Thank you from the bottom of my saddlebag for the heart-felt (I’m assuming) Blog-A-Versary well-wishings and for your generous contributions, in return for which you will now receive another half-assed blog post, which hardly seems fair. But life isn’t fair, is it? Just ask the guy who was embarking upon the 2,700 Tour Divide race but had to quit about 50 miles in when his crabon bike touched a rock:
This story comes via a reader named John, and of the many ways I am fortunate, perhaps chief among them is that I have readers who slog through ultra-endurance race reports so I don’t have to. See, my feelings on these undertakings are well-known, and any race that involves following dots that are 150 miles apart is virtually attention-proof as far as I’m concerned:
Low clouds draped over the mountains beneath a drizzling rain, but the mood was electric as 221 riders gathered in Banff for Friday’s 7 a.m. start of the 2026 Tour Divide. The group was divided into 10-minute waves to prevent bottlenecks, but the field rapidly spread out from there. Within 12 hours, nearly 150 miles separated the first and last moving dots.
By the way, there was some discussion regarding The Crabon in the comments recently, with readers pointing out that it’s obviously a robust material since they make airplanes out of it and stuff. This is obviously true, though it fails to take into account that there’s a tremendous amount of oversight and regulation of the aviation industry, whereas in cycling it’s some German guy strapping a bunch of luggage to a few scraps of the stuff hastily designed by some bike bros and attempting to ride it from Banff to the Mexican border. Also, whether it’s attacking another country or flying to Fort Lauderdale to visit grandma, people are generally using airplanes in the manner for which they were designed, whereas in cycling is like some overweight middle-aged mortgage broker who started flying three years ago deciding to buy a Lockheed Martin F-35 because he read a glowing review of its lightning-fast acceleration.
So yes, absolutely, a competent person purchasing a competently-designed crabon bike and using it the way it was meant to be used is almost certainly going to have a satisfactory experience, but this is cycling and the word “competent” is doing a lot of work here…though even I have to admit he probably could have fixed that seat stat with some Gorilla Glue and some duct tape.
Speaking of sports, and my Blog-A-Versary, is it a coincidence that on the very same day this blog officially turned 19 the New York Basketball Knickerbockers won their first championship since 1872? I mean sure, it’s convenient call this a coincidence because it frees us from having to confront the idea that the universe is governed by forces too great and profound for us to comprehend, but nothing really happens by accident, now does it? And while nobody’s dyeing bagels in my honor (at least as far as I know)…
…i maintain that I am just as much of a New York institution:
By the way, it occurs to me that yesterday I rode my own personal Tour Divide, since I rode about as far as that German guy did, and on a bicycle that would easily survive a two-meter drop:
In fact, if it were to fall on a rock, I’d be much more concerned about the rock.
Some people may need to ride from Canada to Mexico to get their kicks, but I get tremendous satisfaction and enjoyment from having figured out how to connect the various mountain bike trails north of the city and ride off-road for several hours without having to resort to driving or doing the same loop over and over:
These range from popular destination trails in county parks to uncharted ones deep in unnamed woods:
I used to ride over stuff like that until I reached A Certain Age, but now I seldom do, since I’ll take the virtual certainty of not falling over the moderate possibility of falling. Sure, the bicycle would no doubt shrug it off, but my body might not be so resilient, and I’d hate to have to stay off the bike for awhile because I had to prove to myself I can ride over a log. Plus, my job as the Old Crap Test Pilot is perilous enough as it is:
Still, there are certain hazards you can’t always avoid, such as wildlife encounters:
The hissing geese were frightening enough, but it was the rabbit I was most concerned about:
For obvious reasons:
Fortunately the rabbit overshot me and I kept my head, and the rest of the ride was delightful:
By the way, a reader recently commented on the weight of the Jones:
It’s a hefty bike, to be sure, though for this sort of riding I’m not sure it really matters that much, at least to me.
But don’t give me any ideas.
