Innehållsförteckning för May 2017 från Bicycling

JUST SOME OF THE STUFF I’VE LEARNED FROM A LIFETIME OF RIDING BICYCLES Get everyone you love on a bicycle at least once. • I leave water in my bottles all the time. Always have. It gains terroir. • You can’t head out for a good long ride and talk through everything going on in your life with a KOM. • One time at the base of the Tourmalet I knew I was fit, then by the time I got to the top I knew I was fat. That’s perspective. • Italian threads in a bottom bracket are more exotic than Italian threads in clothes. • You can get cycling so right you’re wrong, and you can go wrong enough with it that you get all the way to right…

I have a BFA in multimedia, whatever that means. I didn’t attend a graphic design program. I was lucky in that I knew people who were incredibly good designers. I was able to watch them and see how they assembled things. I was intrigued by logos and posters. I remember being really young and looking at the old logo for the US Postal Service, which was an eagle in profile. I was really confused by it—I couldn’t read what the image was. One day it kind of snapped into place for me. It was like a door opened and I could see things in a different way. When I was little, my dad would put me on the back of his steel Zebrakenko and take me out to East River…

Stay fit—however you can. “I lift weights and do my mobility work yearround. I take care to maintain my weight and body composition. When I get back on the bike, it’s painful. But I’m not out of shape, so I can push through.” Be smart in the pack. “In golf you’re pretty much on your own. In cycling you can position yourself on good wheels and use the riders around you to perform better.” Look deep into your soul. “Cycling isn’t as crazy mental as golf is, but it still requires unbelievable focus and strength. You have to ask yourself how much you want it.” Remember that it gets better. “[Santiago] Botero, who has become a great friend of mine, asks, ‘How do you take so much time off and…

BETWEEN TWO (OR MORE) SLICES OF BREAD 1. With Banana “The perfect touring lunch,” says staff writer Caitlin Giddings, who estimates she scarfed down 380 of them during her five years of intensive touring and leading trips for the Adventure Cycling Association. Want to get decadent? Add marshmallow fluff. 2. With Honey and Bacon Yes, it’s from The Winnie the Pooh Cookbook (which also features one of literature’s most beloved cyclists: Christopher Robin). For a grown-up version, swap prosciutto for bacon. Or not. 3. With Speculoos Spread America’s obsession with Belgian cookie butter means it’s likely landed at a grocery store near you. 4. With Pickle Before you write this one off, just try it, OK? The flavor combo is surprisingly good. Plus it delivers sodium, which you’re sweating out.…

SPEEDVAGEN ROAD DISC Cool brand, cool material—steel— handmade in the US, and custom without an outrageous wait. Elegant construction, insane details, lush paint, and a head tube so sexy our reaction makes us uncomfortable. Climbs great, steers sharp, surprisingly stiff. Smooth, but not too. Lively. Gritty. Talks to you—and sometimes back to you. (“Hey— faster, huh?!”) It’s a race bike and it moves like one, but it’s also an artist’s bike and looks like one. $5,800 (frame, fork, seatmast topper); 17.3 lb. (54cm)—Matt Phillips TREK SILQUE SLR 7 This eye-popping women’s bike devours choppy, stuttery roads and delivers a smooth ride farther off the beaten path. Front and rear Iso-speed decouplers allow flex in the frame and fork, and direct-mount brakes create greater clearance for wider tires. An enthusiastic companion…

Stan’s NoTubes ZTR Avion Pro Wheels PRICE $2,249 WEIGHT 1,540g/pair With these 40mm-deep carbon wheels, Stan’s set out first to make hoops that could bang over rough roads. The larger surface area of the rims adds durability, and shorter spokes create a stiffer wheel. That translates to better power transmission, in addition to the aerodynamic benefits of the deeper rims. To counter the harsh ride feel that can come with deepsection rims, these have a generous 21.6mm internal width, which adds volume to tires. Stan’s also claims that its unique carbon layup adds 5mm of vertical deflection to soften the ride, with no compromise to side-to-side stiffness. In testing, the wheels rode nearly as smoothly as shallower offerings. Stan’s excellent new Neos Ultimate hubs have 5-degree engagement for quick power…

FI'ZI:K R1B UOMO PRICE $400 WEIGHT 500g / pair (size 42) BEFORE I EVEN knew if the Fi'zi:k R1B Uomos would be fast or comfortable (or both), I wanted them in my life. With their smooth upper and zigzagging lace, the shoes just ooze sexiness. Turns out, part of what makes them so exquisite is tied to the shoe’s functionality. Fi'zi:k placed the fasteners off center and away from the top of the foot, which is vulnerable to pressure when pedaling. The Boa IP1 dial nearest your ankle adjusts the fit of the heel cup, which Fi'zi:k says keeps your foot planted and helps your watts go directly into the pedals. The other dial controls the volume of the shoe, while a triangle of elastic separates the two adjustment areas…

