MAJs gay bikes [she’s in her fitness era]

now the mania of new years resolutions have passed i have finally sat down and thought of some cycling things i'd like to do this year

1) accepting i cannot ride in the same way i used too

i talk about it in this thread a lot that i have quite a severe chronic heart condition which impacts my cardiac ability greatly, but over the last 2 years i have felt this worsen. I went to my cardiologist recently for a bunch of tests and was like "hit me with it doc, i'm dying right!?!?!" and she was like "maj.... there is no change in your cardiac preformance, 02 levels or blood pressure"

i was shocked, surely she was wrong - i've gone from being able to hold onto friends cycling to having to force them to go slower, i just cannot get up the same hills i used too - even post covid fitenss drive - she then pointed out i'd been on HRT for approaching 2 years, and proposed that what i was experiencing was a loss of muscle - that when combined with my dependancy on offsetting poor cardiac ability with freakish muscle edurance (painting to excercise test results in which i was above average preformance expected, with far,far below average cardiac readings) i just did not have that in me anymore - pointing to that the one thing that has changed is my weight and body make up, drastically

i was pretty shocked, relieved but shocked - i mean, i'm well aware HRT inhibits sports preformance, but with all due respect, i had none to begin with, i thought i was safe. but after consulting my endo they were quite insistant that from the data they'd seen and patients they had HRT knocks a flat 20% off the top - which anecdotally matches the sort of loss i'd been experiencing compared to old rough data i had.

with this in mind i spent the winter just letting myself rest - after a summer of maybe over doing it, cycling everywhere, never touching public transport, i have put on my blundestones and baggy trousers and spent my time catching the tube, the bus, the train! but never the bike

this year i'd like to spend the energy i do have for cycling now doing more of the riding i like, taking the train to epping or cycling locations, than junk miles round the city in the hope to get back to where i was. hopefully this will get me cycling enough to keep my general good heart health as it is, while also not leaving me exhausted and worn out, loathing riding the bikes

2) would like to build a more gay bike

terrible news to some on this thread, but great to others, i put normal handlebars on my homer and cotic this winter and they ride a lot better for it. it pains me to admit. i also put drops on my xcheck earlier this year; skinny tyres (35's) turning it into a sort of road bike for city dwelling and lanes. I have no willingness to do either of these things however, in line with resolution 1, it's also too bling to leave outside. i think it's likely i take it all to bits and start again or i sell it to someone to enjoy as is.

just have a scratch for a bike which looks a bit "gayer" , this is my 2023 bike vibe "gay bikes", "queer bikes", "[redacted bikes]" an aesthetic and functional urge to have a bike which reflects me. i've spoken to a few fellow gay bike friends and they resonate with this and we've been trying to drill down on what a gay bike is

1. i don't think boutique parts are gay, but i do think like, having
   something that feels like it came from a weird trinket store parts
   bin is v gay bike
   
2. i think swept bars are obviously the most gay, the homer was defo more gay when i had the obscene clunkers, likewise sloped top tubes are gay, horizontal TT's are objectively, not gay
   
3. also think lots of carrying capcity is v gay, as are things designed
   for comfort, ie saddle covers, racks, bar end mitts, big bells
   
4. I feel like absurd spacer stacks are pretty gay
   
   

i'd like to hear about other lgbt members thoughts on this metaphysical feeling

i think the grant rivs are close to being gay but they're more metrosexual than gay, kind of like retro mtb basket bikes. veeerrryy metrosexual, not gay. they do not have a sense of mania, a sense of like, panic, sure they're often made from an existential dread, but it's like a dread of not living up to your parents expectations of you, not a dread of like "holy shit i could go another 30 years surviving the gay police and i still would not have felt like i had my belated flirty 20's"

mood boards to come on this - i'm still working it out

3) i'd like to go back to the new forrest again

the new forest was ace last year, perfect riding, perfect amount of outdoors. for those who read the write up it did have its downsides but i think this year we can avoid those parts.

I'd like to see more of the forest, do maybe some cooking or coffee outside, go back to the great sandwhich place, get another witch magnet. I'd also like to go with friends this year, i've met so many fantastic bike people on here and out in the real world, it would be good to get some people together for a weekend or weekday to just chill, talk bike, ride bike, and sit around.

my favourite bit of riding last year has been going to riding days and meeting the people who are openly like "i enjoy riding bikes, i hate going on bike rides" and riding far shorter distances with them, much slower, taking the time to talk and chat, be it about life or bikes, than ride as far as we could before going home.

hopefully i will have more to offer if anyone was interested in this sort of thing, later in the year

4) helping friends with bikes and accepting i like bikes, not cycling

I really enjoy bikes, they're great. a genuinely good human invention. love building them (not in the moment, but after), love seeing how others build theirs, love helping others build theirs, love just rolling it around and admiring the work once its done.

don't much like "cycling tho"

last year i helped a few people fix or get started fixing their bikes, got my boyfriend into bikes and taught them to fix em themselves. i found it quite rewarding when compared to my day job of sending emails. i'd like to do more of that this year where i can.

i think that's all i have for now, but yes, excited to get back into cycling and uploading pictures of it again, interested to hear if anyone else has been thinking about their cycling commitments for the year

Here we go again

Is there not a tldr visual mood board available?

