It was the 28th of June, 2020; the perfect summer day. I remember it distinctly because of two important events that took place on that day. The first was the unfortunate discovery that I am highly sensitive to the venomous hairs of the Oak processionary caterpillar. If you’ve never wished you could use a cheese...

I had the pleasure of taking apart and servicing this cool piece of cycling history for one of my builds recently, so I decided to take a couple of pictures and write a few words about it. The SRAM Automatix was1 a truly automatic internally-geared hub. Unlike a regular kickback hub, where you have to pedal...

Most of the times when I build a bike, I have a pretty good idea of what I want the end result to look like before I even start. Sometimes, however, the bike will tell me what it wants to be instead. This vintage Bottecchia used to be a pretty boring city bike that I wanted to convert to single speed and drop bars....

This is the first build where, instead of starting from a full bike, I started with the bare frame and added the parts that I thought would best fit the image I had formed in my mind the first time I saw it. An interesting hack is the 10-speed SRAM GX MTB shifter mounted to the 31.8 mm section of the drop bars. I...

Update: A front-derailleur clamp for braze-on front derailleurs, like the BBB ShiftFix, might be an even better option than the seat clamp. I especially like that an FD clamp hinges open; this eliminates the risk of marring the finish of the handlebars when sliding the clamp over the thicker part. Another big plus...

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. Feel free to drop me a...