Friday Five #39
Yah! Not only a cool series of questions, but note the completely appropriate use of the term “vehicle”. Yah!
What vehicle do you drive? I drive a blue and white hybrid bicycle, a 2000 Monaco from Quebecois manufacturer Cycles Devinci.
How long have you had it? I purchased the Monaco on October 15th, 2000. In the three years I’ve had it, I’ve put 8,400 miles on it.
What is the coolest feature on your vehicle? Well, right now there’s nothing particularly cool about the vehicle itself, but some of my cycling accessories are kind of unique. In the summer, I always ride with a pair of Shimano sandals with clipless SPD cleats, which are truly wonderful, although they leave the equivalent of a very bad “Teva tan”. I also have a Garmin Etrex GPS which mounts to my handlebars, which I often ride with. The thing I’m most looking forward to purchasing in the near future is a Ciclosport cyclometer/altimeter/inclinometer, which would be very useful on the hill climbs I’ve been doing lately.
What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle? Unquestionably, the weight. While a heavy bike is fine for tooling around the city or on major self-supported expeditions, it’s really not the greatest thing for club and charity rides or hill climbs, which are the majority of my riding. A heavy bike is like an SUV: appropriate for some uses, but ugly and slow and thoroughly unsuited to road use.
If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now? That’s an interesting question, since I will be buying myself a new bike soon after I get a new job. Certainly I’ll get a road bike, but I plan on taking a long time in deciding what model to get and how I’d like to customize it. I need to learn about the differences between Campagnolo and Shimano componentry, and I want to experiment with longer and shorter crank arm lengths, different clipless pedal types, and frame materials and geometries. In the end, if money were no object, I’m sure I’d wind up with half a dozen or so bikes for different places, conditions, and purposes. That would be fun!