Paris 2024 Track Olympic Equipment – Part 2

Continuation of Part 1: This is going to cover equipment used by some of the smaller nations and also some unaffiliated bike brands: the new Dolan DF5, the BMC TrackMachine, the Stromm track bike, TOOT engineering’s bike and wheel system, the Ridley Arena pursuit, and others. This is a really interesting area as, unlike the

Track Conversion! PRO Textreme Disc

Sometimes doing a project because it’s fun is more important than doing it to actually save a buck or whatever other excuse people often give This project started because I was curious how the inside of this hub worked. While disassembling (without even looking at an assembly diagram beforehand, idiot me) I managed to mangle

Paris 2024 Track Olympic Equipment Roundup – Part 1

It’s Christmas in August!! The deadline to use new equipment for the Paris 2024 Olympics is the Glasgow Track World Championships from August 3-13, 2023. Teams have as yet been extremely coy with their equipment, so we are seeing a LOT of brand new kit- some of which is extremely innovative. Track cycling is experiencing

Bont Vaypor Convert to Laces

Who loves laces?? I know I do. I’m not going to beat a dead horse here but for me, the biggest portion of the appeal is aerodynamics and comfort – laces improve both. Unfortunately, one of my favorite shoe brands, Bont, makes their lace up track cycling shoe extremely difficult ($$$) to buy. Being a

Vision Track Crankset Review

I’ve been riding a decent amount of track recently, and last November decided on a whim to enter the USAC Madison National Championships. The race was held in Detroit at the Lexus Velodrome – a steeply banked 51deg, 166m indoor velodrome. The Madison is one of my favorite races, but has some very specific demands

Tairin Mugen Hub Design Issues

I’ll start this off by saying I have never bought or used one of these hubs. I don’t know the owners of this business and I am honestly talking out of my butt. That being said, my job is designing spindles, robots, and other precision mechanical components and I used to work in the bearing

Perdita the Gravel Bike

This one has been done for awhile, but I am just getting around to writing about it now. September 2019 I began making a bike for my wife Gabby’s birthday. Its not easy to build a bike in secret when you live with the person… and when her birthday rolled around a month later I

Silca Tattico

Things that make a good ride bad: Run out of food/water, cars, and a stubbornly flat tire. While a mini pump won’t prevent you from flatting, having a good one means there’s one less thing to worry about. Lucky for me, I am the proud new owner of a Silca Tattico. I was considering the

Piano Restoration Project- Agraffe

I am (as of a few weeks ago) the proud owner of a 1899 Knabe 9′ long concert grand piano!! This has been a dream of mine since I was a child, and I am so fortunate to have a wife who will let me keep it in our tiny house. I got the piano

Thoughts on Canyon Aeroad 2020

The new Canyon Aeroad is a really cool bike. It ticks all the boxes for me: it’s got serious aero credentials, it is light, it is quite inexpensive for what you get, you can run mechanical and electronic drivetrains, and there is a stock Campagnolo build option. But I would NEVER get one. Here’s why: