May BLAHG
This is not real, I'd never do that, I wouldn't come within a light year of this cheesy hokey gross stuff. It was an advertisement in NYT online. Pirates and AI, I don't know, but my publisher had no hand in it, and that's jus the way things go.
No no no.
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My wife was organizing some stuff and came upon this, from the industry's trade magazine.
It feels a little creep or slimy to post this kind of thing, and also makes me feel older, but there it is, despite alla that.
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In more egotistical news, we've been spiffing up the showroom, which has always been a rough-hewn affair, with more photos and other artwork (paintings, etchings, cyano--somethings) in a try to make it more interesting to significant others who get dragged over here with their bike-person partners. At some point we'll show it.
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We'll soon have NOPFAS pants, shorts, baggies (knickers). Like the others, but this time with fabric that's PFAS-free. PFAS = polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalky stuff they put into fabrics and lots of plastics (google it), and it doesn't break down, it gets into ocean shrimp, foods, more. Wearing it doesn't hurt you, at least there's no hard evidence that it does, but manufacturing it hurts the environment, and so it's being banned in many states. In clothing, it contributes to waterproofing and stain resistance. Gore-Tex has used it forever, but is not "exploring alternatives." Any DWR fabric--durable water-repellant) has it. That's where we've been coming in. We didn't know, and there weren't any options, at least not in synthetics that we've spec'd for our pants.
Anyway, the new MUSA label is:
Patagonia now has clothing with what they say has "no intentionally added PFAS." They do in-house testing, we don't. Our new fabric is US-made by a mill that's been "PFAS-free since 2023." That may mean "no intentionally added PFAS," too. We just don't know.
It's also the biggest fabric maker in the country, so -- you'd expect them to be the biggest PFAS users and the loudest squawkers about anti-PFAS environmental laws, but no.
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Here's a story...
Ck to see if link works.
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It would be exaggerating to say that the wool grip phenomenon is a phenomenon, but those who've used them keep them on and tend to love them. They're too hippie for a lot of riders, and I will stick my neck out and say there's an undercurrent of bias against them based on human nature making us root for the good guy (100 percent wool) but put our money down on the bad guy (synthetics).
Still, we sold out and got in more. On this second order, I also ordered a few one notch (1/8-inch, I thought) thicker. Maybe my fractions were off, maybe I was just insane, but they came in and are too thick to wrap, so it's "make lemonade" time, and we'd like some help. Already, here, we've come up with alternative uses for 3/8" thick, dense, 100 percent wool felt with an adhesive back. They're in 4" x 5" squares.
Before it's too late to bring this up, I should say that James here, who has been shopping for a vaccuum cleaner, mentioned that on the Dyson site, the son of the founder and now apparently the boss, takes us on a video tour of Dyson's Singapore factory. It's extremely deluxe, almost beyond words, and Dyson points out the sound-insulating wool felt panels, without which it would probably be hell to work there.
We thought of our own uses, and before criticizing them, remember that you can shape them and place them edge-to-edge or on top of one another. Or cut out little sections, depending on the use. We can't teach creativity...you'll figure out something, probably better than these, or at least as good:
Insoles and shoe-lifts if your shoes are too big in the first place.
No-Markem soles to convert outdoor shoes to soft-soled slippers.
Helmet fitting pads. Should be easy on skin and super absorbent.
Cut a strip and lay it on top of a handlebar (no wrap), and it's fun to grab, feels good, and on the top of the drops on a drop bar, it gives you a higher grip. No need to wrap over it.
Put it on top of a floor pump handle.
Chainstay protector.
IN ADDITION and due to never taking our thinking caps off, we had another idea for a super superb for wool felt: Anti-thorn/anti-pinch flat tire liners. We can GET the wool in any thickness and density known to humankind, so we ordered up some samples in two widths for medium and wide tires) and a length long enough for a 700x60 wheel, cuttable to smaller if you ride 650B, 26-inch, etc.
We'll try them first, but since it's been a while since any of us have flatted....and since we can't count on mother nature to flat us on any given ride, we'll make a puncture board to run over...AND I'll sending some to a friend in Tucson, where thorns are all over are always puncturing tires. Most Tucsonians ride tubeless, but Friend knows some who don't, and he'll have them try them, too. There may be some unintended consequences of lining your tire with 1/8-inch felt, but we'll find that out.
I've thought about asking for volunteer testers, unpaid, but it wouldn't be valid testing unless you set up your own puncture board or know for sure where you can ride it and puncture.
Another bonus is the felt's pinch-flat prevention possibilities. If you know what a pinch flat is, you can see how they might prevent one, and tubeless goops don't do that; and neither to Mr. Tuffys. The thing is, testing for pinch flats is riskier, and we don't want to hurt you or get in trouble. I will personally test this myself. There's a way to to it without bashing into something hard.
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More "How the Mighty Have Fallen" images from the checkout line this month. Read everything on the covers:
and to celebrate her 50th Birthday:
It's all fine. As Bob Dylan said,
It's a wicked life, but what the hell, everybody's got to eat / And I'm just the same as anyone else when it comes to scratching for my needs.
We do what we can. This is what National Geographic and Time do when most people get their information online, and news six hours after it happens, it's made print irrelevant? I don't know, who knows what's going on and what's being discussed behind closed doors? (or more likely, on Zoom calls). Fifteen dollars each, for these. To get inside the minds of our canine companions, and to learn the power of Hello Kitty's cuteness and more about Hello Kitty's friends and family? Thirty dollars easy.
Sorry if you don't share my fascination with things like that--how magazines respond to cultural changes and competition.
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We are working on a day pack. My daughters and the millenials here tell me, "Nobody calls them that. It's just a backpack." I don't buy it. A day pack is a small-capactity (less than 1,700 cubic inches, 28 liters) pack intended for day hikes and commutes and school and light shopping.
for more on the fabric, read this thing from a tent maker. I've had a day pack made wit this since 1980, and the light-green tongues on many of our Sackville sacks are made of it.
https://www.davistent.com/sunforger-treated-canvas/
We don't expect to sell many, but they'll be good.
REVERSE NON-BONUS
A customer sent me a link to this BLAHG from 2023. If you weren't with us then, maybe you missed it. It's cheating to include a whole past Blahg as part of a new one, but...fine.
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PENCIL
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/nyregion/times-square-black-woman-statue.html
if that doesn't work:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/nyregion/times-square-black-woman-statue.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JE8.3u9i.7utThMDewJsp&smid=em-share
Oh well...I suspect neither will work, so by memory:
Irish (he's Black but lives in Ireland, so I'm not sure how to label him) sculpture. Thomas J. Price...he's famous in the sculpture world, has made hundreds of tons of sculptures--cast bronze mostly or maybe entirely, you can look him up...he made a giant statue of a (for lack of a better way to say it) generic, not famous, Black woman. It is in Times Square for a few more months, and some people hate it, others love it. One sub-subject brought up is that it is, for sure, a statue and not a monument, but some people are livid because they don't think there should be a monument of a generic Black women. They don't see it as art. Maybe in this case there's a fine line, I'm not the one to say, but it is (I'd say) a beautiful statue, the woman looks beautiful in her shape, expression, clothing, and stance...and yet it's really setting people off.
Oh, here, try this for sure. It's not the Times story, but you'll get the deal.
PENCIL
OK. In writing this I realized (and confirmed) that S C U L. P T U R E can refer to the person who make the thing, or the sculpted thing itself. That makes it unusual in the field of art or anything else. A painter paints, a flautist plays ye olde flute, and so on. On a related note, a cook cooks, but cooks cook. I'm tired.
G