Many of us ended 2020 thinking “good riddance”, and full of hope for 2021.
This year certainly was better than the last, despite covid still gatecrashing our party, and hanging around! Still, many things thankfully returned to normal and overall it’s been an active year for me.
Strava tells me I did 234hrs of activity over 157 active days: on the bike 4,337km ridden, 53k m climbed, in the pool or sea 15kms swum, and not sure how many hours of yoga. And it felt great!
Most visitors to the blog this year came from the US, then the UK, Germany, Canada and France, but we also had visitors from as exotic places as Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Guatemala and Kazakhstan! Thank you to all of you for your interest, encouragement and engagement! 😌🙏
Your top five most read blog posts this year were:
- Vintage Gaggia Baby espresso machine restoration: over a couple of blog posts, I resurrect this broken bright orange treasure and find espresso nirvana
- Retro Rescue: Shimano Dura Ace PD-7401 pedals: I dismantle and tidy up these historic pedals
- Fuji Del Rey (1985!): an early post about my first vintage road bike, the one that got me hooked on restoring old racers
- Retro Rescue: Deore DX shifter: I restore a non-working trigger shifter to full functionality, the hard way!
- Retro Rescue: Shimano PD-A550 pedals: I disassemble and service these vintage Shimano pedals
Perhaps surprisingly you readers are more interested in coffee than in bicycles! You’ll be pleased to read there will be more coffee stuff in 2022.
I also rescued and restored a rare Fondriest super-light steel and carbon road bike, culminating in the road test and comparison with my Colnago Tecnos in the Italian alps. A clash of late 90s titans!
Then I got into a groove servicing and repairing bike hubs: Mavic Aksium Elite, Mavic Ksyrium, Fulcrum Racing 5 Evolution
And I also visited Disneyland Paris with my family, discovered a rare Swiss bike marque, became enlightened as to the magic of coffee grinders, got my first turbo trainer, and learned the black art of inkjet printer repair!
I certainly enjoyed it all, and hope you did too. Wishing all readers a joyful and restorative festive season.
Bring on 2022!
velobrico - retro bicycle repair, cycling and other DIY repairs 