BLAGH 1 2025
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To enlarge, click on it while typing COMMAND +. Tech tip from a master.
I'm as pro-Sierra Club as the next guy; I HAVE been but am not currently a card-carrying member. But this is ... out of touch with the kind of subject that gets people to open it. It reads like an example of something not to ask at a New Years Eve party.
Hello...Earth to Sierra Club...are you in, please?
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We can all learn a thing or two from the New York Times about writing obituaries. This one is a masterpiece. More, more, MORE!
If you can't or don't want to open the link, let me make this easy for you. You'll thank me for being so pushy.
To enlarge, click on it while typing COMMAND +. Keep typing the + until you can read the sucker.
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This should be required reading for every college admissions person and everybody in high school and college. It's about reading books and why "nobody" does it anymore.
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Twenty years ago or nineteen-plus, this movie came out. It's a true story, and required viewing for all Riv employees. You will probably be glad you saw it.
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It happens frequently, somebody calls up and wants to know if they should be concerned by cracks in the tire tread, or a more general question of when's time to replace tires.
This is the front tire on my Cheviot (basically, an earlier Platypus). It's a super heavy Belgian tire, or Netherlands, something like that, and weighs 900g. It's been on there 4 years, tons of riding. The closeup makes it look horrid, but I doubt the cracks go thru the casing. I'd feel comfortable riding this a lot more, but we got some new Schwalbes in that I want to try, super Green tires, and I may put that on.
Here's the rear, a Continental Sport Contact, or something like that:
It's been on maybe a year and a half, also lots of riding, but it seems it should've lasted longer. But it is a light tire, everybody likes it, but it doesn't have the thickness or weight of the other, so it can't actually possibly last as long. You can't have everything, baby.
Here's the Schwable I just put on the back:
And the whole bike. It is always best/easiest to flip the bike upside down when doing wheelwork. easier to remove and re-install, etc.
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This is the book to read. Even if you're turned off by keto-this-and-that. If you have a hard time getting skinny and a harder time not gaining weight, or anything in between...read this. Gary Taubes is a smart no-bullshitter. He's a terrific writer, he makes everything clear, and the book is hilarious in its own way. Seriously.
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Yesterday a longtime customer had a mishap:
The rider is getting the frame repaired. He has tons of memories and rides in this, and he doesn't want a new one.
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Jimmy Carter, President Carter
from The Guardian
Many of you know that President and Rosalynn Carter had Rivendells, got them around 2001 or so. Each one got a custom, and Jimmy had a Wilbury in addition--to make it easier to mount when his hips got stiff...although the diagatubes were still a high lift-over. A CLEM would've been better, but oh well.
How it came to be and the stuff and interactions from start to finish were private then and now. It was my promise—not President Carter's requirement—that we wouldn't turn it into a promotional opportunity. Our custom builder at the time, Joe Stark was a huge JC fan, as still is the painter, Joe Bell; and as many thinking people still are.
We made no or minimal deal about it at the time, and it still doesn't feel great to talk about it, but
