Converted my college bike to “Dad Spec” as part of a mental health journey. Hope it fits here.

Just wanted to share my Bikes Direct Motobecane track from ~2012 with you guys. I recently gave it a makeover for more comfortable family cruise rides. That's the gist it. But there's some backstory if you're interested. Tl;dr at the bottom.

This is/was my first "adult" bike since my kid BMX days. In what was essentially a prolonged mental breakdown, I bought this bike in college because I was convinced that, like my other hobbies, it was the last element to make me a complete, interesting person and i thought fixed gear bikes would become my identity.

The whole thing was a mental health monster in disguise. And I kept ignoring it. As with photography, guitar, whiskey, mechanical keyboards, and countless other hobbies, I'd go all in on something convinced it would finally make me who I wanted to be. But after buying all the items and/or getting to a certain level within a hobby, the dopamine would wear off, I'd get bored, and start looking for other ways to get my fix. This was also the case with bikes. I had a 2012 CAAD10 in a unqiue color that I loved, but eventually stopped riding. I never dropped it and the paint on it was immaculate. This was a holdover from my youth where my parents imparted the lesson that I needed to always take care of my stuff. It was a valuable lesson, but eventually morphed into a beast wherein if any item I owned degraded AT ALL, it was a direct reflection of me being a failure. I only logged about 1,000 miles on it in total and wouldnt ride it because it was in "too nice" condition and actually riding it might jeopardize that. It makes no sense, but it's how my mind worked.

Now, years later, I'm in an acceptance headspace and doing a lot better. I sold the Cannondale to someone who appreciates it and am down to one bike. That's this bike.

I always liked riding single speed because it reminded me of being a kid. Wanna go faster? Just pedal faster. No gears. Nothing to think about. It's perfect for me and my too-busy brain.

I'm a new dad. And needed a dad bike. So instead of doing my typical getting-swept-up-in-consumerism-as-a-mental-health-distraction thing and buying a hardtail or something else, I just thought I'd use what I have and make it more usable for occasional use on the local, compacted gravel trails, and eventually, a bike trailer for the kiddo.

So that's how this cheap "track bike" conversion came to be. It's already been dropped and scratched, so the pressure is off my mind. And it's why I wrote all this self-indulgent narrative. But I thought I'd share in case anyone else can relate.

The biggest upgrade was from 25c tires to 30c GravelKings. I have a good amount of fine tuning to go in this new rising position, but I'll get there.

Tl;dr: I "upgraded" my old college bike to fit my current lifestyle instead of buying a new one. In the process, I found acceptance that I'll never be a cool fixed gear kid.