Wired Cola

This 1955 promotional film has a lot to answer for:

They look so happy! See also part two.

Today, with cyclocross season over, my club had our Toy Ride, so Jak and I rode out to the ride in Kits, starting at dawn.

It was a smooth, steady ride. I was overeager as always, Jak kept a steady pace as always. We've ridden together often enough that we are used to each other's habits.

The ride saw the debut of my latest cycling project, my complete retro wool kit:

Before and after photos.

I've had the wool team jersey for a year, and like it very much. It immediately led to a desire to build a retro-styled outfit. I started by buying some cheap cotton argyle socks, which did little to satisfy my yen. There things sat for most of a year, until the weather turned and I realized I'd need some winter lower-body wear worth the name.

This fall, I bought a pair of wool dress pants, found on my second or third thrift-shop trawl for this item. Nice Daks, made well. About the same time, I finally found the socks of my dreams: full-calf height, wool blend, and an argyle pattern in my team colors. The pants cost $5, the socks cost about $35 shipped. Yes, I have a problem. But I've been looking for socks like that online for a year.

Getting the pants hemmed to suit my needs involved more web research, and visits to two different alteration shops. The second shop got what I wanted to do immediately, and hemmed up the pants with a nice elastic cuff tucked into the hem. It's hidden by being rolled under the "hem" of the knickers, and the result makes for a slight bloused effect which seems to be fairly close to what the ancients might have called a "plus two" knicker, as opposed to the shorter, traditional knickerbocker, or the longer, puffier, more famous "plus four."

This is much like the garb seen on some of the riders in that video up there, though the men in longer pants are largely wearing something like a plus four. My somewhat sleeker pants are a bit more sporty. You'll notice that my whole outfit, compared to those actual 1955 riders, is a sort of otaku parody of their garb: instead of subdued olive socks, mine are bright red argyle. My jersey is a team jersey with a bold pattern. And the pants are, as I said, a bit trimmer than a puffy plus four. The details are all exaggerated to emphasize an idealized conception of retro gear.

I also cheated by wearing bike shorts under the knickers, and a synthetic base shirt under the jersey. This kept me a tad warmer, a tad comfier, and prevented any undue chafing. Stylish and practical.

This morning's ride was about 3 hours of bike time, more or less, with a couple of breaks (when we got to the ride start and at La Bicicletta on the way home). In an inversion of the usual order, Jak was the one who semi-bonked on the way home, and had to be told to eat. By the time we got to the final 10 km of the ride (the same fast, elevation-losing section that we always ride on the way home), he had largely recovered and we shared the work as we rode a soild tempo home. As the road went up, he came into the lead, and I rolled back in front on the flats and descents. We've ridden together often enough that we are used to each other's habits.