Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i Bicycling

1 Every one of us has had (or soon will) at least one bicycle that for many reasons we never should have bought but for some reason could not resist. And those are the bicycles that change who we are. I got my first when I was 17. I was about to become the only person in my family who’d ever gone to college, and I’d worked all summer as a laborer for a bricklayer to earn tuition. Instead, I took most of the money I’d saved and bought a Schwinn Paramount (with Campagnolo Nuovo Record) that I somewhat mysteriously and perhaps mystically and certainly foolishly could no longer imagine life without. My parents assured me I’d destroyed my future. ¶ My mom and I still get a laugh out…

PRICE $750 WEIGHT 26.2 LB (S) At first, I hesitantly pointed the Redux 2 toward coarse gravel, interloping tree roots, and unidentifiable sidewalk debris. But the bike soaked it all up, leaving me thrilled yet bewildered as I rolled on. Soon I was bombing dirtroad shoulders and the unkempt grounds of a defunct golf course with this mountain-bikey townie. ¶ Then it all made sense: The Redux is based on the Tokul, Raleigh’s hardtail mountain bike. With 27.5-inch balloon tires, I trucked over potholes and hopped curbs without a worry. Rack and fender mounts top off this stylish and reliable commuter that lets you get into trouble—but always gets you out of it.…

PRICE $2,700 (FRAMESET) WEIGHT 14.5 LB, AS TESTED (S) Snowboarding was my first love, actually. I was intoxicated by the way the air rushed past me and the feel of that thin metal edge digging into the slope so hard it carved swoopy S’s into the snow. I used to stop at the bottom and try to pick out my line. I liked that out of all the possible ways to descend the mountain, this was the way that only I had seen. ¶ Perhaps this is why, of all the moments that the Ritte Ace made me feel fast—and there were many—this one stood out most: The eight of us came screaming downhill into a 90-degree right-hander. Before we hit the entrance, Ryan turned and warned me that a…

My Juliana Joplin hums over the dusty Namibian singletrack. In this heat, sweat instantly evaporates, leaving me crusted with salt. Whenever the trail kicks up, I choke back the metallic taste of blood. My contact lenses feel as if they’re about to crumble out of my eyes. But I can’t stop smiling. Is this what it feels like to fly? I’d just spent two and half years finding out how it feels to crash my life—pouring every bit of my sanity and money into a start-up apparel brand that fell apart just seven months after finally going live. By then, I’d gained 15 pounds and couldn’t shop for groceries without worrying that my card would be declined. So I did whatever it took to buy the Joplin, and signed up…

I used to work at a shop called Golden Saddle Cyclery in Los Angeles. When new cyclists would come in looking for a bike, I’d tell them that, instead of buying the most inexpensive option, they should try to envision where they would be in one or two years of riding. Buy a bicycle that can evolve with you, I’d say, because you have no idea how far it is going to take you. This was not some pitch designed just for the up sell. I was speaking from experience. When I first purchased a road bike more than 10 years ago, all I wanted was to ride around my neighborhood and maybe lose a few pounds. A buddy advised me to spend triple the $500 I had budgeted. That…

PRICE $4,000 WEIGHT 30.8 LB (M) It’s easy to believe that the quote on the previous page, from the film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, could apply to the Scott Genius 720 Plus. Thankfully, Scott did green light the Plus for production. ¶ The bike takes some getting used to: a bit of trail-bike suspension here, a mishmash of geometry there, and a skosh of fat bike in the wheels. Going fast in choppy terrain, it tends to buck until you get the tire pressure exactly dialed (it took me a half-dozen rides). Inflated to 10 psi in the front and 12 in the rear, the chunky, 2.8-inch-wide Schwalbe tires offered rockcrawler-like traction on slow-speed techy segments. The grip in high-speed corners turned almost…

PRICE $4,699 WEIGHT 28.7 LB (S) In 2015, the Juliana Furtado was, you know, a nice bike, with a personality that split the difference between cross-country and trail. We rode it and liked it. But it was overshadowed by Juliana’s queen bee, the 150mm-travel, enduro-capable Roubion. ¶ Then the Furtado came back from summer vacation with some updates. And we did a double take. ¶ The bike had clearly lifted a few notes from its bad-girl big sister: The 2016 version has a one-degree slacker head angle, shorter rear end, and longer top tube. Rear-wheel travel increased a smidgen to 130mm, and Juliana gave the VPP suspension a new tune that better resists bottom-outs. ¶ It all combined for a fiercer, take-lessshit attitude. On fast, rocky, steep downhills, the Furtado…

