Well, its that time of year again:I am officially signing off, starting at the very end of this post until the very start of the next one, which will appear at some point during August 31st, 2026.But before I leave, Ive got some complaining to do:Like all my complaints, this too is a well-worn furrow, and its me complaining about people complaining about how much it costs to ride motorized Citi Bikes. First the argument was that Citi Bike motorbikes are so expensive its forcing people to ride recklessly, which wascute. Now advocates want to cap the cost of a 45-minute Citi Bike ride at $3, which would require a city subsidy:Theyre getting plenty of local media attention, too:See, the problem is that a 45-minute ride on a Citi Bike with a motor in it is too expensive for the working class:Working class people I dont know that they can do that. Thats a luxury, Alex said.Another rider echoed those concerns.Pretty expensive. Its not cheap enough that I can pay a regular commuting toll, the rider said.According to transit advocates, a 45-minute ride on an electric Citi Bike costs four times more than a subway or bus ride and nearly three times more than a ferry trip.Oddly this was the same argument people used against congestion pricing for drivers:Look, obviously I dont associate directly with working-class people. Their coarse manners and calloused hands make me extremely uneasy. For this reason I have no idea how they actually get around, but I really do wish someone would decide once and for all whether the working class are a bunch of motorists or a bunch of cyclists, because I dont think they should get to have it both ways.I suppose the problem here is that in real life the people speaking for them avoid them just as assiduously as I pretend I do.So how much is a motorized Citi Bike ride, anyway?Well, if you guessed $12.15, youd be right:Transportation Alternatives said the cost of that ride in New York has increased from $4.50 in 2020 to $12.15 in 2026, making it the most expensive bike-share program for riders in the country. The advocacy group said the same ride costs $4.50 in Boston, $2.30 in Paris, $1.35 in London and $1.05 in Tokyo.As a result, cyclists and advocates are backing a bill that would set the cost of every ride at $3.Is that so expensive though? Yes, maybe its expensive compared to those other places, but Citi Bike is larger than any of those other systems, and thus more expensive to maintain. Someones got to pay for all those abandoned Citi Bikes Im always finding dumped in Yonkers, right?[I dont think people who live in the Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens gentrification nexus fully appreciate how many Citi Bikes wind up this way.]Also, none of those cities has 24-hour subway service like we do, meaning the Platonic ideal of the working class commuter is ultimately better served here transit-wise. Also also, using a Citi Bike to close a gap in subway or bus service is one thing (were always reminded of the TRANSIT DESERTS and the FOOD DESERTS and HOW COME THERE SO MANY DESERTS IN THE CITY), but 45 minutes? On a bicycle with a motor? Thats nearly enough time to watch the Mets lose at Citi Field then ride all the way to JFK Airport to wait for your severely delayed flight. A luxury? Perhaps. But so is a 45-minute taxi ride, or a Lyft/Uber (Luber?)* ride, or a Circle Line tour around Manhattan island. So that motorbike cruise is actually a pretty decent deal.But far more relevant than any of the aboveWHAT ABOUT THE REGULAR BIKES?!?Those are dirt cheap:Oh, and if youre a member, a 45-minute ride on a regular bike iswait for itFREE!The first 45 minutes of each ride on a classic Citi Bike are included in the annual membership price.Of course you still have to pay for the membership, which costs $239 per year. So just under $20 a month. So Netflix money.Yes, even thats a lot of money for plenty of people, as my make-believe working class friends always remind me when theyre begging for my Netflix password to watch working class shows like Chefs Table, which is why Citi Bike also offers this:And finally, Ive long exhorted people to JBARA, but in this case I would suggest that anybody who feels motorized Citi Bikes are too expensive should JBAPAEBA:**[Just Buy A Pedal-Assist E-Bike Alreadylike this one, chosen totally at random.]Im not talking about one of those mutant freak electric motorcycles, Im talking about a pedal-assist e-bike from a reputable company. It pays itself off in 179 electric Citi Bike trips, which if youre doing the kind of e-bike mileage that makes Citi Bikes pricing truly burdensome will happen in well under a year. Seems like a decent deal to me.And yes, youve got to then deal with bike parking and all that stuff, but then advocates can redirect the $3 Citi Bike lobbying to better bike parking lobbying Im certainly not saying that we shouldnt have electric Citi Bikes. All Im saying is that people have options.Okay, all that complaining should make it abundantly clear that I need a vacation, and it should also make you realize you need a vacation from me. So I will accommodate all of us very, very shortly. But before I do, I will muster the remaining positivity from my depleted reserves to thank you very, very much for reading this blog, and for supporting it so generously. Id say your readership means more to me than you know, but I shouldnt have to, since you should know it, because here I am telling you it means a huge amount and I am extremely grateful. How thankful? This grateful:[Extends arms as far apart as they can possibly go.]Ill see you back here on Monday August 31st so we can give summer one final heave-ho, and until then,I remain,With love and fondness if the love part makes you uncomfortable,Jrs Trli,Tanner T. Tenovo, avid malcontent and gentleman bicycle blogger

Further to yesterdays post, Id like to thank commenter Graig, who identified theseAs the missing thingies for this:I dont know much, but what little I do know I learn in the comments of my own blog. Plus, my package from Bens Cycle included these:This means I have basically everything I need to properly freshen up the Bargain Basement Bike:Which in turn would make it a dark horse candidate for the coveted assignment of Summer Vacation Bikethough it would have to unseat the mighty Roadini, currently ahead in the polls:As well as the Farbman, seen here with black tires, which could just as easily find itself swept into office in the event of a late surge:The black tires should be a relief to anyone who couldnt stand those green ones, yet still an affront to anyone who believes cyclocross bikes should sport knobby tires at all times.Hey, as long as someones unhappy then Im doing something right.And of course Im monitoring the spoke hole with the broken socket:For all I know its been that way for years, plus there are 31 more spokes should that one pull through, and being a non-drive side spoke its under less tension anyway, so hopefully the rim can withstand all those DFUs even in its slightly compromised state:Also, isnt a spoke under the most tension when the wheel is not being ridden? That means riding it as much as possible would be the best way to avoid failure.