Some of you (most?), may empathize with the following: I have built several bikes, of different types, for different reasons. It's nice to be spoiled for choice on any given morning when the weather is conducive to riding. But unless the ride itself has a theme, requiring a certain type, age, or nationality of manufacture, the choice of which bike to ride becomes obvious if I have built one to my perfect specifications for the conditions I usually ride in, and the aesthetics that most appeal to me.
Ol' Blue is, more often than not, that bike for me. Near as I can tell, this is a 1981 Trek 412, built of Ishiwata 022 double-butted chrome-moly tubing, built in Waterford, Wisconsin. I have outfitted it with a modern component set that met my ergonomic and aesthetic requirements as I put it together. The paint finish is amazing for a 40+ year-old bike, and the geometry feels like it was tailor-made for me. Because of its 1x9 drivetrain, some would dismiss it as a city-bike, or "Townie". But I have never encountered a hill that I cannot plod up in low-gear, or a descent where I wasn't perfectly happy spinning out top-gear and then coasting the rest of the way down.
The challenge I have with presenting it in this thread, is that close-up photos of specific details do not tell the whole story of the bike. I have marveled at DD's recent images of a Colnago headtube with Campy headset as perfect minimalist expressions of the purpose, quality, and aesthetics of the bike as a whole - everything you need to know is
right there. Light and fast, smooth and strong are the impressions we receive visually as our minds process what the eye sees with what the memory recalls of bicycle dynamics and quality based on years of exposure and experience.
In Ol' Blue's case, unless you view the entire bike as a purpose-built machine, it doesn't necessarily make sense. But when I climb aboard and settle onto that old Brooks saddle, grab ahold of those cork grips, and stomp on those new-style platform pedals, everything blends into a harmonious whole that quickly becomes an extension of my desire for motion and will for control - truly a "one with the machine" sensation that happens when you concentrate on the essentials of the build, and dismiss the requirements of convention or fashion.
Or something like that... This is definitely my favorite bike right now.
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