MATT PHILLIPS 43, has ridden more bikes than anyone else in the world in 20 years as BICYCLING’s gear guru DURANGO, COLORADO 1. There’s just something about the way a light bike feels even if aerodynamics matter more. 2. The Classics are more demanding on equipment and result in more interesting product development—so you get things like the Trek Domane and all the work Zipp had to do to get its wheels to survive Paris-Roubaix. 3. I like the ritual of putting it on. There’s an education you have to go through before you can properly use it. 4. Drop bars give you a lot of different positions. That’s pretty neat for one piece of metal. 5. But you can’t have technology without heritage. Technology is the result of evolution.…

PRICE $1,949 WEIGHT 24.0 LB (54CM) The versatile Renegade Exploit stands tall against the formula that you always need n+1 bikes, n being the number you already own. On a local route that climbs 6,500 feet over 70 mixed-terrain miles, the stiff-feeling steel frame and wide handlebar gave me the leverage I needed to rock to the top of steep dirt climbs. Knobby 35mm tires and hydraulic disc brakes helped me conquer loose, washedout descents. Weighed down with a seatpost bag and handlebar roll, the frame felt solid going into downhill, off-road turns. Then I popped on 25mm slick tires for some long road miles, and the bike exhibited a snappy feel on pavement. Rack and fender mounts make it suitable for all-weather commutes. It can even race cyclocross, Jamis…

PRICE $4,480 WEIGHT 27.3 lb (L) One of my home trails ends with an uphill approach to a road. Bikes that carry speed out of corners and dance across roughs will usually catch air here, typically long-travel bikes and 29ers. But the Habit SE— with 120mm of travel and 27.5-inch wheels—launched me almost to the other side. Exhilarated by that surprise hang time, I charged full-speed into the next trail, where a roller at the entrance sent me airborne again. But this time, it deposited me in a minefield of fist-size rocks. The bike bucked slightly but never lost composure, and though sealant was now spraying out of two new holes in the front tire, all I could do was laugh. That’s all you gotta know.…

PRICE $2,550, AS TESTED WEIGHT 24 LB (ONE SIZE) Maybe you’re intrigued by the portability of a Brompton— once folded, it’s easy to carry anywhere, including up apartment steps— but you’re worried those 16-inch wheels might not be efficient for your commute. Think again. This thing has a need for speed. You heard me right: I raced it on the Richmond Worlds course en route to winning the Brompton USA women’s world title. I hit speeds over 30 mph and averaged 16.5 mph over the wet, 10-mile loop, conquering the steep and cobbled pitches of Libby Hill. ¶ The S6L-X is more than capable of being an everyday bike, too, especially if your journey to work involves public transportation. Fold it up—which, with experience, you can do in less than…

PRICE $4,500, AS TESTED WEIGHT 16.1 LB (M) After a full week in front of the computer, I badly needed a ride, even if I was short on time—and fitness. But on the steep dirt climb, I felt better than expected, as if the Wilier GTR SL were goading me on with its light weight and stiffness. C’mon, you can click up one gear here. Stand up, hammer over that rise. ¶ Local work crews had been replacing a utility pipe that runs lengthwise down a paved descent, and the interim repair job was the worst I’d seen: strips of rumpled pavement, scars from backhoe blades, dirt patches running five feet wide. But on this capable and versatile all-around road bike— with slacker angles and a longer wheelbase than a…

“HERE IS A BICYCLE THAT IS A POEM. PRICE $3,500 WEIGHT 24.9 LB (53CM) The L’Eroica ride— an homage to cycling’s romantic past that requires participants to use bike technology from 1987 or earlier, and that has become so popular that what began in Tuscany 19 years ago with 92 riders now draws tens of thousands in a growing lineup of countries that includes Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States— is described by its founders as “a poem written with a bicycle.” ¶ Here is a bicycle that is a poem. ¶ Rather than enslave itself to the era (this bike has a 10-speed cassette, for instance) Bianchi instead referenced its own toplevel racing machines of the 1950s and ’60s in designing and aesthetizing this lugged, Columbus…

