2022 in bikes

Another year! almost over! This was another in which I was kinda treading water. I started a bunch of projects, but so far nothing has actually landed. I rode my bike about as much as I usually do, but am still not exploring new routes that much.

The good:
1.it’s pretty easy to set up a comfortable, reliable, pretty quick bike without much fuss. Supply chain issues seem to be less critical than they were a year ago. road tubeless seems as if it’s really maturing, with smoother tires, fewer flats, and a possible shift to hookless rims in the offing.
2.This is an emerging story, but it looks as if there may be a new crop of drivetrain and shifter companies coming into their own - Sensah, Microshift, and others are filling a void left as legacy manufacturers increasingly push electronic shifting down their product tiers. I want to find out what I can do with Sensah/Microshift, Ratio Tech, Shimano, and whoever else’s stuff I can fit in.
3.Cargo bikes continue to be basically indestructible, which is handy.

the bad:
1.the electrification/appification/datafication of cycling. I use Strava on my phone, which is in a pocket or bag when I’m riding. I get that if you’re seriously training knowing watts or whatever is important, but I am not excited about the emerging standard of bikes as deeply electronic machines. I don’t want to have to register my drivetrain with the manufacturer. It all seems like a path towards invasive and predatory lock-in of peripherals and data.
2.on that note, the ongoing encroachment of electronic shifting is a bummer. I’ve been using Ultegra groups for a little over twenty years, they’ve been getting better the whole time (besides 6600 but hey you can’t win them all). I get that for road in particular, high end groups are already kinda not a huge moneymaker, but I’m disappointed that legacy firms aren’t going to keep making an upper-tier mechanical groupset.
3.the expansion (post covid and general trend) of destination cycling events. Way to shit up a nominally eco-friendly hobby with tons of air travel, car travel, action sport resorts, and the like.
4. big bike brands buying out local bike shops AND doing aggressive DtC sales channels. The old school bike shop is definitely a rose-tinted glasses thing for me, but at least they had character (if not the components you needed).
5. Generally, bikes getting more expensive and more complicated. The nice thing about bikes is that they can be very simple and very fun, just walk out your front door and go. Fix stuff that breaks with simple tools. swap in whatever parts you want.
6.a million bb/crank interfaces. I was already annoyed by the whole new cranks=new bb and new bb tool thing, but getting sent the wrong size sleeve with a bb (thanks RaceFace!) was icing on the cake.

The ???:
1.more channels to get a hold of what you want, but also wowie so much counterfeit stuff!
2.Gravel and bikepacking increasingly being the norm for bikes, but also their plateauing as interesting novel ways of doing bikes - I’m getting curious about what’s next.
3.ebikes either getting more people on bikes or getting fewer but more expensive bikes sold or some of both or neither or nobody really seems to know. I’m suspicious of a jump in price for cargo/kidhauler bikes from 2-3k for a functional model to 5-8k for an ebike. If you want more people on bikes, particularly more people for whom compulsory automobility is a real financial strain, making bikes as expensive to buy and service as automobiles is not a great move. Maybe good for independent bike shops, though.
4.Traditional bike media continuing to die slowly, with nothing substantial replacing it - but of course calling bike mags “substantial” is kind of generous. I sincerely hope that the future is more than just instagram ads and comments. Newsletters? Discords? who knows.
5.Living near a lot of good road riding routes, but watching them get more clogged with car traffic: I’m glad that there’s a lot of city edge and inner suburb infill development happening (this is east end Richmond VA), but it means that it’s another few miles before you’re on quiet, pleasant roads.
6. Aerobars on my sport touring bike: definitely faster, nice to have more positions on the ride, but not great from a handling perspective.

what to do in 2023:
I’m going to be building up a sport touring bike from a frame made by FTW; I’d like to ride it around the Tidewater region of Virginia, it’s not a kind of landscape I know that well. Maybe go west too, to the Appalachian foothills. I am hoping to nail down a next road frame, from @Rauce if all goes well. Maybe this is the year I do a big overhaul on my longjohn - I’m theoretically getting a custom seatpost some day, it might spur me to toss some other new bits on it. Maybe I build a 24" fixed gear for my kid?

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Thoreau quote “Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at…"

I wrote out a lot more here to start but it ended up being a Grant-pilled rant so I’ll just leave it as it is now.

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Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

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You sure about that? It’s mostly incoherent ramblings.

I’m at the stage in my bike interests where I’m angrily denying that I’m a retrogrouch, but also I think that a lot of new developments in bike design and technology are stupid and useless and intended to ensnare people in pointless upgrades and upsells.

so.

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On a scale from one to :smilegrant: , how incoherent?

