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Challenging Assumptions About Bicycle "Accidents"
Being hit from behind by a passing car is probably the biggest fear that many cyclists have when sharing the road with car traffic. It is that fear that keeps many cyclists hugging the far right...
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Retrogrouch Approves: Chris Bishop's Ride
Over on BikeRumor they've been highlighting some of the personal bikes used by some of the well-known framebuilders who were part of the Baller's Ride in Virgina a couple of weekends ago. The ride was...
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Fully Aero and Dangerous
On should really wonder about a bike add-on called the "Air Spear." I've been seeing the Air Spear on a few of the bike blogs this past week, as this "life-long martial artist" and recent...
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New Old Mercian Strada Speciale
A couple of weeks ago, I posted some photos of a 1980 Mercian Strada Speciale that I had recently acquired. At that point, it was mostly just the frame and fork, which I wanted to touch up and buff...
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Cheerful Statistics
Anybody who reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I try to commute to work by bicycle whenever I can. I'll admit, I do have some limits. Going out to work in the morning, if there's a steady rain...
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Founders Day in Akron
There has been a constant rumble of Harley Davidson motorcycles going past my house and neighborhood today.Today is Founders Day in my adopted hometown of Akron, Ohio -- celebrating the founding of...
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1980 Mercian Strada - Ride Report
Saturday was a gorgeous day to take my 1980 Mercian Strada Speciale out for its "maiden" ride -- well, maiden ride for me, anyhow. Temperature outside was in the upper 70s, with low humidity, and...
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Smart Wheel Size "Breakthrough"?
I've written in the past about how wheel size has become something of a "fashion" or a "trend"in the bike industry -- as bicycle buyers are convinced by the marketing machine that everyone needs a...
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The Lowly Quick Release
Most serious bicycle fans are familiar with this story. On a cold, snowy November day in 1927, a young racer named Tullio Campagnolo was ascending the Croce d'Aune pass in the Italian Alps when he...
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My Name's Not Lance
It's inevitable. If you spend enough time on a bike, at some point some jackass in a car is going to call you "Lance." When it happens, it's usually some half-assed attempt at a clever put-down. At its...
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Nivex: The Grandfather of Parallelogram Derailleurs
A lot of people credit the Campagnolo Gran Sport as the first parallelogram derailleur. A lot of people would be wrong.While Campagnolo's Gran Sport was a breakthrough design, particularly among...
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Critical Mass
I'll probably get a few people mad at me for writing this one.Cleveland's Critical Mass was in the news a couple of weeks ago. At their May 30th ride through the city, several riders received traffic...
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SunTour Derailleurs
Back when I was first getting into good bicycles, I drooled over Campagnolo, but I rode SunTour. It was much more affordable -- and it worked better. For 20 years, until the introduction of Shimano's...
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Fenders, Mudguards, I Love 'Em
A few days ago I went out for an early morning ride under gray skies. At about the mid-point of my ride I got caught in a shower that turned into a heavy downpour that continued the rest of the...
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The Hole
You see things from a bike that you don't notice in a car. In this case, what probably looks like a pretty minor little pothole to most motorists is actually a pretty serious sinkhole in the making.It...
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Drillium Style
There was a time when, in the quest to shave every last gram from a bike, riders took a drill bit to any component they could -- turning solid shiny metal into shavings and air. The practice took on...
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Why? Again, I Ask Why?
With a machine so functional, so efficient, and so simple as the bicycle, it's really hard to improve upon it. Therefore, it seems like every crackpot inventor since the 19th century has sought to do...
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Other Retrogrouches
I guess Retrogrouches aren't limited to bicyclists.Someone told me I sound like the guy in these "Play in the Now" commercials for Nike golf, where they trace the golfing Retrogrouch back through the...
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The Price of Performance
The cost of high-performance bicycle gear is outta control. I've written about that before (What For the Money? and That Bike Cost HOW Much?) so I'm in danger of repeating myself here....
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Huret Allvit
Most of the old Schwinn "10-speeds" used versions of the Huret AllvitĀ (rebranded with the Schwinn name) -- even as late as the1980s, when it was woefully outmatched by the competition.If you ever rode...
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