Were all familiar with the five stages of grief:DenialAngerBargainingDepressionAcceptanceWell, the weather sucks here, and this is what Ive been experiencing since the Great Apocalyptic Death Blizzard of Two Thousand Twenty and Six arrived this past weekend:Denial: Its not gonna snow that much, they get this stuff wrong all the time.Anger: Its still snowing? This is BULLSHIT. What the hell happened to climate change? According to Streetsblog it was never going to snow again!Bargaining: Im not getting a fat bike.Now Im stuck between the fourth and fifth stages, those being Depression (This sucks, life sucks, I hate it here), and Acceptance (Fuck it, Im getting a fat bike), jumping around on the Cassette of Emotion like an under-tensioned derailleur as I struggle in vain to adjust my mental barrel adjuster. Look, what do you want from me? Last time I checked it was six (6) degrees in American Freedom Units:Plus theres like a foot and a half of snow everywhere, and its not melting or getting washed away by rain anytime soon:This means the best case scenario for the coming days is freezing out on the road for as long as I can stand it (if you pretend hard enough you can actually convince yourself that road salt is the Strade Bianche), interspersed with long periods of staring deep into the chasm of my own psyche. Is it not being able to ride that I dread so much? Or is it having to face myself? Do I simply love riding for ridings sake? Or do I spend so much time riding because Im desperately avoiding introspection and frantically fleeing from some fundamental truth that Im unwilling and unable to confront? Sure, I tell myself that as I ride Im reflecting and meditating and contemplating and all the rest of it, but maybe Im just rationalizing my own escapism, blissed out on exercise-induced hormones and thus no better than the drunk passed out on the couch or the junkie on the nod. Maybe if I take some time off riding Ill not only move into the acceptance phase but also get something done for onceyou know, something actually important that has nothing to do with bikes, like financial planning or home improvement or grooming all those neglected body parts.Either that, or maybe I should just get on a plane and go somewhere warm until May. Yeah, that sounds a lot better. I wonder what bike I should bringSpeaking of barrel adjusters, if you really cant stand them theres always electronic shifting:If I wasnt depressed enough before, now I have to contend with the fact that Ive dedicated my entire life to defending mechanical shifting from the electronic onslaught, and yet heres some guy who without even trying has made perhaps the best case against electronic shifting that Ive ever read:Well, it was bound to happen to me eventually. My AXS battery died during a mountain bike ride, and I didnt have a spare with me. With my derailleur stuck in second gear and a flat, ten-mile bike path ride home, I was stuck.If only I could switch gearsone more time, from second gear to something more reasonable, like ninth or tenth, I would make it home at a reasonable pace. Paul didnt have a battery on his bike, and neither did Chris, who we happened to run into on the road just outside the trails. I only needed to borrow an AXS battery for a minute!Ah yes, if only there were a bicycle drivetrain that was able to shift without any batteries at all. It would be like a perpetual motion machine! Sadly I dont think well ever see anything like that in our lifetimes.And yes, I invented the concept of mechanical shifting all by myself, just like the author singlehandedly invented the term MacGyver:Growing up, I was really into the TV showMacGyver, where the shows titular character got himself out of every jam using whatever simple items he found around him. This was my chance to be just like MacGyver.Thats pretty clever of him, I can see MacGyver really catching on as a verb.Anyway, after figuring out how to power a derailleur with the worlds most annoying type of battery, he determines that (surprise!) its not practical:Clearly, the better solution for bicycle components that are useless without batteries ismore more bicycle components that require batteries:If youre running a RockShox Reverb AXS dropper post, then you already have a backup AXS battery on your bike, which you could borrow to shift the bike into a proper gear. Or vice versa, if the dropper battery runs out and your post is stuck in the wrong position. I didnt test the 9V trick on an AXS dropper post, but I imagine it would work too.Imagine a battery-powered derailleur ruining your day and concluding that you also need a battery-powered seatpost. Amazing.But I suppose its the consumers instinct to double down on foolish purchases that keeps the bicycle industry moving forwardthough even that has limits:Gravaa may sound like a gravel-specific version of Strava, but its actually a hub that automatically adjusts your tire pressure, and their bankruptcy is sad news indeed:Heres what happened:So, we were a bit surprised to hear that Gravaa recently filed for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, it seems that just because something is a good idea and performs as intended doesnt mean its destined for commercial success. While the Gravaa system has enjoyed publicity from its partnership with Team Visma Lease-a-Bike, the aforementioned victories, and has been on the market and available to consumers, it sounds like sales volume wasnt quite high enough to keep the brand afloat.In a statement from Gravaas Commercial Director, John Zopfi, he said, To truly scale, two critical elements remained: a full tubeless setup and a lower price point. The tubeless setup was planned for launch in Q1. The lower price could only be achieved through volume. To reach volume, we needed to scale up.To scale up, we needed capital and firm commitments from potential volume customers.And heres a Corporate-to-English translation of Commercial Director John Zopfis comments:Nobody wanted to pay for our completely unnecessary product.Thats too bad, because I really wanted to be able to use my hub battery when my derailleur battery dies.