Innehållsförteckning för Issue 1 2021 från Bicycling

It was no accident that it happened. We did not win a trip, we did not get an invite, we were not raising awareness for anything. We were inspired, we planned, and a few months later, Chris, Nate, and I made it happen. We got dropped off in the coastal town of Florence, Oregon, and ceremoniously dipped our rear wheels into the Pacific Ocean before aiming our bikes east. Not too long into the day, we took a break in the parking lot of a post office. A woman came up to us and asked, “Where are you going?” She laughed at me as if I was lying when I told her Avalon, New Jersey. Over the next 78 days, everywhere we went, several times a day, we would get…

VELOGUIDE // This app takes all the guesswork out of finding a route by connecting you with a local cyclist who acts as a personal tour guide—from setting up a route based on your ability level and interests, to connecting you with a bike rental. “VeloGuides” are available in more than 650 cities in 75 countries and include the likes of former pros Phil Gaimon, cofounder George Hincapie, and Christian Vande Velde. TREK TRAVEL // Expect a handsoff approach to planning a route and dealing with the logistics of traveling with a bike. The packages cover everything from transportation and accommodations, to meals and sports nutrition. Each trip is supported by at least two guides from the area who know the route and all the scenic highlights, the community, restaurants,…

IN 2015, I MARRIED WILL. IN 2019, WE FINALLY TOOK OUR HONEYMOON. It wasn’t the result of four years of planning. Rather, after letting life get in the way for too long, I found a crazy deal on flights to London and booked them. I didn’t consult Will, but I knew from his endearingly deep appreciation for grime music, Cockney rhyming slang, and Guy Ritchie movies, it’d be a trip of a lifetime for him. Carried away with the excitement of surprising Will, I concocted a plan where I’d take him to the airport under the guise of a trip to Chicago. Then, once we arrived at the airport I’d declare we were headed to London! After I realized that was insane, we talked and decided to make it a…

IN COLLEGE I STUDIED PHILOSOPHY AND DREAMED OF BECOMING A MOUNTAINEER. To fund my explorations, I got a job at the Satin Doll. Sometimes stripping was the best job in the world, but at crucial moments, it was also the worst. I loved ripping off my top and rocking out to Janis Joplin. But I hated the hustle, the way people pretended to be something they weren’t. It was a rotten kind of intimacy, and I got lost in it. I graduated from college, and shortly before my 23rd birthday, I quit the sex industry for good. When I left, I promised myself I would never lose me again. Afterward, I got rid of my things, packed up my bicycle, and booked a one-way ticket to Alaska. My Big Plan…

PRICE: $9,000 / WEIGHT: 16.4 LB (XL) IF YOU READ our reviews of the Specialized Aethos and Open MIN.D (pages 65 and 71) and thought perhaps aero bikes were on the decline, we submit Canyon’s new Aeroad as evidence to the contrary. This blistering fast, surprisingly pleasing-to-ride bike is evidence that speed will always appeal. And this is one among the best aero road-racing machines in the world. Compared to the last version, this one has better aerodynamics, weighs less, and has more deeply integrated cables (shift wires and brake hoses are hidden in the handlebar and frame). Canyon also changed the geometry to better fit more riders and to sharpen the handling. Canyon claims this version is up to 7.4 watts faster than its predecessor, and beats top bikes…

Heritage Technology1 Breakaway Sprint Instagram Strava Inner Tube Tubeless2 CO2 Pump Mash Spin Pack Solo Climb3 Descend Stiffness Compliance Paved Unpaved4 Disc Brake Rim Brake Food5 Fuel Sit Stand Coast Pedal Experiences Results Medal Scar6 Round True Flat Rolling Style Value Chase Escape Gears Singlespeed Grit7 Talent Cap Helmet Sunrise8 Sunset Drop Bar Flat Bar Color9 Weight (1) Bikes have come a long way and will continue to go even further. I’m always stoked to see the tech. (2) I’m an aggressive rider, and running tubeless gives me some extra confidence on the trail. (3) Technical climbs with boulders and step-ups are probably my favorite part of mountain biking. (4) Somehow riding unpaved roads feels a lot more adventurous to me than riding paved roads. (5) Stopping for tacos and…

