NOV BLAHG

A customer came by and we started talking and he owns five or six bike shops in NYC and has a penchant for getting kids, especially poor kids, on bikes. Not a bad penchant, as things like that go, and he was talking about something that I think about, which is expensive kids bikes that only rich kids can afford, and it's fine that they (or parents) can pay for them, but they're out of reach for normal-to-poor kids, and kids aren't yet cool enough, like many adults are, to like ride (one of many examples I can think of) a steel standard mechanical bike in the carbon age. So expensive kids bikes, as well-intended as they may be, seem to divide the classes more, and this is what this guy was saying. He said, 'These parents aren't going to spend $200 on a first two-wheeler." So he was and is a fan of Kent bicycles, a North Carolina company that imports bikes and parts from China, and does some kind of assembly in N.C. He would like to work with (not for, with) Kent on a killer good cheap kids bike or bikes, with 12-16-20-24-26-inch wheels, maybe 700c or heck even 650B for bigger kids and adults. 

The talk led me to the Kent site, and I bought a 26-inch mountainish city bike with a triple up front and a 13-28 cluster in back, for $159 DELIVERED. The listed weight was 40lb, but if you throw out the box and packing, it plummets to 30/31lb, which -- don't do yourself any favors, Kent, but what are you doing weighing the box, too?

We got it, rode it, I "tested" it below, we modified it with new bars stem a nd shifters that cost more than the whole bike, and tested it again...and one of these days we'll give it to a downtowner with a way worse bike or none. Meanwhile, see how it compares with a normal Riv. I'm not saying the test is even interesting, but then again, it's "kinda fun" in its own way. The "typical" RIV in the test, which I explain below. The RIV bike is a 3x1 Platypus, with 52mm tires, but keep in mind that on this same bike I have some of my fastest times on the same course. I list my typical time, because I gave the two Kents only one try, so it doesn't seem fair to list my fastest (3:50). On a lighter RIV with much lighter wheels, my fastest time is 3:52. I am not concluding anything from this, but I have my theories.

First, the bicycles:

===

======

Test, as it was.

 FOR ME, AT LEASET FOR THIS CRUMMY AND UNSCIENTIFIC TRIAL, THAT ERGONOMICS ARE MORE. IMPORTANT THAN  WEIGHT. THE  STOCK KENT WEIGHED 33LBS. WITH A LIGHT LOAD. THE NEW KENT WEIGHT ABOUT A POUND LESS, AND ON MY LARGER RIVS I ALWAYS CARRY ABOUT 6 TO 8 LBS OF JUNK AND BAGS AND BASKETS, AND I RIDE HEAVY WHEELS, SO MY RIV-BIKES WEIGH ABOUT THE SAME, 30 TO 33LB. BUT I'M FAMILIAR WITH MY OWN BIKES, TOO.

===========

Roaring in delight on cue, or he just can't help it? It's no mathers. Decades ago, a good friend used to say, "It's no mathers" a lot, always instead of "no matter" or a variation of that. I asked him why, and he explained: "From Jerry Mathers...!" The Beav, in Leave it to Beaver. I've said "It's no mathers" dozens of times, but only to people who are familiar with that. Welcome to the inner circle.

Proof shows up at around 0:30 into this.

======

Praying Mantis on the building. Over the years these have been "recurring insects" here. It's no mathers.

=======

(photo of baseball glove or closeup of the wood of a bat?)

You don't have to like baseball to like reading this column about Shohei Otani.

=======

This reminds me of a younger me, uh-huh.

=====

29 minute video of the poorest place in the country, Pine Ridge, S.D., home of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, site of Wounded Knee, etc. We give $50 - $100 from every Appaloosa sale to the 

Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center (OLCJC)

https://www.lakotacjc.org/about-us

We just sent the OLCJC $8,000, and they're going on a shopping spree at Walmart for 118 kids.

  and you can learn more about the OLCJC in this 9 minute video here

The term and concept of "virtue signaling" does way more harm than good, because it makes it hard to promote (by modeling, at least) causes that are worth supporting without getting criticized. People who accuse others of vitue signaling love to punch UP and maybe it makes them feel fine for never giving anything. We're public with some-not-all of our charities because we want you to know what you're supporting when you get stuff here AND we want to influence other businesses to give more, and it's a business's responsibility to reach out some. EVERYBODY here is for it.

