Das Rant
By C.G.

Rest In Peace SB

Ever have one of those moments where you suddenly realize you emulate someone without even realizing it? This happened to yours truly once word of Sheldon Brown's February 3rd passing began circulating. It turns out that he and I shared a passion for things mechanical, especially that of retro designation. In fact, if tributes and obituaries are any indication, it appears we're even known for our grumpy demeanor.

I like to think that these similarities aren't entirely coincidental but instead offer up truth that it takes a certain individual to find solace in the world of cogs and spokes, index shifters, and rim brakes.

And while my contribution to society falls painfully short of the work he published up at his web site, at least I try to pass a bit of my skills with a wrench on down to the knuckleheads who run this site. Sometimes they even listen to my ranting once in a while.

And speaking of this site, we've had a very busy spring so far. As the site's official mechanic, I can share some tales of the many disassemblies I've had the pleasure of partaking in of late. For those outside the industry, allow me to shed some light on the process. When the editors and test riders around here request a media sample, the bike arrives in many, many small pieces (to fit into the abnormally undersized box that they ship in). My responsibility is to assemble and tune the bike, which often come sorely beaten on, so that the photogs can work their magic for the review. Then the bike goes bye-bye for anywhere between one and three months while the editors and test riders take it all over creation in effort to subject it to all sorts of flogging. Then it reappears at my doorstep, dirty, muddy, and dripping for disassembly. Here's the part where I get to attempt to work the various pieces into that way too small of a box I was telling you about before. No problem, usually.

This month the boys have dumped a whole bunch of test bikes on me left over from the winter months. While I've been keeping myself very busy with cleaning and tearing down, I have managed to sneak a quick ride or two in on my own personal Salsa Dos Niner. I have to be honest with you, if I weren't a Clydesdale, I may even allow myself to be swayed back into the realm of the 26 inch wheel thanks to not one, but two bikes that came through my workshop that really managed to impress. The first was the Bionicon Edison and the second was the Fuji Reveal 2.0. I won't go and tell you all about them because, after all, you can read the full reviews here in the MBT archives written up by our editors who can actually form complete sentences, but I will say that both of these bikes made me give pause to my usual desire to resist modern technology at all costs. No wonder they were preceded by hype and hoopla by the staff around here before they came back from their torture testing!

Alas I don't have the budget to even consider a new bike right now so I will hang on to my Salsa and wait for summer's arrival as quietly as I'm capable of. In the meantime RIP Sheldon, turns out you were my hero and I didn't even know it.

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