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What's A Parallelogram? Don't Ask Velo News.
Velo News has a feature currently about the "Top 10 Technical Innovations of All Time." Here they are from last to first:10. Power Meters9. Foam Helmets8. Shimano Electronic Shifting7. Compact Cranks6....
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"Connected" Concept Bikes: Enough Already!
The Chinese internet service company Baidu, known as the "Chinese Google," has introduced the latest salvo in the battle of "connected" or "smart" bikes. The Dubike, as it's been dubbed, was designed...
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Retrogrouch's Top 10 All-Time Bicycling Innovations
After that ridiculous Velo News list of "Top 10 Technical Innovations of All Time" -- which could more accurately have been named "Top 10 Gimmicks of Recent Memory," or perhaps "Top 10 List Created By...
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Charges Filed in the Tom Palermo Case
Just a brief update on the story about Tom Palermo, the Baltimore area cyclist and framebuilder who was killed last month. The latest news is likely to make some feel that the justice system is...
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"Smart" Pedals For Dumb Bikes
The "connected" or "smart" bike thing is chugging along nicely as we start the year 2015.I just saw a press release from a French start-up calling itself Connected Cycle that starts with this...
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Retro Vs. Modern
I recently watched a fun little video from Global Cycling Network on YouTube comparing modern to retro racing bikes. In it, two guys go for a ride together -- one with a new Ridley carbon fiber...
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The Big Corkscrew
It's probably the single most frivolous thing a bike geek can blow money on. In addition to making bicycle components worthy of cult status, as well as the complete tool set for building and...
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Bike Safety 101: Bicycle Safety Camp
In my Bike Safety 101 series, I've scrutinized a lot of dumb vintage safety films, but Bicycle Safety Camp from 1989 just might be one of the dumbest. Whereas a lot of the 50s and 60s vintage...
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Selfie Drones
This was the drone that crashed on the White House grounds, the DJI Phantom, which is apparently one of the more popular brands and models -- even parodied on South Park. A small consumer recreational...
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If Spiderman Had a Bicycle . . . The Razik Vortex
I think Spiderman is designing bicycles now, but he should probably stick to fighting crime. What else can one think when seeing something like the Razik Vortex? Weird.I suppose there are a lot of...
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When Pedals Aren't Complicated Enough
Some people don't trust simplicity. If something is too simple, they figure something must be wrong, and it must be improved. One of the most wonderful things about a bicycle -- the very thing that...
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The Tesla of Bicycles?
A lot is being made these days of the Tesla "premium" electric cars, which bring serious performance, hot styling, and lots of media buzz to "green" vehicles -- then again, at $70,000 and up, they'd...
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Storm Clouds on the Horizon?
Remember this?The Tesla of Bicycles?Unless your short-term memory is completely fried, of course you do, because it was just Wednesday that I wrote about the $500 Storm eBike, which was dubbed by some...
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Could These Be The "Good Ol' Days"?
I had a reader comment recently that I'm too negative.When you label yourself not just "a retrogrouch," but "The Retrogrouch," I suppose that negativity is something like an occupational hazard.Not...
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You Know You're an Old School Cyclist . . .
Somebody recently called my attention to a fun "self assessment" quiz on BikeRadar: "20 Signs That You're an Old School Cyclist."There are 20 statements on the quiz, and a person gets one point for...
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Modern Problems: There's No School Like Old School
In my previous post, I looked at the self-assessment quiz from BikeRadar, "20 Signs That You're an Old School Cyclist." If you read the original article, or took the quiz, you might have noticed a link...
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The Kickstand Cyclery Lives!
A reader recently alerted me to the fact that the web-comic Yehuda Moon & The Kickstand Cyclery has been resurrected. According to the site, www.yehudamoon.com, 2 - 3 new comics will be added each...
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Be the Boy in the Plastic Bubble
When I was a kid, I remember John Travolta starring in a made-for-TV movie called The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, about a kid whose immune system was so compromised that he had to spend his life in a...
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Retrogrouch and the Roadie
Sometimes a picture just says all that needs to be said.I'll just leave it at that today.If you live somewhere that isn't suffering single-digit temperatures (or negative temps like we are here in NE...
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What is "Vintage" About These "Vintage" Bianchis?
There are a lot of words in our language that are thrown around so casually, and with so much frequency, that they become essentially meaningless. Take "Artisan," or "Artisanal," which originally meant...
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