An Ode to My Road Bike, or A Brief Discussion in Numerology

The six month post-graduation grace period finally ended, and I got my first bill for student loans. Holy cow! That hurts the ol' budget. I'm good at living cheaply, but this mandates it. I think my typical dinner of animal crackers and a beer is going to have to switch to saltine crackers and coffee. That'll save me some money, for sure. I don't understand how (or why for that matter) people like me (i.e. a half-adult) own cars...insurance plus gas money on top of health insurance, student loans, rent, utilities, mobile telephones, etc. I own a truck, but it doesn't work, and I don't care much to fix it because, dang.....that's a silly waste of money.

Which reinforces my love for my road bike. I had a Giant OCR 1 for awhile, which took me across the country once, but it was a sort of forced love. Something to do when I didn't feel like mountain biking. But then one day, I got a call from Tina, who served as the Cupid in the formation of my new love. Cpl. Sergeant Major, as we call him, was selling an old Litespeed with full Campi Chorus components, and Cane Creek Ti wheels...for $700. It was a 49cm toptube and a 49cm seattube. That means its a perfect square: 49 x 49, and besides that, 49 is the sqaure of 7, which is a divisor of the price, and 7 is the best number in the world, and two 7's put together makes 14, which is my jersey number (I played soccer, once) so sevens, fourteens, or any multiple of seven is good. Very good. I don't know why, that's just how I feel. There are so many sevens in this bike. It is awesome.

Anyway, there's no rationality to that previous paragraph, but whatever. To make up for this lack of rationality, however, the bike is made out of titanium, which is found in such obscure items as ferrari hubcaps, airplans, replacement kneecaps, robots, and some day, my wedding ring. It's flexy and awesome like steel, but with higher strength, fatigue and corrosion resistance, and of course, its rediculously light. My particuler bike corners like a ninja, and zooming down twisty downhills to the point of getting so sideways as to almost clip a pedal is about the most pleasant experience I can think of right now.

A full afternoon road ride with Art Shuster through Leicester, up Potato Knob, down Rabbit Hen, up Turkey Creek, over Tater Tot, and all those other silly-named roads and passes out there on this bicycle is almost as good as 7 hour mountain bike rides in Pisgah. I never thought road biking could be this awesome, but it apparently can be with a good bike, awesome Western North Carolina farm land, and a man who knows his roads.

Also, my road bike gets me from here to there everyday. It gets me to work on time. I never have to fill it up with gas. Sometimes I have to pump up the tires and lube the chain, but that's about all. Like Shuster said once, "the great thing about a titanium frame is that you could leave it in the back of your truck and piss on it for a year and it'd still be good to ride."

Finally, the bike is all silver and black, no decals at all. Just some black electrical tape holding the quote "Just go Fucking Faster"--Fisher on the top tube. It's the most aesthetically pleasing thing I've ever owned. That's not really saying much, but still....it's a great bike, it's a great car, it's a great piece of art, and I appreciate the hell out of it.