MARCH BLAHG but I was fishing when I should have sent it out, so this goes out in April
They're dead trout, killed either by ospreys or eagles. These were big ones, around 19-22 inches, going by the size of their heads. Where I fish the trout predators are ospreys, eagles, pelicans, muskrats, and river otters. I've seen pelicans eat three trout in one minute. Big white wild pelicans with orange beaks and all.
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Most of you know that this is not the case. ChatGPT's explanation of "John's Irish Strap" --
Yes, loop it around water bottles to secure them to part of the frame or a rack. We don't hold notfine.com responsible for this inanity. We know those guys and are confident that they use John's Irish Straps the same way we do.
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This is all about Greenland, in song;
it is worth four minutes.
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Everything IS computer?
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We are the customer and we don't worry about SRAM copying it, because SRAM hates front derailers; and Shimano's not going to copy even God, and there aren't a whole lot of specs on this drawing...and it's missing all the other pieces that go into a front derailer. So "confidential" just adds an element of fun.
The whole point is, we're finalizing the cage shape and details on a component that few riders think about at all, fewer than ever are thinking about these days, but we're obsessed with--not because we're obsessive by nature, but because we're not thrilled with today's front derailers having to be indexable, which changes for the worse some other details about them. And indexable front derailers are worse with friction (although they still work fine), and all of the ones still being made are rather ugly. Plus most front derailers on "good bikes" are electronic and sell for $250. Our new SILVER one will go for $55 or so after tariffs. We hope to have it in September.
So we've been working on what we consider to be an ideal front derailer for front friction shifting, and compatible with normal chainrings and small big rings down to 31t, and frames with lots of bb drop. This one is optimized, like no others are, with shallowish angles between the chainstay and the seat tube. SHimano used to make those, but hasn't now for several years, because so many bikes re 1x styles without front derailers, and then most bikes have steep seat tube angles , for reasons so fishy that if I explained to you what they were, you'd be so mad that you'd be in jail in a few days.
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We're getting new bags for both the Mark's Rack and the NITTO RBW51. Details are being worked out, but it'll hold an 8 1/2 x 11 notebook (sorry, A4 fans!), and should be nearly perfect for those racks; if not absolutely.
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building a better moustrap, literally
Stories like this fascinate me. I don't dwell on them, but they make my life better.
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This tire clearance photo is a good example of why normal bicycles should copy pro bikes.
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This is a real note that came to light (to be read) in late Feb. It was found near a dead body. It isn't a suicide note, and how I came to read it doesn't matter. Let's just say I'm an all-rounder.
It may be significant or maybe not, that was, in fact, an elderly gay man. The last sentence suggested to me that he was referring to the courage it took for him to either be closeted or to come out. I'm not saying that's what he meant by it, only that that's what I "got out of it."
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Mississippi good news:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9ER4Kv3PGo
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After 25+ years it was bound to land this way. The first time I ever pitched a penny I got a leaner. It was...about 1962. Not that it made an impression on me. The buddy I was competing with went nuts. I got only one other leaner, ever. It's been a while.
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How the mighty have fallen? This is a modern Cinelli on the streets of Philadelphia. If it were a Cinelli from the '60s or '70s and was modified like this, I'd probably think cool, that rider is keeping a nice old bike in circulation and doesn't give a hoot. But the funky framed and decaled Cinelli kind of shames the whole thing. I know the parts & makeover seem more appropriate to a somewhat funky frame than to a finer one, and now I'm talking myself into respecting this one a lot more. Rah-rah! The worst part of this is the change to the decal.
At the Dollar General up in Fall River Mills, CA, they have these pool noodles on sale for $0.99 each. Although I personally damn to hell the damn foam and all of them, I am a fan of pool noodles for their help in resurrecting (or sag preventing) Brooks saddles, and protecting frame tubes in shipping. Keep a pool noodle around, it'll come in handy eventually.
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How to make a light-cheap-effect Lifter. It's easy, and with about 40-inches of cotton bar tape. Probably 30-inches will do in a pinch/on a budget. There are INNMERABLE alternative methods to do the same thing, the clever among you should give it your best shot...but in the down & dirty department, it's hard to beat bar tape.
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This may or may not be me being lazy. A reprint of Rivendell Reader #41 which may have made it here before, but for reasons not worth going into now, it "rose to the surface" again, and on a recent morning I was reading it, and I thought, hey, not bad. I'd forgotten all about Chandlers. So here you can read about Chandlers, and it it probably the only opportunity you'll get in your life to do that. Other things, too. Continued thanks to Reed and Eric for posting links to this and other Riv publications, representing, no exaggerration, thousands of hours of work. More here.
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Early news on the SILVER V-brake: It's going to cost more than I thought, and I'm bummed. I think we'll still do it, because I'll regret it if we don't, but it's still a blow. High development costs, high tooling, high minimums, high prices. The big companies won't do it because they're all disc. The small companies like us won't, because they're mostly disc and can't affort it and may not know how to go about developing it, and all the details, and we've already had a few years into this and several prototypes. However it comes out and whatever it costs, it will be a really good brake with a unique and super helpful feature that no other V-brake has. When you open it up, the brake pads don't bonk the frame and prevent you from mounting or removing a fat tire.
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SILVER 4 Crank update:
The design is 99 percent there and being FEA tested. FEA = Finite Element Analysis. It's a computerized durability evaluation of a structure based on the mechanical properties of its material, it's shape (design), and the predicted stresses it will incur. It highlights the weak spots to tell you where to change the contour or add material. In general, "changing the contour" is a classier first step, but sometimes adding material can be more...trustworthy, because in an FEW analysis, the stresses are guesses. They're "smart people guesses," but still guesses. At Bstone, the engineers told me, "FEA is a good start, but actual testing is better," so Bstone developed and actually themselves made testing machines that came closer to simulating the stresses a human would impose. Things can pass the FEA but fail in real life. Still, here it is, and yes, we're going to address it and make the whole thing blue or green.
Moneywise, we didn't have a GREAT first quarter. The Appaloosas were paid off five months before we got them in, using line of credit money, and we've had tooling expenses for the front derailer, some shifters, and we're getting in a ton of 11x38 Microshift 9speed cassettes (minimum order quantity, 500), but in the long run it'll all help. Developing anything is a money pit, but the mainstream menu is dwindling so fast that we have to get our own sources.
I wonder---this isn't the plan and never has been--but I wonder if we'll end up with a nice-looking, nice-working all mechanical SILVER group that some small builder might want to put on their bikes, so they didn't have to electronify or go all black.
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Tech's job is to make bikes mysterious, to make it harder to tell how they function by looking, and to make it easier to replace parts than to repair them. People LOVE mystery and are willing to pay for it.
This bike is a few years old. Must click on it.
Below is a fresh one.
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