There are those few days when the weather is simply fantastic. The past couple of days were like that. Sun’s out. Not too hot. Not too windy. Not too many cars on the road. This morning, I told myself that I was going for a ride before opening the shop – and I did it! […]
Filed under: Rides
Closed up shop yesterday and headed over to Napa to hang out with Gordon and his friend Bjorn and watch the Single Speed World Championships. To say it was more fun than watching a NORBA race is an understatement. Spectators set up several “feed zones” on course. Feed zones in a NORBA race is the […]
Filed under: Uncategorized
Welp, looks like I’m going to head over the hill to partake in the festivities that are the Single Speed World Championships tomorrow. No, not racing, viewing. I don’t think I could actually ride a single-speed off-road with all the pulling on the bars that is needed with my rotator cuff in the condition it’s […]
Filed under: Uncategorized
You know when you buy something and it has some sort of product sticker that is intended to be removed but just doesn’t come off? I hate those. This is a handlebar with one of those stickers right where the grip is supposed to mount. It has to come off completely. Because it’s on an […]
Filed under: Things I dislike
As a companion piece to what I wrote a couple of days ago about SRAM/Truvativ’s HammerSchmidt, I want to clarify the weigh issue. I’ve seem a few “yeah, it’s cool but it weighs 1600 grams!” Well, actually, it’s heavier. The all-mountain system is 1623g and the freeride system is 1785g. Yes, that is a heavy […]
Filed under: Industry commentary
For quite a while, Truvativ teased the bike industry with HammerSchmidt (some interesting video commentary here – nice haircut, Bos). Caused lots of speculation. The most widely held opinion of what it would be was a gearbox for gravity type bikes. Close. Gearbox with two gears. Cyclingnews.com had a nice piece on it this morning. […]
Filed under: Industry commentary
Cycloculture’s interview with Grant Petersen. (What’s playing: KWMR West Marin community radio)
Filed under: Industry commentary
Dammit. I’ve seen this round of tag go through several of the blogs I catch. It was interesting to see it make the rounds from one to the next. I thought I lived in a sort of anonymity-ville, but I guess not. Thanks to Marty over to The Prairie Peddler, I’ve been tagged so I’ll […]
Filed under: Uncategorized
I probably really should be finishing up the Fox fork rebuild and disc brake piston replacement, but this’ll only take a few minutes. I read two pieces this morning that prompted this impromptu diatribe on focus in the bike industry. The first one was a bit about the Trek dealer launch of their ’09 bikes. […]
Filed under: Industry commentary, Rant
A long time ago, I learned that brake spring tension should be just enough so the arms return to open. The feel at the brake lever should be snappy, but not tight. Squeezing a brake lever shouldn’t be like squeezing one of those spring loaded hand grippy things that all high school kids used to […]
Filed under: Working on bikes
Do sportswriters actually think the people who read their columns are idiots? As I was perusing Olympics coverage on CNN/SportsIllustrated, I came across this piece of brilliance by a reporter who says he normally covers track and field, but, by his tone, must have drawn the short straw to cover cycling, swimming, and horseback riding. […]
Filed under: Rant
Was lucky enough to have this hanging around the shop for a few weeks. Now it sits packed up in a bike box waiting for UPS to pick it up and bring it to its new home in the concrete jungle. It was pretty neat seeing people who recognized it and appreciated it. Most recently […]
Filed under: Uncategorized