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Patrick January 7, 2024

My Minimalist Home Bike Workshop

Learning how to do bike maintenance is a great way to save time and money. I have been maintaining and building my bikes for about 35 years and have always done so with very little equipment. If you are relatively new to cycling and would like to work on your bike, a Google image search for "home bike workshop" will likely scare you away from getting started. Many of the garage or basement shop setups that people share online are sometimes more spacious and better equipped than your local bike store. You don’t need that.

Patrick December 7, 2023

Far East Shopping

When it comes to cycling clothing, it should be stylish, comfortable, and practical, all while being reasonably priced. The brand is not important as long as it meets these standards. I don't have a loyal attachment to any particular brand, but if they consistently deliver, they may earn my repeat business. For years, I relied on DHB, which is sold by Wiggle, for my cycling apparel after returning to Switzerland from Northern California.

Patrick October 29, 2023

Volagi Viaje 2024 Update

Following in the footsteps of the 1x12 conversion of my Nordest Albarda, the Volagi Viaje naturally has to be taken there, too. Volagi brought this bike to market in a Kickstarter campaign in August 2012. It was designed for the bike components of that time. Whenever new stuff comes out, message boards and comment sections fill up with cyclists moaning and groaning about the bike industry, forcing new standards upon us. I’m not one of them. I love seeing bike technology advance. I don’t adopt everything. In fact, a lot that’s supposedly “forced” on us isn’t my cup of tea. I’ll never buy a bike with fully internally-routed cables, for instance. I just won’t. But I love options. And options we have. Besides, when you can take an 11-year-old Volagi Viaje and throw the very newest components on it, where’s the reason to moan and groan? Standards haven’t changed all that much. You just need to be smart about the bikes and components you’re choosing.

Patrick October 7, 2023

Nordest Albarda 2023 Update

My Nordest Albarda was built on a budget in the fall of 2019. I used a Nox Composites wheelset that had previously been on my red Volagi Viaje. The braking system and 2x11-speed SRAM Red eTap HRD drivetrain were borrowed from my Ritte.  In 2020, I purchased a SRAM Red AXS groupset for the Nordest and moved the eTap HRD parts back to the Ritte. In the spring of 2021, I asked 47° Nord to lace a pair of Chris King R45D hubs to a set of Light Bicycle 650B WR35 carbon rims. That’s how I’ve ridden the bike for the last two and a half years, sometimes swapping out the wheels using the Nox with grippier tires during the winter months.

Patrick September 16, 2023

Travel Bookings To Balconia

The last time my wife and I traveled was in October 2017. We drove to Nice to meet an American friend who happened to spend a few days there. We used the trip to Nice to visit a bunch of wineries in the Rhône Valley. On the way back, we crossed the border into Italy for a winery tour through the Piedmont region. A drive across the Great St Bernard pass brought us back to Switzerland. We have not spent any vacations abroad or within Switzerland since. Seeing how one natural disaster is following the next on our ever-hotter planet, who can still travel with a good conscience today? Travel by air or by car is a luxury only a few on this planet can even afford. It’s a First World luxury and not a necessity. For a healthier planet and the future of generations to come, we should honestly do without.