**[Go ahead and upload your comment about how the repeated loading and unloading is what would ultimately cause the failure here.]Speaking of failure, Accell Group is insolvent:And if youre wondering who Accell Group is, they own a bunch of bike brands:Accell is the owner of the bike and e-bike brands Raleigh, Haibike, Winora, Ghost, Batavus, Koga, Lapierre, Sparta, Babboe, and Carqon, and the P&A brand XLC. This year Accell divested two of its brands,selling its titanium frame brand, Van Nicholas, to the Italian cargo brand Velo-ce, and its Nishiki bike brand to Turkeys Kron Bicycle (In the U.S., Dicks Sporting Goods continues to own rights to the Nishiki brand).But while I may be able to answer that question, I cannot answer this one:What the hell do we need all these bike brands for, anyway?Take Nishiki, for examplenow owned by Kron Bicycle, except for here in Canadas Beaded Seat Cushion, where it remains the property of Dorks Sporting Goods. Now consider that Kron will sell you all sorts of different bicycles, such as this gravel bike, which costs 58,000 squiggly things:I have no idea if 58,500 squiggly things is a lot or a little, but it really doesnt matter.Anyway, I have no issue with anyone who rides a Nishiki, and in fact I myself am a proud Nishiki owner:Actually, thats not true. I mean I do own a Nishiki, but Im not proud, and Im always thinking about removing the decals. Also, any value it has is derived from the fact that it was in fact made by Viner.So why in the world would any company pay money to use the name Nishiki in 2026? What association does this have for anybody shopping for a bike today? Wouldnt it be cheaper to just think up a name for free and use that? As long as its not something horrible thats going to embarrass the owner what difference does it make, anyway?[AI still hasnt quite gotten the mutant handlebar thing out of its system, has it?]I mean someone looking for a bike in Istanbul or in Dicks Sporting Goods or wherever else fine Nishikis are sold isnt going to not buy a bike because its a Nishiki, but theyre also not going to buy a bike because its a Nishiki. Theyre going to buy it because its a bike. Plus, even in their heyday its not like Nishiki was some coveted, storied brand; it was mediocre even then, locked in a head-to-head battle with Univega over who could be the most adequate while having the least cachet. Thats why nobody in the world goes, Oooh, look at that, a genuine Nishiki, name your price!As for Dicks Sporting Goods, if theyre going to pay good money to use old brands[wait for it]THEN WHY WOULDNT THEY USE THIS ONE?!?!?[Classic Cycle]Like seriously, what are their marketing people even doing all day? Then theres Raleigh, which actually, was a storied brand, and for people old enough to remember evokes images like this:Or this:[Via Classic Cycle, where else?]Or even this:It was with bikes like these that a British company was able to take America by storm:**And its why every Gen-Xer remembers tying on a headband, hoisting the Union Jack, and going cycling with Mom and Dad:I mean really, whats more quintessentially American than that?**[I think maybe at that time the British Raleigh and the American Raleigh were two different companies, but youre reading a throwaway bike blog post hastily composed for purposes of amusement, not a historical document.]But by the aughts Raleighs offerings conveyed little sense of that heritage:[Wait a minute. The bike improves visibility?!? Wouldnt that be the glasses? Maybe it came with the glasses]But they did literally hit pay dirt when they stumbled upon the idea of the dedicated gravel bike:[In 2013 you could still do bro stuff like make Anchorman references in your branding.]Sure enough, the gravel concept took offbut Raleigh didnt.Now I guess theyre another one of those bike brand names that floats around out there like so much confetti.

A little over a year ago I cleared out my friends apartment after he died. He had a lifetime of bike stuff, all meticulously organized and stored carefully for the day when he might need to call it back into service or finally get around to selling it. Obviously that day never came.As I went through all this stuff I couldnt help thinking about my own. Unlike his, mine was completely disorganized, and if I were to depart this mortal plane nobody would be able to make the least bit of sense out of it. So recently I finallywell, I wouldnt say I organized my spare bike stuff, but I at least went through it, put it in bins, and threw out the things it was least likely I or anyone else would ever want or need. (And yes, Ive already gone looking for at least three of the things I threw out and then suddenly needed.) I also told myself Id make every effort to look to these bins before acquiring any new bike stuffbecause frankly, even if I realize my full life expectancy, Ive reached that point in every Freds life where he has more stuff than he could possibly wear out in the course of his remaining allotment.Unfortunately, while I may be able to account for my own behavior, I cant account for the behavior of other people. Consider these two mail pieces I received in the very same day:You may recall I wasnt going to reconfigure the Farbman because I didnt have a front derailleur cable pulley thingy and I wasnt going to acquire one, only allowing myself to embark on the project when it turned out I had a suitable top-pull derailleur as well as everything else Id need to complete it. Well, look what somebody just sent me:Thanks a lot, Johnny, now I have to assemble a whole new bike around it.And yes, Johnny first had to email me and ask for my mailing address in order to send it, so technically I did consent, but it was still wildly inconsiderate and selfish of him.Heres what was inside the other piece of mail, from regular commenter sbarner:Im sure you know that these are, right?Of course you do.Well, I dont. In fact I dont have the slightest idea. Is it something I mentioned once and have since forgotten about? I mean sure, I could email him and ask, but then he might answer, and once I know Ill have to put bikes togetehr around all of them, too.Then a day later I got a delivery from Bens Cycle, and the contents included but were not limited to the following:For the record, none of this stuff counts against my Not acquiring any new bike stuff commitment, and if youre wondering why, the answer is BECAUSE IT JUST DOESNT, OKAY!?! And if youre wondering what its for, the answer is its for a future project thats none of your business. Look, austerity may be healthy, but goddamn it A FRED NEEDS TO LIVE.By the way, lets just take a moment to contemplate this:I ask you: how can you hold this object in your hand and still want a disc brake? So light, so simple, and yet so effective. Sorry, but opting for disc brakes over this is the symptom of a diseased mindand you shouldnt take that the wrong way, all I mean is that if you want disc brakes instead of something like this theres something seriously wrong with you.Oh, and if your answer to the rhetorical disc brake question was More tire clearance Ill point out that theres such a thing as rim brakes with more clearance. Or, if your answer was More stopping power, well, some things in life are worth dying for, arent they?Sure they are.An unwillingness to put your life on the line for your ideals is exactly whats wrong with this new generation.