BLAHG 3 LATE March 2025
It's a photo I took of my granddaughter, soon to star in an Ingrid Bergman, Ingmar Bergman, or Edgar Bergen film. One percent will wonder, so: Olympus OM-1, 50mm, HP-5. I was sitting down on a beach and she was walking toward me. This whatchoo lookin' at? look is uncharacteristic of her
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News from the high-tech end of the spectrum...which comprises about 80 percent of the visible spectrum, at least:
BMC (Buy More Carbon) recall:
It's barely news, and recalls are ongoing. Something to know about recalls, at least in the U.S. -- The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) allow a company the dignity of a "voluntary recall" before they force a recall. This makes the company look proactive, responsible. But It's kind of like allowing the voluntary recall at gunpoint. It's "a few" now, but how will the others fare over the years? And when a fork fails, you're going to hit hard and instantly, and the result won't be pretty and may last a lifetime. STEEL can fail, but not like this. A intact bad steel bike from 1950 is safer than a new carbon bike from 2025.
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This is the blandness of digital bike racing photos.
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We're getting some postcards. I know--who has stamps? We do! We're not selling these, we're going to use them, now and then. It's letterpress on both sides. sadsackpress in Chicago, a guy named Dan at sadsackpress.
He also did our owners cards.
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This is from a regular, unusual section of the NYT. It's not earth-shattering, but it's BLAHG-worth, a low bar:
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Wonder Bread commercial. I remember this from when I was a tiny kid. Commercials lied a lot to us back then. It's only a minute. You won't get a lot out of it, just like you don't get a lot out of Wonder Bread. I liked the packaging, though.
It's white bread with dough conditioners, an unhealthy sandwich handle. Sorry. I have these fascinations I can't shake. More to be pitied than censured, as a poem from my youth used to say. We had a fat poetry book and my dad and I used to pick out poems and read them. In 4th grade we had to memorize and recite a poem in front of the class. I asked my dad to help me pick one, and he suggested this.
It was the longest poem in the class (most were four lines). Irecited it perfectly, and the teacher scolded me for its subject matter. I can see how that affected who I am today. Not in a bad way. I thought the teacher was stupid. I never thought ALL teachers were. My dad explained to me what "loathe" and "abominate" meant, and I forgot to ask him what a garret window was, and to this day I'm not sure, and it makes me uneasy whenever I come to that part. Yes, I've recited this to myself a hundred times, no reason. I also remember thinking, as I still do, that "pass" in the last line could have been "give" or "feed." It's not like people say, "Hey, pass me that pie" a lot.
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Tenplus years ago we tried to get this kid-bicycle made, we got three prototypes, it was all lugged, and it was going cost 90 percent as much as a papabear and mamabear bicycle, so that died on the vine. We have two of them here, I’ve shown them in the past five months, and here’s the latest. This was the ORIGINAL “ROSCO BUBBE,” and we had decals and head badges that we’ve since used for ultra limited edition somewhat experimental models. Now it’s back to its original purpose. With mfring costs about 90 percent less in China than in Taiwan, that’s where it’s coming from. A Riv dealer in China is a super cool guy, knows tons about our bikes, has a 5-year old littlebear, and is really smart and a good communicator and is well-connected with the bicycle manufacturing scene over there. This is a 20-inch wheel bike. Theoretically convertible to a geared bike, but it’ll come as a single speed with coaster brake. All CrMo steel. Not trying to make a Richie Rich bicycle. Trying to keep it “Riv-normal,” as you can see. Quill stem and all. Destined to hand down.
Complete bikes and frames. bikes wil have alum rims, stem, bars, seat post. You can get a 7sp 20” wheel mtb at Target for $200, and li’l bear might like that more, but li’l bear will learn that sometimes s/he has to struggle up a hill now and then. Price: TBD, but we will not make a profit on them. We want them to be affordable. We might have some pricing trickery, not for sure.
WHEN is an excellent question, thanks for asking. Hoping for March 2026.
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CRANK LENGTH (this is long and not great or fascinating, feel free to skip)
About seven years ago there were studies of some kind that "proved" that longer legs deserved and did better with longer cranks, no shock there, but the point made (a logical one) was that long-legged riders rode disproportionately shorter cranks than normal-legged riders. Like, normal is 170mm / 66.9 inches---good for let's say PBH of 77 (30.3-in.) to 89cm (35-in)---a diff of 4.7 inches. But if you're like 6-4 with long legs, your legs (let's say Pubic Bone Height 94cm (37-in) your legs are 4.7-inches longer, but the usually-recommended 175cm cranks are only 1.96 inches longer. So it seems the long legged guy'd be getting rooked, twirling the pedals like on one of those under-the-desk exerciser toys they sell on late-night TV, or used to.
