Bikes are Vogue 1
If you’ve spend any amount of time in San Francisco in the last decade, especially the well stereotyped Mission District, or SOMA, and even downtown to some extent you’ll have noticed that the track bike is the new skateboard. This fad is fully matured and has been going on longer than I’ve been riding a bike seriously, so I’ll skip the apologetic disclaimers – I’m not here to pass judgment one way or another.
The Mouse women had their first meeting last night at Gestalt, a very uniquely San Franciscan bar, insofar as San Francisco is a cyclists city (at least in our own minds). We (that is the Mouse women and me, the sole RMC guy) arrived early enough that most of the 24 bike racks along the wall were empty. As the night went on and more and more beer glasses were emptied the racks became more and more full.
It started as a good cross section of what I typically see riding around town: a beat up mountain bike, a couple of old 12 speeds in decent condition, a nice Bob Jackson leaning against the wall, and a track bike and fixed gear conversion or two – not including Bergen’s Felt. Mo’s Cross Concept, Ashley’s Brava, and my IRO.
By the end of the night this was the approximate inventory: a Look 595 Ultra (~$6,000) hanging by the handlebars from a pipe on the wall; below, a half dozen track bikes (Barenuckles, Brassknuckles, some Keirin frames, among them several Aerospokes, a Specialized Tri-spoke, and a Zipp 606 front, etc; on the racks, a vintage mint chrome Pinarello. Outside I thought I cought a glimpse of a 85th anniversary Tange carbon fiber track bike – with risers. Among the track bikes inside and out there must have been at least four or five pairs of Phil Wood hubs.
You get the idea. Bikes are cool. As sad as it makes me that people are out spending thousands of dollars on track bikes and NJS parts that will never see the Velodrome (to be fair some of them must race), it also makes me happy to see so many bikes in, of all places, a bar.