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My year in bikes involved moving to Columbus, Oh, and was pretty bad for bikes. Riding around town is mostly unheard of and legitimately dangerous. There is a nice bike path by the river so I did that a little. And I rode my mtb once on a nice little trail. Probably the fewest miles ridden in 15 years. Sad face. Still dithering though. Building a swept back road bike currently. Fav bike is maybe the stock giant hardtail though. It is actually a good bike and not a weird garage concoction. I don’t know what will happen with bikes for me in the next year. Eventually I aim to just ride bikes and not really do much to them.

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6? I think I’m better at using correct punctuation.

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You could just automate a GPT bot to take bikeroumor articles and re-write them in a rambling boomer style interspersed with comments about MUSA shorts and soap

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in the future…
tarck will write itself.

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I could but I’d have to create an OpenAI account and that’s very unGrant

I did very little bikes that weren’t MTB. Like maybe 170,000 feet of climbing/descending on that though.

What I learned is that being able to run a sub three hr marathon doesn’t make me any faster at bikes.

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2022 I was recently moved to a new town a little too far from my old riding buddies to be convenient. New (to me) house meant more time on house projects and less time riding. But I did get to explore a bunch of trails and roads around town, and tried to commute at least one day a week for most of the better weather (only go in to the office 3 days, 16 miles round trip). So maybe I’m being a little hard on myself.

My commuting bike and my mountain bike got ridden mostly. Fancy carbon gravel bike sat lonely in the corner. I built up a townie singlespeed out of the old Dawes frame, since I finally live in a town. 2023 I’m building the Fuji Opus 3 up again with tubeless tires and bar-end shifters, to once again attempt to reiterate my ideal pretty toy.

I’m swapping wet brakes out of my wife’s bikes since I finally gave up on her riding any bike frequently enough so it doesn’t just sit and leak oil and squeal when she rides it. Mechanical discs are the new quietness in 2022. I was cutting the hose/frame zip ties off, and thought about replacing them with twine, and imagined a world of FS bikes done up full Grant style. So that’s my 2023 prediction: twine and shellac full suspension. MTBros getting crunchy.

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there is that one guy who makes flatbars out of bamboo or rosewood or something, maybe they were just way ahead of the trend

2022 has been pretty uneventful, bike-wise.
Did a grand fondue in March, caught covid there, then didn’t ride much for a while. Then caught covid again.
Built up a bunch of scrap/parts bin bikes to send to my sister’s beach shack.
Mostly rode the spicy curry, occasionally got out on the 1x1 or road bike.
Hoping for a better 2023 tbh.

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mtb’d most weekends when it wasn’t pissing rain
la nina can get fucked

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2022 in bikes for me was riding my single speed Bridgestone with roached dropouts to various skate spots, then pausing when it got over 100f, then taking apart the Bridgestone and building a geared Peugeot, then getting COVID, then dithering a lot. then having to force myself to get out of the house, now riding here and there when I have time/energy.

Pretty dull if I’m honest.

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Really didn’t dither in anything except the e-bike kit. Which has been really cool, but including e-bike miles, I still rode less than last year!

99% of my miles were commuting this year which is why I think my mileage wasn’t very high. I did mix up my routes some, but I definitely had less time/energy/motivation for riding.

I don’t think that’s gonna change much next year, might actually get worse! But I’m not so cynical about it. Just means I can’t justify building up another fat bike or my dream hybrid

Really hoping in 2023 I get to move somewhere that is at least as good for biking as where I am now but we’ll see!

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2022 was a weird one. Got about 3,00 miles in…which is less than the last few years by a good amount. Me and my partner got our days off work lined up for the first time in the five years we’ve lived in Astoria. That definitely cut into riding time but I’m happy for it…Got lots of camping trips and overnight trips in and hung out with her more than I had gotten to for a few years. had lots of good times. Work sucked…was optimistic about the way things were moving but turns out I’m going to start 2023 unemployed.

Put about 1200 miles on the Marino/fixie gravel bike. So much fun. Didn’t do as many big rides as I wanted to but got a 140 mile ride in which is probably the furthest ride I’ve ever done. Definitely the biggest solo ride. Also did some rides with some non bike nerd friends. Love that. Hopefully more of that next year.

Third year in a row saying this but 2023 is going to be the year I do a 300k. Really happy with my current pavement bike. (At least that’s what I have to tell myself until I find a job) Also pretty stoked to get the Sundeal dialed.

Might have to get rid of some bikes next year. I’ve been keeping 2-3 bikes in the basement at work. Apartment is already 2/3 bike dungeon so probably have to part ways with a pretty sweet 1985 mongoose ATB frame or a mediocre nishiki fixie. I’m rambling at this point good night😘

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I rode more tracked miles this year than ever. Most miles since moving to California. New job commute and the ebike helped, plus doing a lot more social rides. First two bikepacking trips on the tandem and a bunch more solo.

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