We give to a small number of charities (five or six), groups, one family, and a few individuals, and despite our contributions (roughly 1.75 percent of gross, pre-tax sales), we can do more good by encouraging you to give. THere's that $2 optional add-on when you're checking out. That goes to an unnamed family with a mother and three children. We recently sold (and still have some) fancy-good chopsticks, and the full retail price for those, combined with the $2 add-ons, paid for a $5,000 check to the mother in this family. We also send her $750 a month, and this year that $5,000 + $9,000 (12 x $750) + $2,000 (at the register contributions) = $16,000, which is way more than half of the family's income. 

There's an accidental red spot over the note, sorry.

I personally think God is being given a lot of credit here, but it's not a competition.

=========

LONG BIKE STUFF 

We got a sample bike made with a 55-inch wheelbase, a 77cm top tube, and the idea was to make a bike SOOOO long that it was stupid and weird to ride. It may not shock you to head that everybody who's ridden it loves it. So we didn't go extreme enough. We shalt not apologize or feel the tiniest smidgen of discomfort when when talking about our 49-inch (or whatever) CLEMs and Platypuses.

https://vimeo.com/1133286349?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

=====

The New York Times generally has super photo etc, but this one confused me. Maybe you can figure it out right off the bat. The top photo of the two below.

I had to look it up online to get a better feel.

I thought she was vaping, and thought why did that photo make the cut? My daughter said no, it's a trowel. OK, I see it now, but the cloud behind the metal cap and all made it look kind of like vapor. (Well, I guess the cloud is vapor...so I wasn't wrong there.) I know that's Malcom X on her shirt. I know he was born Malcom Little. I know he was buddies with Redd Foxx, the actor from the Sanford & Son tv show, and whose real name was John Sanford. 

=======

Here's some top secret correspondence out of context, but the people I'm sending it to are expecting something like this. The THING IS...much of the industry, most of the media, and all of SRAM, want to kill front derailers under the name of "simplicity." That's ironic and insane, because front derailers have a simple task, and they've worked well-to-perfectly since the early 1970s. "Improvements" have been the ramps and bumps, but those matter only with front indexing, and front indexing shouldn't even exist. On a two-chainring bike, the shift lever is essentially a light-switch. It's all the way up or all the way down. Add a third chainring, and you now have the measliest of challenges, and (I'm sorry, but...) if you can't find the middle of three rings, something's fishy. Maybe it's you, maybe it's the adjustment or set-up, but my point is that front derailers are easy to operate, and there's no reason to kill them off. They're the only way to get a big change in gearing so easily and quickly, and that comes up a lot. Shifting across three chainrings to make a dramatic difference (really low gear to really high gear) is like crossing a narrow creek in one or two big bounds. Shifting from really easy to really high with a single chainring and a ton of rear cogs with an indexed rear derailer is like crossing the creek in baby steps. With a friction shifter you can shift across the whole range in one swoop...but it's still super nice and often easier to shift in front. 

FRONT derailers have gotten really ugly in the past eight or nine years. More complicated, too, and they work great, but not because of the ugliness or complication.

=====

James saw this in the parking lot near here. Astronomists and bicycle riders will read it differently.

========

JUST when I've started to think I'll retire in five years or so (at which time I'll be 76), I see this story in the NYT. Some Bstone content.

=====

These came up when googling KENT, looking for the bicycles. 

======

pencil

less than a minute

pencil

======

I like dictionaries as much or more than the next guy, and use them to make sure I'm using a word correctly. Most words I have no doubt about, but "sheen" is not one of them, so I looked it up online, which is only about actually, scientifically, about 50x faster than finding it in a real dictionary, I'm ashamed to say. But the online dictionaries can also be more rewarding / enlightening / fun & hilarious.

