Justify This
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
20h ago
One of my guilty pleasures is reading tortured reader comments on other bike blogs, and from the site that brought you “white supremacy in the mountain bike space,” here’s someone who is too guilt-ridden to purchase a new bicycle frame: It is sad to me that climate hysteria has broken the brains of an entire generation. There are all sorts of good reasons for purchasing an older used bicycle frame, from saving money to using perfectly good parts you already have that are no longer compatible with current frames, to simply undertaking a fun project But if your concern is primarily “environment ..read more
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A Tire Is Only As Good As Its Spare
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
3d ago
Well, it happened: I flatted a tubular: There I was, reveling in the spring weather and my vintage bicycle, and literally thinking to myself how I hadn’t had any flats on these things. Then there was the unmistakable sound of a puncture. Since it’s a tubular it took awhile for the air to escape–flatting a tubular is like farting in tight pants–but soon all the air found its way out and I knew the time had come for me to confront the reality of my vintage affectations. To be honest, I wasn’t particularly concerned. I’m no stranger to tubulars, having used them during my racing days. Plus, I w ..read more
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Down Into The Memory Hole
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
3d ago
I was reading Dave Moulton’s blog recently, which in turn brought me to this Bicycling review from 1989 of one of his Fuso Lux bicycles: that’s a hell of a nice looking bike. I wonder if today it looks as haggard as the Faggin: Anyway, the review was by John Kukoda, who also wrote a contemporary review of the Vengeance Bike: And trashed the moustache bar on the X0-1: Reading modern bike reviews makes you stupid, but reading old bike reviews is edifying because it gives you a new perspective on the present. (And yes, reading today’s stupid bike reviews will be similarly edifying in 35 years ..read more
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In Too Deep
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
6d ago
There is in our culture the archetype of the guy who takes on a job and goes in way too deep. In “Apocalypse Now,” Colonel Kurtz goes to fight in the jungle and loses his identity and his sanity: In “Moby-Dick,” Ishmael goes to sea and…well, I’ve only just started reading it, and he hasn’t even gotten on the boat yet, but I’m pretty sure that when he does it becomes like a whole thing: [This is the edition I’m reading.] And then there’s me. I used to be a normal cyclist. Sure, I had certain retrogrouchical tendencies, but I mostly rode contemporary bikes with contemporary parts. But then I t ..read more
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The Timeless Quality Of Fredness Revisited
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
6d ago
Back in 2018, in my official capacity as the Classic Cycle Old Crap Test Pilot, I spent some time on a 1950 Drysdale Special: I was reminiscing about that bike recently, and noticed the following in the aforelinked post: Now, six years later, the retrogrouch virus has infected my brain and all of my road bikes currently have friction downtube shifters. Granted, being a tinkerer, I’m liable to go back to integrated shifters on at least one of them at any time. Also, two of them have Rivendell Silver downtube shifters with otherwise modern drivetrains, a setup that doesn’t do the whole “clacke ..read more
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In Memoriam: Bikes
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
1w ago
When I started this blog back in 2007, change as afoot–or awheel–here in New York City. Our mayor was this guy Michael Bloomberg: And he’d just appointed someone named Janette Sadik-Khan as commissioner of the Department of Transportation: Who immediately set apart doing weird Euro stuff like carving out little plazas and building bicycle lanes, including the city’s first “protected” one: We’d had a weird blip back in like 1980 when then-mayor Ed Koch installed a bike lane on 6th Avenue for five minutes: And we’d also had a weird bicycle-riding mayor before that: And we’ve always had lots ..read more
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Things Are Going From Suck To Blow
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
1w ago
As a commenter commented in the comments section of this blog’s blog comments section recently, Jan Heine has weighed in on hookless rims: As he rando-splains in his characteristic Heinian way, it’s difficult to make carbon rims with hooks, therefore carbon rims without hooks are better: This poses an interesting philosophical question: Is something really “better” if the material out of which you’re making it requires you to omit critical safety features? I would go so far as to say your answer to this defines you as a cyclist and as a consumer. For example, it is my personal and highly sub ..read more
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Sock It To Me
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
1w ago
Further to Monday’s post, as pro cycling headgear gets more amusing, so do the headlines: I had no idea there was even such a thing as a “Head Sock,” and now it’s been banned: Specialized is upset: Though the obvious solution is for all Specialized-sponsored riders to convert to Islam. Then Specialized can change the name from Head Sock to Aero Hijab and challenge the ban on the grounds that it constitutes religious discrimination: Hookless rims, head socks…what a time to be alive. Speaking of big bike companies and aero gains, facing a financial headwind, Trek will reduce its surface area ..read more
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The Best Things In Life Are Cheap
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
1w ago
Yesterday I made a significant change to this bicycle: See? No, of course you don’t. But what I did was change the “gravel” tires in the first photo to the Panaracer Paselas in the second photo: [Note tire has been finely aged. Only nerds ride new tires.] Or, more accurately, I removed the wheels in the first photo and changed them for an identical pair of wheels with Paselas on them. See, thanks to Ben’s Cycle I recently got two new pairs of wheels, and I’m now using them both for the Milwaukee. When you’re a serious cyclist like me you need two pairs of wheels with slightly different tire ..read more
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Flying Off The Handle (Or The Hook)
Bike Snob NYC
by Eben Weiss
2w ago
It’s been a few years now since I’ve paid close attention to the professional bicycle racing, mostly because I don’t have the time. However, I was vaguely aware that the Strade Bianche race was coming up this weekend, and so at one point during some couch time I punched up the results on my mobile telephone and saw that Tadej Pogačar just rode away from everybody with like 80 Euro-Miles to go: Moreover, he finished with a smile on his face and enough time to hoist is bicycle heavenward in celebration: Plus, before the race, he basically told everyone this was exactly what he was going to do ..read more
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