I bought a Moleskine notebook last week. It's a precious little thing. There's some propaganda in it about how it was used by the likes of Van Gogh, Picasso, and Hemingway. Well, not mine specifically, but ones like mine. They aren't cheap, but again, like a lot of things that are finding themselves dear to my heart, it's a very good piece. They are handmade, bound with thread, open fully flat, and the covers are oiled to make them waterproof and durable. Of course the edges aren't waterproof but it makes a fine coaster for a sweaty drink in the summer. There's an expandable pocket in the back to keep scraps of this and that and a fabric integrated bookmark and an integrated elastic to keep my shit together. The part I find interesting about this notebook is how small I write and how precious each pen stroke becomes. There's a pressure to make each mark significant and to not waste a single piece of this book's potential. I find myself writing on both sides of the pages, starting closer to the top and filling pages closer to the bottom. When you're just carrying this thing you feel good, it has a weight to it that says "I'm good stuff, I'm a good thing."
There are ideas about Golden Sections and Le Modular amongst others that define beauty in proportion. The shape, size, thickness of the Moleskine is, well, it's perfect.
How does this tie into bicycles? Bicycles are quite efficient machines. They do what they do exceptionally well which is take a fairly small motor and use that energy so efficiently that huge distances can be traversed with relatively little fuel. Within the world of bicycles there are pure and honest designs and there are things that resemble bicycles but don't work as well or at the very least work as well but with a whole lot of hoopla associated with that function. What's beautiful about the Moleskine notebook is that it performs a task exceptionally well but works that function one step further with it's binding elastic and bookmark. Its binding method allows the pages to open dead flat. It's hard to describe how a notebook can be bad until you've used one that is so good. I am also enamored with it's purity in form. Simple binding, clean lines, rounded corners. It's no frills. And that's what I like about bikes, that's what I'm aiming for in my bikes. Pure, functional forms, straight lines, practical and considered cable routing, but a decided lack of ornament or frills. I respect the number of hours that must go into detailing some bikes and I sure do like looking at them but if the bike itself becomes too precious, too beautiful, its functionality is undermined. I don't want people to be afraid to ride the bikes I build. They are first and foremost tools. They should be ridden a lot, every day. Same for paint, if the paint is too beautiful, too glossy, it gets in the way of enjoying the bike as a tool.
I'm sure I have more to say about this.
I'm in the garage tomorrow cutting up tubes for four frames.
And so it goes...
2 comments:
cool, what is moleskin anyway, surely it's not the skin of a mole?
On the paint piece; being a "finisher" at heart, I have the belief that the finish is a statement of the quality, and that the durability may determine it's "tool" like attributes to be ridden alot or only admired.
a good read and great discussion topic, nice work.
Paint is important, for sure, but when they get a little too beautiful like on, say, Columbine bikes (which are exceptionally beautiful and crafted) the paint can interfere with the function of the bike. I am using Toxik Harald in Richmond to paint the bikes. His paint is about three times the cost of powdercoat but it's a much nicer finish with more colours available with proper priming and clearcoats so, yeah, you make a good point, and I am investing in a paint that reflects the quality of the frames.
The original Moleskine books were rumored to be bound in the skin of a mole. It wasn't originally recognized as a brand but more of a style of book made by a number of different book binders but currently only made by one company who has called themselves Moleskine.
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