Yesterday night, using house on the Hudson River Greenway, I got here throughout the aftermath of a nasty-looking collision. The police had been already on the scene and I didn’t wish to get in the way in which, nor did I wish to stand round snapping photos, which felt sleazy and disrespectful. Nonetheless, I did permit myself to rubberneck as I handed, and one of many folks concerned was on certainly one of this stuff:

Now, I do know the outdated saying: “If you soar to conclusions you make an ass out of you and me.” So I do know I shouldn’t assume that it was the scooter rider’s fault. Additionally, the scooter rider seemed fairly damage, and I hope he’s okay.

HAVING SAID THAT…

These items go quick. Actually quick. What began out as some little motorized gizmos that had been supposed to interchange quick automotive journeys has now morphed into folks in physique armor dashing by you on the bike path at 30mph wanting like they’re mining for valuable minerals on the floor of an alien planet. Then mere yards from the scene of the crash you’ve bought these bruhtzes whipping round on electrical dirtbikes or one thing:

And by the point to get to the George Washington Bridge it’s principally all gas-powered bikes:

Curiously, riders of high-powered electrical “micromobility” gizmos nearly all the time put on full-faced helmets, whereas riders of unregistered gasoline-powered bikes nearly all the time put on no helmet in any respect. I’ve no explicit emotions about this, thoughts you, I’m merely documenting their folkways.

As for my emotions about fast-moving motorized contraptions on the bike lane (be they powered by electrical energy or gasoline) I’m undecided what to do about it, and at this level I don’t know that there’s something you are able to do about it, but it surely’s actually beginning to suck ass. Everywhere in the remainder of the nation it looks as if persons are more and more turning to gravel using and mountain biking as a result of they not really feel snug on the roads, however right here in New York Metropolis we’re getting near the purpose the place as an alternative of using within the bike lane you’d moderately experience on the street the place it’s “secure.”

Shifting on, this can be a derailleur weblog now, and a commenter yesterday talked about this:

What’s the level of weighing an electrical derailleur with out the battery?

It makes about as a lot sense as a “wi-fi crankset:”

However sure, in its ineffective battery-free state the most recent Tremendous Report derailleur–which might be the most costly derailleur you should buy other than that weird Jan Heine factor–weighs solely barely lower than an extended cage SunTour CX Comp derailleur from the late Nineteen Eighties:

Which is the subsequent chain-moving system we’ll be taking a look at within the more and more tedious Traditional Cycle twenty first Century Friction Shifter Shootout:

Now, clearly the SunTour is healthier than the Tremendous Report Wi-fi unit in each means–and when you don’t imagine me, go purchase a Tremendous Report Wi-fi derailleur and see if it’ll work on any of your bikes. However how does it stand as much as the opposite derailleurs in our check? Nicely, regardless of its age it’s bought all the trendy options, together with the much-vaunted slant parallelogram, which in fact SunTour invented:

It was additionally designed to work with an listed system:

I do know firsthand that it didn’t click on very nicely as a result of the Rock Combo got here with SunTour so-called “Accushift” shifters, and it’s an excellent factor the rear one had a friction mode as a result of it listed very poorly certainly. Moreover, after I modified the rear wheel to Hyperglide, I discovered that the XC Comp rear derailleur would hit the spokes when within the lowest gear on the 8-speed cassette. For that reason alone, I used to be skeptical. Nonetheless, wanting on the inboard facet of the cage, it did look like the profile was lots smoother than the one I had been utilizing, so possibly there was hope:

Certainly, my skepticism turned out to be unfounded, and as soon as mounted there was no spoke contact. Right here’s the derailleur within the massive cog and small chainring:

And right here it’s within the massive cog and enormous chainring:

Clearly that is fairly a stretch for a long-cage derailleur meant to wrap a triple-length chain, however I doubt it’s sufficient to trigger any injury if I had been to shift into that combo accidentally.

Shifter place in low gear was proper in between the 90-degrees-from-downtube place of the older derailleurs and the parallel-with-the-floor place of the newer ones:

And so far as efficiency, it labored completely nicely:

I suppose it appeared to run rather less quietly than the newer derailleurs, but when so I’d think about that was in all probability a results of the 10-speed chain working on 7-speed-era pulleys. I additionally didn’t have that “Holy crap, that is good!” second I had with the Veloce, which by some means felt extra “exact,” although that might merely be a perform of the SunTour’s comparatively dowdy look:

Fake crabon weave parallelogram however, when using a highway bike it’s ineffective to faux you wouldn’t moderately look down and see a shiny silver Campagnolo derailleur, so whereas it’s tempting to say the Veloce objectively feels higher I can’t low cost the likelihood I’m merely imagining it:

That apart, it accommodates the whole cassette, it really works nice, it’s bought all the trendy options, and in contrast to Campy stuff it isn’t pointlessly costly on the used market:

(Although given my expertise with spoke clearance on the Rock Combo it’s attainable some mannequin years work higher than others on newer bikes.)

So sure, as Paul’s Put up-it portended, friction is certainly the reply right here, and if I didn’t have an entire field stuffed with shiny derailleurs there can be no purpose to not hold utilizing this one:

And sure, I can’t wait to lastly decide on a winner and tidy up that cable, although I’m sort of stunned not doing so hasn’t grow to be a development. In any case, like uncut guitar strings, an uncircumcised cable does have type of a beatnik insouciance:

I’ll stay up for my Nobel Prize.