It is said that fortune favors the bold, but more often it often seems to prefer the ignorant and/or unwitting, like when someone who doesn’t know anything about bikes finds a nice one at a thrift store:
[Link to story is here, but the website’s kinda weird, and you’re better of just reading the Reddit thread on which the story is based.]
So what is the bike? It’s a Kestrel 4000, the very same model upon which I bravely traversed the Swiss Alps:
And freegans everywhere rejoiced over this miracle:
I wish I too could find inspiration in this serendipitous discovery, but to me it is just proof that we live in an cold and arbitrary universe in which the hapless are rewarded by random chance and those who strive to be righteous must endure the trials of Job–or, to put it another way, WHERE’S MY $35 KESTREL??? These bikes have great significance in my personal cosmology, and I’m probably the only cyclist left in the entire world who truly appreciates them, and yet I sent the one I was riding back to Classic Cycle in a virtuous act of self-denial:
Oh, sure, I have lots of other bikes. And yes, vintage road bikes do just show up at my doorstep. Oh, and okay, someone even offered me a free Kestrel 4000 frame, though it’s a size too big so I’ve been loath to claim it. Even so, I implore the Great Lobster On High, “Why hast thou fosaken me?”
By the way, I’ve been worshipping a Lobster God since December of 2009, but now I have to stop, because someone’s taken that from me too:
[I wouldn’t recommend visiting the site, but if you insist feel free to utilize an Internet search engine.]
For 15 years I’ve been devout, and now here come these false prophets with their crass commercialism and their “save the planet” crap:
That’s it, we’re through:
Just kidding!
Thanks for reading, ride safe this weekend, and keep an eye out when riding past those yard sales.
Love,
Tan Tenovo
