Cables stretch, housings compress, and in today’s era of modern bikes, exact cable tension to both brake and shifting performance are crucial to having a perfectly tuned bicycle. Mountain bikes have built-in adjusters on shifters and mechanical brake levers. It used to be there was some redundancy. The rear derailleur had an adjuster at both […]
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Almost since day one, actually, since this post, I have ended each post with “what’s playing.” I have music on pretty much all day so I end blog posts with the song that is playing as I finish writing a post. I guess readers like this parts because on one post a while back, I […]
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I’m a junkie for tech stuff. I’m hungry to learn as much as I can about bikes and how to make them work better. I’ve been getting paid to work on bikes for a quarter century and I still know I have more that I can learn. With the internet, there is plenty of information […]
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Coming to you from Berlin, Germany, Black Mountain Cycles bottles in the wild. Some great location shots here. Thank you, Michael and enjoy! Those are a couple of very nice bikes you have there. In front of Berlin’s Reichstag At the Holocaust Memorial with the U.S. Embassy in the background. At what’s left of […]
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The guy has done more, ridden more, made more, given more than just about anyone I can think of in the bike industry. Knowing how much he rides is motivating to get out on the bike. Tom Ritchey’s 40-Year Ride from Jay Bird Films on Vimeo. (What’s playing: Tom Ritchey’s 40 Year Ride)
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As much as I prefer Shimano’s mountain bike components, they sure make it hard to supply a customer with exactly the desired component. Take the crankset, for example. Years ago, crank and chainrings were easily modifiable. Don’t like the stock 26/36/46 ring set up? Easy, replace the ring you want to change with any by […]
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There have been some pretty great bikes passing through the stand recently. With that, here’s a quick WITS (What’s In The Stand) post for your Tuesday coffee and scone pleasure. First up is one of the Black Mountain Cycles cross frames that was built into a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed commuter. The bike turned out great and […]
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Road discs are coming. Just not on my road frames and I’ll tell you why. First, yes, road discs are coming. Are they a good thing? Sure, for certain applications. Key phrase there. Disc brakes make a ton of sense on bikes where your riding has miles and mile of descending with a lot of […]
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When you’re a kid waiting for Christmas, that last week or two takes for damn ever. As you get older, the passing of time seems go faster at an increasing rate. I hit two milestones this year. I guess they’re milestones. That’s what people tell me. I hit 50 years of age and Black Mountain […]
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It’s the little things that you don’t notice that sometimes make the biggest difference. Or they don’t really make any difference at all, but the way it goes together and sets up gives you infinite pleasure. Once upon a time, steel frames were made with 1 1/8″ diameter down tubes. They also had shift bosses […]
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It’s all relative. A fat road bike tire is a 28. A fat cross bike tire is a 40. A fat mountain bike tire used to be a 2.35. Then these bikes came out that pushed the fat envelope. Made the envelope bust at the seams. To someone used to the sleekness of a classic […]
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I’m not a big fan of this time of the year. Burning Man is coming up and bikes that are used only one time per year are brought out of their dungeon, caked with playa dust from the previous year(s) Burning Man(s). If you have been to more than one Burning Man do you say […]
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