My Memorial Day: I often attribute 1975 as the year I became a cyclist but actually it was Memorial Day 1968 that kindled the fire in the furnace of my love for cycling. I remember it clearly; we had the day off from school since the holiday fell on a Thursday and was actually celebrated [...]

Il Duce! Ay que tonto! Ok! Are you paying attention!  Look over here! Oops! [Saturday] While riding to meet another Freddie, looking down to put his water-bottle back in the cage, Il Duce hits a pothole and goes down hard [Blammo!] {Over the handle-bars}.  3 broken ribs.  [It was dark out, although that's standard m.o. [...]

Dario Pegoretti: [about 4 years ago] at the last urban outpost near the northern end of the San Gabriel River Trail I stopped in at Stan’s Bicycle Shop in Monrovia to buy an extra water bottle for the ride home and discovered the work of Dario Pegoretti. Dario Pegoretti (born 1957) is an Italian framebuilder [...]

Something else from Interbike [just when you thought it was over]:   Brooks is taking their media campaign beyond the English threshold  [huh?] [or maybe it's spot on]. The SAD[dle] company is determined to attract a wider audience beyond their traditional market.  The poster on the left was photographed from their booth. They had some very [...]

When everything goes flat and flaccid we need some assistance, whether it’s your unit or your inner tube.  I keep a couple of valve extenders in my ride pouch so when no one has an 80mm valve we can still fix Freddie’s flat. Some valve stems have removable valve cores [figs. 1 & 5].  To [...]

This video has been widely circulated.  You can see the rider at the end of the video; he appears to be OK, he was just dazed. He’s lucky he wasn’t killed.  You can see the rider knew the antelope was rushing him [he waved his hand at it].  The antelope sighted the rider and decided [...]

Today is the first in a new series: What’z your Bag Freddie? We’z gonna take a survey of what Freddies carry in their ride pouch.  Today’s post examines the contents of Dr. Num-Num’s bag. Num-Num carries all the essentials:  Money, two tire irons, a boot, chain tool [you can see the left edge under the [...]

Bicycle Tire Boots:  When your tire is slashed clean through, the inner tube will poke out and burst [1].  When you get a flat from a cut like this you’ll need a “boot” to keep the tube contained when it’s inflated [2]. You can buy pre-manufactured boots [I've seen pre-manufactured boots fail easily] or you [...]

TheBoyaggi Boyz rode their grand adventure today; Cortona to Siena [and back] – 120 miles round-trip.  According to the UberFred, “60 miles from Cortona, 3800 ft of climbing … IL Duce had the hammer down the whole way … lots of sour faces … wine in the piazza.” Ahhhhhh!! But then they had the pleasure [...]

Tradition defines us.  We honor tradition to enrich our lives with a deep perspective.  When new concepts, ideas, methodologies and practices prove themselves, they are woven into the fabric of the culture; tradition.  Along the way the contentions between the camps help prove the mettle and paves the way to the enrichment of that shared [...]