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?