[Intern: Drop that Old Man Yells At Cloud image in here.]Speaking of this new generation, once again I found myself looking at the cycling videos on YouTube and not being able to bring myself to watch a single one of them, because they aggressively rebuff any attempt on my behalf to be interested:Can we please reserve phrases like The Hard Truth Nobody Wants to Admit to situations that actually warrant it, like Sometimes I fantasize about murdering my cat, or Im strongly attracted to my second cousin? The meaningless difference between the frame materials of mass-produced bicycles is not something were repressing deep in our collective subconscious and unwilling to confront.Also, if youre going to make statements like this, please follow through with them:Good, dont! I dont want to hear about your gravel bike ever again. In fact I dont want to hear about any gravel bikes ever again. If I could return to any period in history, it would be 2012, which is the year before the gravel bike was invented. Then, on the eve of that invention, Id go to sleep and wake up back in 2012 again, just like the movie Groundhog Day, only Id be really happy about it.Though maybe Id go back even further to before mountain bikes stopped being bikes:Sorry, its not complicated. They both suck, just total garbage. Look, just skip the human-powered motocross bikes and get an e-bike already, you know you want one. You know, when this first started happening I was horrified:Now I just hope what they call mountain biking today goes fully and completely motorized so the divorce will become final already.But YouTube can still be helpful. For example, what better resource is there for the confused bicycle shopper?Good Lob, 38 minutes!?! Here are those five essential features you want in one second:WheelsSaddleHandlebarPedalsBrakesNow youre all set.

To follow up on yesterdays post concerning this past weekends Very Small Rocks outing, the top speed of a mosquito is as follows:I guess Im slower than I thought if I cant avoid them on climbs, though they dont say whether thats a laden or an unladen mosquito.[The AIs take on A sign in the style of Terry Gilliam that says Obligatory Monty Python Reference.' Iconography is accurate but style is not remotely Gilliamesque.]Also, unfurling saddle roll aside, the Farbman performed impeccably and I didnt have a single complaint about it, so naturally I started tinkering with it pretty much as soon as I got home:Specifically, I decided to change the tireseven though they had plenty of traction on the Very Small Rocks sections while also feeling surprisingly fast on the road. These tires are a very good fit for the bike (theyre cyclocross tires and its a cyclocross bike, funny how that works), so Ive been telling myself Id leave them on there until they wear out; however, theyre easily over 25 years old, and the sheer age of the things has been preying on my mind. Plus, I go back and forth between really liking the way they look (cylcocrossers of a certain age will fondly recall the distinctive Michelin hue) and really not liking the way they look, and right now Im in a not-liking-the-way-they-look phase.So on Sunday morning I headed out for a ride on the newly-installed black tires, and I flatted almost immediately, but not immediately enough to be able to simply walk back home and switch bikes in less time than it would take me to repair the flat. So I went to do just that, only to discover the puncture was on the rim bed side of the tube and seemed to have been caused by a slightly exposed spoke hole. I wasnt about to peel off the rim tape and reapply it lest it lose its adhesion in the process and leave me rim-tapeless and just far enough away from home for the walk to be really annoying, so I patched the tube, inflated the tire, rode the bike home, and got another one.This one:And yes, it absolutely did occur to me when all this was happening that if I put nearly as much time into important things as I do riding bikes and tinkering with bikes and switching between one bike and another and deciding which one of my many bikes to bring on vacation with me then I might actually be successful in life.But that would be a lousy trade-off, since what good is success if you dont have time to ride?In any case, with a fresh bike under me I was once again ready to ride, but the city didnt want to let me go, for the path that takes you out of the park was strewn with fallen trees from Friday nights storm, which were still down as of yesterday:You can tell how well traveled this path is by how quickly a fully packed-in trail formed around it:Then yesterday I returned to the Farbman in order to fix it properly, and as I was peeling the tape off the rim bed this fell out:Thats a piece of the socket that sits in the spoke hole, and Ive seen plenty of reports of them breaking, but Id never experienced it myself until now:I know nothing of the history of these wheels, having bought them used sometime last year from a non-profit bike shop. All I know is that they were perfectly true when I got them and they remain so even now. I also dont know if this is an Eh, whatever problem or a The spokes about to pull through and youre about to die problem, though my suspicion is its closer to the former. But if you have experience with failed Mavic Open Pro eyelets I encourage you to Fred-splain in the comments, and in the meantime Ive re-applied the tape, re-mounted the tire, and marked the compromised spoke so I can keep any eye on it. (There is no visible cracking around the eyelet as of yet, and for all I know that eyelets been broken for years already.) For now Ill keep riding it, and eventually Ill replace the rim, but if someone can convince me Im about to die maybe Ill stop riding it and replace the rim sooner.As for the Roadini, Ive been back on it for the past couple of days, which has afforded me an opportunity to make a side-by-side comparison between it and the Farbman as the Vacation Bike Showdown continues:Apart from being so well sorted out that even I cant convince myself to continue tinkering with it, the Roadini is the logical vacation choice if for no other reason than its so stable thanks to the longer wheelbase and other geometrical factorsnot that the Farbman is even remotely unstable, but it is a bike that was designed for riding really fast through twists and turns in grassy fields, whereas my vacation riding consists of riding up and down what in New York State do qualify as actual mountains, and the Roadini is objectively better suited for that. Yes, now that Ive triple-ized the Farbman and double-ized the Dini Ive got lower climbing gears for the steepest Very Small Rocks climbs, but really this should be low enough:Oh, I did do one little bit of tinkering, because after I originally put the rear tire on I noticed I installed it backwards, which couldnt possibly mean anything on what is essentially a slick tire. But just in case, while I was in tire-swapping mode yesterday, I flipped it around to the proper direction:Incredibly, the decrease in rolling resistance and increase in cornering grip was immediately noticeable.Just kidding.

