Middle-aged men on hybrids

There was one thing that bugged me when I started cycle commuting properly - middle-aged men on hybrids!

There'd always be a few of them on each commute..  men in their 40s/50s, on ratty-looking hybrids, often with a pannier, and usually in their work clothes.  Generally, they're just obstacles to get around, but every now and again there'd be one who I couldn't catch, or worse - one that overtook me! 

For me, hybrids will always be a thing to be ridiculed, no matter how sensible they are.  It's just something that's been programmed into me.  How were these old dudes going so fast?  What did I need to do to avoid the shame?

I kinda knew the answer already.  My knobbly tyres weren't really designed with tarmac in mind, and I could often feel my knackered suspension bouncing against me when hitting potholes.  To level the playing field, I had to either make my mountain bike more like a hybrid, or try something else.

The upgrade route meant replacing the front fork with something fixed, and getting thinner, knobble-less tyres.  I wondered if there were gears more suited to road use.  I'm still not sure if there are.  The cost would've been just over £100.  That seemed kinda pricey - you can get whole bikes for that!

And so, I visited ebay.  But not looking for mountain bikes - I had one of those.  And not looking for hybrids, either - I'd rather die!  I was looking for racers.  The last time I bought a racer was in 1995-ish, for about £20.  I didn't think prices would've increased much over the years. Racers from the 70s are even older now, so they're probably even cheaper now, right?

Wrong!

'Vintage' racers can be quite pricey.  Through a combination of inflation, trends, and increasing rarity, racers rarely sell for less than £50, and good examples can fetch well over £100.  That wasn't as cheap as I was expecting!  I didn't really want to spend more than £80 on one, as it was supposed to be a cheap experiment, so I tried bidding for one that was in that price range - a 1980 Carlton Kermesse.  I looked it up.. a nice bike, apparently! Stuck on a max bid, aaaaand.. lost.  It went for about £140 in the end, I think.  That seemed crazy!  Enough of that, I thought.  I'll have to order the fork and tyres when I get to work the next day.

But something happened on the way to work.  I was stopped at some traffic lights in Longsight, and a guy on a singlespeed conversion pulled up slightly ahead of me.  I don't see many racers on my commute - the ones I usually see are new bikes, with ludicrous logos all over them, ridden by people clad entirely in lycra.  The people who rode them often seemed to ride like the road belonged to no-one but them, like the cycling equivalent of BMW drivers.  I didn't want to join that crowd.

But this was different.. it was a guy dressed in baggy shorts and a tshirt, and his bike had no logos that I could see.  It was painted metallic green, and had a fair bit of chrome.  It had old-style tubing and old-style wheels.  No deep rims, no oval tubes.. it looked amazing!  Then I looked down at my own bike.  Fat silver tubes, black wheels, big old handlebar.. not very elegant.  Not very elegant at all..  Then I pondered what I'd be doing to it..  it'd be a mountain bike that was trying to be a hybrid.  A wannabe hybrid?

To quote Darth Vader; "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

So, back to the racer idea!  With renewed purpose, I expanded the distance I was willing to travel, and increased the amount that I was willing to bid.  And I won an auction.