John Neugent has gone west, according to Bicycle Retailer. He was 76.
Like many of us in the bike biz John wore a series of hats. His résumé includes stints at (or with) Sunshine Cycle, Service Cycle, Sachs USA, EV Global, Trico and Schwinn.
Eventually he went consumer direct under his own shingle — Neugent Cycling — and kept in touch with his customers via e-mail newsletter and a YouTube channel that he used as a showcase for his banjo chops and wheelbuilding skills.
John was an affable gent, occasionally mildly retrogrouchy, but without the grouchy bits, and he maintained a certain flexibility as regards the catechism. Here’s an example from a March 2019 edition of his newsletter:
It recently occurred to me that there is a generation, maybe two, who never used friction shifting. The type I grew up with that preceded index shifting, hyperglide, and electric shifting. Any real rider would also have downtube shifting where you needed to take one hand off the bars and bend over enough to reach the downtube. There are no studies done on this, because, in all likelihood, a bike like that made with modern technology would result in a much less expensive, lighter, and, one could argue, better bike. The real problem: They would be less expensive.
Imagine if you might how light a real 10-speed (five in the back and two up front) with downtube shifters and pedals using toe clips would be. Add tubular tires and carbon frames and rims and you are probably well under 10 pounds. Probably even more when you consider how much weight they could save in brakes, derailleurs, chain, sprockets, and anything else. I know there are grand fondos that require the use of bikes like that but they don’t use today’s technology.
At some point they are going to have bikes that pedal themselves. Oh wait, they’ve already done that. They’re called electric bikes and they are the new rage. How come I feel that many steps forward are really steps backward?
If someone presented a post-modern bike like the one I imagine I bet people would look at it with awe in the same way they recently did with single-speed bikes (known as track bikes 50 years ago). True spoke-sniffers like myself are not only dreaming of the possibilities, but are thinking about how to put one together with parts lying around.
John and I emailed back and forth now and then, and I always enjoyed his laid-back perspective on La Velo Nostra. I never got my DBR Prevail TT down to 10 pounds, but it wasn’t the fault of his Neuvation wheelset — I hung on to my heavy STI shifters, nine-speed cassette, clipless pedals, and ti’/chromoly frameset.
Peace to John, his family, friends, and customers. He will be missed.
Mad Blog Media 
Sad to hear of his passing. I bought a wheelset from him though I had bad luck with it. He stood behind his product though. I remember him saying he got a bad batch of bladed spokes from Taiwan. Regardless, he was always good to email and talk to. It seems I am now a man “of a certain age” though I do not feel that way. Don’t tell my wife though; she either won’t believe you or she will then I’ll be done in.
Good bye John Neugent. Hope the riding is better where you are now, if there is such a place.
Sad, especially since John was not that far off the front from a certain pair of New Mexico cyclists.
I’ve never had a great desire for super lightweight wheelsets. My only experience with them was having one of the hubs crack on a road trip, liberating the spokes on one of those little protuberances and leaving me looking for a set of wheels.
https://labikes.blogspot.com/2017/07/now-surgery-on-bike.html
But great respect for John and his company.
On one bike, it’s still sporting a 22 year old pair of Wheelsmith built wheels (700c) on old Ultegra hubs that are still butter smooth. Nope, not gossamer light but neither is Herb these days. Can’t count how many variations of tires were used.
Man, I loved those Wheelsmith hoops. I paid a visit on those folks waaaaay back in the Before-Time®, when VeloNews was doing a “Made in USA” thing and sending me hither and yon to interview bidnesspersons. I had a bulletproof set of their wheels — long gone, alas — and still have the T-shirt and hat they gifted me.
Wheels Part 2. In the way back shop days I used to build and rebuild wheels. Lord I hated the early Mavic rims so much that I had to almost be sedated when forced to use them which everyone wanted at one point since they were light and narrow and mated up with the shitty Turbo folding tires from the S company. The Mavics were neither round nor had a seam you could live with. And then…..one magical day…they were just swell. I never learned what they did in the production process but as POG can attest they became reliable. I ended up with the Wheelsmith wheels somehow on a bike trade and noticed GODDAMNIT! they used Mavic rims!! I’m still eating crow 22 years later since I’ll bet there are millions of miles folks have rolled on those rims. But there was a time I tells ya.
