Hey, look at that, you can pre-order an Appaloochy!
I have to say, they may project a folksy image over at Rivendell, but it’s kind of insidious how every one of their bikes is as good as the other in the sense that they’re all similarly versatile, and yet they’re just different enough that you want to have all of them.
Diabolical.
By the way, I’ll remind you as usual that Rivendell did not ask me to mention this presale. Also, they did not ask me to mention they’re going to be at the Philly Bike Expo this weekend:
For that matter, the Philly Bike Expo did not ask me to mention that the Philly Bike Expo is this weekend either. But I am anyway, because my own memories of the Philly Bike Expo are bittersweet. Mostly they’re sweet, because they used to invite me down to do little talks, and I’m proud to say I even spoke at the very first Expo back in 2010, when it was still in the armory:
Unfortunately, the bitter part happened in 2017, when they invited me to speak at the “Industry Party:”
I learned something very important that day, which is that when you give a talk and people come to your talk they want to hear you speak, but when people are having a party and you come to their party and you try to speak at their party, you’re basically just an asshole.
It was one of the more humbling experiences of my life, but I don’t regret it, because it’s the sort of thing that builds character. Hey, if you don’t feel like an asshole every now and again are you even trying? Sure, they haven’t invited me back since, but I had a good run. I even gave away my old crabon Tramac one year as a prize when I conducted a real-life quiz:
Ah, memories…
Anyway, to be honest, I’m more than happy to stay put and ride, especially now that signs of spring are emerging:
I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited to see things growing out of the ground–or to ride a relatively boring bike path for that matter:
This is the path that starts right out my back door, crosses into Westchester County, and takes me straight to all the good roads and trails north of the city without having to deal with any motor vehicle traffic along the way. How many people who live in New York City can say that? (Well, probably at least 100,000, which is roughly the number of people who live in the immediate vicinity of this path.) However, the county does not clear this path, so as soon as it snows it goes offline and that’s that until the thaw. This means I’ve got to ride through downtown Yonkers instead, and while that’s fine it’s not exactly inspiring. I mean you’d rather ride on the path above than behind this, right?
Sure you would. It’s like the difference between needing to use a shared bathroom down the hall or having your very own en suite salle de bain. Easy access to good riding is the main reason I live where I do, and so it feels very good to finally have my path back…even if things do sometimes get a little weird there:
The other path upon which I rely heavily is the Old Croton Aqueduct, which is directly adjacent, and reconnaissance indicates we’re well on the way to full rideability:
Yes, we did get a little snow again yesterday, but I’m choosing to believe that it’s merely a dead cat bounce and that the bottom has officially fallen out of winter.
By the way, one or two of you lamented my choice of tire for this bike. Hey, if the bike’s spending lots of time on the road, why not use road tires? And what, you don’t think I have knobby tires for it? Oh, I’ve got knobby tires for it all right:
Put that on your shoulder and portage it.
Meanwhile, in pro cycling news, people are very excited about Jonas Vingegaard’s tights:
Which were custom curated by a teammate who David Lee Rothified them by cutting out the crotch:
The now viral extra-long tights, Visma revealed later, were worn over another base pair of bib tights, their chamois surgically removed and waist cut by Vingegaard’s teammate Victor Campenaerts, to ensure the team leader wasn’t floating several centimetres above his saddle.
The plan was to have them ripped off by two teammates later in the stage, so Vingegaard could remove the rest of the tights as if they were a pair of legwarmers. But the chaos inflicted in the crosswinds meant that opportunity never arose, spawning arguably the most iconic moment of the 2026 season so far.
In other words, the idea was to do this:
Hey, Vingegaard looks pretty good, but he’s no Bret:
Don’t know who Bret is? Just ask the AI!
Ooh, a “satirical archetype!” I like that.
I also look forward to the new line of crotchless cycling gear, coming soon from Pas Normal Studios.