Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2024 från Bicycling

ON A BEAUTIFUL LATE-SUMMER RIDE UNDER a cerulean blue sky, I got my second flat in three days. As luck would have it, I was 20 miles from my Eastern Pennsylvania home with no repair kit. What made me even more upset was that the ride was going so well: For the first time in weeks, my legs were not aching as soon as I woke up, because I had finally allowed myself to take a few rest days after overdoing my half-marathon training. As I started pushing my bike along the shoulderless road toward the closest town, I couldn’t shake the thought that I had jinxed my bike by recently boasting about never getting a flat before. Well deserved. A couple of cyclists coming from the opposite direction crossed…

1 / ORTLIEB BACK-ROLLER PANNIERS Every Google search spiraled back to these workhorses from the German company Ortlieb. These packs are easy to use, remarkably durable, and waterproof (I once had one fall into a rushing stream, and everything came out dry). They’re the gold standard, in my book. 2 / BIG AGNES COPPER SPUR HV UL2 ULTRALIGHT TENT This measly 3-pound (and change) tent stashes away into a small package and can withstand most weather you encounter. Big Agnes released a bikepacking version after my purchase, with poles that break down into shorter lengths and a handlebar bag, but I plan to keep using what I’ve got until it fails me. 3 / OUTDOOR VITALS TUSHAR RAIN JACKET A lot of rain jackets and shells—while effectively keeping water out—leave…

IT WAS 1996, AND THE MOVIE SPACE JAM, starring Warner Bros.’ Bugs Bunny and Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan, had just been released. But more important to me, it featured the female counterpart to Bugs, Lola Bunny, a talented and skilled basketball player in the Tune Squad. As a 9-year-old sitting on the bleachers at my brothers’ basketball practices, I wondered: Why couldn’t I be on the court too? After begging my mom, my sister and I joined the league as the only girls on the newly formed co-ed team. With my long hair tied up with a colorful floral scrunchie and my bangs puffed up (a mix of styling and a result of Puerto Rican humidity), I hit the court in a lime green team T-shirt, volleyball shorts, and…

“PERFECTION IS ACHIEVED, NOT WHEN there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” In recent months, engineers from two different cycling brands have referenced this quote during our discussions about new products. It comes from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Airman’s Odyssey, though he is best known as the author of The Little Prince. (Saint-Exupéry, however, seems to be riffing on the Latin phrase entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, or “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” This is a tidy encapsulation of the most famous work of William of Ockham: Occam’s razor.) Like an earworm, Saint-Exupéry’s quote is stuck in my head. As I ride bikes and think about cycling equipment, it keeps rising to the fore. Ironically, both engineers used this quote…

LET’S START WITH THE BICYCLE. IS THIS A BICYCLE? It has two wheels, but they’re undersized, like on a kid’s bike. It has tubes, but they’re joined bizarrely, only at right angles. It has cranks, but they turn the rear wheel directly, like a unicycle. Each wheel steers independently—the back end twists when you twist. The front end is basically another unicycle. The fact that it wears the skin of a disco ball is actually the least weird thing about it. The bike begins to make sense when ridden. Aptly dubbed a circus bike, it’s made for doing tricks: popping wheelies while twirling the front wheel, pedaling backward, and even jumping rope with the front end held aloft. Still, if you didn’t know better, and heard this bike won a…

I’LL BEGIN BY SINGING SOME PRAISES: Without Strava, I’m not sure I’d have reengaged with cycling at the level I did. Coming from just occasionally messing around on mountain bikes as a teenager to trying my best to race at an elite level, Strava has played a role in pushing me to PR, hunt KOMs, and ride faster and harder than ever before. However, over the past few years, I’ve become disenchanted with social media. Platforms that once seemed good for my motivation and mental health became burdensome. Strava was no different. Postride data-checking turned into mindlessly looking at what everyone else was doing, comparing stats, and ultimately getting annoyed by ego-fluffing ride titles and novel-length explanations of “why I didn’t win the race or get that KOM.” I found myself…

THIS OR THAT Bibs1 Jersey and Shorts One Kind of Riding All the Kinds of Riding Mountains2 Crosswinds Morning Ride Afternoon Ride Postride Coffee Postride Beer3 Tubes Tubeless4 Fix It Yourself Take It to a Shop5 Short Hard Efforts Long Steady Efforts Saddle Bag 6  Stuff Your Pockets Flow Trail 7 Tech Trail Metal Carbon GPS 8 Wing It Gels Bars Tanwalls Black Tires Torque to Spec 9 Tighten by Feel Snickers Haribo Let me explain: (1) You can’t beat the comfort. I used to get stomach cramps on long rides, and not having a waistband cutting me in half has solved that. (2) You can watch yourself make progress…and of course you get the reward of a view and a fun descent. (3) I like a midride coffee and a postride beer. Who says…