reason physical, monetary or social reasons.  We see photo dump after photo dump of typically well dressed, male cyclist riding on often strikingly beautiful hand built/custom bikes, with absolutely amazing bling parts while often looking like doppelgangers of one another.

This is often the first point of contact for newly interested people getting into cycling.  The blogs, the races, the magazines and bike shop experiences will almost always leave a taste in the mouth and a mental echo of how cycling should look, feel, cost and be like.  If the first image planted in our newly developing cyclist psyche is that of an affluent white male flooded with recognition and style points, we will continue to see individuals attempt to measure their own personal experience based on false ideals and disproportionate representation.

The message hasn't changed much since the early
century. Get rich, get fit, get a nice bike, get the girls.

Cycling has no race, status, size or color

Silly though the header above may sound, it feels almost essential to emphasize the fact that bike riding is something that nearly anyone, anywhere on the planet can do for relatively little to no money at all.  The activity in and of itself is one of the few social equalizers that exists today: an activity where people can exercise, engage socially with others and negate costly forms of transport simultaneously.  Cycling is a hobby that transcends the definition of hobby in the sense that it melds seamlessly with lifestyle to the degree that the user makes it so.  The line between "bicycle commutes" and "serious bike rides" become blurred as longer rides often become forms of transport, exercise and social stimulation all at one time.  

The problem with these hypothetically simple and low-cost forms of cycling is that they often never occur due to elitism, sexism, and varying forms of prejudiced that unfold in the aforementioned contexts.  The glamorizing of unrealistic levels of monetary success, superior fitness and high social status are key deterrents to an otherwise openly accessible and affordable activity.  As people are increasingly introduced to these false faces of cycling they are being subconsciously swayed from ever dipping their feet into the waters of experimentation.  If you never believe that you can take up cycling as a form of commuting or sport because you are either too poor, physically unequipped, not macho enough, the right color or gender, or simply not smart enough to learn about it all, you have fallen victim to the alienation of modern-day elite bike culture.

The legendary Jacquie Phelan.  One of cycling's first big female faces to break
norms and give women cyclists a positive image.  Still riding that same bike...

Representation and integration

When we start walking the walk and talking the talk we can begin to make a tangible difference for long-established cyclists and new faces alike.  When we invite people on our rides who have "inferior" quality bicycles that are "ill-equipped" for the job we can truly start opening new doors for those who are curious.  It is when we represent the masses of cycling with realistic physical figures, black/brown skin tones, and non cis-gendered passing males in adverts and blog posts that we start to tear down the walls of alienation and misrepresentation in cycling communities.

Whether writing blog posts or talking about these things personally with people, I try my best to use images of people with all physical builds, photos of women, children and faces of color and all walks of life in general.  I try to make it clear that anyone is capable of getting into riding if they desire, regardless of what contrary words and images the marketing powers that be have conjured for display and sale; regardless of monetary status or class.  I try to encourage everyone to treat one another equally, with similar levels of respect regardless of preferred cycling disciplines, age, social status or any other potentially divisive factor.  When I ride my bike and discuss cycling ideas, I try to do so in a way that I would want others to do as well; attentive, careful, compassionate and all-embracing.  If we can all broaden our horizons, subscribe less to the "serious" rhetoric, ideals and behavior that dominates the cycling waves and be more openhearted/minded about all of this, we will grant such a service to all parties considered by helping perpetuate this simple little activity that we have all come to love so much - and not just our white male counterparts.