We've been pursuing a project to make really high quality crochet-back cycling gloves for a couple of years now. After examining at least a dozen prototypes we're giving up for a while. We simply have not been able to get the quality we want at anything close to a reasonable price. We may eventually find some little factory in a less obvious place that can do what we want, but for now we'll give the project a rest.
We have also delayed our pannier project, too many quality issues with hardware. The sewing and materials are not as nice as we'd like and we need to re-think the attachment hardware. I'd like to really bump up the quality of these and may need to visit sewing shops in Vietnam or Central America to find one that can do what we want in the smaller volumes we need. I'd love to have them made in the USA, but from what I've seen it would double the cost. If any US shops are interested I'd be happy to talk.
I have been using more and more of your parts for my custom builds, and would like to say thanks for putting out great products at a nice price. As you know these parts have been unobtainable and just plain expensive for the past 30 years. I now can offer a custom lugged "constructuer" bike complete for under $3500 and that includes your Grand Cru parts. This is unheard of in the custom market.... Keep those Grand Cru parts coming!
I wasn't certain at first, since I've grown so used to my Cross-Check over its 25k or so miles, but the Rando proved itself to be a different bike immediately.
It's lighter and more comfortable. Part of that feeling is the long chainstays and traditional-diameter tubing, I think. It seems to soak up bumps and float over sketchy patches instead of transmitting the shocks straight to my body and wearing me out. The Rando has lower-volume tires but still feels very cushy. I've only done two centuries on it so far, but I haven't felt beaten up after any of them.
The allure of the Rando is that it just goes, without complaining. It climbs well and responds when you hammer. Strangest, though is that it feels sluggish on the descents. I thought at first that I was descending slowly, but I nearly broke 40mph. What feels like sluggishness isn't at all - it's stability. The Rando doesn't bounce and twitch at high speeds and doesn't lock into a line; it feels slower, but you can safely go faster. It's a very nice feeling to not be locked into a line; the Rando doesn't wander or twitch, but it doesn't feel like its on rails either.
It also doesn't complain about my handlebar bag. I like to carry a lot of food and clothes with me because I ride to the ride starts, so I usually have 10 or so pounds up front.
We had our little photo studio going, so I asked Alec to shoot some of the staff bikes currently on site:
I just returned from 10 days on the left coast. I visited Vancouver BC, San Francisco, and San Luis Obispo. Also stopped for lunch in Santa Cruz. They are all great places, but San Luis Obispo, the one city I hadn't previously visited, was my favorite. This may be partially because SLO is smaller, less crowded and seems to have a slower pace. If VO opens a west coast location, a distinct possibility, SLO is at the top of my list.
In addition to visiting potential distributors and being a tourist, I spent a couple of hours at Rivendell's headquarters in Walnut Creek. Grant Peterson was a great host, gave me the full tour, and showed me some beautiful frames. We even talked about a few areas where Riv and VO might cooperate.
Every time Grant and I meet I'm struck by how much we have in common. One of our mutual interests is paleo diet and exercise. Paleo diet is based on the fact that paleolithic and pre-industrial peoples have incredibly low rates of most of the "diseases of civilization". These include cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, and many of the other maladies we consider common. Though they have a higher chance of dying at a young age, and so a lower average lifespan, once out of those dangerous years pre-industrial humans remain amazingly healthy and live almost as long as we do.
Grant gave me a copy of Gary Taubes' new book, Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It (which Riv also sell). I'd read Taubes' groundbreaking first book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, an exhaustively researched and somewhat dense review of diet and nutrition. Taubes was instrumental in showing a startling disconnect between current mainstream nutritional advice and what is actually based on science. He read hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and extensive historical data only to find that most of what mainstream doctors and the government experts tell us about nutrition is simply wrong. His findings also go a long ways toward explaining why the pre-industrial, or paleo, diet may be far healthier than what we eat today.
In any case, I wasn't sure it was worth reading what's basically a simplified version of Taubes earlier book, but there was that long flight home so I did. I found the new book brilliant; thanks Grant. If you're not going to look up references in PubMed, it's a lot easier and faster read while imparting all the basics of his earlier book. Buy it (from Riv, not Amazon) and you'll learn a lot; guaranteed. Just to be clear, I don't think Taubes interpretation is 100 percent perfect, but it's darn close. I'd also recommend reading the Whole Health Source, a blog by neurobiologist Stephan Guyenet.
I know I'm rambling, but if you're interested in this stuff I'll do another post with a lot of other great sources, books, and blogs about Paleo diet and exercise.
An amusing aside, Grant and I are both interested in soap. Grant gave me a bar of the pine tar soap he sells. I can't say I was taken by the scent, reminiscent of a forest fire, though it's very very effective and definitely manly. I sent Grant a chunk of Savon de Marseille, an artisanal and traditional French olive oil based soap. We use it not only as soap, but also as shampoo, and shaving cream. Annette says it eliminates the need for moisturizing cream; amazing stuff. As with bicycles, most of the really good stuff was developed long ago.
Karl from Bicycle Times Magazine was kind enough to forward the following review of VO fenders. It's from issue #9 which should be in stores and mailboxes by now. The review is pretty positive, but the part I found most interesting is that they installed the fenders on a bike with disc brakes, something we have not done. (Click on the image to enlarge)
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