So almost overnight crank makers started making cranks up to 220mm. We didn't go that far, because unless the bike was designed with t hose in mind, you'd strike pedals on mild parking lot speed bumps. We went to 182mm (and also 178mm). These made sense to me and still do. The ergonomic arguments AGAINST long cranks are that they wreck your knees because your knees bend more coming over the top. Maybe and maybe not. The longer your legs and the higher your saddle, the less the bend. PLUS, if that was a big problem, there would be no such thing as squats, and people have been squatting since before there were chairs.
Generalizations can't account for every case. If you've shot your joints doing moguls on the slopes or in an industrial accident, riding a bicycle may be one of the softest exercises on those joints, but it can't cure them, and cranking up steep hills might hurt them more, and longer cranks might make it worse. But for reasonably healthy knees...no problem. Proportionately, a rider with a PBH of 77 riding on 170s MUST have more bend in the knee at the top of the circle than a rider with a PBH of 92 riding on 175s. So, I'm thinking, if 175s are dangerous to longlegs, then 170s must be more dangerous to short legs, and if that was all happening, we'd have found out about it by now. Not just we-Rivendell; I mean we-the World. Because "long cranks" that are only about 0.4-inch longer than short 165s, have been popular for 75 years or so, and tons of riders have used 180s and 185s, even. About ten years ago cranks up to 220mm were the range. Probably not a lot of 220s were sold (they weren't widely available, so they couldn't have been), but the same maker made 190s and a few sizes between that and the 220s.
The current major switcheroo to SHORT CRANKS (165mm 6.5-in. and shorter) isn't automatically smart or advisable in all conditions and for all riders. It used to be that some speciality makers made 155mm cranks for kids and truly short-legged riders, and 165s were for track racing (less pedal strike on steeply banked tracks), but now "everybody" is moving to 165s and shorter for normal riding, and even long-legged riders are doing it. I may go to med school later in life, but so far I'm not a doctor of ergonomics and muscles and joints...but see if this makes sense:
Pro racers generally twirl cranks around at 90+ rpms most of the time. Up hills they're slower, but most of the time, yes, their feet move faster circles than yours, because fast rpms make incremental changes in effort easier, and in a race that matters. In a sprint they might twirl at 125rpm. When you're not racing, it doesn't matter AT ALL. And NOT IN A RACE slower pedaling may feel better. If you get up to 110rpm or faster on a recreational ride, I've got to ask: What the heck are you doing, man? Calm down. My comfort zone, my plush, happy, heavenly cadence comfort zone, it feels so natural that in the immortal words of Debbie Boone, "it can't be wrong, if it feels so right," is...mid 60s. Say, 16 rpms every 15 seconds. Was that a Debbie Boone song?
High RPM riders can benefit from shorter cranks, because leverage isn't a factor at high rpms, and shorter cranks allow a faster cadence. Fast riding becomes a matter of twirling low-resistance gears as fast quickly as possible. The 5mm difference between a "normal" 170mm crank and a 165mm crank is less than the width of a garden variety pencil. The diameter of the circle is 10mm smaller with the 165s, and it's still not huge, but in fast pedal-twirl scenarios, it's an advantage. We're so used to being told to copy pro racers that we actually think we should. Joey Chestnut is a pro, too--would you copy him? I'm not saying pros are doing anything wrong for racing, I'm just saying racing is extreme, and what works for extreme doesn't always work for normal, and...normal is usually more useful than extreme, and more fun, too. Look at the shoe-pedal-drug-carbon-gearing situation.
It comes down partly to why you ride. Maybe you don't commute or shop by bike. Maybe you ride only gloriously photogenic roads and trails. Maybe your bike is your car. The likely common thread here is that you want your pedaling to give you stronger legs, or at least slow down your muscle atrophy. That comes with more resistance. Feel the outside of your quads when you twirl, and compare that with when you pedal more slowly, with higher stress. Try it when you're super-grunting.
Pedaling a bicycle is an opportunity to strengthen muscles or maintain their strength. In any gear and at any cadence, shorter cranks make pedaling harder, so theoretically they work out our muscles more. But not if you twirl them around fast with little resistance. A normal-length crank or a longer crank makes more sense at normal pedal cadences below 90rpm, and even more as you pedal in the 50-to-75 rpm range.
Do whatever you like, experiment, have fun, the prizes and the penalties are small either way. You might not be able to tell the 5mm difference.
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From my INBOX: The Mayo Clinic is getting all huggy. It's fine, I mean...open minds and all, new blood there, changing with the times...progress, etc. But still a little disconcerting. I mean, we're talking about the MC:
I am not against holistic health. It just seems like a desperate effort to expand the fan base. It's kind of like Time Magazine has seen better days, so is now all special issues about celebrities, mostly pop stars. Celebrity and shock sell. On the celebrity side of things, I consider myself almost a Swifty. My daughters and lots of their smart friends like Taylor Swift, and I like that she writes her own songs and treats her people and roadies extremely well, and is strong and doesn't let the bad recording people or whoever push her around. They still know more Bob Dylan songs and lyrics than any of their friends, and sometimes I'm shocked when they use a line in conversation or something. Then I say, "I can't believe you know that," and they'll say, "What house do you think I grew up in?" The first day each of my daughters came home from the hospital, and my granddaughter too, I made sure this was the first song they heard.