Velvet Goldtec

Anyway there so much to love in that piece above, and finding out who one is in the context of bikes is a wonderful thing. The geo as gay thing is great and mindblowing at the same time. I'll I would say is that as an American who came of age in the 90s, almost everything about road cycling first hits me on a subconscious level as extremely, wildly gay. But that shows that perspective counts for a lot but is in no way definitive

road cycling is definately homoerotic but sadly not culturally gay , which is a shame, i think it would be much more watchable if they all made out after

don't much like "cycling tho"

time to poke your head into the electric bikes thread? excuse for a new build IMO.

2) would like to build a more gay bike

in.

current vibe (subject to change)

i think for gay bikes i'm really enjoying the bikes of my friends who use them to get everywhere, from dinner to a gallery opening. those bikes which are seemingly always there, bikes which you see poorly locked, or not locked at all. those bikes you see as discarded wrecks on the side of the road only for an owner to happily take it away and go about their day. a boris bike hastily left as the person had to dash. there is this sort of romance and mania in it which i find endearing. the pure functionality of it all. a direct reflection of what it feels like to be a gay trans person in 2023.

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HRT knocks a flat 20% off the top - which anecdotally matches the sort of loss i'd been experiencing compared to old rough data i had

Luckily for you, any badger rides this year will be at least 30% slower

Gayness will remain about the same

nobody watches the podium ceremony

Here for this... crack on then ... .;-)

i think the grant rivs are close to being gay but they're more metrosexual than gay, kind of like retro mtb basket bikes. veeerrryy metrosexual, not gay. they do not have a sense of mania, a sense of like, panic, sure they're often made from an existential dread, but it's like a dread of not living up to your parents expectations of you, not a dread of like "holy shit i could go another 30 years surviving the gay police and i still would not have felt like i had my belated flirty 20's"

I feel that grant/rivendell is in fact extremely hetrosexual, it gives the same energy as men who collect pocket knives despite working in software development or obsess over boutique flannel shirts.
It's about collecting and owning symbols of traditional masculity (weapons, hand tools, workwear, vintage xyz, rapid rise) as a reaction to mass culture, but in reality is just it's own form of conspicuous consumption which ends up mirroring the culture it wanted to counter. (In this essay I will...)
Very straight.

Anyway, this is going to be great :)

Sounds very true

you have watched yowamushi pedal right?

This is the insight I come to lufguss for, grant rivs declared STRAIGHT

sadly yes

that makes Crust gay, i can live with that, i had setup a notification when florida man became available in my size, got the email last week, dangerous.

I enjoy reading your posts Maj, they're entertaining, thought provoking, and more often than not, make my day a little brighter.
As one of life's tinkerers/fettlers I quite often prefer to twat about with some bike parts and tools rather than go for a ride.
As a result of building Mattnav's Cross Check, I may be building more bikes up this year, several of his friends that ride fast paced group rides (certainly not my bag) have been in touch about similar projects, fingers crossed it slows them down a bit, and we can go in search of baked goods as a larger group.

No real commitments for the year ahead, other than finding decent cake and hot tasty beverages, whilst enjoying being out on my bike, be that solo or riding with friends.

I do like my FM - front basket with an olive shopping bag, cheap dyno lights with colored hook-up wiring caulked to the frame, low gearing, straps, big stem stack and a bell. Kinda wish it had a disc fork for more wheel choice though (where is brakeless on the gender/sexuality spectrum..)

2023, trying to find a way to move across country where the weather and riding are better.

are we here yet?

I know I kinda am.

How about one with aero-shell to offset the power reduction?

I built one of these for my university group project. The red paint we got? Turned out pink. Very phallic. It was great fun and not a good bike.

@Maj - like jontea I enjoy your thread and love you being yourself through it. So thank you. All support from me.

Re Grant P - I think he really wants people to enjoy bikes more and wants to deconstruct modern cycling culture, I don’t think he’s trying to supplant it. I think it’s harsh to paint him as snobbish or elitist in that knife collecting/ ‘you don’t understand, you’re weak becuase you use STIs’ way. Jan Heine maybe.

jury is out on if crust is gay tbqh, I can see arguments either way, at times seem a bit “straight couple who’ll stare at you in the [redacted club]” but could equally be “the sound couple who were at all the protests in their youth”

@jontea very kind thank you, I also enjoyed reading you building the cross check for matt, hope you do find the tasty cake, I will be looking for many myself

@stelfox thank you, I also have the same soft leanings on grant. I don’t think he’s snobbish but I do think he can be a little too skeptical of change

I see his customer base as very carlez buzz esque artisinal fans which I enjoy quite a lot, between the sf rivbros and the and the lore seeking Google docs forum lot

Which Is why I thought metrosexual, but is a few separation from grant I suppose

Definately no jan heine that’s for sure, jan strikes me as an asymilationist gay

I’m other news tonight my internet went out so I finally removed these grips and levers from the Easton monkey bars and put them on something a bit more queer

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Love your threads maj. It's just all vibes. Good to have you back.

Re: gay bikes, pure mania is the way I think? One of the most chaotic bikes I’ve ever worked on was an early 2000s era mystery brand hybrid that had been (badly) spray painted yellow. It had a brand new drivetrain but the hubs were suspiciously loose. Bike owner was aware of this but was just vibing. I think if you can encapsulate that sort of energy (in a non life threatening way) it would be quite gay. Also bike decorations, like a silly little vase on the handlebars with a single flower in it. Or stickers covering up the bikes branding.