[CR]Cycling for the sheer joy of it in Koln Germany

(Example: Framebuilders:Jack Taylor)

From: <biankita@comcast.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2006 15:26:40 +0000
Subject: [CR]Cycling for the sheer joy of it in Koln Germany

I am spending a few weeks here in Koln Germany. I had initially intended to pack up one of my battle ready classic bikes and have a go at it with Toni Thielmier with cleats and all. Once again, I was busy right before I left Miami Florida, so I took exactly nothing of a cycling nature with me. That means that when I arrived in Koln a week ago, the only bike available to me each day was my father in law's dual suspension, off topic mountain bike set up with 2 inch Scwalbe slicks for city riding.I have been riding it almost everyday and in the process I have learned something very important about cycling in general.

Riders here in Germany ride fast, ride well, and ride for real transport. Back in Miami, all my bikes are slight variations on the same thing. They all are dt shifted, racing geometried, low position killer bikes, designed and set up for racing... with their 23 x 700 tires with thin spoked wheels and meticulously maintained and waxed frames, they are good for a thrilling ride of drafting, sprinting, feeling the souplesse of big geared, lung bursting rides. I love those bikes because they are the most beautiful machines ever made by man but they aren't the most fun, the most practical nor the most durable of machines.

The best bike for braving the coblestones, jumping the curbs and seeing the sights is what people here have. One trip to the biggest bike store I have ever seen, B.O.C. tells the story. Here in a store roughly the size of a small Home Depot you have every variation of the 200 to 450 Euro City Bike. for that price you get bomb proof wheels, 1.5 to 2 inch slicks, a steel frame (lugged or unlugged) or an aluminum version. You can have either a Shimano multi speed integrated hub or a standard derailleur shifted 8 cog rear. You get either hydraulic rim brakes by Magura or standard V brakes or even caliper brakes. Upright hadlebars are what is offered, either Moustache or straight or some weird thing that looks like a complete square oval is popular. With this combination you can see the world, be safe without braking the bank.

Bikes get locked up around here, as German thieves are about as talented as German engineers. Apparantly there is a yearly demonstration of how every available lock can be broken into in minutes. As a result all bikes, no matter how they started out in life eventually look as dark, forboding and grey as the weather around here. It seems that all bikes eventually take on a patina of scratches, black improvised paint and dirt. This in no way takes away from a cyclist's ability to take on life's challenges.

I have trouble keeping up with the brave commuters of Koln. They can race in and out of the red bike lane, barely colliding with pedestrians who know enough to stay out of that forbiden zone. I have braved the long staircase down from the massive Dom church to the Rhein. Of course doing that on a suspension bike is no trick but doing it on a non suspension bike while wearing business attire is, and I have personally witnessed the same. There is a thrill of living life with cars and other bikes and pedestrians which is at once exciting and real and in a sence more real than my thoroughbred bikes back home.

I no longer wonder why the people of CR have at least one Rene Herse, upright bike equipped with fenders and bell and lights. It is as European and as beautiful as the thousand year old cobblestones which are more beautiful than any perfectly manicured concrete strip I have ever seen in the States.

Garth Libre in Koln Germany....