How was everybodys Halloween?This guy probably had a rough one:[Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Cheater]Mine, however, was quite lovely, and Im pleased to report my Ilhan Omars Alleged Brother-Husband costume went over extremely well:It also works equally well as an Alt Cyclist costume. In fact he looks like hes ready for the Nutmeg Noreaster. In the photo on the left hes posting to the Reddit xbiking forum about how Rivendells are overpriced and how he simply put $3,000 worth of White Industries and Paul components on an 88 RockHopper instead.The Halloweather was ideal, too, and the autumn were having this year is so downright autumnal it almost borders on caricature:Its enough to make you suspect that some other season is masquerading as autumn and trying a little too hard.Once again I had to do the whole Drive A Kid Somewhere and Wait Around thing, so once again I put the Anti-Riv on the roof of THE CAR THAT I OWN and did what we used to call mountain biking while I waited:As the Classic Cycle Old Crap Test Pilot Im ostensibly testing the bikes:But this weekend I had a revelation and and realized Im not testing the bikes at all:Im actually testingmyself.Or, to put it another way:So what is this bike teaching me? Well, basically the same lesson the George Plimptons Wife Oil didwhich is that I can find a bike aesthetically objectionable if not downright grotesque, and it can be the very antithesis of all the velocipedal values I espouse, and yet after spending enough time with it I will eventually grow quite fond of it.What Im still trying to figure out is why this is true. Is it because humans have a remarkable capacity for getting used to horrible things? (Adversity, oppression, eating at Arbys) Is it because theyre not horrible at all, and in fact the cutting-edge (for the time) technology behind them worked well and theyre really good bikes.? Or is it because its actually really hard to make a genuinely bad bike and as hard as both these companies tried they just couldnt quite pull it off? Perhaps its because my own love of cycling is so pure that I enjoy it no matter what monstrosity Im riding. Or maybe its the opposite and Im the cycling equivalent of a porn addict who can only get off on the most depraved and objectionable subject matter, like Y-Foils and vintage suspension mountain bikes.All of the above is probably true to a certain extent, but I do think both the bikes and I deserve the benefit of the doubt. The GT i-Drive bikes were generally well-regarded at the time, and people seem to forget that a mountain bike that was fun to ride in 1999 is just as fun to ride todaymore fun if youre not the original owner and you didnt take that initial depreciation hit. As for the Y-Foil, all Ill say about that is dont knock it til you try it. And cmon, give me a little credit for getting over my personal prejudices regarding suspension and bikes that look like something a Vulcan would use to administer a rectal exam respectively.But sure, frames without shocks are more in line with my own sensibilities:As are road bikes that dont require a crabon beam in order to ride smoothly:And the Roadini is riding very smoothly indeed now that Ive added the Brooks I recently removed from the Jones. But I now find myself faced with a very difficult choice, for after installing the saddle I realized I had this:Do I dare ride a bicycle with a leather saddle and leather bar tape? I fear in so doing I might cross some sort of cowhide Rubicon and become irretrievably twee. Also, the tape thats already on there feels really good, plus I actually managed to wrap it without leaving a visible gap by the levers, which never happens:And yethow do I resist matching my saddle and my sidewalls and my bar tape???HOW MANY OF US MUST DIE FOR YOUR SICK VANITY?, asketh the vexed bovine:Oh, save it, its your fault for being so useful and delicious.Alas, my vanity is exceeded only by my laziness, and why unfurl a solid B bar taping job only to go through the whole thing again?And not only will the leather doubtless be harder to wrap well, but afterwards Ill have to wax it!Who knew foppish retrogrouchery could be so hard?