Well this weekend was an exciting* one for meand not just because I saw Hollywood legend Kurt Russells Hyundai:*[Disclaimer: My Excit-O-Meter tool is calibrated differently than yours, so what registers as EXTREME EXCITEMENT on mine probably reads as MAY CAUSE DROWSINESSDO NOT OPERATE HEAVY MACHINERY on yours.]Once again, my elder son had to attend an activity out of town, in the same location as last time. So once again, I brought a bike with me. And because I now kind-of-sort-of had the lay of the land, I decided it was time to venture off of the paved roads in search of Very Small Rocks:This would be a formidable test not only for me, but for the newly-reconfigured Farbman, curated by Jrs Trli with just such a ride in mind:Bravely, I downloaded a route I found on a popular online bike navigation application, and after dropping off my son I ventured forth into the wilderness. Here I found all kinds of gravel, including Industry Standard:As well as that controversial new half-road, half-gravel lab-grown stuff our leading gravel scientists are now curating by using gene splicing:I also saw signs of abundant non-bicycle recreation in the area, such as boating:When I start to feel guilty about a new bike purchase I always look into the cost of boating, because it makes me feel much, much better about being a cyclist. Ever wonder how companies like Specialized get away with selling $14,000 gravel bikes? Its because boating exists:Id imagine that after a single season of boat ownership that S-Wanks seems like its practically free.I also saw these:No, thats not a bear trap, its a disc golf basket:Disc golf is widely considered by me to be the gravel cycling of Frisbee.Seems like if you put a bunch of those baskets out there on the lake you could have an epic game of boat disc golf. That would make cycling and regular golf both seem dirt cheap.As for the Farbman, it passed its first proper gravelling test with flying colorsand I mean that both figuratively and literally, because its quite colorful:In fact I only noticed after the ride that the saddle roll thingy had been slowly unfurling the whole time, but fortunately I didnt lose anything. Anyway, its almost like you dont need a special bike to ride on Very Small Rocks at all! You can also fully enjoy it on any old bike, even an exquisite one made by one of the most revered builders in the world. Now hows that for accessible?Also, I could not have stolen a more enjoyable route, though I did remember the one problem with late summer Very Small Rocks riding, which is the mosquitoes. Without looking it up, I would guess that the top speed of a mosquito is 5mph, because as soon as I drop below that on the climbs they start swarming and it feels like Im wearing a beekeepers mask full of the things. In fact last summer on one such ride during my vacation I pulled a twig off a tree and used it to swat them away.It didnt work.I suppose the most reasonable course of action would be to use some sort of bug repellant, though I never think of that beforehand. Or, I could get some sort of Gravel Lizard to keep on my shoulder while Im riding. Okay, AI, do your thing:Holy crap, that is a gigantic mosquito!I do like the Dedicated Gravel Lizard Pouch, though.

Bicycle wheels. Theyre one of the most important components there is in cycling. Without wheels, your bicycle will be much lighter, but it will also be much, much slower, and it will handle very poorly. So yes, while there are certain situations when you may opt to forego the front for weight savings, generally speaking you want to always make sure your bicycle is equipped with two round wheels:[If you ride without a front wheel make sure you substitute it with plenty of love.]But which wheels should you choose? Well I cant help you there. Frankly, in the age of dick breaks and 32-inchers and tubeless and all the rest of it Im hopelessly lost and out of touch. For example, based on this headline, I infer that for many cyclists a $4,000 wheel isnt absurd:Wait, it takes a $1,400 wheelset to make a $4,000 wheelset look absurd? What if you think $1,400 is absurd, where does that leave you? What if youre like me and want your wheels to be as boring as possible?The wheels above are the best ones I currently own. I got them from Paul at Classic Cyclemaybe seven years ago? By my standard theyre exotic because they have Campagnolo Record hubs, but otherwise theyre a snooze-fest, and as far as Im concerned thats the highest level of praise you can bestow upon a wheel. Theyre currently on the Roadini, but Ive used them on many bikes, and Ive switched the freehub body back and forth between Campagnolo and Shimano, which on this hub is very easy to do. Aesthetically and mechanically they are the embodiment of What A Bicycle Wheel Should Be.Of course as an aging Fred, I understand the appeal of hot rod wheels. For example, a really light pair with a total of like three spokes does feel really fast:I even had crabon wheels on the Tan Tenovo, and those felt really fast too, though I did discover they were slowly eating my tires:But ultimately after dalliances such as these I always find my way back to boring, because hanging out with someone who likes to party is one thing, but you dont want to marry them.Anyway, heres the Bicycling article about the wheels:He does acknowledge that even a $1,400 wheelset is expensive, which I appreciate, and the rest Im too old and slow to care about, though this did stand out:My biggest complaint was the rear hub. I loved the silver finish, but the freehub is incredibly loud and has a high-pitched tone that I found more irritating than most loud hubs. That is subjective, but it was easily my least favorite part of the wheelset.Im glad he acknowledged this too, because I hateabsolutely loathe, detest, abhor, etc.the way wheels sound today. Its horrible. HORRIBLE. Seriously, do people know how goddamn horrible their ridiculous raspy plastic bikes sound? THAT GOD-AWFUL RATTLING!!! Its like somethings broken, its embarrassing. How could you pay that kind of money for a bicycle component and accept that it sounds that way? It would be like paying $5,000 for a pair of speakers that only plays the sound of cats fucking. Im old enough to remember that period when Kysrium wheels used to howl when the freehub went bad. If it happened to someone during a race you were terrified, because it sounded like an elk was dying. But by modern wheel standards that sound was positively musical, and weve now reached the point where a functional wheel sounds worse than a malfunctioning