RILEY MISSEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER CAN ALMOST DO A PRETTY GOOD WHEELIE, SOMETIMES PRODUCTS I’M USING RIGHT NOW 1 / Topo Designs Bike Bag $49 This fits everything I want to carry (including a water bottle!) for a casual cruise, without making me more sweaty. 2 / POC Sports Ventral Air SPIN Helmet $250 Super comfy, breathable, and also happens to look awesome with POC’s Aspire sunglasses. 3 / Lezyne Alloy Floor Drive Pump $80 I’ve had this for years, and it’s super sturdy. Plus: It has a flip-flop nozzle for both Schrader and Presta valves. CLIMB OR DESCEND? Descending, of course. When was the last time you climbed smiling like a lunatic? GREATEST RIDE OF MY LIFE I spent a week riding across Iowa with my friends on RAGBRAI, and…

THE FIRST BRUSHSTROKES OF AUTUMN HAD ALREADY SPLATTERED THE FORESTS WITH ORANGE, YELLOW, and red when our crew convened in the ski town of Kranjska Gora in Slovenia’s mountainous northwestern corner. There, we stocked up on tubes, bananas, and chocolate, and reorganized the packs on our gravel and mountain bikes. Just a day after two Slovenes had taken the top podium places at the Tour de France, the roads were packed with cyclists, and it seemed as if every other person was wearing yellow. Our group—a cartographer, a photographer, two sustainable-tourism experts, and me—pedaled past Kranjska Gora’s famous ski jump to the starting point of our journey: the newly launched Bike Slovenia Green cycling route. The 180-mile journey is the world’s first multistage route to layover in only green-certified cities,…

PRICE: $1,899 (AS TESTED, WITH TWO BATTERIES) / WEIGHT: 85 LB (ONE SIZE) THE BLIX PACKA is a highly sensible electric cargo bike that costs less than half what primary competitors do. The mid-tail bike is only slightly longer than a regular bike and, thanks to 24-inch tires, easy to whip around town—despite weighing 85 pounds. A lot of the heft comes from two Samsung batteries that combine to give you 1,171 watt-hours of power, twice that of most e-bikes and enough to take you 70 miles on a single charge. (Opting for the single battery will save you $300 but will also cut your range by more than half.) Because the batteries alone likely account for half the cost of the bike, Blix outfitted the Packa with cheap but…

A well-executed sprint is the checkmate of cycling. For maximum speed, you want to position yourself on the bike for optimum power and aerodynamics. Here are the basics: GET IN THE DROPS // Placing your hands here balances your weight, improves your traction, increases your aerodynamics, and puts you in the position to throw the bike to the line. Keep your elbows bent to give the bike freedom to move beneath you. RISE OUT OF THE SADDLE //Standing up lets you put all your weight into propelling yourself forward, leveraging gravity to put maximum power into your pedals. FLATTEN YOUR BACK //Most of your energy in a sprint is fighting air resistance, so getting low and aero helps you go faster. KEEP YOUR CHIN UP AND EYES FORWARD // Now…

Procrastination is something all humans do, but why do we drag our feet even on seemingly easy tasks? A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology suggests it all has to do with how we blend anticipation, excitement, and dread. Researchers asked 168 participants to eat jelly beans that ranged in flavor from delicious to disgusting—some tasted like watermelon, but others like rotten eggs. The subjects tended to feel impatient and excited about eating the good-tasting ones, and not only dreaded the awful ones, but also disliked the feeling of having to wait to eat them. Not surprisingly, this shows that people want to have good things now and delay bad things, and it’s the anticipation of both positive and negative tasks that drive our behavior, according to…

Riding your bike can be a fantastic escape from unprecedented stress—as many of us learned (or relearned) in 2020. And riding it someplace beyond your locals adds even more magic. But during a pandemic, everything from traveling to get someplace new to being part of a group is complicated. We debated skipping our annual travel awards, but ultimately decided to focus on stateside trips (potentially eliminating or reducing air travel) run by companies instituting rigorous safety protocols. Our editors vetted hundreds of tour outfitters and analyzed their itineraries for things like average tour size, traveler reviews, value, and quality of the rental fleet. Each company we chose to feature established practices to combat COVID (everything from providing masks to testing staff regularly to sanitizing equipment), and many have eased their…

PRICE: $7,500 (AS TESTED), $3,600 (FRAME, FORK, SEATMAST, AND HARDWARE) / WEIGHT: 15.7 LB (M) THE NAME OF Open’s first road bike should be a strong clue that this is something different. But bias is hard to see past, and facts are easily swept aside when they don’t fit that narrative we want to believe. If you’ve ridden or read about Open’s gravel and all-road bikes, the U.P. and U.P.P.E.R., you might expect this bike to behave similarly—efficient and exciting, yet built to soak up chatter and accommodate wide tires so you can blast down gravel and dirt roads. I did, focusing more on the brand DNA than this bike’s revealing details, like the 15.7-pound weight, wispy seatstays, and modest, 32mm tire clearance. And if you expected it to handle…