As the Wright Brothers and their talented mechanic Charlie Taylor would enthusiastically contend, the parallels between bicycles and airplanes are numerous. Both are engineered to strike the optimum balance between strength and weight. Both must be precisely tuned to function properly. And both provide an immensely satisfying means of translating tactile, physical technique into transportation through myriad environments and natural elements.
From an owner’s point of view, the two forms of transportation share another important characteristic—they can both infect their owners with severe upgrade fever. I first experienced this malady as a student in junior high school. Rather than studying relevant, lesson-related material in class every day, I could invariably be found building custom mountain bikes on graph paper, meticulously listing each and every part along with its corresponding cost and weight down to the last gram. I’d build exquisite titanium masterpieces in theory, and then save my pennies to upgrade my decidedly more modest bike part-by-part in practice.
