Fahrradsozialismus

I rode an old clunker of a ladies’ bike for quite a while before building my current commuter, and I’m sure like many people, associate experiences one.. experiences in relation to doing particular things. Sentimentalities aside, I am rather fond of the step-through design in general, and still ride them for shorter commutes just for a bit of change or for fun.

Functionally, the step-through frame allows riders to mount more easily from the front of the bike. Though back in the days when it was introduced the more important aspect of such a design would arguably be that of etiquette & sense of decency. Much like the sidesaddle, these were designed so that ladies would not need spread their legs to mount, something deemed frightfully indecorous and improper for any respectable women to do, especially in public. Indeed it was noteworthy enough that Hardy uses this to introduce an distinguishing aspect of Bathsheba in Far from the Madding Crowd early on in the book, perhaps suggesting her spirit of independence.

Today, in a world where such manifestations of Victorian prejudice & puritanism are nothing but literary allusions or quaint nostalgia, social mores dictating what can and cannot be worn by the various genders (biological or otherwise) are scarce, though it is still more socially unacceptable for men to have the slightest sense of curiosity in anything remotely feminine for themselves, and often a source of ridicule, even if in jest. I could say that this is my personal pronouncement to declare war on the shackles of gender specificity, but in all truth I just think they are really neat. Interestingly enough, in traditionally more chauvinistic societies in Asia, China in particular, it is not uncommon to see men riding these types of bicycles.

I mentioned my particular fondness towards the design in regards to their inherent elegance here, but there are practical aspects which makes them more ideal as commuters than diamond frames for some.

They are excellent for those who are less flexible, and it allows you fix baskets or baby seats on the rear rack, something which hinders one’s ability greatly to mount on a diamond frame.

This particular frame I found lying abandoned on one of my bike routes, with a warped back wheel & rear derailleur, I waited a couple of days just to make sure it was truly abandoned, and nursed it back to health, just like a sick puppy, differing on some very minor issues of vitality & molecularity.

The paint job is rather pedestrian, in keeping with the standards on my other bikes, functional but rather crude – albeit only upon closer inspection. It has the special distinction of have a Tiagra crankset, which is higher on the marketing hierarchy than anything I have on my road bikes. It is the only bike I have that has a chain guard, indeed the only full size frame that even have mounts for a dedicated chain guard, though not a full chain case which I would prefer in terms of look.

There was no real reason for having drop bars on this bike, as I have no aspirations of going anything other than a saunter on it. I simply had a white saddle & bar tapes left over from another bike, and thought it went well with the red.

I have yet to test the seemingly purely decorative mudguards on these in the wet, but have very little faith in their abilities in preventing me from getting splashed. I am curious as to whether such mudguards are indeed designed to be petite simply because they might match better (not necessarily so imho) with a “female” bike.