Surly Bikes
I’d like to talk about bikes for a minute, and more specifically the value of bikes. See that bike hanging on the hook in your basement or garage? How much money do you have into it? What do you use yours for? Are you getting your money’s worth, and how do you know? Let’s face it - a bike is a fancy pile of metal and plastic. Its true value is no different than most other possessions – it’s in what you want it for and for what it can do for you.
Most things are designed to serve a purpose and sometimes more a window of potential uses than a specific purpose. Take the bicycle for example. The material and geometry are best suited to a style of riding, or a type of terrain, but the bike is not limited to that. I wouldn’t point a road bike down a full blown DH course, but you get the point. The window of potential uses is fairly broad for most bikes. They’re remarkably strong and capable. It helps if the rider is too, but whatever. Run what you brung and you’ll do all right.
What the hell am I getting at? I’m getting at this: it might be time to take that bike out and do with it what you really want. If you bought a bike, you already know how you want to use that bike. What you were dreaming of when you plunked down that cold hard cash?
Go out and find what you’re looking for with that bike and then do it. Don’t worry about wrecking it. Jump a curb, chase your dog, rip a berm, pull your kid around the block, ride across Montana. Your stuff will get dirty and dinged up no doubt, but chances are it will continue to work and it will be there for you. Certain things in this world need to be perfect to be enjoyed, but bicycles just ain’t one of them.
So get out there. Channel your inner Jay Springsteen. Or Bruce Springsteen. Or whatever. You won’t impress anyone, but that’s not what this is about. Dare to go out on a selfish ride. Don’t worry about your bike or those runners or those dog walkers or those better looking bikers. Dare to be adequate. You might get somewhere and you might not, but you’ll have fun for sure. To me that’s the real value of a bike.
