Back In the Saddle

Friends,

It has been almost a year since my last post. Apologies.

The reason for my furlough was this:
I took a job with a well-known bicycle maker and agreed to put this project on hold to avoid conflicts of interest. In the meantime, my contributions to that company's offerings have reached the market, and I am proud to say they added some civility to an increasingly wild industry.

Now seems like a fine time to restart this blog. I will remain anonymous and keep my ties to the industry separate.

In my absence, the finer side of the bicycle industry has gone mainstream. Boutique bicycle makers are springing up as fast as they can graduate from UBI (beware that some of these freshmen need some more time to grow). An explosion of ridership has resulted from a convergence of simultaneous trends; people are going green, cities are investing in pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure, the technicolor track-bike craze* introduced a new generation to cycling as a way of life, bicycle-themed stories are popping up in media outlets on a daily basis and bike blogs are too many to count. Cycling is now stylish, de rigueur.

Oh yes, and I've been doing an awful lot of riding.

(Maybe I sweat a little bit on tour.)

* the craze seems to have plateaued and left a new generation of riders finding their way to a more civilized version of cycling. A quick glance at your local Craigslist will find hundreds of fixies for sale, not even a year old. The bike-as-consumer-status-symbol trend is giving way to the bike-as-practical-transportation trend. (I imagine a future of American cities teeming with distinguished, respectful cyclists.)