Arts District Downtown L.A. on Traction Ave.

I saw him ride by.  All bright and shiny.

A few minutes later I wandered by the sidewalk bike rack outside the Wurstküche and there it was;  beautifully clean and well pressed;  a simple track frame, spotlessly painted {not a ding, scratch or scrape}, no decals, no head-badge and no pretension in the componentry.

Shiny. But no patina.

I found myself standing in front of the machine, taking a few pictures, sensing something was missing; a bike not yet possessed with a sense of self-confidence; a little naïve.

Perhaps it was the Brooks hand grips that gave me pause.  The grips are nicely engineered but new they’re obviously & overly concerned with themselves; self-conscious. {I squeezed one and it gave me a nice sensation}

Brooks is enjoying a new found popularity with the urban cycling fashionistas {just like Tony Bennet and the Next Gen-Crowds}.  This honey colored saddle is the B15 Swallow.  It’s a classically beautiful seat but I wish Brooks would make it without the tool pouch brackets.  It encourages owners to mount bags that dangle when strapped to the brackets and completely negates the elegance bestowed upon the bike by such an iconic saddle.

Now look at the bike’s profile; the seat just barely lower than the stem with very little seat tube exposed; it makes you feel all bunched up, almost constipated.  If I had had an allen wrench in my pocket I would’ve loosened the binder bolt and raised the saddle about an inch or more and lowered the stem.  And the nose just ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly, pointed up, just a little bit;  but enough that it gnaws on that part of the brain that governs discretion over l’elegânce de veló.

The bike shows promise of becoming a cherished tool with a distinctive grace characterized by the patina of use.  A tool that’s cared for but not overly pampered.

Then the owner re-appeared; a picture perfect example of urban cycle-chic with a brand new back-pack even shinier and more well pressed than his bike.

Even in one’s personal presentation there must be a slight flaw, a tiny contradiction; an incongruity of texture or finish but not in posture or composition; something old with something new.  As with our bikes we too must earn a patina of wear.

Fuerza Animaux!

OBJECTION!: street art OFF Traction Ave.