Innehållsförteckning för October 2016 från Bicycling

1 Putting together our special issue on makers got me thinking about the things that have made the biggest difference for me as a cyclist. One of the most gratifying was when I figured out the three most important pieces of advice to share with new riders right before we take off. I reckon I spent years unintentionally overwhelming novices with instructions and warnings. Keep your shoulders loose. Most of the problems beginners have with bike control, power delivery, maintaining momentum, and fatiguing prematurely occur because they’re tense. The shoulders are a supreme indicator of how relaxed you’re keeping your whole body, plus it’s easy to feel when they’re clenched, and simple to remedy that with a shrug. (The hands are even better, I think, but there’s almost no way…

CARSON LEH L E H C Y C L I N G A U S T I N , T E X A S THE SON OF FREE SPIRITS WHO were part of the Marin County mountain biking scene in the early 1990s (Dad’s a backcountry guide and avalanche training instructor, Mom’s an artist specializing in quilts and blankets), Carson Leh grew up riding bikes of all kinds. By the time he was in his early 20s, Leh had grown tired of his saddles wearing out. He looked around for something unique, something that reflected his personality, and that was made of durable leather. Finding nothing, he decided to make one himself. A picture of that custom perch ended up on a popular BMX blog. Reviews were rave, word spread,…

S E V E N T E E N FOR S E V E N T E E N dr-r-r-ropping! your guide to some of next year’s most hypeworthy new bikes and gear. by bicycling staff and contributors Despite the popularity of SRAM’s 1x11 drivetrains, some riders have remained holdouts, citing the system’s limited range of gears. But with its 12-speed Eagle groups, the company might finally have killed the front derailleur. By squeezing 12 cogs into the same space as 11, engineers created a 500 percent range (your hardest gear is five times the ratio of your easiest) that’s close to that of some 2x setups, and much wider than the 420 percent gear range of an 11-speed, 10-42 cassette. The group is available in SRAM’s top-of-the-line XX1 version,…

Smith’s premium Overtake road helmet is easy to spot for its unique aesthetics and the usage of Aerocore panels, made of a material called Koroyd—miniature tubes that are thermowelded together and look like the cross section of a bunch of stacked plastic straws. Smith claims the Aerocore helps commonly used EPS foam absorb more energy upon impact. The new Route road helmet makes that technology available at a lower price. Compared with the Overtake, which uses Aerocore across roughly 75 percent of the helmet, the Route has just four panels placed strategically above the temples. Because there is less Koroyd, Smith uses more EPS foam, making the Route larger (and less aero) than the Overtake. However, there are significant benefits to this more conventional construction, the biggest being improved ventilation—…

The Fox Float X2 shock is extremely adjustable, which is both its biggest benefit and its biggest drawback. High- and low-speed compression, and high- and low-speed rebound, can be independently externally controlled. Air volume, which alters the spring curve to make it more or less progressive, is adjustable. The shock has a climbing switch to stiffen the suspension for a more efficient feel. And of course, air-spring pressure can be adjusted too. What do you do with all that? Make a bike ride like you want. The X2 can be tweaked and customized to a rider’s content. I could spend weeks or months tinkering with the settings and chasing my perfect feel. But there’s so much adjustability, you can get lost in it all and make a bike ride poorly.…

The Domane SLR RSL (Race Shop Limited) is a model crafted for Trek’s WorldTour team (read: long, low, stiff, and aggressive) then offered to the rest of the world in limited numbers and sizes (54cm and up) through Trek’s Project One program. For 2017 Trek updated the bump-eating IsoSpeed technology in the Domane, as well as its women’s counterpart, the Silque. The IsoSpeed technology features a separate, flexible seatmast attached by a pivoting link (Trek calls it a decoupler) to the seat tube/top tube junction— allowing it to move fore and aft to absorb vibration and impacts—and anchored at the water bottle mounts. In this year’s model, a sliding adjuster allows the rider to dial in the amount of flex by changing the length of the tube that can act…

