JUNE BLAHG, a shortie
That's a prototype of a future SILVER front derailer.
We all know that at some level it's petty and even mean-spirited to harp on appearances. It shouldn't matter that the gamut of proportions, the lack of joint detail, the hidden mechanism, the needle saddle, the gratuitous hot pink-an attempt at looking both serious and light-hearted?—doesn't make up for anything, just adds to the bizarreness of it all. Everything above is extreme, including the bike-holder's monster calves.
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Dieter Rams is a famous industrial designer. If I have to say, "...a famous.." then how famous can he be? I've barely heard of him, but he came up in a discussion the other day and seemed interesting, and so...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams
In case you didn't read the whole page, here's a neat part of it:
No.5 is a bit boring for my taste. As a rough guideline, OK. But it could result in everything looking generic, and in a market flooded with clocks or shoes or packs or bicycles—in the words of my hillbilly friends, "that ain't no good." No. 10 treads similarly, but also is a step in the old right direction.
Everybody knows Braun, from something. I'm not a Braun-o-phile, but I think my electric razor is a Braun and it frankly sucks, but I imagine he just did the outside part.
will edit: Dieter Rams probably didn't have anything to do with this razor. He quit Braun in the late '90s after not getting along with the new CEO when they were acquired by Gillette. I know this because I just watched the documentary, I'm not a super fan or anything. Well, maybe a little now.
OK. Duly noted, thanks. This is a cra*py razor, anyway.-- Grant
It got great ratings, for what that's worth. I use a Harry's these days. I don't "swear by Harry's," but it shaves me OK-enough twice a week like clockwork. And I have a double-edged that a customer sent me years ago, and I use that, too, for variety. It, actually, shaves closer than the Harry's (or a modern Gillette). But I don't shoot for maximum closeness, I just shave enough to avoid the grizzled old man look.
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Snippet example of the state of cycling journalism and helpful tips today:
A big effort goes into advertiser-lurin', beggin', and pleasin'. The "seriously swaggy style" of the Shimano S-PHYRE SH-RC903W would be interesting on a T-shirt.
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Kurt Vonnegut, not to be confused with Richard Brautigan, said this:
I think everybody can relate to this. My circle of friends includes talented artists, usually of the struggling variety, but with some with some commercial success (sales of $2K to $7K per year) and recognition. Most have day jobs and other means of support, which is normal for most artists. This includes my two daughters, who don't sell anything and don't try, but are pretty good artists.
One of my artist friends who doesn't know me thru and thru recently asked me, during an art discussion, whether I did any kind of stuff like that, and I said that years ago when I had a nasty bout of meningitis, I painted some pictures, but I haven't had time for art for 35 or 40 years because the time I had gets automatically filled with other stuff, like pulling a needle out of a glass of water, and I also said I really liked my pictures, but they're all tucked away and wouldn't clear any art-bars anyway, but he wanted to see them, so I sent them, and there's no reason to be nervous about me showing them here, because I'm going to do that, like it or not, and I'm aware of their deficiencies and lack of detail and general simpleton qualities, but since fewer than seven people have ever seen them before and now I can have a showing with about a hundred, I'm going to take advantage of that. They're all inspired, naturally of course, by Bob Dylan lyrics.
from the BD song ISIS. It came before the terrorist group.The picture isn't perfect for the lyrics, just loose inspiration: We set out that night for the cold in the north/I gave him a blanket and he gave me his word; I said " He said we'd be back by the fourth/I said "That's the best news that I've ever heard." Whatever. Keep the Kurt Vonnegut observation in mind.
From the song, Abandoned Love. The lyric: The Spanish moon is rising on the hill.
I
From the song, Sara. The painting isn't "a superb match" for the lyrics, because I avoided painting people, and this is a night scene anyway, but: I can still see them playing with their pails in the sand, they run to the water, their buckets to fill/I can still see the the shells fallin' out of their hands, as they follow each other back up the hill.
and here's my Gran Turismo:
I was at my sickest doing this. I'd meant to do something with the left cement wall, but I was so happy with the rest of it that I was afraid I'd wreck it, so the plan was to wait. The lyric: And your sun-decked desert and evergreen valleys turn to broken-down slums and trashcan alleys. But instead of the desert, I drew a nice backyard with a tether-ball thing and a clothes line, backed by low mountains of trees/snow. Those other things are banana peels.
