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A New Hour Record: Jens Voigt
The world has a new Hour Record holder. Yesterday in Switzerland Jens Voigt rode 51.115 km in one hour, beating the previous record of 49.700 km set by Ondrej Sosenka in 2005. Voigt is the first to...
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Retro Direct - Retro Cool
Back before derailleurs became the popular method for having variable gears on a bicycle, a number of different systems were tried with varying degrees of success. Of these various multi-speed systems,...
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What Do You Do When . . . ?
You come to stop at an intersection and there's a line of cars already stopped for the light? Do you take your place in line and wait, or filter your way up on the curb side to get to front of the...
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Carbon Fiber Forever!
After more than a year of Retro-grouchy ranting against new technology like carbon fiber sweeping over the bicycle industry, I've finally seen the light. Consider me converted. Carbon fiber is...
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Two Wheel Trip
Being something of a pack-rat, I've always found it hard to throw some things away. Old bike magazines tend to be one of those things. I started reading Bicycling magazine back in the early 80s when I...
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Haven't We Seen These Before?
Looking through "vintage" bicycle items on eBay today, I spotted an unusual, yet familiar item: "SPIN Foldable Vintage Crash Hats." I can't tell if the term "Crash Hat" is simply an effort to sidestep...
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New Book: Goggles & Dust
From the Horton Collection, one of the world's best and most extensive collections of bicycle racing artifacts, comes a new book that showcases a golden era of racing through more than 100 beautifully...
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Under the Lunar Eclipse
I rode my bike to work this morning guided by the lunar eclipse.When I stepped outside in the early morning darkness to begin my commute, I thought that the dark sliver of shadow across the bright...
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Nuovo Record - Or Super?
On the Classic Rendezvous Google Group recently there was a bit of discussion about vintage Campagnolo derailleurs -- particularly the Nuovo Record and the Super Record, and which one people liked...
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Two Wheel Trip Posters - From Velo-Retro
Earlier this month, I wrote about the now-defunct magazine Two Wheel Trip -- notable for having published just two issues in the early 70s before going bust. The cover art on those two issues was...
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The Art of Cycling
I recently finished reading Robert Hurst's book, The Art of Cycling, (2nd Ed., FalconGuides, 2014), a guide that I would recommend for commuting cyclists and anyone else who navigates a lot of miles on...
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Bicycle Safety 101: One Got Fat
From the end of WWII and right up through the 1970s, films were used to teach school children everything from innocuous subjects like good hygiene, proper manners, safety, and the art of "fitting in,"...
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Never Think About Shifting Again
You could have predicted it. In fact, back in January, I did. With the availability of electronic shifting systems, like Shimano's Di2, I said it was only a matter of time before somebody made fully...
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The Unloved Varsity
Few vintage bikes get more scorn heaped upon them than the lowly Schwinn Varsity. Disparaging the Varsity is a popular pastime for many bicycle enthusiasts of a certain generation -- that is, any...
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Prettiest Road Bikes?
Browsing some of the other bike blogs to see what's new in the non-retrgrouch world, I happened upon this video at BikeRadar showcasing the "Top 5 Prettiest Road Bikes."Hey, I thought - I like pretty...
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Recommended Read: Fat Tire Flyer
I recently finished reading Charlie Kelly's fantastic, fun, and informative new book Fat Tire Flyer: Repack and the Birth of Mountain Biking (2014, Velo Press). Although I've always been partial to...
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Bike Safety 101: The Bicycle Clown
"Why did Jimmy always have to stunt and show off?""That's my kid brother Jimmy. He's hurt," says the monotone narrator at the beginning of the 1958 bicycle safety film, The Bicycle Clown. Looking down...
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Innovations (?) from Eurobike 2014
I was reading about some of the new innovations introduced at Eurobike 2014 on BikeRadar. As I've come to expect, there are plenty of things that struck me as completely pointless, unnecessarily...
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Jack Taylor: Loss of a Treasure
The bicycling world should note the recent passing of a great man, a treasure, and a legend, Jack Taylor, who died on Nov. 2nd. Jack was one of the three "bicycle brothers" behind Jack Taylor Cycles of...
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What Does This Record Mean?
The bike blogosphere has been abuzz over this new bicycle speed record. Apparently some guy in France has taken a "bicycle" up over 200 mph. BikeSnobNYC is calling him the world's fastest fred. Here's...
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