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More Vintage Advertisement Fun
Paging through another old bicycle magazine, this one from 1980, I found these two ads:There's something kind of freaky about this one -- I suppose the multiple exposure effect is intended to make it...
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Bring Back the XO-1?
I recently heard from a reader asking if there are any builders out there who make (or would make) a bike based on the sought-after Bridgestone XO-1. The question got me thinking.The Bridgestone XO-1...
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Caution: This Bike May Self Destruct
The following article originally appeared in Bicycle Forum magazine, attributed to Dan Burden for the Bicycle Federation. It was republished in a condensed form in the 1985 Magazine for the Coors...
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A Conversation with Curtis Odom: Inspired by Classic Hubs
If you visit the website of Curtis Odom's Vintage-Styled Bicycle Parts (www.curtisodom.com), one of the first things you'll see is Curtis's mission statement: "To create the most beautiful bicycle hubs...
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Stupid is Still Stupid, Even When it's Old.
The Dpardo "Sickle" cranks -- a dumb idea rises again likethe killer in a bad slasher film.Some bad ideas just keep coming back. I recently saw these "sickle power curved" cranks from Taiwan, although...
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"Happy Butts" Saddle
The latest "breakthrough" that is supposed to make non-cyclists get over the pain inflicted by bicycle saddles comes in the form of the "Happy Butts Pain Free Saddle" from Taiwan. It turns out to be...
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Classic Film: Breaking Away
Thirty Five years ago this summer, the movie Breaking Away was released, giving many Americans their first glimpse of bicycle culture. I was in junior high at the time, just discovering bicycles, and...
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Retrogrouch Ride: Masi Gran Criterium
After writing about one of my favorite films, Breaking Away, and one of the "stars" of the film -- a Masi Gran Criterium -- I thought today I would share my own Masi with the readers of The...
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Pure Money
A UCI decision to allow disc brakes on road racing bikes would be a "game changer," says an engineer and project leader at Cannondale. "It's a paradise. In the industry you can hardly find a brand that...
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If Ads Were Honest
If advertising were honest, most cyclists would realize that they already have disc brakes. Rim brakes functionally are disc brakes, and most road bikes have had them for generations. The disc brakes...
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A Flat Market
I've been grouching for a while now about how the bicycle industry has been trying to seek growth by convincing existing bike owners to buy more bikes. That explains the constant push toward planned...
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What For The Money?
Last year, I wrote about hyper-expensive "halo bikes" -- bikes that supposedly represent the pinnacle of what the manufacturers are able to make, and selling for astronomical prices -- like $10,000 and...
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Kickstarter Innovations
I was all set to write today about some goofy bike-related Kickstarter innovations, like these "Upper Wheel Fairings" that "reinvent the bicycle wheel to minimize overall wheel drag, increasing...
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Vintage Advertising Time Machine
Although it probably drives my wife crazy, or makes me seem like one of those deeply troubled people on A&E's Hoarders, I can't bring myself to throw away old bike magazines. When you write a blog...
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Driver Who Hits Cyclist: "I Just Don't Care"
This is pretty infuriating to read. Kimberly Davis, a 21-year old Australian woman, slammed into a bicyclist while she was texting and driving. This mature and responsible driver wants something to be...
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Smart Phones, Dumb People
After the post about the self-centered dim-bulb who hit a cyclist while texting then declared "I don't care" I thought I'd diverge a bit from bicycles and look into the problem of phones and texting...
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The Lauterbrunnental Leaflet
I once very nearly named this blog The Lauterbrunnental Leaflet, after a fictional retrogrouchy newsletter from the now-defunct comic strip Yehuda Moon & The Kickstand Cyclery. The comic was a...
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Just Add Bags
There was a time when well-designed loaded touring bikes were all the rage. If you flipped through the bike magazines in the early 80s, it seemed that most -- or at least a pretty large percentage --...
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Weird and Wonderful? or Just Weird?
I spotted this video on BikeRadar today, although it apparently posted months ago (how did I miss it?). Weird & Wonderful Bike Tech. It is a look at the top 5 technical "innovations" displayed at...
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America's Tour: The Coors Classic
Years before many Americans knew anything about the sport of bicycle racing, before any Americans had competed in the Tour de France, and before many even knew such a thing existed, the Coors Classic...
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