BEEN REVIEWING BICYCLES here since 1991. No idea how many. What I can say for sure is that I liked a bunch. Loved just a few. Hated even less. Mostly, I just kind of got along with the bikes and figured out what to say about them to help people decide each time if they should buy it or not. I never took that lightly, the part about whether you should buy a bike. It’s not the whole thing but it’s a big thing, getting the right bike. This one . . . This bike . . . This is a bicycle I want some of you to buy. Not all of you. Just the ones who will understand. This bike is my deep cut. Giovanni Battaglin raced professionally from…

▸ “The thing I really like about golf is the 100 percent concentration required when hitting a shot. You’re not thinking about anything else, so it’s a great way to step outside of your daily stresses. Also, like mountain biking, you are constantly picking your lines. You envision the shot and sculpt it based on the terrain; you pick it, commit, and go.” —Todd Wells, 15-time national champion in mountain biking and cyclocross “ ▸ “Cycling and golf consist of a psychological battle with yourself over several hours. The release cycling provides as an escape from the stresses of golf is probably the most valuable benefit. There’s no question I ride above my aerobic ability because of the mental fortitude I’ve built up from the golf course.” —Paul Casey, 2009…

SHORTLY AFTER PETER VERMEREN opened his shop, Coco’s Variety, in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles 12 years ago, he did something that forever transformed what he’d originally envisioned as an eclectic emporium of miscellany. He bought a bike. It was “a root-beer-brown Huffy threespeed,” says Vermeren, 49. “I got it at a garage sale for 15 bucks. I put it out front and it sold in 20 minutes. I thought, ‘Well, that worked. Let’s do more!’” Within months, Vermeren was focusing almost exclusively on bikes. Today Coco’s repairs bikes and sells new models (it’s an official Bianchi, Fairdale, Linus, and Surly dealer) as well as refurbished “faded champions reborn for another chance at glory,” Vermeren says. He estimates that he’s bought more than 6,000 used bikes in the…

GEOFF McFETRIDGE 46, LOS ANGELES Artist and designer Skateboarding and snowboarding led me to mountain biking, which is how I came to road riding. I like how it’s more of an inward-looking sport. I immediately liked going uphill on a road bike more than going downhill on a mountain bike. Climbing on a road bike puts you in the moment quickly. A lot of the riding I do is commuting from my home to my studio. I got into cyclocross in the early 2000s. I just found a race and went. I think I came in 15th out of 30. It was the first thing I’d done competitively as an adult. I started a team, Mudfoot, which is a group of creative people who also ride and race bikes. I…

“I started cycling in seventh grade. When I was in high school my older brother and I joined the Bear Development Team. That allowed me to ride with better gear. But because we were given stuff by sponsors, I put pressure on myself to perform well. Now I race for Whitman College in Washington State. It’s a club team; we don’t have mandatory practices. At races we play music and dance. It’s made me realize how much I love cycling for me and not because of the pressure of a team or coach.” MAKE IT HAPPEN If riding becomes less fun, try to identify why. Is it your computer? Your training plan? Your group ride? Change it up for a week. Repeat until cycling makes you happy again. MADDIE ORTENBLAD,…

That first ride. I did BMX as a kid and loved watching the Grand Tours, but I never got into road cycling until I went back to Colombia after the 2007 PGA Tour season. A good friend said we should go ride this 16-kilometer, 6 percent average grade climb. I loved it. They say to like cycling you better love to suffer. I guess I love to suffer. I bought a bike the very next week…and then another one so I could have one in Colombia and one in Florida where I live in the US. Duking it out with the pros. I knew a guy from high school who rode with a fast group in Colombia. I figured if I wanted to get good I should call him. He…

IT SEEMS THAT DRIVERS find it impossible to feel road rage toward a Pomeranian. That’s just one lesson Courtney Lewis learned on her two-month, 1,857-mile ride down the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route last fall. Technically it was a solo venture, but the 26-year-old bike mechanic from Brooklyn, New York, had eight pounds of fluff hitching a ride in her bike basket. This was Giselle, Lewis’s then 9-year-old, naploving canine who charmed strangers and impatient drivers all the way to the Mexico border. After starting in Vancouver, British Colombia, the duo averaged 60 miles a day. They overcame the steep inclines of Northern California’s Lost Coast alternate route, the cold injustice of “No Pets Allowed” signs on some hiking trails, and Lewis’s nagging knee pain that threatened to put an end…

GET GREAT DEALS ON THESE SOCKS & MORE BICYCLING.COM/SOCKS Swiftwick Aspire Four Quarter Crew Just as bed-sheet quality is measured in thread count, sock brands claim “needles” as their yardstick for tight-knit excellence. At 200, these seamless 4-inch-cuff crews have one of the highest needle counts around. Using synthetic, moisture- resistant Olefin fiber, the Aspire Four packs enough compression to promote circulation and create a cozy, second-skin feel that stays put without bunching or causing hot spots.—SELENE YEAGER Price $17 Q36.5 Plus The soft wool blend (with 13 percent silk) of the Q36.5 Plus gives it warmth beyond its bulk; it’s not a winter sock, specifically, but it functions well as one, especially under booties. I’ve also been comfy wearing these in any conditions short of peak midsummer heat. I’ve…