Beausage

Beausage /byoo- sig/ n 1 Having a particular aesthetic appeal gained from heavy usage. 2 A portmanteau of beauty and usage.

If you ride your bike hard, you are most likely familiar with Grant Peteresen's wonderful descriptor 'beausage' describing how usage can create a beautiful worn in look. This seems to be heralded in Rivendell bikes whose leather grip tape is worn down at the grip points, whose fenders are dinged with gravel, whose paint is continually covered in a thin line of dust. I do not love the term for it's psuedo Frenchness (I actually hate francophilia or europhilia in cycling) but I like it more for how close it sounds to the word abuse.

I for one, am a huge fan of bike porn. I addictively check John Watson's Beautiful Bicycle series and get Cycle EFIX's work right in my inbox. But as much as I love these clean shots of handbuilt bikes and off the shelf bikes, it's the ones that look ridden to death that I truly admire. That being said here are some shots of my own personal beausage. Maybe after looking at my pictures you'll think this is more just abuse than beausage; so be it.

Just actually tuned this up after taking the photos, shifts like a dream now.

Slap-a-da-chain.

Flat pedal wear.

About ready to snap, luckily a new bolt is in the post.

From putting the rubber side up too many times. What a noob.

This was from putting a Jandd bag in here on tour once, it wore away cleanly at least.

More dings and chips.

This is from my handlebar bag mount. 

The Kool Stop bolts are not very rust proof. This arm is also a tad bent from a crash into a pole at slow speed because I don't pay attention.

This used to have a cover, lost it a long time ago.

I wish the Mondials did not come with the reflective strip, but nature has a way of working things out.

Twofer, knobs are wearing down on the front and the Surly logo sticker is far from there.

Rusty bits. It's hard to find stainless steel M5 bolts in hardware stores, so not stainless it is.

Even my 5-10's are nearing their death bed.

Sole in need.