one.Speaking of the Kysrium, it came out in 1999, and it is absolutely the wheel thats responsible for the current state of affairs:Of course there were expensive, exotic wheels before this, such as the Tri Spoke and the Spinergy Rev-X, and of course Mavic had already been selling the Helium, which really helped kick off the whole ready-to-ride complete wheel thing. But the Ksyrium was the first wheel that successfully convinced the Freds that they should use an expensive, proprietary wheel all the time, for everything. And once they adjusted to that, the Ksyrium became a training wheel and they had to use something even more expensive and exotic for special events. The upshot was sort of a reset whereby race wheels were considered training wheels and normal wheels with normal rims, hubs, and spokes were considered garbage. In those days a decent pair of traditional wheels might have cost $300, whereas the Ksyriums cost more like $900. So basically thanks to this one wheel the price for what people considered a basic wheel tripled overnight.Anyway, as a former semi-professional bike blogger and current gentleman bike blogger Im also completely out of touch with what stuff costs now:But according to a quick consultation with a popular search engine, the price of the Ksyrium of Yesteryear is equivalent to about $1,600 today, so I guess in that context the wheel in the review is in fact a good deal.Still, Im happy to be an aging rim brake enthusiast, because even if you dont want to build a wheel or have someone else to do it you can get a decent quality normal wheel like this for like a quarter of what those Light Bicycle wheels cost:I have a couple pairs of these and theyre pretty good. Butted spokes would be nice, which they dont have, but Shimano 105 11 hubs are great, and theyre backwards-compatible with pretty much everythingplus they even work perfectly with 11-speed Campagnolo:Dont let the clashing colors fool you, this bike runs smoother than warm Pepto-Bismol.And the rims even work with tubeless tires if youre into that, though that does come at the expense of truly easy flat repair if youre still using tubes.Meanwhile, ironically, the radical-for-its-day Ksyrium now comes in a Heritage edition:Note the inflation-beating price, which is about what the originals cost back in 1999.Hey, theyre practically free!

Once again I managed to get a little Farb time in yesterday:Ive been riding it a lot partially because Im very pleased with the new drivetrain, but also because after you put on a whole bunch of new stuff like that youve got to sort of bed everything in, which is why bike shops often include a free tune-up if you buy a new bike from them. This sounds impressive to new cyclists, who dont understand that tune-up in this context just means giving a barrel adjuster the quarter turn it will invariably need after the first few ridesthough in the electronic age there arent barrel adjusters anymore, which presumably means new cyclists arent coming back for their post-purchase barrel adjuster turn, and the shop is losing out on any impulse buys the customer might make while theyre waiting for the mechanic to pretend hes doing more than just twiddling a barrel adjuster, such as a really ugly jersey:[Image borrowed from here, and for the love of Lob, DO NOT BUY IT.]How do I know this? Because I once purchased and wore that exact same jersey. And you want to know the weird part? I didnt even have a bike with a HeadShok, but in browsing the rack somehow fell under the delusion that this would be a cool thing to wear.Anyway, to this day I still get embarrassed for myself when I see anything HeadShok-related, though I kind of wish I still had that jersey because I would absolutely wear now.And if youre wondering when I see HeadShok-related things, it happens all the time when youre browsing Craigslist:Sorry, that bike doesnt need love, it needs a front wheel.All of this is to say things are settling in nicely, though there is one thing I still need, and thats a red car with yellow accents to match my red Farbman with yellow accents.Fortunately I may have found just the thing:It looks like its wearing one of those nose ring/earring chains:Actually the Craigslist Cannondale would go with that car even better, now I may have to buy it.Speaking of that new drivetrain, it of course includes an OM-1 rear derailleur, and lets not forget Im the [chokes back laughter] journalist who had the exclusive on it when it first came out:This makes three bikes of mine with OM-1s, the other two being the Roadini and the Platypus (though technically those are prototypes), and Ive also got a Shimano Rapid Rise derailleur on the Homer, which was my first one, and which Grant Petersen send me during the lengthy low-normal indoctrination process he performed on me. So whats the point of low-normal anyway? Well, the reverse action goes well with friction shifters in a subjective and hard-to-quantify way, but more importantly its the ideal derailleur to use with bar-end shifters:With a low-normal derailleur, its down to downshift and up to upshift on both sides, which is not only really intuitive, but also means the levers are out of the way of your knees if youre climbing or off-roading or any of the other stuff you might be doing in a low gear that could cause you to bump the shifter with your knee.Also, once again, let the record reflect I am currently using these shifters in clicky-click mode, and the index with the OM-1 perfectly.But more important that any of this is the question of which bike will get to go on vacation with me this year, and right now its between the Farb and the Dini:And yes, I realize nobody cares about my vacation, but if I could write anything other than self-indulgent nonsense then I wouldnt be a blogger, now would I?No, Id write self-help books or something, for the betterment of humanity:Okay, so I told the AI to generate A self-help book by the blogger Bike Snob NYC and thats what it came up with. My main problem is that the author looks nothing like me (at least I dont think it does), though I suppose it did capture my writing style rather well: Its true, theres nothing I hate more than the srumps.And if you think the fact I generated that image with nothing more than the push of a button is scary, consider that with nothing more than a push of another button I could have the AI write me that whole goddamn book.But what kind of srump would do a thing like that?Anyway, we first started vacationing in this location eleven years ago. Back then, gravel hadnt