What kind of relationship do you have with your bike? Are you intimately acquainted with every last chain link? Is that scratch on the top tube a source of heartache to you? Or is your bike just another bit of anonymous kit in your life – a machine that you pedal away on without giving a moment's thought to how it looks, or how all the elements fit together?
This is the time of year when lots of us are re-introducing ourselves to our bikes. Some people will be taking up cycling for the first time. The days have lengthened, there's a glimmer of warmth in the sun, and – well – you know it makes sense. But even if your bike hasn't been lying idle, how well do you really know it?
These questions have been prompted by a lovely five-minute video put together by Carlton Reid, the founder of BikeBiz, an online industry magazine that's full of fascinating stuff even for people who don't earn a living selling bikes.
With a soundtrack made using bike parts, the video journeys up, down, along and all over a bicycle, identifying what's what and putting names to things that you might not have been too sure how to describe (cassette, bottom bracket, stem, seat post...)
I don't want to get too nerdy about this. I don't think I obsess over my bike. Not quite, anyway. I do find myself sitting and gazing at it sometimes, and I can fix a puncture – but if anything else goes wrong, I'm straight to the bike shop. But bike shops can be intimidating places. The scorn of the bike shop assistant is legendary.
In such circumstances, showing that you know your front mech from your jockey wheel might at least earn you some grudging respect.
Check out Carlton's video – "Bong. Psst. Twang. Whirr. Psst":
Hey, thanks for posting that, Simon.
The sounds are from some of my bikes. The sounds were stitched together by composer Greg Johnston who did a great job cleaning up my recordings and making them somehow tuneful. All of this was inspired by a Christmas e-card sent by Specialized a couple of years back in which a US composer called Flip Baber made Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies out of twanging bike parts.
Flip likes Greg's work and even downloaded the ringtone to his iPhone.
I hope the video explains some bike jargon to newbies to cycling.
Posted by: Carlton Reid | Thursday, 17 April 2008 at 07:32 PM
Thanks Simon - great post and nice clip. 'Nut screws washers and bolts' are all used on my bike and I had a great time recently stripping down and assembling my bike after I stupidly put it away wet in November. That's also a tabloid headline about an escaped looney who ransacked a laundrette, by the way. It is not a daunting task (bike rebuilding) but you do need a good workshop. I'd recommend anyone to give it a try but not to rush it. Take your time, radio on, cups of tea and deeeee-stress. Aaahummmmmmmm.
:-)
Posted by: Zen | Thursday, 17 April 2008 at 07:33 PM
I know my bike extremely well. Forty plus miles a week, winter and summer does that. Just lately I've noticed a bit of a rythmic clicking every time the pedals go round, so I'm considering replacing the bearing in the bottom bracket. Not something that I've done before, but I'm quite looking forward to taking it apart and putting it all back together again.
I wouldn't say that I love my bike, but I do love looking after it and keeping it running sweet. You can't beat a bit of tinkering.
Posted by: Captain Flint | Friday, 18 April 2008 at 11:44 AM
Sadly (?) I have 8 bikes and I could tell you anything about any of em! They all have their own purpose and which ever one I ride I tend to find I love. Factoid: the commuter came with stx-rc cantilevers which never really worked, but today I got the final bit I need to convert to SRAM 9 V brakes.
I do work in a bike shop though. I try to be nice to the customers. It is a bit odd though when highly paid (compared to me anyway!) professional types can't figure out how bikes work. It's not that difficult :-)
Posted by: Kath | Saturday, 19 April 2008 at 12:05 AM
I ride it every day and I love it dearly, but it deserves better than me, which is why it gets serviced by a bike shop (where nobody sneers at me, but then again this is in NL where there's no 'bike elite').
Posted by: Nick | Thursday, 24 April 2008 at 08:55 AM
"What kind of relationship do you have with your bike? Are you intimately acquainted with every last chain link? Is that scratch on the top tube a source of heartache to you? Or is your bike just another bit of anonymous kit in your life – a machine that you pedal away on without giving a moment's thought to how it looks, or how all the elements fit together?"
Inbetween. I care about how my bike looks, and I try to buy parts that suit it. But I am not completely obsessed with it - there are a lot of scratches on it from where I have locked it next to walls and so on. I rarely clean it either.
I know someone who is so obsessed with her ugly chrome track bike that she takes loads of pictures of it and publishes them in various places on the internet. Sad!
Posted by: artonminta | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 11:44 AM