Overcoming New Year’s somewhat hungover if not depressing vibes can be quickly and successfully done by simply shopping your ass off and spending all your hardly earned Christmas cash in the first couple of days of the year. I’m not gonna give you a list such as ‘The top 10 things a bike nerd can buy in 2015’ here. I’m sure upworthy, buzzfeed or any other click baiting site already did so.
My intention was to broaden my sports game a bit, so I planned on buying basic equipment for bouldering. You know, that thing all the wussies with a fear of heights or lack of mountains do instead of proper outdoor rock climbing. I sunk into thoughts of how to distribute my cash on the different things I’d need while riding to a store specified in outdoor stuff (read: Mostly selling ridiculously expensive rain jackets to people who need them for the ridiculously rainy commute from the door step to their SUV) which is located in a rather un-hip and relatively ungentrified neighborhood.
Going through my distributing calculations one last time while arriving at the store my voyeuristic bike sense was suddenly triggered, just from the corner of my eye I discovered this:
I still don’t get riding a drop bar with brakes mounted right next to the – of course color-coordinated – stem. Although this one doesn’t quite reach the level of WTF of the Swiss discovery my fellow blog author came upon a few months back.
Anyway, I was in for some totally cycling-unrelated buying spree and turned my head towards the store entrance. Only to spot this:
I probably could have taken a better picture if I had not been paralysed by an overwhelming feeling of awe towards this fine gentleman. That tricycle as a thing itself already is so badass, but topping it off, he had his walking stick hanging from the bars and a cigar in his mouth. Going not much more than walking pace and obviously not giving any amount of fucks towards the bus behind him he rolled past me, sending out huge rays of ease of mind.
Reflecting on my approach to cycling, I’d rather spend my retirement on a true gentleman’s tricycle than as one of those roadie grandpas still looking for competition among youngsters on their sunday coffee rides.
Then again I could invent tricycle bouldering, but I’d probably need special equipment for that…
Young, fresh & nasty. The brain of disridehere.