They are both far more normal than I am.
But Time magazine has seen better days. I wonder if Rivendell will ever have "seen better days." Not on my watch, and not on Will's. If somebody ever buys us (not in the works), I can, as part of the deal, write in some non-violable absolutes, like
never carbon, no discs, no electronics, no motors, only steel, mostly lugged, quick-release wheels, no suspension, no sponsorships or celebrity endorsements, no "very" in anything in print, no criticizing any other bicycle person by name, no clipless pedals, no CO2 cartridges, no tires smaller than 32mm, a certain amount donated to charities and individuals every years, certain compensation packages for employees, whatever else. Those are examples. I'm not signing off on them now, but if I had to I would.
That would thin the pool of potential buyers, maybe down to zero.
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I see ads for things that are "reimagined." You do too, but my problem is that they stick with me. Nothing "reimagined" is as good as the original. But we sure have lots of reimagined bicycle parts coming at us every day.
We will never do this:
RIVENDELL in 2045: Bicycles. Reimagined. (or Bicycles. Re: Imagined)
Aiye chihuahua.
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My new favorite cartoonist, Lindsey Budde.
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This song from 1969 is good for 2025, too. It's not a Bob Dylan song, but it's still OK.
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Another cartoon from the fertile and fantastic mind of Lindsey Budde:
To appreciate this it helps to have been a kid in the '60s thru the mid-'70s, when adults in advertising or recipe people, and maybe foodies in general, referred to the edible insides of nuts as "nutmeats." I remember being aghast at that.
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Inbox Blues:
Bespoke Pulse Pattern? You get to design your own pulse pattern, or have a unique one designed for you? I'd like my name in Morse Code.
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RESULTS FROM THE ANAGRAM POSTCARD SCAM CHALLENGE FROM THE LAST BLAHG. THANK YOU TO ALL PARTICIPANTS. We'll do something for you to compensate your for postage. Don't tell the others. MANY OF YOU missed the deadline by a week, but you got a one-time pass. We'll track everybody down and get you your prize, but it may take a week or two. Don't call, please!
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The YelloWolleY is kind of a street-only version of the Clem, intended for any road rides, commuting-shopping, and on like that. I've come around to yellow, under the influence of some of the guys here. It's a warm(darkish) yellow, and might get warmer between the prototypes we just received and the final.
We'll sell it ONLY as a whole bike, probably minus saddle. We're looking at every possible way to keep the cost down while keeping our standards—no out-of-character embarrassment here, thank you. The original plan was to tig-weld every joint, and not add any lug window details. Then Will insisted on the fancy seat lug and the head-tube-reinforcing "napkin rings," and then we got these samples in, and since we're used to cream-filled lugs and these were plain, it seemed unfinished. You could fill in the lugs yourself with nail polish or some other kinds of paint, but you might to a lousy job of it, and the world might blame that on us. A big question is whether the seat lug and crown can each have two-color fills. The more I think about that and considering what I know of the process, I think it won't happen, but see detail images and notes below.
The YelloWolleY is 8 to 12 months away. We'd like soft (not actualy) commitments from all who are 75 per cent confident that they'll get one. We're not taking money and we won't contact you to guilt you into buying one just because you said you were 75 per cent sure. It'll be a year between runs, and we just want an idea. If you're on the list you'll have an opportunity to secure one before we make them available to the less-committed, but as always, "we shall twist no arms."
V-brake, not sidepull.
Went out for 45 minutes on a Saturday, then had to get back to work...which, for the record, I enjoy, too. This is a 100 per cent legal trail.
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sorry, more carbon. It won't go on forever, just maybe as long as carbon keeps breaking. People send me these, I don't seek them out. Yoiu might be thinking, "well, that's some funky Euro-off-brand carbon, whadya expect?" But the fork isn't an off-brand, and anyway, it's carbon's NATURE to fail that way. It's how it always fails. Imagine how much sooner it would have failed if the suspension didn't soak up a lot of the stress.
One more, this just in, sorry:
You'd think the bottle cage would have held the two pieces together.
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THIS IS WHERE many of our bicycle frames are made. You can see Platypus frames around 5:30 and a few times later on. The whole thing is almost 12 minutes.
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We are working on a paper catalog, maybe releasing it mid-year.
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You know how, in your private time at home with or without a partner, you sometimes wonder what to watch before you fall asleep? And "long-time readers," if any, will recall that I sometimes make fantastic suggestions. Here are a few more:
Astrid. French with subtitles. Autism who-dunnit.
The Night Manager. With Olivia Coleman and Hugh Laurie. Kind of dark, a bit of murder.
Broadchurch. Also with Olivia Coleman and a guy named David Tenat.
Adolescence. I think it's Netflix. Not like anything else. Don't get hopeful, but it's still good.
--Grant