been invented yet, but I was very excited about the prospect of exploring some roads strewn with Very Small Rocks. So I brought the Milwaukee and headed into the wilderness, where I promptly learned the terrain was unrideable on such a bicycle due to Medium-To-Large-Sized Rocks, and then I got lost:So it was back to the road for the rest of the trip, and on subsequent vacations I bought bikes such as the long-departed Ritte Rust Bucket:[Not shown on vacation.]And yes, Ritte still sell a Snob bike, though they dont acknowledge its origin:However, Im assuming Ritte has changed hands since those days, so they probably dont even know.Ive also brought the Litespeed, also departed, and heres where you tell me how crazy I was to send it back to Classic Cycle:[Also not shown during vacation.]I stand by my decision, yet Im also not arguing.But after several years I got to know the area a lot better and was ready to venture into the wilderness again, and so I brought the Jones:[The Jones, on vacation.]In fact Ive brought the Jones with me a number of times, and overall its probably been the best vacation bike of them all, because it can go anywhere and do anything. However, Im not bringing it this year for two reasons. The first is that Im reasonably sure if I keep riding in the wilderness its only a matter of time before I get attacked by a bear or bitten by a rattlesnake, and I know this I often see bears, and because I was hiking with my family one year and would have absolutely stepped on a rattlesnake if a park ranger hadnt happened by and pointed it out to us. In fact, even after he pointed it out I still couldnt see it and nearly stepped on it anyway. And the second reason is that I have a new car packing configuration which requires me to carry the bicycle on the roof instead of on the hitch, and even though I guess I could get something to adapt the Jones to fit on the roof rack, I put other stuff on the roof too, and so I want to keep the weight up there to a minimum. So lighter bikes with quick release wheels have the dual advantage of being easy to carry on the roof and limiting me to the sorts or roads and trails on which Im less likely to get attacked by a bear or bitten by a rattlesnakeor lost without a cell signal or pursued by a psychopathic cannibal like Charlize Theron in that movie I just watched on the Net Flicks:Then there were The Homer Years:[The Homer, vacationing.]During this period, instead of bringing bikey shoes and bike clothes, I just brought the Homer and rode in sandals. Every so often Id miss having drop bars, but the simplicity of this arrangement made up for it. However, I ride the Homer so much that over the years it has become completely citified:So absent a complete overhaul its not coming this year.And of course I often used to exploit the Family Bike Loophole, where Id bring another bike for someone else to use, such as my wife, or my older son once he was big enough to ride my bikes:[The American M-16, on vacation, ostensibly for sharing purposes.]But eventually I have given up this ruse since nobody really wants to ride up there except methough there was the one year when I invoked The Loophole to take both the Jones and the Y-Foil, which was maybe the most decadent vacation of them all:I brought the Y-Foil entirely so I could take this photo for this column:However, strange things happen to a man when hes upstate with a Y-Foil. In fact, its the second-weirdest thing that can happen to you in a rural area after getting probed by aliens. See, thats when I started to really like the bike, which I did not expect. I suppose something similar happens to lonely farmers in remote areasafter awhile they start to look at the sheep differently.Maybe Ill buy that HeadShok jersey and call the Ferl back from Classic Cycle

As a former semi-professional bike blogger-turned gentleman bike blogger, I bullshit on a daily basis:Yet even I, a veritable font of bullshit, cant fathom how you could possibly do this on a daily basis on video. Yet YouTube is filled with cycling-themed content creators who seem able to do just that. So every so often I check in to see what theyre up to, but I never actually watch anything, because the video titles almost always answer themselves:Whats cycling like for someone who doesnt cycle?It sucks and its stupid.I mean sure, you can get used to it, just like a fetishist can get used to increasingly large butt plugs, but that doesnt mean everybody needs to try it.Heres another one I didnt have to watch:Whats the big mystery? Bike crashes happen because you suckor, to be charitable, maybe you dont suck but you were riding too close to someone else who does suck. But arguably even then if you didnt suck you wouldnt be near other riders who suck in the first place. (To wit: every Cat 4 bike race.) So basically you suck, and theres no way around it.And heres a subject that really doesnt warrant a video:Yes.The answer is yes.Meanwhile, I couldnt even read the title of this one without falling asleep:What happened?!? Nothing. Because theres no meaningful difference.This could just as easily have been called I wanked in an armchair instead of on my sofaheres what happened.But mostly cycling YouTube is just videos about bikes from China:I mean yes, theyre all from China now, but Im referring to the bikes that are actually marketed directly by Chinese companies, like the aforementioned Quick Pro:I could never have a YouTube channel, and not just because Im incredibly boring and nobody wants to look at me or listen to me. Its also because Id have absolutely no insight into the latest bikes from Quick Pro, except to point out to the potential buyer that youre not quick, nor are you a pro. Youre slow and you suck. So go ahead and buy one if you want, but it will do nothing to change either one of these fundamental truths.Hey, what can I say? Im finished trying to encourage people. If anything we need to bring back the gatekeeping. I dont want people to join anymore, theyre ruining bikes! (Relax, Im only 75% serious here.) There may have been a time I subscribed to the More people on bikes is always a good thing philosophy, but then it actually happened, and what do we have to show for it? I mean really, whats improved since I started this blog in 2007? Heres a list:Nothing.Nothing!?!Yeah, nothing.Oh, come on, surely some things have gotten better since 2007, right?What about wide tires?Nah, we had those.What about gravel bikes?Nah, we had those.What about bike lanes?Nah, theyre just full of electric vehicles now.See the Byrnian ideal