Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2023 från Bicycling

STATE BICYCLE CO. 6061 BLACK LABEL ($700) State offers several well-priced, good-looking, and highly functional fixie and singlespeed models. The Black Label combines a classic aesthetic with a butted aluminum frame and carbon fork. Available in five colors and a Wu-Tang Clan Edition. ALL-CITY THUNDERDOME ($1,900)  With geometry optimized for fixedgear criteriums, All-City’s Thunderdome is a solid option for both racers and city commuters. Plus, the frame and fork fit brake calipers for those who prefer riding with a freewheel. FUJI TRACK ELITE ($2,000) Carbon fiber and maximized for aerodynamic efficiency, the Track Elite is designed for going as fast as possible at the velodrome. This frameset-only Fuji provides a base to build a championship-caliber race bike.…

ARIZONA CAN BE SURPRISINGLY COLD IN NOVEMBER. AS ANYONE who’s ever lined up for El Tour de Tucson will tell you, the predawn start is decidedly frigid. But it usually doesn’t rain. And when I travel to the race, I rarely pack a rain cape. In 2013, it poured. I had just spent my money on the then-revolutionary Castelli Gabba jersey, but I was still far from excited about racing—in what was supposed to be my off-season—109 miles in 50-degree temperatures and downpours. It rained so much that we crossed hub-deep rivers that had been dry, sandy beds the previous night. I can honestly say the 2013 El Tour de Tucson was one of my least pleasant bike rides. A couple of hours after I finished (as I sat wrapped in…

Bicycling members enjoy unlimited access to our catalog of curated training plans. Our latest endeavor: an eight-week guide to riding a 50-miler. For newer cyclists, the distance is long enough to be intimidating and feel like a big accomplishment—but it’s not so long that it requires a huge amount of training (or having a support crew in place). Ready to add it to your calendar? Head to bicycling.com/50-miles. ALREADY A PRINT SUBSCRIBER? Scan the QR code to upgrade to Bicycling All-Access.…

BEST ROAD RACING BIKE PRICE $8,300 (HI-MOD 2) WEIGHT 17 LBS (52CM) CANNONDALE’S NEWEST SUPERSIX EVO IS THE FOURTH generation of the brand’s top-tier road-racing bike. In contrast to how different the previous model was from what came before it, the new Evo presents more of an evolution than a total redesign. The overall silhouette of the SuperSix Evo largely remains unchanged. The dropped seatstays, the gently sloping top tube, and the truncated airfoil tube shapes all carry over from the third generation. In overall appearance, the new bike looks similar to the outgoing version. Many of the changes to the Evo were made to boost the bike’s aerodynamics. At the front of the bike is a new hourglass head tube that matches with a new fork (which is also…

BEST E-MOUNTAIN BIKE PRICE $14,000 (9.9 XX1 AXS) WEIGHT 40.9 LBS (MEDIUM) I did bad things on Trek’s Fuel EXe. I rode it where I wasn’t supposed to. But in my defense, most of the trails where I live are closed to e-bikes, and I had a metric shit-ton of fun. Some of the fun came from being naughty, sure. A feeling that took me way back to the mid-1980s, when I started riding mountain bikes. Back then, almost all trails were closed to mountain bikes. But my friends and I didn’t care. We just rode our bikes, explored, and grew our skills, asking for neither permission nor forgiveness. We were having fun and knew we weren’t hurting anyone or anything. This is a bike review, not an essay about…

UGH. I’M IN THE CAR AGAIN. I’m in the car because there’s a block headwind. Or maybe temperatures are in the 90s and I don’t want to arrive at a meeting a sweaty mess. Or I don’t think I can fit all the groceries into the small panniers and I sure as hell can’t do a Costco run on this bike. “This bike” is my 32-year-old Bridgestone MB-1. Set up as a commuter, it has served a long life. No one would fault me for replacing it. And the rise of e-cargo bikes offers a tantalizing possibility: Is that the bike that will finally get me out of the car for my short errands? I think so. But, I wonder: Am I only justifying the consumerist thrill of New Bike…

BEST ROAD BIKE PRICE $5,500 (FRAMESET) WEIGHT 16.2 LBS (52CM, AS TESTED) WHEN YOU HEAR THE NAME ENVE, YOU PROBABLY think first of fancy U.S.-made carbon wheels, forks, and bars. For the past 15 years, these parts found their way onto some of the most drool-worthy custom bikes. Enve built its reputation in the world of bespoke bicycles and used that foundation to grow its business from a niche company to a more mainstream presence in cycling. In 2021, Enve returned to its boutique roots with a product that few outside the company saw coming, a custom carbon road frame manufactured at Enve’s Utah headquarters. That bike, simply named Custom Road, is constructed from several uniquely molded carbon pieces. Enve cuts each frame part based on customer fit data and…

