Tego
Tego
Tego
This website is where I ramble on about random topics that catch my fancy now and then. Please don’t expect any particular theme. Things that interest me include programming, bicycle repair, archery, books, and writing, but I’m probably going to write about other stuff too when I feel like it.
Latest Posts
I’ve been thinking lately of ways I could shave some grams off my new bike, especially around the wheels, but without spending too much money. I’m no weight weenie by any means—my kickstand attests to that—but I’m also not above reaching...
I still love these colors! That is all.
No, I’m not that aero yet, I’m talking about chain wax. I’ve been meaning to ditch chain oil for a while now, because I’m really fed up with cleaning my drivetrain and un-gunking the jockey wheels all the time. Wax also doesn’t turn into...
I love these colors! That is all. Before After
If this post’s title sounds a little familiar, it’s because this is the second time I rebuild one of these K2 bikes. The bike itself is nothing special–though these entry-level MTBs from the ’90s never cease to amaze me with how well...
In my last post I wrote about Johann Hari’s book Stolen Focus. The article sparked a really nice discussion over at Hacker News, where a user had this to say: Ideas should be judged on their merits, but based on previous behavior I...
Do you remember the avocado toast guy? I read Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus recently (you should read it, it’s great), and I learned that someone1 has come up with a name for this sort of modern reinterpretation of “let them eat cake”:...
I’m kicking off the new year with a new category on the blog: reviews. There will be books, movies, video games, and maybe even tools. As with everything on this website that practically no one visits, I’m doing this mostly for my own...
I don’t have much to say about this bike other than, boy, what an interesting life it must have had. The ceramic wheels can’t have been part of the original equipment, and the AMP Research linkage fork sure wasn’t. The fork looks cool,...
Oh boy was this bike a lot of work! By far the hardest out of all my projects so far. I went into this build highly determined to avoid all the mistakes I did last time, so I spent an ungodly amount of time wet-sanding the old paint down...
I painted a bike! For a long time I’ve wanted to introduce painting to my restoration process, but I was always held back by not having a well-ventilated area to do it in. I kept putting it off until later this year when I’ll move into a...
Have you ever tried taking your hands off the handlebars while riding your bike? Scary, innit? The bars start wobbling all over the place, and images of the front wheel suddenly becoming perpendicular to the rest of the bike–followed...
When I was a child, growing up in post-communist Romania, very few people owned cars1, and those that did usually had some real clunkers2. Every single weekend some neighbor would be outside from dawn to dusk, banging and fixing on his...
I briefly mentioned this bike before, when I talked about how I got into bike repair. The bike was “analog” back then, but my wife has meanwhile developed some problems with the tendons on one of her feet, which have impeded her ability...
I don’t know if this is a new trend or if I’m just noticing it now, but more and more the popular wisdom seems to be that you shouldn’t monetize your hobby. That if you do, it turns it into a job, a hustle1; that it sucks all the fun out...