not fast. tough.

 

Today was my first "no pace" ride of 2025.

It's not about going fast; in fact, some of my riders come on this ride because they don't WANT to go fast. This ride is about getting out, meeting people, and chatting.

It was colder today than most of us expected. Some of the people who had registered for the ride, decided not to come. Two of those were honest enough to say it was colder than they had hoped.

 

I had ten (plus myself). We had a great time.

 

 

You can see the ride page (with the route, average speed, and whatnot) at this link. Don't let that average throw you from coming on future iterations of this ride - I ride near the back, at the speed that the slower riders are going. When people go slower (and, on this ride, they do), the average is lower.

We're not fast. But we're tough, and we enjoy each other's company. There will be more of these no-pace rides; look for 'em on the club calendar. (If you're not a member of the club, you might want to consider joining up.) A bit over twenty miles. The route's pretty flat. Some people go off the front (we let 'em); I ride with the people in the back.

A quick note about this one: Ramadan has JUST ended, and when we came up to the fields on Eiker Road, there were HUNDREDS of cars coming in from every direction to some kind of religious festival there. It was marvellously chaotic. We bobbled through and continued, wondering what it was, and figured it out later at the stop.

You never know what you're going to come across!

ride near the shore

 

Tom H invited some of his Insane Bike Posse (is that joke way outdated yet?) on a ride to start near his shore condo in Avon-By-The-Sea. The only takers were me and Jack H. It was a good ride for me, only notable for a few things:

• I was an hour late; I had it in my head that we were starting at 10am, not 9am as Tom had told us. I'm usually very early, and when he didn't see me at about 8:50, he called. I was already en route to the start, and the guys were kind enough to wait (I drove less than completely legally in order to try to make up time). Sure, it's a mistake that anybody can make, but it's the second time I've done it this month, and, as I turn 70 in about six weeks, and have just been scheduled for cataract surgery, I'm convinced the forgetting is a sign of my dementia related to aging, and I'm wondering how long before I'm put in the assisted-living facility, where they will plop me in front of a TV that only gets basic cable, and they'll forget to change my diaper until the stench peels paint off the walls.
• Nonetheless, 42-ish miles at 14.5mph, which is much better than I was doing in 2024. Serious headwinds at the start; at the end they were friendly tailwinds helping to blow us home. See the ride page here. 
• We stopped at this Allenwood General Store, which we generally miss because it's not convenient for the rides we generally do in the area, but it's a quirky and pleasant place. They had Mash soda (I call it "soda for grownups"; less cloyingly sweet than most, and interesting combinations of fruit flavors), and an available toilet... and several rooms of antiques and such in the back.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I've got a "no pace" ride tomorrow; my first lead for the year, with about a dozen signed up. I'll plan to post on that one, too.

philly bike expo 2025

 

I feel like it's been forever since I attended one, even though I know I went last year.

I love the Philly Bike Expo. There's all kinds of bicycle weirdness. Like modern versions of the Ordinary, the so-called "Penny-Farthing", but these have modern aluminum rims and modern saddles, and are, I'm sure, much lighter than their forebears, if no less dangerous and uncomfortable:

 This guy makes sustainable bike stuff out of bamboo and invasive species:

... and he also sells boxed sets of bungee cords made of old bike tubes. 

There was a rep from the bike messenger world:

 Planet Ert sells jewelry, some of which is made from bits and bobs of bikes...

 ... and then there's Yellow Bird Threads, who used to sell bike clothing, and has moved on to jewelry for your bike - top tube covers, bar end plugs, and the like, all done up in colors and fancy machining.

 Ciclovation is making gorgeous bar wrap:

... and then there are artists inspired by bikes: Tanya Lempert (I usually get notecards from her):

... and paintings from Dug Art:

 Velo AI was out with a not-ready-for-prime-time concept of a bike light and radar system that will take a reading on whatever is coming up behind you, decide if it is a truck, car, or other cyclist, and also if it is likely to be a threat. It can put a message on your phone or GPS, and play tones to alert you... theoretically.

 Leather bike bags. Lovely. 

 But maybe not for rain and mud.

And, of course, beautiful bikes, old and new.

 

Fine is making bikes with lovely lugs.

 

I love the upward bend in the top tube nears the seatpost of the titanium bike, and the detail of how the seatstays meet the seat tube and top tube:

 

And some from Peter Weigle, a name to conjure with among bike folks.

 

 At one point, I heard someone call, "Old man!", clearly directed at me. (Not inappropriate, and certainly not inaccurate, but unusual...). I turned to find Gabe, who had been a fellow student in my bike mechanic class last year.

 

 

 At the time, he'd been working for one of the cycling magazines. They'd let him go, and he took advantage of the time by learning how to build frames. This is his:

 

 He's formed a company, Pana Cycles ("Pana" has some meaning like "companion" in the variety of Spanish that is his other language), and will be taking off to Puerto Rico to see about starting a frame shop there. I wish him every kind of luck except bad.

 

Now, I'd gone to the expo for two specific things. The first is a new rear derailleur that Rivendell Bikes is developing:

 

It's got some technical stuff having to do with the spring that you really don't care about, and it's Rivendell, so it will only index up to nine speeds (although it will manage more than that using friction settings)... but the thing that piques my interest is that it's "low normal". When the cable breaks, instead of going to that smallest cog, making it hard to get over the hills on the way home, it releases to the biggest cog. That will be too easy of a gear most of the time... but you'll probably be able to get the bike back home, without either having to call an Uber or an ambulance. In the pictures below, you can see that when the cable is all the way in, the chain is on the small, high gear, and when it's all the way out, its on the large, easy low gear.

 

I want one. The controls on my titanium bike, The Yellow Maserati, will drive it (bar-end friction shifters), and, while I doubt that I'll ever have a cable break, I am just captivated by bicycle weirdness. For example, in 2025, the favorite of the bikes I own has a titanium frame, downtube shifters, and rim brakes - all outdated (but still functional) technology. (The downtube shifters are a modern take on the old technology.)

 

The other thing I went to see was Linda M's talk on " 'Plan B' training, when sidelined by illness or injury". Linda's been a fixture of the cycling scene in eastern Pennsylvania for longer than any of us like to admit (because it makes us sound old). She had a crash with a car last year, and still isn't all the way recovered. She's an Occupational Therapist, and brought a unique view or her experience with recovery (for example, at least some doctors talk to her as if she has some brains, which has rarely been my experience with doctors).

 

 

 

I'm glad I went to hear her. I'm not recovering from an injury, but I did lose quite a bit of strength and ability last year. I'd like to believe it's coming back (I've had some evidence of that). So while the specific information in her presentation might not have applied to me, her vision and her attitude certainly did.

 

So, what did you do this Sunday?