Big Bikes

The Magic/Buy a $777 Raffle Ticket
and You Will DEFINITELY Win This Bike

The magic. With yesterday's allusion to an explanation of The Magic, I feel like I should probably try to explain The Magic. Thing is, it's hard to explain. I guess that's part of what makes The Magic so damn...magical.

I remember situations when I was a kid, where things seemed extraordinary. At the time this generally involved an adult: a parent, aunt, or uncle taking us (me and my sister usually) to some (to us) incredible place. This probably didn't seem like much to the adults involved (probably because we were really just someplace like Saugus), but to us it was, that's right — The Magic.

Confusion about where you were going and how you were getting there helped. Getting out of the car in some strange and exotic place (all these adjectives should be in sarcastic quotation marks) like a Ground Round in Newton could even have hints of The Magic. Going on a hike in a local town park that you'd never been to before could seem like an ascent of Chomolungma (sounds so much more magical than "Mount Everest").




Little kids have completely screwed up ideas about geography and distance and that has a lot to do with creating the The Magic feeling. It can happen as an adult, usually when you're being dragged along to some place by someone who knows where they are and where they're going. They might be enjoying the thrill of showing you how awesome their local trails are, but you...you might be experiencing some The Magic.

As an adult, it's hard to make The Magic for yourself. In my case it's not so hard. Basically because I'm not much of an adult and I still have completely screwed up ideas about geography and distance. Just yesterday I went for a 14 mile ride out of Somerville and I'm pretty sure I rode through the theater district of Djibouti. It looked like what I think (or imagine) the theater district of Djibouti looks like).

I felt a little of The Magic on that Asheville ride, where we rode out in the dark for over an hour.

Sometimes I get that The Magic feeling when I connect the dots on a trail system: "Whoah, holy crap, I'm HERE." Again, this kind of epiphany is not hard to come by in my world. I don't generally carry maps, I don't own a GPS, and I quickly forget all about trails I had previously learned about.



I don't know if I've done the best job of describing what all this The Magic business is about, but you may have inferred by now that it has a lot to do with being kinda dumb. Little kids are dumb, they can't help it. Their heads are really, really small. Me, I have to work hard to be as dumb as I am. Head injuries help. Watching mixed martial arts when I should be reading a book probably doesn't hurt either. Never sleeping enough to allow my brain to repair itself is likely the most effective method of intelligence-reduction I employ.

Whatever it is, I find that once in a while (and not as often as I'd like) I can see things through little-kid-eyes (I'll take those over X-Ray vision any day. Of course if I could have both, I'd take both, duh). And when you see things through little kid eyes you might just experience The Magic.

This is my Lemond Maillot Jaune Sweet-Fixie trainer. It is for sale, er, I mean if you click the Donate Now! button and buy a $777.00 raffle ticket you automatically win this bike! I know that's a pretty expensive raffle ticket, but the odds are about one in one that you will win the bike.

It's got the White Industries Eno cranks. The chainring is pretty new, it's nice.

That's right, it's real steel. And $777 is a steal for real steel. Really.

It's spec in brief:

• Lemond Maillot Jaune 57cm Frame in very good shape (old but only used for a year)
• Wheels: Mavic Open Pros laced to a Surly rear and an XTR (dude!) front hub.
• Fork: Reynolds 1" Ouzo Pro with CARBON steerer
  

I'll be putting it up on the Craigslist later. I'll have a complete spec on that Ad which won't prevent people from emailing me: "Um, how many wheels does it have?"

It's a sweet bike, I am selling it because I am too small for the bike. I think I'm shrinking.