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Please join me in congratulating Lorne Peachey, who has ridden his bicycle 200,000 miles:
Wow, they really buried the lede here. Not only is he riding a Rivendell…
But Lorne Peachey may very possibly be the only person in the entire world using clipless pedals on a Platypus:
They said, “Just Buy A Rivendell Already,” and he listened.
Yet at the same time he also said “Screw you” to the wool-and-leather set by setting it up like a road bike, wearing bib shorts with a high-visibility vest, and obsessively tracking his mileage.
And I thought I was pushing the Fred-shaped envelope using clipless pedals on my Roadini:
By the way, I admit I’ve been thinking of switching to flat pedals on this bike, but then I remember that I have three other Rivendae and if I feel like using flat pedals I can just ride one of those instead.
Hey, what can I say? At least when it comes to bikes, my life is one never-ending treasure bath:
As for Peachey, he’s clearly a free thinker, which makes him something of a lone wolf:
Describing himself as a “solitary cyclist,” he reached the 100,000 mark 19 years ago. He rode across the country on a trip with several other cyclists in 1982, when he was 43.
And by my calculations, he’s probably spent his adult cycling life riding a little over 100 miles a week, give or take:
You may think I’m being judgmental, but I mostly just wanted an excuse to use that GIF.
In any case, mazel tov to Lorne Peachey, who clearly needs to go head-to-head against Fred Schmid:
I haven’t seen a follow-up, so I’m going to assume he’s still out on the course.
But once he does come in, I’m going to organize an ironic race for seniors called the Just Buy A Rivendell Already World Championships to settle the question of whether you should in fact just buy a Rivendell already once and for all–though soon you may not have a choice:
Frankly I can’t imagine a better outcome than a world in which there are proprietary electronic superbikes for the top-tier pros as well as the people who are willing and able to pay whatever it is they cost, and then normal bikes for the rest of us. And if the availability of the former is extremely limited, so much the better:
However I fully realize this is delusional thinking on my part, and that too many people will always want to buy the fastest bike they can get, even though most of the time that usually means the fastest-looking bike they can get, and that at this point I’m just foolishly clinging to the past and my subjective ideas of what a bicycle should be.
Finally, you may have heard that New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced a 15mph e-bike speed limit:
While I agree that this is mostly ridiculous, I’d also assert that calling this a “war on cyclists” is like calling a crackdown on Bluetooth speakers on the subway a “war on musicians.”
Also, you’ve got to appreciate the irony that technically you’ll be allowed to ride a regular bike faster than an e-bike:
“This is an incredibly stupid idea,” said Brandon Chamberlin, a lawyer who works with victims of road violence. “Imposing lower speed limits on e-bikes than on non-electric bikes would just lead to conflict and congestion in already-too-narrow bike lanes. It also will create dangerous conditions on roads without bike lanes due to even greater speed differentials between cars and bikes.”
Wait: so not only do regular bikes require no charging whatsoever, but you can also ride them as fast as you want?!?
Sign me up!
