Put the polish away. Bikes and skateboards are tools. Unless they’re in a museum or on your wall, they can’t be THAT precious. Take my @canyon_na #Endurace CF SL 2018 @belgianwaffleride Edition (I removed most of the “custom” decals), which I promptly stripped down, rebuilt, and put the necessary miles on to fine tune it. I’ve never babied it, and though marketed as a “road” bike, it’s proven to be the versatile workhorse I needed. The standard compact drivetrain became 1x, the wheels were built with sturdy 28-spoke rims, the tires are usually 28c (except when the mood strikes me and the 32c file treads go on, as pictured), and the saddle features a center-cut apropos for a 50-something who’s as likely to jam a 45-minute cyclocross race as he is an all-day endurance effort like BWR (or something in-between, like last weekend’s @gpsrace 50-mile trail barge). The things we use become extensions of us (probably why I ride my skateboards until they turn to rubber), and they conform to our style and take the wear and tear we otherwise might. You don’t need the latest and greatest, you just need whatever is best for you. For me, that’s an auction bike that supported a great cause (@cafoundation) and isn’t too precious to put a set of cyclocross wheels on for #cxnats. It lets you focus on what you’re doing, not what you’re doing it on. You don’t notice the scuffs and scars you inflict, because you forget it’s even there. When we see the “damage” later, it reminds us of what we’ve done, not what we own. Which, after all, is the only thing our things should do.
