Additional to yesterday’s publish, having reworked the Faggin into highway mode I used to be wanting to take it for a correct experience:

I first obtained this body like seventeen years in the past and constructed it right into a singlespeed for my spouse; then we moved to the hill nation, she bought a WorkCycles adopted by a Clem Smith, Jr., and the body lay fallow till I lately resurrected it as an city runabout. As such, till now, this poor Faggin by no means had an opportunity to reside overtly as its true self–that’s to say a correct highway bike with drop bars and gears.

It so occurred I had an appointment in Manhattan yesterday morning, and so I figured for its maiden voyage I’d experience the Faggin to mentioned appointment and possibly throw in a lap of Central Park on the way in which dwelling. Setting off, I marveled at how properly the bike match me and the way speedy and cozy it felt. ”How did I wait so lengthy to do that?!?,” I marveled to myself. Then I heard a loud *snap* and there was all of a sudden no resistance within the cranks:

I’d damaged the chain:

I admit I’ve turn out to be fairly cavalier about reusing outdated chains, and reusing fast hyperlinks, and mixing different-speed fast hyperlinks with different-speed chains, and customarily disregarding finest practices on the subject of cautious drivetrain curation. Nonetheless, on this case it didn’t seem that any of my eight zillion fast hyperlinks had failed:

As an alternative, so far as I may inform, it got here aside at a standard hyperlink:

Regardless of my aforementioned heedlessness I’m not one to reconnect slender trendy chains utilizing the identical hyperlink or something like that, so I’m unsure how this occurred:

Generally chains simply break, particularly after they’re on bikes ridden by lazy slobs.

Fortuitously I wasn’t removed from dwelling, and I used to be additionally proper subsequent to a subway station, so I had a choice to make: do I stroll again dwelling, get one other bike, and begin throughout? Or do I lock the bike up and hop on a prepare? Since I didn’t have a lot further time to play with, I opted for the latter. This gave me a possibility to take a look at the brand new subway map:

I additionally witnessed a fistfight get away on the platform at Instances Sq.. It broke out explosively and with out warning, and so near me I used to be fortunate to not catch an errant punch. As soon as I used to be away from the melee I alerted a pair of transit employees, after which a pair of the cops the urbanists don’t consider needs to be within the prepare stations.

I made it to my appointment proper on time, then afterwards I picked up a sequence on the nearest bike store and took the prepare again to the bike, which thankfully was proper have been I’d left it:

I’ve a idea that bike thieves in New York Metropolis at the moment are principally simply fascinated by e-bikes and sundries, and that usually talking you’re a lot safer on the subject of locking up a primitive human-powered bicycle. This isn’t to say you have to be complacent, however I do assume the common bike thief in 2024 couldn’t distinguish an outdated Italian highway bike like this from the trash by which it’s surrounded.

From there it was a brief stroll dwelling, throughout which I admired my fairly first rate bar-taping job:

Paul despatched me that tape awhile again; he meant it for the RockCombo however I feel the blue seems to be fairly good with the Faggin’s Pepto Bismol pink.

By this level I’d misplaced a lot of the morning, however I used to be decided to see how the Faggin felt out on the highway, and with a while left earlier than the college bus arrived I put in the brand new chain, put the outdated one in my chain drawer the place it’ll ultimately get re-reused and fail but once more, and headed north. Whereas there’s barely a hint of the snow we had this previous weekend the place I reside, it turns on the market’s truly loads of it just some miles from right here, and I rode proper into it:

Whereas not practically as troublesome as a damaged chain, the snow on the bike path did derail the experience considerably, and as I used to be working out of time by this level I used to be ultimately compelled to detour into industrial Yonkers for the return journey, which kinda sucked:

However, the bike felt quick, clean, and refined in a fashion that belied its rusty chrome, chipped paint, and components bin parts.

Who knew such a superb highway bike was sitting proper beneath my nostril all this time?