of the gentleman bicyclist that Transportation Alternatives and the Smug-telligentsia were pushing back when this blog started never really materialized:And instead we got this:And getting stuck behind a slow-moving electric cargo bike is actually a best-case scenario these days:The campaign returns as concerns continue about dangerous riding behavior, particularly involving illegal e-bikes and high-speed e-bikes operating on city streets and sidewalks, reads a news release from Bottchers office.In the past month, there have been several high-profile bike and scooter accidents and injuries on the Upper West Side and in New York City, including two in Central Park, where one woman out jogging wasleft in a coma,and another where a 17-year-old boy e-bike rider died after ramming into a car near City Hall.Of course it might all be worth it if all this stuff was replacing cars like advocates always said it would, but in fact the opposite has happened:Basically we presented people with a choice between large motor vehicles and micromobility, and they chose accordingly:Meanwhile, the human-powered bicycle remained the domain of the butt plug enthusiasts, only now you need to charge them in order to work the shifters.Speaking of whichWhat about 1X drivetrains?Nah, its a step backwards.What about 1X drivetrains that require batteries?Nah, thats two steps backwards.Go ahead, keep asking questions, I can do this all day.Speaking of butt plugs, I do see theyre still managing to squeeze in more cogs:It is of course very important that Shimano do this, because obviously theyre lagging behind:[Do we need to say lags behind? Is there another way to lag? Can you lag ahead?]Good point. Tadej Pogaar uses 12-speed Dura-Ace. So this would explain his dismal performance this season.As far as Im concerned, the only noteworthy cog number change was whenever bikes went from one to two speeds, which was a whopping 100% increase. After that, every additional cog is proportionately less interesting, and you cant argue with math. So I dont know why the bike media makes a big deal about going from 12 speed to 13 speed when they could be fawning over the 100% increase you get when you go double on a Roaduno instead:Someone should make a video on that.

When it comes to the Tour de France and pro cycling in general, nobody feels as strongly as I do that the womens races are just as important as the mens. This is why I ignore both equally. Its also why I didnt know about this until someone mentioned it in the comments yesterday:Yes, apparently you can get an aero benefit with the right kind of bra:According toWielerFlits, some teams believe a small number of riders might be wearing extra padding inside their sports bras during time trials to alter the shape of their chest and reduce aerodynamic drag. The practice is prohibited under UCI equipment regulations because it artificially changes a riders body shape.Aerodynamics expertBert Blocken, a professor at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and LUT University in Finland, told the Dutch outlet that the concept is backed by science.Were talking about a chest fairing, which changes the airflow around the body and reduces pressure on the thighs, Blocken said. You wont gain tens of seconds. But think about a 20- to 30-km time trial can save enough seconds to make the difference.Bu dont worry, because the UCI is on it:By the way, just an editorial note on the HILARIOUS t-shirt:You dont need the for inspections, because its repetitive and redundant.Furthermore, it was only until I read about the chest fairings that I learned the UCI has recently banned jerseys with front pockets:Though Im a little confused by the reasoning:After observing teams using internal front pockets filled with nutrition products to improve aerodynamics, the UCI has decided to prohibit front-mounted pockets altogether starting July 1, 2026.The UCI claims the nutritional products were generally not consumed because they were extremely difficult, or even impossible in race conditions, to access. These pockets result in significant alterations to the riders body shape.The governing body said the practice was supported by aerodynamic studies and raised concerns about both sporting fairness and rider safety, arguing that speed gains can contribute to more severe crashes.Wait. Are they banning front pockets because its too hard to get at your food? Or are they banning front pockets because the speed gains are so tremendous that theyre contributing to more severe crashes? Oh, wait again, I dont carethough it did explain why this never took off:He doesnt seem to be having trouble accessing his food at all.Anyway, while the UCI may be able to get wind-cheating sports bras out of the pro peloton, its only a matter of time before they start turning up in your local mens masters races:There are few things faster than an old Fred in an AeroManzier and a PNS helmet: Does it come in fleshtone?Just make sure youre wearing one of these if you participate in any unfamiliar group rides:You cant be too careful.As for this old Fred, I dont need to worry about PNS protection because I ride alone, and my new granny gear is way more useful than a chest fairing on an incline strewn with Very Small Rocks:Yes, the rain finally stopped yesterday and I managed to squeeze in another quick ride on the Farbman, and while Im very pleased with the new drivetrain configuration, it is causing some tension at home:Thats because this is the point in the season when all my bikes start competing for the position as my Official Summer Vacation Bike, and up until now last years winner was the front-runner once again:Its the obvious choice, because not only did I conceive of the Roadini as my default vacation bike in the first place, but after a year and a half I have it exactly the way I want it:And yet the Farman does present a compelling alternative. In fact another reason I held back on making these changes to it was that I didnt want too much Farman/Roadini overlap, which I knew would lead to fraught decisions just like this one. But while they may be set up somewhat similarly at the moment, the Roadini will always be the more luxurious of the pair thanks to its less racy geometry, ample mounting points, and even ample-er tire clearance:Which is why it can easily assume any number of guises, from sporting to genteel:Oh great, now I want to redo the Roadini, and thats the last thing I need.No, wait, more stuff is the last thing I need:Maybe you can get something and I can live vicariously through you.

