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?

 

 

 

that the music might be freed

 

Back when the world made sense, over two decades ago, the cassette machine and the speakers for my home stereo system (remember those?) died at about the same time. The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I moved to a new home in North Brunswick, and I never set up the stereo system. When we moved to this home about a year ago, we moved in the LP's and cassettes, even though we had no hardware on which to play them. 

We plan to stay here as close to forever as possible, and, finding myself with a little unallocated time and money, I got some speakers, and assembled what I could of the stereo system. With a bit of finagling, I found it worked. I had a caucus with TEW, and we came up with a stand that was agreeable to both of us. It arrived; I assembled it today, and set up the system.

 I don't have the cassette player yet, but I've been playing some of the neglected records. And there's something telling me that the records feel like they've been freed from prison, or resurrected after a coma, or something, and are relieved and delighted to be able to sing freely again.

I know I'm out of my mind. But I've got a cassette deck on my Amazon list, for purchase after the next set of checks comes in. The cassettes are jealous now, and complaining.

good ride, but the fox hunt pics didn't come out

 

That was the best of a bad lot of pictures I took of a fox hunt we came across on the ride today, as we went through the Assunpink.

Tom H emailed a few of his Insane Bike Posse about a 30-ish-mile ride he wanted to do today, as temps wouldn't be quite as frigid as we've had, week after week this winter. Despite my poor performance last week, I decided to try again (I was hoping that the workout last week would have started to get me in shape for this riding season).

Four of us came out: Tom and me, and Peter G and Heddy. 

 (There's a fox hunter in red, off in the distance, on that last one.) Tom had a mostly flat, 32-mile route out of Etra Park, and now that I'm living in Monroe, if I'd had reasonably good bike legs, I'd have ridden to the start and turned off when we got near my house... but I knew I wasn't ready for that.

Tom was right: it wasn't as cold as it had been, and, while there was little conversation on this ride other than at stops (at least for me), it was a companionable ride. I kept up well through the stop at the Wawa at Woodward Road and Route 33. (I say stop: it's true we did stop there, but we did not actually enter the store, neither for purchases nor for plumbing.)

 I was riding fairly well, especially compared to the miserable time I'd had the week before. In fact, I was even able to take a pull into the headwind that inevitably developed in the last third of the ride. 

I finished with the group, and thanked them profusely for having gone easy on me. I wound up with an average speed of 14.1, which is good for my age and condition, and the earliness in the season.

None of youse will actually check it, but here's a link to the ride page. 

I'm feeling a bit less like I'm going to have to give up the bike and pick up a crocheting needle instead.