Author Archives: 16incheswestofpeoria

About 16incheswestofpeoria

Former bicycle mechanic, current peruser of books, feeder of birds.

Taking a stand: A five-year-old gets his way

Posted on October 14, 2019

The kid may have understood time as an idle train blocking the crossing ahead for no good reason. Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Other bicycles, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Invention of Nothing

Posted on September 24, 2019

If you like to ride road bikes and you’ve been paying attention to them for a few decades, you’ve noticed quite a bit of change, especially on the high end. In the 1980s, indexed shifting replaced the need to manually … Continue reading →

Posted in Becoming a bicycle, Equipment | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Fixing unnecessary noise when you can

Posted on September 20, 2019

The guy who owns the empty property next to me is running a generator to move water up and out of an otherwise unused well. The water is piped out of the well to a five-gallon bucket a few feet … Continue reading →

Posted in maintenance | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Buying a bicycle on your own

Posted on September 19, 2019

You know how to ride a bicycle. Why should buying it be any more difficult? You walk into a shop or browse a website intent on the tangibles: construction, components, brand, color, whether it’s a road bike or recumbent, mountain … Continue reading →

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Days of future passed at the 2019 Midwest Tandem Rally

Posted on September 2, 2019

How do you rate yourself as a climber? Faster than a few? Slower than most? Hoping for shorter climbs? Remembering the good old days? I don’t consider myself a climber at all. Never have. And neither do people who pass … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-Motion tandem, Report from the road | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The $14-thousand-dollar bike rack

Posted on August 22, 2019

On average I buy a car every 10.5 years. I don’t do it because I like cars, or because I believe cars are an unmitigated good, or because Jesus would drive a car if everyone else did. (I have nothing … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Into the wind with Marie Kondo

Posted on August 11, 2019

It’s a short ride for some but not for us. Not today. We leave with the wind in our faces. We return with the wind in our faces. The math of these two statements cannot be denied; we pack the … Continue reading →

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