Soul. We all want some. We are all searching for that way to define ourselves outside of the mainstream, hey everyone looks the same scene. As our world has become more and more manufactured the ability to be different has become increasingly challenging. Take the Mohawk as an example. At one time, it was consider the middle finger of hair styles but has now been bastardized down to standard affair and even has offshoots like the fauxhawk. Or maybe that’s me and everyone else is desperately trying to fit in, whatever.
Soul is a noun except when referring to black culture or in the bicycle industry when you are trying to define that elusive cool factor. There are a lot of idioms that we could throw into the soul ring, but they are all basically the same, this is cool and you should want it. Mostly, in my head at least, it describes a characteristic that has nothing to do with riding, but gives the owner of the described object a sense of pride.
Steel is real, probably one of the most overused phrases linked to soul in the bike world, is the introductory phrase for newbies in the industry. It’s the first step down the slippery slope of losing any objective rationale for performance and hurtling oneself into needing soul.
Steel is real, but so is carbon, aluminum and titanium. There isn’t anything special about steel. It’s been around for quite some time and has been modified and pretty much maximized for performance. There isn’t much more that can be done with it. And yet it is the defining factor for soul. Steel does have a distinct ride quality but so do differently laid up carbon frames. Steel’s soul hails back to when we learned how to ride. It’s what we started on, it’s what was available. It has a quality of nostalgia both in its appearance and the way it rides. And that’s why it has been the defining factor of soul for so long. Those who were the cycling prophets grew up on steel and when they tried it out after so many years, it felt like an old friend. Like there was some mysterious characteristic that, while impossible to objectively define, was better than the rest.
It was soul.
I must admit that it holds that prestige for myself as well. I’m a pretty big fan of my steel road bike. I will also admit that aluminum has a very similar appeal to me. My first “high-end” bike was a Marin Indian Fire Trail. 7005 series aluminum, brush polished and set with XT bits. And I still enjoy the way a well manufactured aluminum frame feels.
Aluminum has never been considered soul due to its over abundant place in the market. A good steel frame is somewhat difficult to procure. You want a nice aluminum frame, walk into any bike shop and buy a name brand aluminum bike. Then strip the crappy parts that it came with and put your high end stuff on it. It’ll probably be close in weight to its carbon counterparts and will ride quite nicely. There is nothing elusive about it, nothing that would give someone a feeling of prestige. Hence, no soul.
This is where the quest for soul gets stuck in the quagmire of the old cool factor. Pretty soon you find your bikes stacked with anodized blue parts and you are jealous of anyone that has anything outside of the new norm of matching shit you have created.
The question then is whether this is soul,
or if this is,
If you aren’t up on your super soul trivia like I am, the first is a Cielo frame made by Chris King’s Build Team in his shop in Oregon. The second picture is of Bruce Gordon and his Rock ‘n’ Road bikes he has been making for 25 years. While the Cielo pictured is obviously more aesthetically appealing, you should click through and check out Bruce’s work. It’s, well, pretty for lack of a better adjective.
So which one has soul, do both? Sure. As I see it, soul is the owner’s perception of pride and the fact that their bike is cool. Which means that both have soul and also that the dude’s Wal Mart full suspension bike that he bought because it was a “good” bike also has soul. If you would have just paid attention to the first time I told you that you could of completely avoided reading this entire post.
Because soul doesn’t mean shit, it’s subjective.
Now go ride your bike.
Editor’s note: images were stolen from my favorite comedic website, BikeRumor. I also would like to point out that Bruce Gordon is a bad ass. I met him at Interbike one year and had no idea who he was. He talked to me about touring bikes, geometry and a bunch of other random stuff that I thought was cool. He gave me his card and I later looked up the man I had been conversing with and was like, totally blown away and wished I hadn’t walked away but rather was still sitting there listening to him engrain me with his knowledge. Aw, maybe next time…