Last summer, for unhappy reasons, I became the custodian of a bicycle by Richard Sachs, who is (say it with me now) the Karl Farbman of Bicycles:While over that time I have made some changes to it (seatpost and stem for fit, wheels because of wheel stuff), Ive refrained from making more substantive alterationsnot because Im trying to maintain it as some kind of memorial, but more because everything has been working really nicely and Ive been enjoying it very much as is. Also, when you start tinkering theres always the danger youll be tempted to acquire new stuff, and while Id never completely forswear the acquisition of new bicycles and components, Ive been doing my best to take on new stuff simply to augment the perfectly good bikes I already have.However, if you suffer from The Illness, no matter how good the bike youre riding may be, you cant hep thinking about ways to make even it betterand in the case of the Farbman, my thoughts have turned repeatedly to that single-ring drivetrain. What I like about it is its simplicity; it works reliably and well, and if I were using this bike to race cyclocross it would be perfect. However, I am not using this bike to race cyclocross, and at this point in my life I can pretty much guarantee I never will again. Instead, I am using the Farbman as what people these days might term an all-road or (egads) gravel bike, and in that capacity I do miss having more than one chainring, since on the road having to toggle your way though a bunch of gears rather than just make a front shift can feel a little pointless, like taking several baby-sized steps instead of one big grown-up step.Another issue with the drivetrain has been that the range is a bit narrow for general road riding. It could use a little more on both the high end and the low end, and with a single ring drivetrain like this you can have either/or, but you cant have both. Thanks to gravity, adding lower gears is more of a priority than adding higher ones, and the derailleur can handle a larger cassette than whats on there, so a simple solution would be to change the cassette. However, I dont have such a cassette on hand, Im trying not to get new stuff, and ultimately a few more teeth arent going to make that much of a difference anyway.Then theres the SRAM shifter. I certainly dont hate it, and I do get why some people prefer SRAM over the others. (When SRAM road shifters first came out my friend changed all his bikes to them and never looked back.) However, of the Big Three integrated road bike shifters of this era, mechanically and ergonomically SRAM are my least favorite. (As for Shimano versus Campagnolo, for me its too close to call.) The oddest thing to me about SRAM shifters is that, because of the whole double-tap thing, if youre in your lowest gear and you accidentally try to downshift (as you sometimes do when youre on a very steep climb and youre under duress), the system will actually upshift instead, which is the last thing you want when youre on a very steep climb and under duress. My friend was one of those preternaturally smooth riders who rarely made technical mistakes on the bike, so for him it was most likely a total non-issue, and even an ungainly rider such as myself only makes this mistake maybe every 10 rides or something. So while I could certainly keep using the SRAM shifter indefinitely and be perfectly happy, when youve got bins full of other types of shifters as I do you cant help thinking about changing them.However, until now I have not changed the drivetrain to address any of the above, and thats for want of one simple part:See, the Farbman has top tube cable routing, and in order to use your standard issue bottom-pull derailleur you simply bolt one of these things to the seat tube (theres a mounting point already there for it and everything), loop the cable around it, and thats it.But I dont happen to have the part.So why not just spend the measly $8.99 for the part and change the drivetrain? Because I have The Illness, and Ive made a weird commitment not to buy new stuff for my current bikes whenever possible, all so I can pretend Im not being wasteful and therefore justify the future acquisition of a new bicycle. So without this part, which would be the literal lynchpin for a double- or even triple-ring conversion of the Farbman bike, I have refrained from doing so until now.Then, this past weekend, I realized that, while I may not have the pulley thingy, I do have a top-pull derailleur. (When I was clearing out my friends bike stuff, I sold or donated almost all of it, though I still have a few odds and endsincluding, as it turns out, one or two top-pull derailleurs.) So 14 months after becoming the Farbmans caretaker, I figured Id finally reconfigure the drivetrain.With the front shifting issue potentially solved, the problem wasnt a lack of parts; it was a surfeit of them. Ive got all sorts of shifters and cranks and derailleurs, so I started pulling stuff out and mixing and matching. How should I approach this logic problem? Did I want friction bar-end shifting? Integrated shifting? Should I just move the Campy drivetrain over wholesale from the Bargain Basement Bike? Since the top-pull derailleur was technically for a mountain bike system it might not work perfectly with an integrated Shimano shifter on a double crank, so either the Campy or at least a front friction shifter seemed like the best option. Maybe Id even go triple and do a front bar-end and rear STI thing. I even weighed a Dura Ace STI lever and a brake lever/bar end combo to see what the weight difference wasnot because it matters, but because I was curious:Turns out the difference is negligible:Finally, after considering all the various permutations, I narrowed it down to front and rear bar-end shifters, a Silver3 crank set up as a triple, and two low-normal rear derailleurs (low-normal pairs very well with bar-end shifters):Ultimately I chose the OM-1, not only because it matched the crank, but also because its chain wrap capacity would be a perfect match with the cassette and crank and even let me keep using the same chain:I budgeted about two hours to do all this work and it ended up taking at least six, but despite my best efforts to screw up everything went together very smoothly, and I was even able to re-use the bar tape:Thats a Silver derailleur, and a Silver crank, but as much as I liked the idea of a Farbman with an all-Rivendell drivetrain those are not Silver shifters. Instead I used these:These are special, because theyre 10-speed Dura-Ace shifters with a friction mode, which few people realize ever existed:Of course the OM-1 derailleur is meant to be used with friction shifters, so Im obviously using the Shimano shifters in friction mode, right? Wrong! Rivendell dont tout this, but unofficially the OM-1 works with indexed shifters too:And yes, thats the chain after I cleaned it. What can I say? I was serious about not getting any new stuff.Anyway, its only been one ride so far, but everything is running smoothly and the new configuration feels like a major improvement:With the function of the controls distributed evenly across bar I now feel like Im sitting behind a proper workstation::The bike was a pleasure to ride before, but its really too nice a bike not to have All The Gears:Maybe one day it will finally stop raining and I can ride it again