bonnie & jason

New bike… Motobecane Messenger!

My first single speed/fixie just arrived! It’s a 54cm Motobecane Messenger. It’s supposed to be my beater commuter bike but to tell you the truth, it’s quite a bit nicer than I thought it was going to be. Sure, the components aren’t that great but they don’t look like their going to catastrophically fail on the first ride out or anything. More importantly, the frame is welded nicely and the paint looks pretty darn good actually! After removing the stickers, I think even the clearcoated branding looks pretty good!

Other than having to wait a month for it to ship, I have to say I’m pretty happy with the purchase. Everything was packed nicely, and they even included a 17T freewheel which I did not think was part of the deal. We’ll see how it rides tomorrow… then I’ll update this post with a full review.

(note the color is off… couldn’t get the white balance right with the fluorescent garage lights.)

EDIT: Someone stole my friggin’ bike! (12/1/07)

Anyway, I only rode it for a few weeks, but I was nevertheless growing quite fond of it. Everything worked just fine and I didn’t really feel the need to upgrade anything before the stock pieces wore out. I may have upgraded the seat if I was going to do any long rides. But for commuting and short rides, it’s great as is. I even had a fellow fixie rider compliment me on the cool color. (He was riding a much cooler bike than me.) I’ve thought about just getting another one, but I’m afraid it will get stolen as well. Besides, a friend of mine gave me an old beater mountain bike for free which I might just use for commuting. It’s really a beater but it seems to work fine. And I won’t have to worry about it getting stolen. We’ll see.