I’m really glad we’re having this conversation and that so many people have added their perspectives. I have truly enjoyed learning from you and exploring your different ideas and perspectives. I have found this really valuable and also...fun. Maybe there’s someone else out there thinking the same thing.
Because of you all, I’m on the home stretch of getting this Clem set up so that I’m free to love it to death. I feel confident in what you said about fenders being low-risk. I’m online on another forum reading responses to a man who asked my question, and it seems really rare to have a bad crash from a front fender debacle. 1. So, let’s just say I go with the VO wavy silver fenders. Is wavy tacky? I figured it would hide the dents, plus it’s unique. 2. Then, saddles. I’ve always, always been partial to honey-colored saddles, but this Clem seems to beg for black with copper rivets and rails. If you look at the brake bridges and those little parts on the bike, they’re a gunmetal color. Really sharp with the blue Clem paint. Or maybe I should get one of the limited edition Brooks colors. I do like the Ergon grips (they just spoil you for comfort), and I’m thinking I will keep them. I could swap them for brown if we vote I keep my brown Select saddle. Or, I keep the black grips and put a black or limited edition color saddle on the bike. It’s so hard to decide. An aside about loving things to death. I have 2 pairs of Frye boots I took to the cobbler last week. I have worn them for years, polishing them myself but wearing the heels down to the nails. I procrastinated taking them in for service because I didn’t want to part with them. The cobbler, a fastidious man, looked over the top of his glasses and scolded me in his charming Italian accent, “You’ll have back problems! You wear these this way? And you want me to fix this, I suppose!” That’s how I want use this bike. I’m going to ride it until it feels like part of me and I never have to think one thing about it. No more, “I wish the bars were closer” or “I don’t trust that it won’t fall apart on me on the downhill”; no more uncertainty about how tight I can make a turn as I wheel it out of a tight space. I want to instinctively know where to grasp the frame when I lift it over the curb on campus, and how brace myself for the distribution of the bike’s weight when I carry it. I want the mechanic to look askance at me and scold me for bringing my Clem in in such a state. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/d06d3a44-762d-45fa-b99b-c1012f6af748%40googlegroups.com.
