Additional to yesterday’s put up, Framework appears to be the Builder of the Second, as a result of there’s additionally one other overview of 1 over at Escape Collective:

It’s significantly totally different from the overview I discussed yesterday since in contrast to the opposite man James Huang is ready to articulate his ideas in a understandable style. In any other case, each reviewers are comparable in that they fawn over an overwrought course of that appears to lead to a bicycle the reviewer finds unsatisfactory:

Sure, the Framework’s meticulous development means you gained’t fall sufferer to the “dreaded ‘ring of dying,’” no matter meaning:

But it’s a (principally) carbon bicycle that doesn’t appear to be significantly gentle or aero, and I believed the power to mix each of these attributes was the entire level of the fabric–properly, that and the trip high quality, which doesn’t appear to be there both, for the reason that desert hipster man yesterday doesn’t like his, and James Huang had the man construct him two frames thus far and nonetheless isn’t completely satisfied:

All this for $7,750 for the body and sundries.

After all I perceive there’s no purpose to be offended at a single man (a Canadian man no much less) who’s devoted himself to creating bicycles the best way he desires to make them–and I’m most ceratainly not. He’s not forcing anybody to purchase them, he’s not creating some new commonplace we’ll all be caught with, and little question he’s doing it for the love of each bikes and craft. And who is aware of? Sooner or later possibly he’ll hit on easy methods to make the proper bike body.

On the similar time, whereas I’m not offended, I’m mystified. What’s occurring right here? Is it merely that high-performance bikes have develop into so boring and indistinguishable that the reviewers can now not even faux to search out them attention-grabbing, and but these similar reviewers additionally stay unwilling to embrace the “previous” know-how they’ve forsaken and admit they’ve been led astray, and so as an alternative they swoon over this man who appears to construct failure after failure, albeit with extremely tight tolerances? Like is a motorbike that doesn’t look like terribly well-executed (not less than based mostly on two in-depth critiques) price it as a result of you’ll be able to “barely slide a bit of paper” in between the headset bearing and the top tube?

I suppose the difficulty is that it’s not significantly tough to construct a motorbike that rides fantastically and is sturdy. That’s to not say it’s straightforward, however bike builders have been in a position to do it reliably and persistently for not less than the previous 75 years, and it’s why I can pull a battered 40 year-old body like this out of my closet, throw some spare components on it, and wind up with a motorbike that rides in addition to something on the market on the highway:

However that form of consistency and reliability is boring, and it’s way more thrilling to enter into an extended course of with somebody who’s going to construct you a rolling experiment–as a result of sure, it’s good to really feel necessary.

Talking of the Faggin, it’s an acceptable bicycle for the spring, as a result of similar to the character with which we’re surrounded it’s been reborn. The flowers are blooming, the bushes are blossoming, and the skunks are skunking:

It hissed at me as I handed, which suggests to me I used to be a couple of second or two away from getting sprayed:

I additionally occurred to move a very good 15-20 younger bikepackers who gave the impression to be heading out of town for some form of expedition–not less than I assumed that’s what they had been doing, although I think folks simply trip round like that on a regular basis now, and doubtless simply carry pour-over espresso fixings and all the remainder of it always as a matter after all, in the identical approach the plastic bike crowd dons skinsuits and helmets with built-in visors to trip for an hour within the park.

My first response after I see a bunch of younger, hip bikepackers is to really feel concern, as a result of it all the time seems to be like some form of large and stylish evacuation is underway, and I instantly marvel if possibly they know one thing I don’t. Like, is Brooklyn below assault? Are all the electrical Citi Bikes exploding resulting from an EMP from North Korea? Is a mushroom tea scarcity imminent? (I don’t know if mushroom tea is a factor with folks, however I noticed an indication for it not too way back so I hereby declare that it’s.) My second response is to really feel jealousy and resentment, as a result of after I was that age I didn’t have 15-20 associates with cool bikes with whom to trip into the nation and put together pour-over espresso. However then I understand that was all my fault, and that I additionally rode with giant teams of individuals after I was that age, solely as an alternative of chatting and consuming and having fun with the surroundings I used to be in a paceline with my nostril up the ass of the rider forward of me. The lesson right here is that you simply make your individual destiny, and you’ve got no one else guilty for being a large loser however your self.

As I contemplated the above, I handed this garment:

Had it fallen from the Voile strap of one of many bikepackers? Would they discover themselves later that evening shivering on the campsite with out it? Ought to I retrieve it and chase them down? Would they then invite me to affix them, permitting me to partake in all of the joyous socializing and camaraderie I missed out on in my early maturity?

“Fuck it,” I made a decision, and continued on my approach, again into Van Cortlandt Park:

Like different parks within the metropolis, in some locations Van Cortlandt Park retains the identical bucolic attraction it had in that bygone period:

Whereas in different places it doesn’t, like when you must trip below the expressway:

Additionally like different parks, it may be a bit of feral across the edges, and other people will acceptable out-of-the-way components of it for their very own functions. Such was just lately the case in Kissena Park in Queens, proper by the Kissena Velodrome:

I suppose someone tore up a bunch of saplings or one thing, and phrase on the road (or not less than the Web) is that it was the so-called “Central Park Raccoons:”

As you would possibly anticipate from somebody who sees teams of younger bikepackers and goes into an emotional tailspin, I don’t know the Central Park Raccoons other than what I’ve seen on the Web:

It’s arduous for me to think about a bunch of younger bike folks would tear down a bunch of saplings in a park, since this is identical demographic that thinks local weather change goes to destroy us, and that feels responsible about killing mushrooms for his or her mushroom tea. Then once more I suppose I might think about them constructing a tracklocross course in a Dionysian mushroom tea-fueled frenzy and making the sorts of people that volunteer to plant bushes in parks offended as a consequence:

Who is aware of? All I can say for positive is that some form of Valmont Bike Park kind factor at Kissena full with velodrome, singletrack, dust jumps, and all the remainder of it could be fairly wonderful…

…and that’s how I do know it’ll by no means occur.