Sunday, November 19, 2006

How it started....

A comment in my last post got me writing a comment back. Went long enough that it might as well be a post.

It started with the fixie -- though I'd like to go on record as having bought said Pista in 2002, prior to the current ridiculousness, and I sold the thing off to a (way too short) hipster for more than I paid. The geek part started with the blue Merckx.

I had gotten a ridiculous deal on a barely used Bianchi XL Boron. Being as powerful as I am (and smooth too!), I must have flexed it too much when riding, cause the clear coat on it developed spiderweb cracks on the top tube. Not the tube itself, just the paint. It kind of freaked me out a little, though. But mostly, it made for an excellent excuse to get a new frame.

So I started looking around for a new frame on eBay, when I saw the blue Merckx. "It must be mine!" I thought. Or possibly said to myself, the cat, or my wife, who at the time was just my new girlfriend, and infinitely less likely to opine "its nice, but where are you going to put it?"

Anyhow, it ended up selling on eBay to someone else, for more than I was willing to pay. I was sad. So I started doing some research. Merckx Grand Prix are rare, as I began to learn. Depression set it. I'd never have that bike!

Then suddenly it happened. Apparently, the guy who outbid me had a wife or something who did ask where he was going to put it, and the frame was being put back up on the block. For 7 tense days I watched + waited. 10 seconds left, I submitted my bid. My browser spun the little loading arrow. Was the Internet going to conspire against me? Would my bid go through?

As you probably guessed, it did. i ended up getting it for less than I had been willing to pay originally, and less than the guy had got it for. That was almost exactly 3 years ago now. It's morphed in to a mostly-Mavic equipped ride, but its still rocking the Ultegra 600 brakes my friend Jeremy (who spurred this post) gave me so I wouldn't kill myself riding a brakeless fixie. Thanks man!



The Merckx, just arrived, 2004.


I just got another Merckx -- the older one seen in the recent posts. My wife hasn't given me the "where are you going to put it" look yet, but I've already torn down my soon to be old commuter bike, in preparation for getting rid of the frame + pieces I won't be using on this bike. I figure being proactive buys me something, right?

Monday, November 06, 2006

Mavic 821 Shifters

Mavic's 821 shifters were their only non-electronic foray in to indexed shifting***. They're ultra simple, and in some ways fairly crude. I'll do a teardown of them with pictures at some point.



Really, this posting is just an excuse to post a picture shot in my home made lightbox. Makes for a nice, smooth background with no flash reflections. Still needs some work, and I need to get used to shooting in it, but it should make the quality of my pictures at least tolerable.


*** Their MTB Wishbone shifters were the same basic design, using a notched disc. Same general idea, but different. My mistake.

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