Keeping Track of My Five Bikes

Ah, quarantine! With all this discussion about “social distancing,” I’ve learned I need to take some time and reorganize all the clutter in my apartment and make it look like a habitable living space again. In doing so, though, I’ve had to find something to do with all five of my bikes. My partner, who’s stuck in quarantine with me, remarked to me, “have you ever thought that you don’t need five whole bikes?” to which I responded, “absolutely not.” I thought, since I’ve taken the time to dust them off and reorganize them in their pile in my bedroom, that it would be nice to share my collection and hopefully explain my attachment to each. I don’t have them in any particular order, but rather the order in which I see them in my room while making this list.

 

1. 2019 Cannondale Scalpel SE

This bike, being the most recent addition to the family, is something I’ve been saving up for a while to get. According to my manager at The Bicycle Shop who helped me with the purchase, it’s “the bike for Rothrock.” It’s a cross-country mountain bike, meaning it’s designed to cover long distances and climb well, but it’s also beefed out with an extra 20mm of suspension front-and-rear to handle more technical terrain. I try to ride this bike at least 50 miles a week, especially since this will be what I take out for the Wilderness 101 and the Shenandoah 100 later this summer.

 

2. 2019 Cannondale CAAD12

This is my other high-mileage beast that I’ve had since Summer 2018. Another Cannondale, this bike has an interesting allure in that it’s not made out of carbon fiber like most modern race bikes, opting instead for a more traditional aluminum tubing. Cannondale has long been regarded as a champion of lightweight aluminum, putting their CAAD (Cannondale Advanced Aluminum Design) models out with the exact same geometry as their ultra-light SuperSix EVO carbon bikes, some of which being the lightest production bikes ever made. The big problem with carbon, though, is that it’s painfully fragile, and a single crash could render the bike a pile of splintered shards of composite that can’t be repaired (at least not cheaply). I like having this stress-free bike to race in the sometimes clumsy pelotons of the collegiate circuit.

3. The Hipstermobile

If there’s any bike I own that screams “I miss 2014 because that’s when people cared that I had a beard,” it would be this one. This puppy is tricked out in all sorts of hip, vintage tech, and it’s the bike on which I generally commute every day. For a drivetrain, it’s running a 1964 Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub, a shifting mechanism that’s been around since 1938. I built the bike specifically with that component in mind, and the rest of the parts came to me through a search for the most hipster-esque look I could manage. I managed to get some super silly Nitto cruiser handlebars and a porteur rack capable of carrying only the snootiest bags of french-press-ground coffee and cases of craft IPAs (someday). Not pictured are the gorgeous Hanjo fenders I used to complete the build and also protect my butt and shins from the rain.

4. The Danger Bike (1995 Cannondale F400)

“Adam, why do you have that scar on your right hand?” That’s a great question. To explain that, just imagine the bike to the left hauling it down one of the steepest trails in Rothrock because of a dare. It didn’t go so well. Really, though, I love this thing dearly. I found the frame sitting on a curb around the end of the summer, and I built the rest of the bike up with parts from scrap and generous coworkers. The result is a somewhat bastardized recreation of an entry-level 90’s all-terrain bike. It has two completely different brakes, there are two too few gears on the front, and I had to give the rear inserts for the wheel a bit of a stretch (danger!), but it’s been a trusty commuter ever since its inception otherwise. My one grievance with it at the moment is that I put a Shimano Silent Clutch rear hub on it, so there’s no freewheel noise to alert pedestrians that I’m coming.

 

5. The Other Danger Bike (Marinoni Steel Frame with Recalled Spinergy Wheels)

Now, this bike really screams danger! While, in the opinion of many within the community, this is a really badass looking bike, it has one big issue: the wheels were recalled only shortly after I was born. The eight flat spokes on each wheel are razor sharp, and anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in a crash with one of these bikes can get hurt pretty badly. There are multiple cases of pro riders in the 90’s injuring extremities because of the spokes, and certain development lots were prone to exploding spontaneously under the weight of the rider. Thankfully, though, I got a set from a coworker that has been ridden for thousands of miles without issue, which leads me to believe with some confidence that I’ll be fine if I ride them. I still don’t do it often, though, and I definitely don’t ride it in groups. It’s more of a novelty to me than a good ride, especially since early carbon fiber wheels were painfully stiff.