Tag: Substack

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Show #663 – February 25, 2025

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Guests: John Surico; Paul Swift

My guests today are NYC’s Professor John Surico and the bike fitter’s bike fitter, Paul Swift.

John is one of my favorite repeat guests as those of you who are regular listeners know.   When I want to know what is happening in the Big Apple about sustainability, bike crashes, open streets, and anything else that has to do with urban life, Professor John Surico is my guy.  His substack blog “Streetbeat” is one of my favorite reads each month.

And go figure, this conversation was recorded exactly one day before the President put the kabosh on congestion pricing in NYC.

John and I had spoken last May about the project and how it was on again and off again and how he was looking forward to what it might do for NYC. The cameras went online in January and the immediate effects were pretty amazing.

Early in January, the long-awaited program to help ease traffic in NYC went into effect.  The cameras went on and lo and behold – traffic eased, Broadway saw a 20% increase in ticket sales, and crashes were down a whopping 30% – and that was in just two winter months.

But along with many other programs, the president decided he didn’t like congestion pricing and in the stroke of his marker, had the cameras turned off.  The legal wrangling that is going on is yet to be decided, but the day I spoke with John, things were looking pretty rosy.

Follow his substack journal, Streetbeat.  It publishes at the beginning of every month and is always an interesting and wide-ranging look at the urban world.

My second guest is Paul Swift – the bike fitter’s fitter and developer of many cycling related products that facilitate a better experience on the bike – whether on the ground or in the gym. 

Paul’s philosophy stems from observation, as well it should in my opinion.  He recognizes that sizing is not fitting, and that it takes many years and thousands of fits to see what you are actually looking at and before making the changes necessary to accomplish a comfortable and efficient position with great results.

Paul Swift has been developing his fitting techniques for decades.  He also sees things IN those fits that have led to a plethora of products from the wedges fitters might use under your cycling cleats to his line of saddles.

As he mentioned, you can find him on social media @askthefitter.  Check out his line of saddles at 90K.com or go to his website thecyclepoint.com and watch how he does what he does.

 

September 25_Transcript

 

 

 

 

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Show #613 – October 4, 2022

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Guest: Andy Boenau

I want to begin with a question.

How many times have you stood at or ridden up to an intersection and waited – and waited – and waited, for the light to change or for the traffic to clear, or just to feel safe enough to actually make it across?

If you answered even once – let alone the multiple times most of us have been unable to trip a light or waited in the rain – you’re going to want to hear what Andy Boneau has to say.

Andy is a planner, except he’s not.  He’s a transportation engineer, except not really.

What Andy is is a storyteller and an observer of people, places, and the many ways that they don’t get along.  But, Andy is also a believer in positive outcomes and his unique – and almost always happy and positive – outlook gets things done.

Example – multimodal balance… what is it?  When Andy breaks it down, there’s a truth that isn’t often expressed… there isn’t any.

Or, how about an easy way to get from point a to point b on one app with several different modes – say bikeshare, shuttle, and then maybe walk the last few blocks? How can we accomplish THAT?

Andy writes about all the observations and ideas he has at Urbanism Speakeasy on Substack.  Our conversation today is just a smattering of these ideas.

What a great conversation… You can follow Andy at urbanismspeakeasy.com – his podcast and written blog entries are fascinating and full of great information and ideas.

Next time on TOC, we’ll get an update from Russian frame builder Dmytri Nechaev.  Last time we spoke, he was on his way to Israel to escape what was becoming the protracted war still raging in Ukraine.

Now 7 months later, we’ll learn what has transpired with him, his crew that was still in Russia, and what the future holds.

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Show #593 – February 12, 2022

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Guests: Matt Stoller; Tom Kellogg (encore presentation)

My first guest is Matt Stoller, the research director at the American Economic Liberties Project. The organization is Non-profit and non-partisan, the organization is part of a growing, cross- ideological movement to combat monopolistic corporations and the systems that entrench their power.

But, what does that mean and how does their work relate to the bicycle business? In fact, it does – in a way that I think may both interest and infuriate you.

Matt’s article titled “The Bicycle Thieves” appeared his newsletter BIG on Substack back in January. In it, Matt calls out those who are trying to build a world without independent bicycle shops.

Over the past few decades, the bike industry has become more and more consolidated.

Where we used to see robust competition and innovation from the likes of Sun Tour and Stronglight, to name just a couple, we now see just Shimano with SRAM and Campagnolo running distant seconds and thirds and a smattering of companies treading water in the bottom of the barrel.

Where we saw independent bicycle shops literally on almost every corner in America, we now see Trek and Specialized “company stores” as the two behemoths buy up smaller independent shops with the intention to either take them over or shut them down.

The bicycle industry isn’t, of course, the only place this is or has been happening – consolidation and “vertical integration” has been going on in pharmacies, groceries, and, with Amazon in the mix, just about every other industry on the planet.

The antitrust laws and regulations that have been on the books for decades have been loosened, ignored, or conveniently disregarded with little political will to strengthen or enforce them.

This begs a big question for me (although there is more than one!) Is this a good thing? And, if so, for whom?

Is it possible that the pendulum is beginning to swing in the other direction and, is there political will to help it along?

*** Here is the link to the February 17th  FTC Meeting information as mentioned on the show.

In the second half of the show, I’m offering up an encore presentation of another iconic framebuilder – one who influenced our custom bicycle world for years and years. And, since it was his birthday this past week, I thought I’d bring him back.

Tom Kellogg may no longer be building frames, but his contributions to the artisan bicycle world were and continue to be immense. Happy Birthday to him and you can hear our conversation in the second half of the show.