In 2012, my best friend encouraged me to try a local amateur downhill race. I was hesitant, but I won. And I fell in love with the ticking clock and its pressure. I determined right then that I was going to become a professional downhill mountain biker. I signed up for every race I could find within a 500-mile radius. And I bought an $8,000 carbon GT Fury with a sweet ENVE and Chris King build. I suppose that it could have been rash and unwise to invest so heavily in a sport in which I didn’t really know whether or not I could excel. But the money never seemed like too much when I was riding the bike. It was a risk—but one I was taking for myself. And…

We all rationalize the need to spend thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of dollars on a bike. If you’re like me, the process goes something like this: Read about a new breakthrough material/technology/geometry/rubber compound, and start to second-guess current setup. Blame current setup for anything less than flawless performance. Buy new stuff. After 20 years of doing this for every major purchase—from downhill race bikes to carbon tubular cyclocross wheels to fixie commuters— I’ve realized that this rationalization is actually irrational. Because the most important thing to consider when you’re buying a new bike is color. I’m serious. There are very few bad bikes on the market today. If you have $2,000, you can choose among dozens of great bikes. If you want to spend two or three times that…

PRICE $4,699 WEIGHT 29 LB (M) On my third descent aboard the Santa Cruz Bronson—after hitting a step-up, log ride, and road gap in rapid succession—I shouted, “Hell, yeah!” Besides an exclamation of excitement, it was an affirmation that Santa Cruz nailed this update. A lot of people had thought the previous Bronson—with its 150mm of travel and relaxed geometry—would be too much squish for typical trails. But it was surprisingly efficient and agile, making converts of skeptics. This new version has a longer top tube; a slacker, 66-degree head angle; shorter chainstays to maintain agility; and overhauled suspension that feels more supportive in the middle of its travel and better carries momentum. I’d worried that Santa Cruz pushed too far into gravityland, but I got over those doubts fast.…

1972 Schwinn Varsity 1990 Miyata 512 2002 Trek 5200 When I was a little boy— and this is embarrassing to admit— I treated a bicycle very badly. It was my first, a black Schwinn Typhoon, one that my parents presented to me on my fifth birthday. After a short, unhappy stint with training wheels, I gained my balance and developed a headcocked, crazy-eyed, hellionrider demeanor and proceeded to beat the grease out of that bike, ramrodding around town, hitting potholes on purpose, mistiming curb jumps to amuse myself with the subsequent crash. Or I would ride full blast toward the steep embankments of the nearby creek and at the last second jump off the bike and let it tumble down the rocks and into the water where, even though I…

“That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” said a friend who heard about my plan to ride a New Belgium cruiser across the country. An ex-pro racer, he seemed especially disgusted that I wanted to ride “such a crappy bike” for 3,000 miles. But that was kind of the point: I wanted to prove that we don’t need space-age, carbon-fiber rockets to pull off huge rides and adventures. Besides, I had the deluxe version of the cruiser: It had three gears. By luck, I was scheduled to take off on my ride in Oceanside, California, at the same time as that year’s Race Across America. The organizers asked me to start with the racers. I was certainly out of place, surrounded by brightly colored spandex and top-of-the-line road bikes, but…

PRICE $3,800 WEIGHT 16.8 LB (50 SLOPING) This bike is a descendent of the Colnago C40, the first carbon frame to take on the legendary cobbles of Paris-Roubaix back in 1995. Like the C40, the CX Zero is designed to be race ready and to tame rough terrain. It is the company’s “everyday bike for the everyday rider,” says Billy Kanzler, a Colnago spokesperson. ¶ The CX Zero’s ride is so smooth and balanced you almost forget you’re spinning along. Yet it has an energy that pulses with every pedal stroke, a keen liveliness on climbs, an assertive confidence around corners, and a singular sense of purpose on descents. But take it off the road, and it is something else altogether. ¶ At the crest of the hill, the sign…

“SO BALANCED, I THROTTLED MYSELF ON IT, THEN CHOSE IT FOR MY RECOVERY SPIN. PRICE $4,799 WEIGHT 16.7 lb (L) Every now and then I test a bike that handles so well it feels more like an extension of my body than something I’m piloting. The new G7 is one of those bikes. No matter how you shift your weight or lean the bike, it always seems to be centered beneath you, anticipating your next thought. It arcs naturally into turns and tracks straight on flats. It’s light (BH says the frame is sub-1,000 grams) and lively, as well as one of the stiffer-feeling aero bikes I’ve tested. ¶ The bike was developed using powerful computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, and it hasn’t spent any time in a wind tunnel…