Good Grief!

We’re all conversant in the 5 levels of grief:

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Despair

Acceptance

Effectively, the climate sucks right here, and that is what I’ve been experiencing for the reason that Nice Apocalyptic Dying Blizzard of Two Thousand Twenty and Six arrived this previous weekend:

Denial: “It’s not gonna snow that a lot, they get these things unsuitable on a regular basis.”

Anger: “It’s nonetheless snowing? That is BULLSHIT. What the hell occurred to ‘local weather change?’ In line with Streetsblog it was by no means going to snow once more!”

Bargaining: “I’m not getting a fats bike.”

Now I’m caught between the fourth and fifth levels, these being Despair (“This sucks, life sucks, I hate it right here”), and Acceptance (“Fuck it, I’m getting a fats bike”), leaping round on the Cassette of Emotion like an under-tensioned derailleur as I wrestle in useless to regulate my psychological barrel adjuster. Look, what would you like from me? Final time I checked it was six (6) levels in American Freedom Items™:

Plus there’s like a foot and a half of snow all over the place, and it’s not melting or getting washed away by rain anytime quickly:

This implies one of the best case situation for the approaching days is freezing out on the highway for so long as I can stand it (for those who faux exhausting sufficient you possibly can really persuade your self that highway salt is the Strade Bianche), interspersed with lengthy durations of staring deep into the chasm of my very own psyche. Is it not having the ability to experience that I dread a lot? Or is it having to face myself? Do I merely love driving for driving’s sake? Or do I spend a lot time driving as a result of I’m desperately avoiding introspection and frantically fleeing from some basic fact that I’m unwilling and unable to confront? Positive, I inform myself that as I experience I’m reflecting and meditating and considering and all the remainder of it, however perhaps I’m simply rationalizing my very own escapism, blissed out on exercise-induced hormones and thus no higher than the drunk handed out on the sofa or the junkie on the nod. Possibly if I take a while off driving I’ll not solely transfer into the “acceptance” section but additionally get one thing achieved for as soon as–, one thing really vital that has nothing to do with bikes, like monetary planning or residence enchancment or grooming all these uncared for physique components.

Both that, or perhaps I ought to simply get on a airplane and go someplace heat till Could. Yeah, that sounds quite a bit higher. I ponder what bike I ought to carry…

Talking of barrel adjusters, for those who actually can’t stand them there’s all the time digital shifting:

If I wasn’t depressed sufficient earlier than, now I’ve to deal with the truth that I’ve devoted my complete life to defending mechanical shifting from the digital onslaught, and but right here’s some man who with out even attempting has made maybe one of the best case towards digital shifting that I’ve ever learn:

Effectively, it was certain to occur to me ultimately. My AXS battery died throughout a mountain bike experience, and I didn’t have a spare with me. With my derailleur caught in second gear and a flat, ten-mile bike path experience residence, I used to be caught.

If solely I may change gears another time, from second gear to one thing extra affordable, like ninth or tenth, I might make it residence at an inexpensive tempo. Paul didn’t have a battery on his bike, and neither did Chris, who we occurred to run into on the highway simply exterior the paths. I solely wanted to borrow an AXS battery for a minute!

Ah sure, if solely there have been a bicycle drivetrain that was in a position to shift with none batteries in any respect. It might be like a perpetual movement machine! Sadly I don’t assume we’ll ever see something like that in our lifetimes.

And sure, I invented the idea of mechanical shifting all on my own, similar to the writer singlehandedly invented the time period “MacGyver:”

Rising up, I used to be actually into the TV present MacGyver, the place the present’s titular character obtained himself out of each jam utilizing no matter easy gadgets he discovered round him. This was my likelihood to be similar to MacGyver.

That’s fairly intelligent of him, I can see “MacGyver” actually catching on as a verb.

Anyway, after determining methods to energy a derailleur with the world’s most annoying sort of battery, he determines that (shock!) it’s not sensible:

Clearly, the higher resolution for bicycle parts which might be ineffective with out batteries is…extra extra bicycle parts that require batteries:

For those who’re operating a RockShox Reverb AXS dropper publish, then you have already got a backup AXS battery in your bike, which you could possibly borrow to shift the bike into a correct gear. Or vice versa, if the dropper battery runs out and your publish is caught within the unsuitable place. I didn’t check the 9V trick on an AXS dropper publish, however I think about it will work too.

Think about a battery-powered derailleur ruining your day and concluding that you just additionally want a battery-powered seatpost. Superb.

However I suppose it’s the buyer’s intuition to double down on silly purchases that retains the bicycle business shifting ahead…although even that has limits:

Gravaa might sound like a gravel-specific model of Strava, however it’s really a hub that mechanically adjusts your tire strain, and their chapter is gloomy information certainly:

Right here’s what occurred:

So, we have been a bit stunned to listen to that Gravaa not too long ago filed for chapter. Sadly, it appears that evidently simply because one thing is a good suggestion and performs as supposed doesn’t imply it’s destined for industrial success. Whereas the Gravaa system has loved publicity from its partnership with Staff Visma Lease-a-Bike, the aforementioned victories, and has been in the marketplace and accessible to shoppers, it appears like gross sales quantity wasn’t fairly excessive sufficient to maintain the model afloat.  

In an announcement from Gravaa’s Business Director, John Zopfi, he stated, “To really scale, two vital parts remained: a full tubeless setup and a cheaper price level. The tubeless setup was deliberate for launch in Q1. The cheaper price may solely be achieved by means of quantity. To succeed in quantity, we would have liked to scale up. To scale up, we would have liked capital and agency commitments from potential quantity clients.”

And right here’s a Company-to-English translation of Business Director John Zopfi’s feedback:

No person wished to pay for our fully pointless product.

That’s too dangerous, as a result of I actually wished to have the ability to use my hub battery when my derailleur battery dies.