RECENTLY, I WATCHED A SHORT FILM ABOUT A GROUP of guys taking on an all-day, all-night ride. At one point, a rider says that the word “adventure” is overused and has lost its meaning—that it’s not an adventure unless you cover an epic distance and don’t know if you’ll make it back. That’s a very narrow definition. Why not use the word in abundance? I know many people dealing with setbacks who would consider a solo ride around the block a feat. Adventure is everywhere; you just have to create it. Like countless other people, my recreation time began warping into obsession in the spring of 2020. I live in a mountain town with endless trails and mountains to climb. With no racing and little interaction with others, I started setting…

AFTER YEARS OF OFFICE-PARK CRITERIUMS AND FAST-PACED TWILIGHT races, where the streets are lined with barricades and partying spectators, I finally accomplished my long-term goal of reaching Cat 1 status as a road racer. And yet I found myself further from cycling glory than at any point in my nearly decade of competing. All the structured training I was doing felt stressful, and the pressure to perform was immense. When the season ended, I felt ground down like coffee beans in a burr grinder. I had gained so much. But I had lost something vital: I was no longer riding for pleasure. Bikes have always been in my life. When I was a kid, I spent summer days with my parents watching racers roll through sunflower fields in France on television.…

BIKE OF THE YEAR/BEST E-BIKE PRICE $2,700 ($3,390 AS TESTED) WEIGHT 77 LBS WHEN I WAS YOUNGER, I BELIEVED, PERHAPS NAÏVELY, that bicycles would save the world. But as I dove into racing, I moved further and further away from riding bikes as transportation and became heavily invested in cycling as a sport, exercise, and social activity. I bought my first car because I wanted to travel to races and events. With a car, I spent a decade road-tripping to events on the East Coast and in the Midwest to chase podiums and prize money. And I loved it. I don’t regret those years of living the bike racer’s dream. But the truth is, while cycling often gets viewed as an environmentally friendly pursuit, racing bikes or driving to trailheads is not…

PICKING MY LINE DOWN THE STEEP, RUTTED doubletrack took more concentration than I expected, as the quickly setting pale November sun created a magical scene on a day that kept getting better. I had just finished the Women’s Single Speed Cyclocross World Championship in Durango, Colorado. The race found me launching my bike (and my body) down a giant airbag slide, riding through a steel ring of fire, and struggling to breathe for a solid hour. I hadn’t planned on riding the whole race, let alone leading a group ride back down this rowdy jeep road back to town. Barely two months post–knee surgery, I planned to do a lap to check out the fun and call it good. But as I completed lap after lap, I couldn’t stop. It was…

BEST ADVENTURE BIKE PRICE $4,000 WEIGHT 21.8 LBS (56CM) THE DIRECTIONS TO ME COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ANY clearer: If John Kerry’s people called, I should transfer them directly to Steve. Steve managed the D.C.-area bike shop where I was a college-aged sales urchin. It was the early 2000s. Kerry, then a Senator from Massachusetts, was licking his wounds after his unsuccessful presidential bid in the most relatable way: buying a custom titanium Serotta. The knowledge that a celebrity purchased the bike, and its high price tag, helped forge my early internalized biases about titanium bikes. Simply put, they were nice, but not for me. My next job was at a triathlon-specific store with a rack full of titanium-framed Litespeeds. And though none of them were as spendy as Kerry’s Serotta, I wasn’t…

It’s easy to lose track of all the perks that come with your Bicycling membership, like exclusive training tips and tools, gear-testing opportunities, and deals from brands cyclists love. Here’s what you might have missed lately. (Not a member? Head to bicycling.com/joinnow.) THE BIKE Q&A Members frequently fire off gear questions to Senior Test Editor—and resident bike nerd—Matt Phillips. He tackled this topic in one of the latest weekly member newsletters. Q Last season, I swapped out my jockey wheels on my SRAM eTap derailleur with new Kogel wheels, and did the same with my wife’s Di2. I looked long and hard at the ones from CeramicSpeed, but I couldn’t bring myself to spend so much more. They look cool, but are they worth the extra cash?—PETER THERAN, PLYMOUTH, MA A My…