Holy Thursday, I Just Realized It's Good Friday Tomorrow!!!

So tomorrow is Good Friday.

What's so good about it?

I won't be posting, that's what!

I will, however, be back on Monday, April 17th with regular(ish) updates, and of course the Bike Forecast will continue unmolested.

Another wonderful thing about Monday is that I'll be bloviating about the burgeoning pastime of "all-terrain bicycling" at the REI in the popular South of Houston* neighborhood in Manhattan:

(*It's not pronounced "Houston" like the city, it's pronounced "Dallas" for reasons unknown.)

Expect:

--My highly subjective opinions about bicycles presented as immutable facts;

--Exciting giveaways, including caps from Walz and coffee from Just Coffee;

--The opportunity to pay NYCMTB money in exchange for a copy of my latest book, which I will even sign and bedazzle for you if you'd like:

And in terms of practical advice, I'll clue you in on how to get to and from some pretty good dirt riding in and around New York City without having to rely on a car (or an expensive bouncy bike, for that matter).

This could lead to a whole new career for me:

Speaking of megalomania, Mike Sinyard says that in two years everyone will be on disc brakes:

"If you think abut the disc brake in everything, whether it’s the car or the motorcycle and also the mountain bike, it’s so logical because with the disc brake you can have so much more precise control, and I believe it’s adding more safety, not danger," Sinyard said. "If anything the chainring on the front is the more dangerous piece. The disc brake is the future. In the future we won’t look at road bikes that don’t have disc brakes. They will all have them.

Well in the present I won't look at Specialized bikes regardless of what braking system they use, so I suppose that's fair.

Of course, Sinyard is specifically talking about the Pro Freds here, but the fact is once he conquers them the Amateur Freds will then fall like dominos (or like triathletes), since Amateur Freds grow squeamish and uncomfortable when their bikes no longer reflect what the pros are using--and that means he gets to sell them new frames, new wheels, new everything.

It's genius.  GENIUS I TELL YOU.

And for the record, let me say I'm all for it, because I can't wait until all the little Freddies are riding around with these stupid things on their bikes:

(It's the 21st century "lawyer lip.")

But don't worry, little Freddies, the ones on your bike will be crabon:

Pictured here are pre-production 3D printed prototypes, the finished product will – unsurprisingly for Tune – arrive in carbon fibre.

If nothing else, the elegant simplicity of the road bicycle has now gone the way of rotary phones and, well, pretty much every other kind of phone.  For that matter, so has the idea of a quiet road bike.  Hit your local Fred route and you'll be amazed at how loud road bikes have become.  Between the whooshy crabon wheels and the incessantly ticking BB-whatever bottom brackets they already sounded rickety enough; then came the discs and the concomitant rotor rub whenever the road surface was anything but completely dry.  Throw these new disc brake pie plates into the mix and the road bike in the future is sure to sound like a real rattletrap.

I love it.

And with that, I'm off, but will see you back here on Monday.

Ride safe.

I love and miss you,

--Wildcat Rock Machine