Have trouble finding a shoe that is just right? The Vaypor+ is offered in sizes from 36 to 50 (with half sizes), four widths, six colors, and is heat moldable. You can also get them fully custom. They feel different than almost any other shoe. The toe is square, which Bont says mimics a foot’s shape better (I’d agree). Arch support is not provided by the insole, but built into the extremely stiff carbon bathtub sole that wraps around the foot. The interior is lined with cow leather, and the outer is made of kangaroo leather. The upper is stiff and unforgiving. Unless you’re lucky, removing pressure points will probably require a few heatmolding sessions. Pop it in a 160° F oven for 20 minutes, then put the shoe on,…

EMILY O’BRIEN, 34, maker of Dill Pickle Gear bags BOSTON 1. I do my long rides on a fixed gear, so I spend a lot of time chasing and rarely get to escape. 2. I like to go fast and let Isaac Newton do all the work. 3. Gentle rollers are the ideal—you spin and stay loose, you get out of the saddle, the variety is great. 4. I think of high tech meaning “new,” which for my purposes—randonneuring—means “untested.” If it’s hand built, it likely uses tried-and-true technology that won’t fail on me in the middle of nowhere. 5. Your body cares about hours, not miles. 6. I don’t have a driver’s license, so cycling is a necessity. But it’s also my weekend activity, and that’s desire. I’ll say…

THE ONE THING THAT CHANGED IT ALL A HANDMADE S T EEL BIKE I won my custom Feather bicycle in Rapha’s Festive 500 competition last year. I live in the high mountains, so a steel bike is the opposite of what I need, but there’s something to be said about supporting someone who has a craft—an art—who can make a bike that I love. I’ve traded lightness and speed for something cooler and more comfortable. Three months ago I was riding in Nice with friends, and we ended up on some pretty gnarly off-road stuff. I bombed down those enduro trails with no problems. I think my friends are still pissed off at me. JOHN BRAYNARD, 31 / SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER / SALZBURG, AUSTRIA…

Try not to do what I did when you receive your Rapha Pro Team Flyweight sunglasses. Refrain from jumping straight onto your bike. It won’t be easy: The one-piece, frameless, mirrored-bronze Carl Zeiss lens, bisected by a neat stack of centimeter-wide stripes, will gleam at you so provocatively that you’ll want to tap all those new-eyewear watts in a hurry. Instead, open the black rectangular tin and lift out the glasses by the rubberized grips on their arms—arms that feel exceptionally sturdy despite being a smidge wider than a cocktail straw. Next, set aside the fleecy protective case, then unfold the information sheet and read it. Discover that the lenses are specially coated to resist scratches and fog, and that they block 100 percent of ultraviolet rays. Learn how to…

Remember that horrified glee you felt in the first Jurassic Park movie, when the crew comes upon the twisted remnants of the T. rex pen and realizes that history’s most feared predator is loose? What havoc will this thing wreak? (And: Can we watch at a safe distance?) That was my reaction on my first ride of the Raleigh Stuntman, essentially a rigid, drop-bar mountain bike created as the “ultimate bike” for riding adventures. My foray included a dirt-road warmup, then a swoopy slalom on hardpan, bumpy singletrack, a grind up a newly opened fire road, then hitting the 65mm-travel dropper post to rail a shale-y descent ending in a pair of exquisitely bermed switchbacks. I’ve done it on a road bike with 28s, but always uttering a small prayer.…

For those who ride every day, in any weather, the Transit Backpack keeps your stuff dry with durable, waterproof material, welded seams, and an overhanging top that channels water away from the zippered opening of the ginormous (42-liter) main compartment. An impressive number of pockets keeps it all organized. There are separate sleeves for a laptop and a tablet, a padded phone sleeve, and four pockets to keep water bottles or other items from banging around. On the outside, an expandable comparment can carry a helmet, and two smaller pockets (with waterproof zippers) hold cash, keys, and other compact items. But my favorite feature is the bag’s visibility— there are reflective elements at the exterior zippers, on the U-lock lash points, and in the logos. Four small, detachable, battery-powered flashing…

