Autumn by no means has a nasty hair day–even when the climate is moist and foggy it seems to be implausible:

Then once more it’s additionally shedding that hair, and in one other week or two it will likely be bald:

After all autumn additionally means Halloween, and I’m going as somebody 20 years youthful by using a fixie:

That creaking isn’t the underside bracket; it’s what’s left of my cartilage.

If you happen to’re in search of your individual last-minute Halloween costume, I humbly recommend combing my archives for inspiration. Sadly for you, the Diminutive Frenchman is taken:

Having been claimed–if not owned outright–by Paul Johnson of Basic Cycle:

[Photo: Jamie Amador]

I imply positive, you possibly can at all times do the Diminutive Frenchman x Jobst Brandt “collabo:”

[Image by BKJimmy]

Which you’ll discover it at Spirit Halloween proper subsequent to the “Alien Holding You” costumes:

And naturally as Paul jogs my memory there are many different choices from which to decide on:

Talking of Basic Cycle, I’m in fact their Previous Crap Check Pilot:

And it’s a duty I take extra critically than every other, which is why I’ve been logging as many miles as attainable on the Nishiki Cervino:

[Yes, it can gravel. Tubulars are the new tubeless.]

This Viner-made bicycle is so uncommon it makes the Rock Combo (of which, at the least based on legend, solely 500 had been made) look like a Surly Cross-Test compared:

And between the 2 bikes I discover myself contemplating beginning a group of extraordinarily uncommon bicycles bought by extraordinarily mainstream corporations–and once I say uncommon I imply as a result of solely only a few had been ever made, not as a result of they made shitloads however all of them fell aside:

Sure, I had one, and sure, it fell aside. All of them did–although extremely right here’s one on eBay with a kind of bonded Shimano cranks:

Now that’s residing on the sting.

Anyway, I’ve a protracted historical past of ironic amassing. For instance, as a youth I had an ironic baseball card assortment comprised of my brother’s cast-offs and primarily based totally on the gamers’ names:

I couldn’t care much less about batting averages and ERAs, but when, say, a participant’s final title was Beard but he was clean-shaven (in an period when practically each self-respecting ballplayer had at the least a moustache) then so far as I used to be involved that was a keeper. Sadly that assortment is misplaced within the mists of time, but when I might create a motorbike assortment consisting of extraordinarily uncommon bikes from extraordinarily boring corporations it’d start to fill the void in my coronary heart. As for which bikes these can be, I don’t know, exactly as a result of they’re so uncommon–I imply I didn’t know in regards to the Rock Combo or the Cervino earlier than Paul despatched them to me both. So I’m open to strategies. After all there are bikes just like the XO-1, however that’s extra of a “cult” bike, which is an entire completely different factor, and Bridgestone isn’t practically boringly mainstream sufficient, anyway. And for those who’re questioning, there aren’t any X0-1s on eBay, however there may be an X0-2:

Maybe somebody will step up and provides it the alt-bike Get together Tempo remedy.

Anyway, talking of the Cervino, at first I wasn’t loopy in regards to the top-mounted shifters, however now they’re certainly one of my favourite issues in regards to the bike. Not solely do I hardly ever even hassle to make use of my left hand to shift the entrance, however typically I even shift the entrance and rear on the similar time:

I assume new bike tech isn’t all dangerous in spite of everything.