If respect for human life is not a good reason to respect cyclists, maybe caring for the planet is. I live in southern California, where a large percentage of the population considers themselves “green” or “environmentalists” or “tree-huggers.” The streets here are brimming with Teslas and Priuses, and buildings are festooned with solar panels. We …
Adventure/touring/gravel bikes are great, aren’t they? They allow you to get out on the road and almost hang with the best road bikes out there. They also let you depart from said road and nearly keep up with the best cross country mountain bikes around. This is a great fantasy except for one little gremlin …
The news I read was that AC wanted to sell their intellectual property and Bill Shook was available for consulting. I hope some of AC’s ideas and designs are picked up by another wheelmaker.
I recently modified a mountain bike that came with a 2×11 drivetrain. It was nice, but I wanted a wider gear range. The result was a 10/42T 11 speed cassette paired with a 40/24T 2x crankset. I can hear the cries already: “A 24×42 granny gear? That’s madness!” “You will never get shifting to work …
I decided to make a short visit to Interbike this year. They have customer appreciation day now, and I am appreciated I guess. This is not meant to be some exhaustive industry report of Interbike, you can get that from various magazines and such. This was just me having fun. I made the decision to …
On my last overnight tour around Southern California I took the Santa Ana River Trail dirt option. The dirt trail runs along the opposite side of the river as the paved tail for most of the route. I will post a write up of the full trip next, but I first wanted to focus on …
I recently posted this image on the Facebook Bicycle Touring group, though by now you may end up seeing it elsewhere (Click on the image for full res): It was well received. But since it was, I want to come clean: it is a Photoshopped image. That is the easiest way to explain it. I …
In writing a blog about both bicycles and motorcycles I am going to have to deal with a severe limitation placed upon me by the English language. The word “bike”. I don’t know how we got to where we are with both groups using the term. I have not done an etymology on the word, …
Here goes a blog that is pretty much guaranteed to cater to no one. How many cyclists ride motorcycles? Probably a few, but let’s not stop there. How many roadies ride a fat bike? How about 29 plus riders that like bikepacking? Forget boundaries, embrace eclecticism and hold on for the rides. There are riders that care …