{"id":4200,"date":"2009-02-16T11:17:57","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T16:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/?p=4200"},"modified":"2024-06-05T21:41:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T01:41:29","slug":"rather-a-new-wearer-of-clothes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/16\/rather-a-new-wearer-of-clothes\/","title":{"rendered":"rather a new wearer of clothes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"568\" height=\"536\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4201\" title=\"batavus crescendo\" src=\"http:\/\/scruss.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/batavus.jpg\" alt=\"batavus crescendo\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scruss.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/batavus.jpg 568w, https:\/\/scruss.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/batavus-300x283.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px\" \/><br \/>\nSo my <a href=\"http:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/2004\/10\/24\/stewarts-quest-for-the-sensible-bicycle\/\">quest for the Sensible Bicycle<\/a> is over; I found it. Or rather, it found me, for bicycles have lives of their own.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/curbside.on.ca\/\">Curbside Cycle<\/a> had a sale. They also had, for reasons known only to the manufacturer, been sent just one of their top-of-the-line <a href=\"http:\/\/batavus.nl\/pages\/collectie2009.aspx?1=1&amp;pageId=213&amp;pageParentId=200&amp;topImageId=1&amp;pageControlNamepages\/collectie2009.aspx&amp;bframe=24&amp;bikeGroupId=800&amp;frameTypeId=1496&amp;colorId=2173&amp;gearBoxId=866&amp;bikeCategoryId=57&amp;collection=collectie2009dsn\">Batavus Crescendo Deluxe<\/a> city bikes. I took it for a test ride in the ice and slush of the Annex. It did everything just right.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s how it measures up to the checklist I wrote about in 2004:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Fully enclosed chain<\/em> \u2014 yup. Batavus have a really clever clip-together sectional polymer chainguard.<\/li>\n<li><em>Full mudguards<\/em> \u2014 for sure.<\/li>\n<li><em>Hub gears<\/em> \u2014 8 speed hub gears, no less.<\/li>\n<li><em>Dynamo lights<\/em> \u2014 a front dynamo hub, no less. Slight marks off for a battery rear light, but it does make the wiring simple.<\/li>\n<li><em>Proper carriers<\/em> \u2014 a really nice alloy one, with built in pump and elastic strap.<\/li>\n<li><em>Anything but rim brakes<\/em> \u2014 roller brakes, in the hubs. I was initially sceptical of their gentle action, but they can stop you to almost the limit of adhesion of the tyres, so they do work well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The one thing it does have, but I didn&#8217;t think I&#8217;d need, is suspension. It irons out the uneven Scarborough spring roads rather well.<\/p>\n<p>I love the <a title=\"Batavus Dageliks gebruik instructieboek [pdf]\" href=\"http:\/\/scruss.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/batavus-instructieDagelijks.pdf\">manual<\/a>; it&#8217;s written for sensible riding. Basically, most advice is given as <em>Talk to your Batavus Dealer<\/em>. The similarity to a modern car manual is striking; just you get on with riding the thing, it implies, and we&#8217;ll worry about fixing it. Tellingly, the English language section is the back; these bikes are much too sensible to waste on those silly Anglos.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve barely walked the length of myself in the last few months, so in even short distances my legs let me know about it. It&#8217;s freezy out, but dry and bright &#8211; I must go out on my bike again.<\/p>\n<p>(the title&#8217;s from that early eco-geek, and it&#8217;s the other half of the widely-misquoted:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">&#8211; Henry David Thoreau, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/205\/205-h\/205-h.htm\">Walden<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For me, it&#8217;s perfect; not merely do I not require new or special clothes to ride it, but I have become a new wearer of clothes by it.)<\/p>\n<p>If you need to find me, you know where I&#8217;ll be &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So my quest for the Sensible Bicycle is over; I found it. Or rather, it found me, for bicycles have lives of their own. Curbside Cycle had a sale. They also had, for reasons known only to the manufacturer, been sent just one of their top-of-the-line Batavus Crescendo Deluxe city bikes. I took it for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[337,77,81,225,43],"class_list":["post-4200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bike-stuff","tag-batavus","tag-bike","tag-sensible","tag-sensible-bicycle","tag-toronto"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQNZZ-15K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4200"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17565,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions\/17565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}