Clik here to view.
Bucking the Trend
In my previous post, No Such Thing as Junk Miles, I wrote about how a lot of road bikes today are overly influenced by racing -- making them too narrowly focused for the needs of many people who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Retrogrouch Renovation: Vintage Trek
In Bucking the Trend, I pointed out several new road bikes available today that are more versatile than a lot of the narrowly focused bikes that are just too much influenced by the racing gene. Most of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Threadless and Quill Stems
Bicycle headsets and stems have changed a lot in the last couple of decades. For most of the bicycle's history, the standard was the 1-in. fork steerer and threaded headset with a quill stem. There...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Retrogrouch's New Old Bike: Dave Moulton Fuso
I just picked up a "new" old bike the other day -- a bike that I've wanted since I first saw one back in 1986: A Dave Moulton Fuso.1986 Dave Moulton Fuso - 27 years old, but stilllooking good.Dave...
View ArticleNo Carbon For Me, Thanks
When it comes to bicycles, there is nothing more cutting-edge than carbon fiber. Carbon fiber has promises of lighter weight, excellent stiffness, shock dampening, and so much more. People tout carbon...
View ArticleCarbon Forks - No Way
In No Carbon for Me, Thanks, I laid out my problems with carbon fiber in general, as used for frames, forks, and components. In this post, I want to focus just on the forks. The fork of a bicycle is a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Collateral Damage
This is a bike blog -- and I don't really want to digress into politics in it. But right now, politics and my favorite pastime have inadvertently collided. Due to the government shutdown, the Ohio...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Endangered Species: Single-Pivot Sidepull Brakes
Sidepull caliper brakes are the primary choice for high performance road bikes, and have been for decades, although it was not always a complete domination. Look at old race photos from the 40s, 50s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Changing Positions: Bike Fit Then and Now
Let me tell you about a guy I occasionally ride with. He used to ride a pretty "traditional" styled road bike that he'd owned since the 1980s. Level top tube. Quill-type stem. Bars maybe an inch or two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Roller "Needle" Bearing Headsets
Every now and then, I like to highlight some great components that are either getting scarce or gone. Today, I want to take a look at roller or "needle" bearing headsets ("roller" bearing is generally...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Press-Fit Bottom Brackets: The Creaking is Standard
One of my cycling friends recently got a new mountain bike. Carbon fiber wunderbike with one of the latest press-fit bottom bracket systems. Don't even ask what type of press-fit BB, because I don't...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Religion, Politics, and Helmets
“In religion, politics, and helmets, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rethinking "Normal"
I walked out of my classroom and into the hallway, wheeling my bicycle beside me as I headed out of school at the end of the day. A student looked at me, and then at my bike, and then with a screwed up...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brooks Saddles
I kind of lose count of how many bicycles I own. The total is somewhere around 12 or so, but the number changes from time to time. All but a couple of them have Brooks saddles. They are my favorites,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
That Bike Cost HOW Much?
I wrote in an earlier post (Bikes Aren't Cars) that bicycles are starting to get a reputation as "toys for rich people." Of course, there are still plenty of good bicycles out there in a wide range of...
View ArticleHydraulic and Disc Brakes . . . Again.
I couldn't help but come back to this subject. I covered hydraulic rim brakes and disc brakes pretty thoroughly a while back. (Putting on the Brakes Part One, and Part Two) But I recently came across a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New Pass Hunter at Velo Orange
I posted some time back about versatile road bikes that buck the racing-bike trends that have spread so much through today's bicycles (Bucking the Trend). In that article, I mentioned a couple of nice...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vintage Mercian - Retrogrouch Classic
I'm in a rare mood when I don't feel like complaining about something, but today, instead of retro-grouching about new bike technology, I thought I'd share something from the past that I think is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Art of Bicycles
I don't just like bicycles. I like almost anything to do with bicycles. In my home, as much as I'd like to be able to have classic vintage bicycles hanging on my walls, above the sofa, over the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Show-Rooming
Today I'm retro-grouching about a different kind of new technology. Let me describe a scenario:Guy walks into a bike shop, looking for shoes. The sales associates help him with several models and...
View Article