July BLAHG
That's part of what might be a final new derailer. It's working fine. More later.
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LA Times link:
Ring Theory (what not to say and to whom)
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Platypus was an animal before it was a bicycle, and we donate $50 of each Platypus sale (bike or frame) to these guys. It's a good group, they do remarkable work, and the platypus deserves it. We can't just sell the Platypus bicycles without now and then acknowledging the animal.
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Here's a little booklet that'll come with the OM-1 derailer:
The Q/R code isn't active yet.
The more info link isn't ready yet, either.
The layout and clever graphics ('60s-style) are all Olivier Chetelat. Any typos are mine--like the lower case Lower on p.12 It's sized to fit into the box the OM-1 will come in. Will and I go to Taiwan and Japan June 8-15 and will come back with some of the latest and super-near-final versions, and will show them here then.
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Oh, my:
If you don't see parallel stories of technology influencing all human recreational activities, you must be ... I don't know.
So what can anybody do about it, and is it even worth trying? The thing IS, technology isn't bad inandofitselfetc. See?:
The 17th century...that's like, Shakespeare's time. The first slave ship, interestingly named The White Lion, brought the first Africans to Virginia. That's when some people made Harvard. Some other people developed the telescope and microscope and the cuckoo clock. So it makes sense that the word "technology" would have come out of that time, too. So..what's "high technology"? For the record, it's kind of what we all think it is. Fancier:
So it's "especially" electronics, and this is the kind of technology that's taking over bicycle riding, mountain climbing, etc. If you need an electronic derailer to shift gears, that is fine. Sad, but fine. The problem is that electronic derailers won't coexist with mechanical ones. They'll wipe them out, that same way electronic things always wipe out mechanical things.
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I don't understand these topics as clickbait or whatever.
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Old Riv video from 2010, with Vaughn on a Legolas, filmed by Jay. Would it have been better with a fancier camera? It would have been fine, but worse.
And THIS Hunqapillar video, a selfie video by Jay with the first ever $99 video camera, the first and lowest-tech version.
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I hope you can open this. It's a story in The Atlantic about how kids don't ride bicycles much anymore, for the most part, at least not the way they used to.
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Yeah, well...statistically it's not so far out there. This is in the Silicon Valley area.
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At a trailhead. The R was already missing, I rock-erased the U. Not proud of it, but it's an improvement.
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I don't know how derailers that look like this can survive, ignoring even the price and electronicness of them, and considering only that they don't HAVE to look like this to work, and that somebody. intentionally made them look like this.
Our new-coming SILVER OM-1 rear derailer isn't the aesthetic King's bee's knees, but it looks better (or at least different) because the contours were influence by humans more than by computer software. No doubt some computers were involved, but they were human-guided, so you get the nice curves and a fluid look that the moderns totally lack. They don't have any of it. The silver color isn't intended as a "throwback" or anything; it just shows off the metal, and the finish is nice, too.
If the only way we could get an OM/RapidRise style action was to have it be super ugly and not even metal, I'd do that in a second...but I'm glad it didn't come to that. AND, not that weight matters tons to us here, but it'll weigh 215g, which is about 0.6 ounces more than the derailer Eddy Merckx rode his whole career.
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Kind of personal, kind of not. I'd rather not put this here, but I'm striking out on my own, so might need help:
An old friend, Larry Horton, has or had a business in Albuquerque: Future Medicine Now. The site is up, his partner and he are shown, there's an address and tele # (this requires more digging), but the USPS keeps returning my letters, and I have something to send and say.
The 2616 address in Mesilla NE doesn't work. The 505...681 telephone, also no worko. He knows me because he started Rivendell MOUNTAIN WORKS in 1971 or something, and for several years there, I got a lot of stuff from him. He was a huge influence, and I just want to say thanks and hi howya doin'?
I don't want him to feel pursued. I don't want YOU to pursue him on my behalf. If you life in Albuquerque and can get over to 2616 Mesilla NE and see if there's a Suite No. or something that I'm missing (and the mail carrier can't figure out), then I'd like to know that. I don't want you to find him and say I'm desperate to locate him. I respect his privacy, and I don't know what his life is like. I simply would like a legit address or tele #. If you're local and it's easy. Thanks, and email me with info you can find out because you're local and I'm not.
UPDATE: FOUND!
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By now some of you may know that I'm on yet another (not-frequent-enough) fishing trip. Sorry if you can't relate, but it's something that's been dear to me since I was ten, and I did a ton of till I was about 24 or 25, and have just getting back into for the last couple of years, largely thanks to a crew here who can keep it all rolling without me. I'm as involved as ever, we have tons of neat stuff in the works, I LOVE my work more than ever, but the trout calls. Or "the trout call," depending. I even like "the trouts call." That's all.
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Random photos from Japan trip and other, maybe you've seen some:
A Blue Lugger's Homer.
Dog with lug bandana.
That t-shirt will mean something to some of you. Don't feel bad if it doesn't. And another lug bandana.
STILL working on the V-brake. It has been, continues to be.."frustrating," but we recently got some super duper news, and a year from now I believe we'll have one with a feature that all V-brakes would benefit by, but none have now. Is that a sentence?
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All back issues of the Rivendell Reader and other propaganda can be found here"
https://notfine.com/rivreader/RR-index.pdf
and there is, actually, some good reading. Many thanks to Reed Idylwild for posting them. Reed, contact me. Expect something between barely something and decent.
If you're curious, just check out RR's 43, 44, 31, 27...to start.
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Here's a river, from a recent fishing trip. This is why I like rivers, and it's why--keep an eye out for a RIVER FAN CLUB patch, hat, etc. Who cannot love a river?
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This next part won't be worth the time it takes to read it, I promise.
Part 1: I've been riding in baggies 99 percent of the time for the last year, I don't know why, except that they always work. But consequently, I've lost my leg-tan.
Part 2. On a recent (early July) friday afternoon I was at the register in Trader Joe's, and the checker asked, "So...big plans for the weekend?" I said, "Well, as a matter of fact, I'm going to ride my bicycle tomorrow and I'll work on my leg tan."
Part 3. He responded "Tell me about it! My legs look like glue-sticks!" I'd never before heard of whitish legs being compared to glue sticks, and for the record, mine at their whitist don't get that white...but that analogy made my day. I'm just paying it forward.
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Customer Greg S. sent this image of a superb mailbox in Bethel, NC.
I've seen less creative-artistic mailboxes.
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Tokyo bike company has some good bikes for little kids. I'll get my granddaughter one when the time's right.
Quill stems, normal stuff.
Their adult bikes are not bad, either. I don't know how they compare, spec-by-spec with the equivalent dollar Specialized or Trek or Giant bikes, but they're more low-key in their vibe and graphics, and maybe you think that doesn't matter, and maybe on some level it doesn't, but on another level it just makes them easier to buy without feeling suckered into it.
I'd recommend one to a neighbor who hoped to ride a few times a week from A to B. Quill stems!
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