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But I like that Kurt Vonnegut quote. I wish I'd read it sixty years ago, but it is going to affect me going forward. The same sentiment has already affected by bicycle riding, photography, and fly fishing, but I'm going to expand it.
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If you don't subscribe or whatever it is to BSNYC (Bike Snob of New York City)'s daily posts, you must. BSNYC is Eben Weiss. He is smart, funny, and the best writer in bicycling today. I NEVER miss one, I practically require all Riv emps to read it. He has a Riv or two and shows them now and then, but that's not the deal or the point. He is the most insightful equipment commentator in the land, he isn't cheesy or stupid, and he comes up with stuff that should be interesting to any cyclist who looks slightly askance at the current culture. He needs to meet RR in person to understand him, and that day will come. But you gotta read his stuff.
https://bikesnobnyc.com/2026/06/25/connecting-the-dots/
In this one, be sure to read this Louis Vuitton stuff and click on the link. This is the way it's going, folks.
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PROGRESS REPORT ON THE UP&COMING SILVER4 CRANK
Review first: It has a different but pre-existing bolt patter than allows small chainrings down to 20t and middle and big rings to 28t. The plan is to offer it in two configs: A 41x31x21 triple, and and earth-shocking but smarter-than-many-may-realize 31x21 double. The smaller rings will allow a 21front x36rear combination to be the same low as a 24f x 42rear.
For all the stuff we source and sell or develop "ourselves" with the help of expert component makers--and often brand SILVER -- our No. 1 concern even before usefulness, is safety. We have not had a recall ever, we haven't hurt anybody through eagerness to impress with superlightness or a certain look that removes material from a place that needs it. Our parts are "practically light," and so our stems, handlebars, seat posts, and cranks are totally safe--when installed and snugged correctly, of course. Frames and forks--of course. Carbon parts continue to snap unexpectedly and hurt people, and the mfrs know it but are in too deep to change.
I'm not trying to be high&mighty here or trying to cast implicit aspersions on other parts, but there are many popular & admired parts out there that we won't go near.
Back to the Fourth Silver crank progress. A couple of BLAHGs ago we showed an computer-modeled Finite Element Analysis (FEW) report that showed some weak spots that needed beefing up, and today we got the report back on the newly beefed S4 crank, and it's much better, but the super conservative crank maker still has doubts. We just don't know how heavy you are and how you'll ride it, and so we're going to delay it all again and add more material, and this is just the way it goes, unapologetically. It'll still be lighter than many cranks, and it'll look better than any (subjective), and at some point we'll have it. For now, for those technically-minded nerdy-nerds among you, no shame in that, here it is.
No shame in not opening it, and I'm not going to explain the colors other than to say Green and Blue are best, Yellow is probably fine, Orange is iffy, Red must be addressed.
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JUNETEENTH DONATION REPORT
We announced that we'd donate 10 percent of Juneteeth sales to an "appropriate" charity or person. It ended up being a person, because the amount, while huge for an individual, wouldn't have been as impressive to an established charity. The individual is a college student who has overcome a lot in her life, is super sharp in math and holds a record in one of the field events--either discuss or hammer -- but despite attending a small local pvt college--well, maybe because of it, too -- is suffering enough financially to make it hard to concentrate on her classes. I met her thru Pal Jeff, and she's not asked for anything, but blah blah--she needs it, so we sent her $1,300. A bit more than ten percent of the day's sale...but thanks to all.
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We are MOVING toward organic cotton, and it is nearly impossible and impractical to organic cotton pocket-t's made in the U.S., so we TOYING with the idea...well, at this stage it's more than TOYING, but nothing is just around the corner...of getting some made in a place that is super serious about organic cotton, grows more of it than any other country in the word, and so on. But MUSA as a brand won't work then, so this is the front-runner.
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I am also, naively, thinking a lot about helmets and the CPSC's tests that, believe it or not, are focused on skull saving more than on brain saving. I am mad about the whole helmet shit-sh*w. These guys and a few others have shock-absoption materials that work way better. I've been buyin headbands and other things related to brain-saving, and I'm hoping one of these places will make a bike helmet, but until CPSC changes the requirements IN FAVOR of the brain, nobody can make a good helmet.