Further to yesterday’s post, I should make it clear that ample tire clearance, versatility, wide-range gearing, “gravel bikes” or whatever we’re calling them this week, and The Many Supple Tire Offerings Of Jan Heine are all good things. Mostly I was just making the point that versatile road bikes are nothing new, and if anything the era of the “thong bikini” bike (minimal clearance for asscrack-width tires, only appropriate for the road in the same way the bikini is only appropriate for the beach) was relatively short-lived, though it was recent enough that it still defines the road bike for ..read more

Last week we revisited the Golden Age of Hybrids–that brief yet magical time before the term became a catch-all for boring bikes that get ridden three times a year by people in sweatpants, and still referred to performance-oriented combination road-and-mountain bikes: By the mid-1990s the hybrid dream was effectively dead, and the bikes came to embody the worst of both worlds by combining the skinny rims and tires of a road bike with the uncomfortable-over-long-distances flat bars of a mountain bike: Arguably however there was still one exciting hybrid available as late as the early 21st cen ..read more

Great news! SRAM has succeeded in creating the world’s most expensive pedal or something! Finally, it’s the $440 pair of pedals that you’ve been waiting for: I’m pretty sure they’ve got their Pounds and Euros mixed up there, but in any case it’s the “ultimate expression in pedal technology:” Of course you can’t bolt the ultimate expression of pedal technology to just anything, so you’ll also want to run out and buy a diamond-coated titanium crank: No word on price yet, but if you want to save some money the non-coated version is a real bargain at only $999.99: That may sound like a lot, b ..read more

Further to yesterday’s post, you may have noticed a lurker in the background of one of the photos: This is because Yonkers is rife with deer, and they fear no man: In fact this one actually started to approach me, and for a minute there I thought it was going to come up and sniff my crotch like a dog. The trails just north of the city are full of such wonders, and for a time my favorite deer-slayer was the RockCombo, which was more or less in its stock configuration when I first received it in 2020: It grew on me quickly, and over time it became my “ready for anything bike:” Then came The ..read more

As I’ve mentioned before, cyclists have been waging an anti-cotton fear campaign for decades now, and this is the subject of my latest Outside column: Someone on Twitter suggested this was a “straw man” argument, which is entry-level Internet discourse, like using one of those adjustable stems on your road bike: [Instead of those pointless angle indicators all adjustable stems should have a QR code on them that takes you straight to the Rivendell website] However, the fact of the matter is that if someone hasn’t Fred-splained to you why you shouldn’t ride in cotton then you haven’t been ridi ..read more

Further to yesterday’s post, Framework seems to be the Builder of the Moment, because there’s also another review of one over at Escape Collective: It’s considerably different from the review I mentioned yesterday since unlike the other guy James Huang is able to articulate his thoughts in a comprehensible fashion. Otherwise, both reviewers are similar in that they fawn over an overwrought process that seems to result in a bicycle the reviewer finds unsatisfactory: Yes, the Framework’s meticulous construction means you won’t fall victim to the “dreaded ‘ring of death,'” whatever that means ..read more

When you ride all year long there’s not much need to give your bikes a spring tune-up since you’ve been keeping them more or less in tune anyway. However, the so-called “Normcore Bike” is a different story, as it’s currently my elder son’s commuter. This means it’s often hastily lashed to bike racks and left out in the rain, so for the safety of both bicycle and rider I gave it a bit of a going over yesterday: As I took the above photo I heard a splash from that little pond in the background, and just barely managed to get a shot of what I assume to be a Red-tailed Hawk [I have since been inf ..read more

Good morning! I’m pleased to present you all with a quiz. As always, study the item, think, and click on your answer. If you’re right you’ll know, and if you’re wrong you’ll see the last cycling discipline in which steel still reigns supreme. Thanks very much for reading, ride safe, and best of luck in all your cycling-related endeavors. Love, –Tan Tenovo 1. This Ferrari belongs to Grant Petersen. True False 2. What is this? The “green transportation heirarchy” The “urban mobility hegemony” The “inverted triangle of smugness” A breakdown of road users by foot callous thickness 3. What ..read more

While I spend an inordinate amount of time spewing forth words, occasionally I like to take a few in, so I was pleased recently to find my copy of Grant Petersen’s “Bicycle Sentences” had arrived: While the cover suggests the book is “occasionally infuriating,” in thumbing through it most of what I saw struck me as being “eminently sensible:” I guess certain types of people do find sensible things to be infuriating–though even I have to admit this may have been a bit harsh: Just kidding: It’s not harsh at all. Now I should probably state explicitly at this point that the above is not an ac ..read more

Some of the challenges we face today are as old as humanity itself: the need for food and shelter; the desire for companionship; the mortal threat of illness and natural disasters. Other challenges are unique to the 21st century: figuring out which of the ninety billion shows on your streaming services to watch; wandering naked into the shot during your spouse’s Zoom meeting; misgendering your Amazon delivery man person entity. Then there are the problems that are both modern and timeless, like ass-ploding e-bikes: It’s a timeless problem because the e-bikes that are ass-ploding are generally ..read more