Wheels Part 3. Shops used to get pre-built replacement wheels for average bike boom 10 speeds. Oh the pain of the chrome steel Rigida rims which were anything but. Forget about braking in damp, let alone wet weather. And of course the spoke tension on these aftermarket wheels was worse than a poorly strung banjo and never dished right. Many a mechanic knew that after blowing up a rear wheel, and getting these aftermarket wheels, the poor bastard would be back in the shop soon enough with yet (another) wobbling rim. But it was cheaper/faster than tearing down a wheel and lacing new spokes into what was normally a crappy hub to begin with.
Excel Sports out of Boulder used to offer a really nice, affordable set of Mavic Open Pros laced to either Ultegra or Dura-Ace hubs with DT spokes, and all these years later I still have four of them on bikes.
The legendary wrench Brian Gravestock, when he was still at Old Town Bike Shop in the B-burg, took an old set of Hügi MTB hubs I had lying around the garage and laced ’em up to Open Pros, and that wheelset is on my single-ring Voodoo Wazoo, which I just herded around the Elena Gallegos trails yesterday.
Rivendell’s stock wheelsets are solid, too, when they’re not being reserved for frameset customers’ build kits. Not cheap, but these days what is? Rich Lesnik does their BTO wheels, I believe, and I have two pair of those, both using Velocity rims. Good stuff.
Life is too short to ride shit wheels.
I’m still running two sets of Mavic Open Pros built at Excel. One on Campy and one on Shimano. Not sure what I’ll do when these die, assuming they die before I do. Seems all the stuff in the bike shops nowadays is for these wider tubeless wonders.
Back at you, Herb. My first adult bike, a Motobecane Mirage, came with those steel Rigida wheels. Stopping in the wet, and it was often wet on Long Island, was a thing you didn’t want to think about. Finally, even though the Rigidas were still pretty round, I took the high flange wheelset to the local bike shop and told them to shitcan the steel rims and lace on a decent set of aluminum ones, whose name escapes me. Either early Mavic or Weinman.
That old Mirage got quite a bit of a makeover before I was happy with it, given it was the bike I bought before I started riding much as an adult. But it was a fun project. I think this pic is what it finally ended up looking like.
Ah Motobecane! Had Le Champion in silver lilac and did many a century on her. Sold it to a friend who recently notified me he was looking to sell it and a Motobecane Team Champion in Mercyx orange. Both with Campy gruppos and sew ups. Tempted but I’d go broke buying sew ups these days IF available. He’s had both stored for decades. I took the various bearings out a few years back and they were still perfect so I repacked and hubs, crank and headsets were smooth as silk.
Woo-hoo. Old listing, damn it.
https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/vintage-1973-i-think-motobecane-team-champion.95021/
If I found one of those Team Champions in Merckx Orange in my size (the one in that listing looks like my size), I’d buy it. Beauty.
We (first wife and I) bought that Mirage, along with a Peugeut UO-8 for her, in the summer of 1979 during the ’79 gas crisis on the east coast. Before that, the only bikes I ever owned were a second hand 20″ and a Sears single speed I rode all through school. So Le French Bicycle was a big upgrade although in retrospect, the Super Mirage would have saved me on the wheel upgrade. But we were barely scraping by that year on my grad stipend and wife’s job.
Had that Mirage for a couple weeks and was promptly hit by a car. Got a new front wheel and front fork out of it, along with a small settlement for the TBI (the a-hole who hit me was barely insured). The seat clamp finally cracked after I moved to Hawaii but the seat was not moving even with that issue. I sold the bike for fifty bucks to an undergrad after finding an early ’80s Univega Specialissima in a garage sale in almost new condition.