The rocks were sweating. It’s not an unfamiliar phenomenon in my part of the world: The humidity goes up and the moisture clings. Tires scrabble for purchase and suspension purrs as it absorbs the staccato impact of rock after rock. Riding fast in these conditions takes confidence, something the new Giant Trance fed me generously as I careened around our well-loved, local playground of rock. For 2017 Giant took a very capable 140mm-travel trail bike (with a 150mm fork) and lent it a bit of refinement rather than a complete redo. Giant gave the Trance a stouter front triangle with a slightly longer top tube, added Boost (wider, 148mm hub) spacing in the rear, and shrunk the chainstays by about 5mm. Engineers also refined the Maestro suspension design with a…

The One GTH only looks like an ordinary puffy jacket. Inside, it hides an all-new membrane from W.L. Gore (the makers of Gore-Tex fabric), called Thermium, which has characteristics of Gore-Tex and Windstopper, integrated with breathable insulation. Like other Gore-Tex garments, the One GTH jacket is fully seam-taped, and while W.L. Gore won’t call Thermium waterproof, it shrugs off sleet and snow well enough that the company allows garment partners like Gore Bike Wear to pair it with any insulation, even down, which performs infamously poorly in the wet. For the One GTH, the company uses PrimaLoft Gold synthetic insulation. Thermium also retains Windstopper’s superior breathability, so you won’t overheat while cranking up a snowy trail. A close-fitting hood fits under a helmet, and the complete outfit includes pants, gloves,…

Nick and Clint Slone just wanted a better bike bell. Unimpressed with cheaply made, generic-sounding options, the Bay Area brothers saw a solution: a premium bell made of stainless steel and brass that looked as good as it rang. And speaking of ringing, this thing would cut through the din of urban life, through conversation, even headphones. So they fired up a laser cutter to tinker with shapes, and contracted a 3-D printing company for some prototypes. A year later, they had a close-to-final version of what would be the Spurcycle bell—and had landed themselves square in the middle of the burgeoning maker movement in cycling: a groundswell of inventors, tinkerers, and artisans who are rethinking what it means to be an entrepreneur. In recent years, the bike industry has…

It’s rare for a jacket to balance weatherproofing with packability, but the ethereally light and slightly fitted Pearl Izumi P.R.O. Barrier Lite is exactly the type of jacket I was admonished to take on every ride by the oldtimers guiding me in my early days in the sport. That admonition was based on the old saw: Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes; it’ll change. The Barrier Lite packs down to about the size of a couple of beer koozies, so it won’t take up too much space in a jersey pocket or weigh it down and make it sag. It’s cut slim and fitted through the torso, with a nice tall collar to block the wind, and stretchy, wind- and water-resistant Softshell Lite panels in the shoulders and along…

Bontrager has unveiled two new premium carbon wheelsets that—based on more than a month of testing so far—challenge Enve’s reign as the premier manufacturer of US-made carbon mountain bike wheels. The two wheelsets, Line XXX and Kovee XXX, share the same width— 29mm internal, 34mm external—and outwardly look similar, though the Line is a few millimeters taller. The Kovee is a light XC race wheel, while the Line, which is the focus of this review, is a tougher, enduro-ready wheel. In 29-inch (27.5-inch is also offered), with Boost hubs, the Line wheelset I tested weighs 1,772 grams. Bontrager has since made a change to the spokes, which the company claims will reduce weight by 100 grams with no strength loss. For an enduro-ready wheel, it feels quick and lively. I’d…

“Perfect” is a word I’ve never used to describe a bike because there is no bike that could never be improved upon. Pivot’s new Switchblade gets the closest of any I’ve tested. Like an increasing number of 29ers, the 135mm-travel Switchblade, paired with a 150mm-travel Fox 36 fork, can also accommodate 27.5+ tires. (In the plus setup, the geometry is adjusted for the shorter tires by inserting a 17mm-tall external lower headset cup.) While many new trail bikes have moved to wider, 148mm rear hub spacing (also called Boost), Pivot went farther, pushing the nondrive-side spoke flange out on a 157x12mm rear hub—the existing standard for downhill bikes—and calling it Super Boost Plus 157. This buys 12mm of chainline clearance, twice as much as Boost 148, and lets Pivot shorten…