Sheen may appear in our upcoming catalog, still TBD. But I looked it up to be sure that wasn't just a hillbilly version of shine or something, and it wasn't. Both dictionaries gave what I'd say are "unlikely" examples of correct usage. One from generic online dictionary, and a short list of examples found on the web from Merriam-Webster:

What's an "unmistakeable show-biz sheen figurative"? Except an expression I'll try to use a few times in the future. Imagine using it twice in a ten-minute conversation with somebody you've just met.

I am not poking fun at any of these. If humans selected these, GO HUMANS! If AI picked them, I'll cut it some slack here, maybe it's not so bad after all.

Related, sometimes I have wheelbuilder Rich proofread some things, and about 12 years ago, sorry, he read something I wrote and it had the word "jive" when it should have been "jibe" or (also correct) "gibe." He said, "You mean gibe, not jive." I hadn't given those words a lot of thought, but he was right. 

Today John sent me an internet copy of something I wrote in 2007 for Adventure Cycling, in which I used the wrong word:

Then there was this song, which 80 percent of you have never heard of, but the other 20 percent, here it is.

I didn't realize is was from 1958. The song was still around at least through the mid-'60s, but this is the only time I've seen people doing the actual. genuine hand-jive.

=====

========

I am in my "felt grip" phase of life, and I won't get out of it, and I wish I'd started it decades ago. Apparently not for everybody, vive la difference , say what you will etc, but for me but probably not Donald Trump, my ultimate lovely bicycle grip is below, and here's how I do it. I've not no emotional skin in this game, but seriously, come on.

The "no emotional skin in the game" comment is 80 percent true. Also/finally, twin instead of rubber bands works, but don't cover up too much of the luxurious-feeling, sweat-absorbing, cush-enhancing wool. The thing is, with stickum back, you won't need either twin or bands. They're just a fashion statement. 

YOU MUST be thinking they get soggy in the rain and stay that way for days, and what a sick joke this all is. They can get dank. That I concede. Soggy, NO. Cold when wet, No. And and aaaand...they're the cheapest elite-class grips you can buy, but you kind of half to make them. This came up today, because somebody with a build going on here requested Grant grips, and either I'll do them or, failing that, Mark or James or Antonio will, and I wanted to give them the recipe.

A more common--because it makes a less hippie presentation, is to use a layer of wool as a base layer, and wrap over it with cotton, and shellac that. We used to go that over plastic grips, but we're on a kind of "Plastic minimalizing" kick now, so we built up the diameter with wool.  It's all fine, but this will be an option. I'm ordering some pre-cut shapes so the builders don't have a craft project on their hands if or when somebody wants Grant grips. I don't like naming things after myself, but around here these have become "grant grips" without trying.

=====

I want to end this on another note. The political news is improving. I mean, in my opinion. Damage has been done, and I'm not just talking about the WH Rose Garden and the East Wing. 

======

Oh...we will eventually have yet another crank, and when we get cranks made, we first pay the maker for FEA analysis (finite element analysis, google it), and then when the material has been shifted around so it passes FEA, a mold is made and the forging is tested with physical tests. This is, or should be normal, but whether it is or not, we were wondering about a mid-1980s Campagnolo Nuovo Record crank, how that would fare. We're buying a used on in eBay, and maybe a used crank isn't an ideal test subject, but our crank maker can, submit the measurements and material to FEA at least, and then maybe do the physical test on it, and then we'll just see. 

Sorry as always for the long BLAHG, but the wool grips are a good idea. Not just another...how do I say this? --not just another "umistakeable showbiz sheen figurative."

One more look. Say good-bye to ulnar neuropathy, and say hello to happy hands. These are great for high-level competition on upright-bar gravel bikes. It FEELS orgaanically heavenly. We'll stock some padded tape just for this. You can request it on bikes. The mechanics won't be thrilled, but even the standar cotton-over-wool plus shellac and twine is kind of a hassle. These is only a little more work, and you'll probably love these grips, and that's what mathers.

G