All I wanted for Christmas... was to stop barfing. Yep, got me a good case of the old stomache flu / food poisoning / attempted-murder-by-radioactive-doping over the holiday weekend. Pretty much thought I was going to die. I even willed all of my freaky tall bikes (not tallbikes, just tall bikes) to Snacky. I think I barfed out some key brain cells though, because now I find myself using words that, while close to what I mean, are not quite on the mark. For example, aw hell, I can't think of any examples. But trust me, it's like my brain…

As a believer in the idea of natural selection, I've avoided writing a "winter riding tips" blog now for 4 years. But since I'm still seeing a good number of people riding bikes in the winter without good equipment, I'm breaking my vow of silence to address some basic safety issues in the name of keeping bikes on the road year round. Hopefully this doesn't come as a surprise to you, but car drivers don't expect to see bicyclists this time of year. Whether you're in California and it's a frigid 58F or here in Minnesota and it's a balmy…

Exactly 15 years ago, my sister was having a little Christmas dinner party with friends. We lived just 8 blocks apart from eachother, so I jumped on my bike, rode through the snow and got there not knowing what to expect. She was known for her fine cooking, but I wasn't sure if it would be a lively atmosphere, so I came prepared. As I entered her house, I noticed everybody was politely, yet mildly engaged in conversation. To tell the truth, it was a little boring. So I asked if I could change the music, she obliged. Enter Soul…

Dingle Bells Sorry, couldn't help that. Our new Dingle cogs are here for the first time ever. "What" you say "is a Dingle cog?" and "why" you say "the hell would I want it?" It's a two-speed fixed cog that threads onto any ISO threaded (1.375" x 24 tpi) fixed gear hub so you can swap gears. Hey purists, cap it for a second while I explain. Say you want to ride your off-road fixie to the trails and then ride some dirt, but your gearing is either too low for the road or too high for the dirt. For…

The front tire on the Big Dummy started going flat on the way into the office on Tuesday. It had a slow leak, so I was able to pump it up a couple times during the ride, instead of stopping to replace the tube en route. When I got to the office, I removed the wheel to replace the tube, and I figured I might as well install an Endomorph tire (a discontinued 30tpi Band-Aid brown-wall unit) on the wheel as long as the Pug fork was already installed. The larger tire will add a bit more cushion and, hopefully,…