Grant Petersen: The Big Bang Theory…of Bicycles
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I’ll talk about how wheels came to bicycles, about the early bikes, about the first boom and what caused it...about what led to the 73-year slump between 1897 and 1970, and who and what lead to the rebirth/comeback after that... Grant Petersen is a 1954 model human and is a well-known figure in the world of bikes as an independent thinker, and a good bicycle designer, and founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works. Grant worked for Bridgestone Cycle for ten years where he designed the XO series of bicycles. In 1994, he founded the Rivendell Bicycle Works, and has been there ever since. Grant is known to be suspect of race-born bicycle technology, and is generally opposed to complicated design and slavish prioritization of speed, light-weight and racing-led fashion — over tradition, comfort and durability. Rivendell specializes in bicycles intended for all sorts of riding outside of competition. In addition to lugged steel frames, signatures of this trend have included leather saddles, downtube or bar-end shifters in place of brifters, and the use of practical handlebars. A reformed racer who’s commuted by bike every day since 1980, Petersen’s writings and opinions appear in major bicycling and outdoor magazines. Grant Petersen shares a lifetime of unexpected facts, controversial opinions, expert techniques, and his own maverick philosophy. He has written four books, the most recent ones being “Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide To Riding Your Bike” and his newest book is the recently released “Eat Bacon, Don’t Jog.” Grant lives in California with his wife of 28 years, and has two daughters in college.
Comments
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Not many hour long youtube videos worth sitting through. This one was an exception.
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What a charming presentation!
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Grant Peterson is the man. I really like his view of the bike as a tool of adventure and not something solely for chasing speed.
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THE best explanation of bicycle history, particularly the draisine, not a fops plaything but a necessary application to changed circumstances, I never new Baron Drais was a forester.
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worth every minute of your time
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profound
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i'm a big fan of Grant
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Grant is surprisingly so funny.
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In this country we are dying from eating the wrong foods and not exercising but after a talk about bikes people want to dwell on hype and cite incidents that stoke fear. It's much more dangerous on your couch than riding your bike. I get this attitude from parents and teachers at elementary school bike rodeos as they load their kid into the car and head out to the freeway. If we want to put a mandatory helmet law to good use we should require kids to wear helmets in cars.
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GP's advice on conditioning leg muscles brought this anecdote to mind:
In 1960-61 my junior high got a visit from Michael DeBakey, who was then famous for his pioneering work in open heart surgery. Such surgery is taken for granted today but back then your fate was pretty much sealed if you had heart disease, until modern surgical tecniques were common..
Anyway I still remember DeBakey urging everyone in the audience (comprised of 11-13 yearr old students and their teachers) to exercise, and to concentrate particularly on the leg muscles, because those muscles assisted the heart in moving blood upward against the force of gravity. Even back then there was concern that the "younger generation" was out of shape from too many sedentary pastimes like TV.
DeBakey recommended walked and also what he referred to as "fahrt-lekking", which is German or Swedish and means something like "walk then run". I guess we'd use the term "interval training", but DeBakey's term had us all cracking up. -
Less than 600 views? This is a great talk. I think mr p is right on the money with his vision for bikes.
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Thanks for posting this. Nice lecture and wood tie. Surprised Grant just went along with the "ahh biking's dangerous" commentators. Sure improvements could be made. But I'm a safety sally, if biking on the urban(san francisco) city streets was all that dangerous I'd be doing something else.
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