Friday, March 16, 2012

March Madness is Madness

WOW, things have changed a lot, and when you really check it out they haven't changed much at all. Thanks for tuning back in after our unannounced winter sabbatical. The Rigid family has had some fistfights with health and fitness and personally, I was out of the bike riding part of things for a good part of the past two months with what I had convinced myself was a bout of comsumption, but turned out to be a common case of bronchitis. But everyone is back to prime time health, so let's give thanks for that. A fair bit of news and developments tend to happen in the cycling off season and by now everyone has seen pictures and read drinking stories from the North American Handjob Bicycle Show, although I was not in attendance, mi hermano Pedro, alongside the original Lumberzach, sent me a few updates from the convention floor. If you have an opinion about the explosion in hand built bicycles here in the US of A, then do yourself a favor and check out a few words from one of my long time heroes, Richard Sachs.

The several days at the convention center are just a blur of colors and sound. Both were
loud. In the karaoke hall that we all occupy, the microphone that is being passed
clearly needs a mute button. Perhaps it would make more sense to cut the power
source completely.


Word.

Speaking of the secret geek party at the center of the bike geek universe that is the NAHBS, I recently spotted one of these in the wilds.


Now I remember when this thing debuted at the 2011 NAHBS last year and I told myself that I would find the money to get it. Well, that didn't happen, but I still love this bike because as a high school kid in the early 90s there was not too much that I wanted more than a Ritchey race bike. If you want to get a little insight into the man himself, check out this interview with Tom Ritchey, where he talks about making an integrated saddle and post back in high school, in 1837.


There is a lot more else happening in the world of bikes but it's gonna have to wait for some other installment. In the meantime, if you happen to be in Western Pennsylvania and can get your St. Patrick's Day hangover under control then by all means come out to support the hardest working trail crew in the business:

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