Harris Cyclery» Links Archives – Harris Cyclery Blog

Gatherings about Bicycles

Elton — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:05:36 +0000

This magnificent Rene Herse was found in Argentina!

One of the things that is great about my job is attending various bike shows and gatherings. The ones I enjoy the most are about vintage bikes, swap meets, and the like. Interbike is the annual trade show an Las Vegas. It’s cool, but doesn’t have the soul or hold the interest for me that smaller shows do. It’s just too overwhelming and highly commercial. But after all, that’s what it’s supposed to be about.

1948 Alex Singer

Last weekend, Peter Weigle had an open house at his shop in Connecticut. He called it “French Fender Day” and it was, by all accounts, an overwhelming success. About 40 people showed up. Most brought rendered bikes to show and ride. There were a few equally welcome non-fendered machines as well.

This weekend, I’ll be heading south to the Philly Bike Expo. I’m really looking forward to the weekend! Photos and a followup should be posted early next week.

Google Maps Bicycling Directions

kevin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:03:32 +0000

After years of repeated requests, Google has added cycling routes to Google Maps. After experimenting for a bit, I found that it doesn’t always give the best routes, but it’s pretty good for an automated system. I think they probably optimized it for shorter rides, if you try to get directions for longer rides it gives you an unreasonable number of turns, probably to keep the overall distance shorter. At least it supports alternative routes and waypoints, like the driving directions, so it’s pretty easy to fine tune the directions to keep you on decent roads. It also assumes a pretty low average speed from a long distance cyclists’ viewpoint, but it’s probably in line with recreational riders.

Here’s what it came up with for a short coffee-after-lunch ride in Worcester. There’s an embeddable widget that gives just bike directions as well:

There’s a pretty good blog post from one of the developers with the details about how routes are calculated, and they’re soliciting feedback to improve directions. I’d like to see bicycling directions integrated into the public transit directions.

Shimano Alfine 11 speed quietly announced.

kevin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:50:50 +0000

Saw this info this morning via Hubstripping. The German cycling website Aktiv Radfahren posted info on an upcoming Alfine 11 speed hub, SG-S700, due in September of 2010 for 300 Euros. Reported 409% ratio, gear steps of 17% and 13%. Article translation is here.

IN STOCK NOW! (12/20/10)

I’ll keep an eye out for more official information from Shimano as it comes.

The Making of a Brooks Saddle

kevin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:54:25 +0000

Jtek Engineering Update and Pictures

kevin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:19:44 +0000

Jay Guthrie from Jtek Engineering has posted an update on the Jtek website with some pictures of his shop.

All of us here at Harris Cyclery wish you the best, Jay and Ryan.

Hipsters discussing Cyclocross, by steevo.

Elton — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:37:37 +0000

Text to speech videos, bike racing, laughter, by steevo.

“The last time I had butter I was climbing like a cat 3 track sprinter.”