An update to the Cheap Bike Project, the story of "Trevor Wong," the PseudoBecane frame I just built up.
Now that he has fenders on, I consider him finished. I may change the handlebars and add a rack, but essentially he's finished.
Some of you will no doubt consider this an odd statement. I know some of my friends would. Why fenders?, they ask. All the more so since I live in Los Angeles, where it rarely rains.
In any other country the fenders would attract no notice whatsoever. In many, perhaps most, other countries, people use their bikes for day-to-day transport, enjoying them just as much as we do, since they're bikes, but riding with a destination in mind.
If I were a real racer, or even just riding up and down San Vicente Boulevard pretending I was a racer, I'd have a naked bike.
But not for real life. My bikes, cheap or fancy, aren't toys; they're tools. Tools that are exhilarating to use, but still tools.
I do ride in the rain when it does rain here. Moreover, I ride through neighborhoods where oblivious buffoons water their lawns till the streets flood--there are many intersections that I've never seen dry in fifteen years!
I also ride over oil, shit, dead rats, used condoms, and more. And i often ride wearing nice clothes.
No bike of mine is finished unless it's wearing fenders.
Some of you will no doubt consider this an odd statement. I know some of my friends would. Why fenders?, they ask. All the more so since I live in Los Angeles, where it rarely rains.