Featured Posts
A Year of SQ Lab Testing
I was drawn to SQ Lab because I perceived a commitment to long-lived products and transparent communication of safety standard compliance. These products are not glamorous; my riding buddies have not said, ‘Wow, cool, you have those new SQ Lab bars!’, or anything remotely like that. The products don’t make themselves conspicuous. It’s been conversations about comfort on the bike that have raised topics like bar and saddle geometry, which implicates ‘flex’ and resilience, and thus, safety. Everything is connected.
The Art of Layering for Cold Weather Cycling with Castelli
Read, listen, or both. I sat down with Castelli to talk about getting the most from their line of cold weather clothing, which dipped into general principles, and numerous tips and tricks riders can use to steepen the learning curve and create great winter cycling experiences. The blog post elaborates on numerous threads within the podcast, and functions as a complementary resource.
Post Carry Co. Transfer Case: Travel, Flexibly.
If there’s something resembling a common feeling associated with flying with bikes, it has to be anxiety. Maybe it’s a ‘the more you know the more you worry’ thing; maybe not. I spent four weeks travelling in Europe with Post Carry Co.’s Transfer Case in 2022, and put the case’s multimodal transferability to the test. If you’re interested in travelling with your family AND your bike, this is going to be particularly relevant.
Castelli: Core Pieces for Summer in the Mountains
What to pack for 4 weeks riding in Spain and France? I have a plan, let’s see how it goes!
Vermont Gravel Adventure: 6 Dirty Gaps
Vermont's 6 Gaps ride is iconic, mythic, a rite of passage. But we'd done it, and were left wondering, what if? What if there was a 6 Gaps route on dirt? What was possible?
Duration, Path, Outcome: The Long Game
One bike, three exploratory phases of endurance cycling progression, and numerous insights around why riding my bike long and far in 2020 wound up helping me maintain my mental health and well-being in a way that distinguishes cycling from any other endurance sport.
The Dirt Double: Spring Chicken MTB and Almonte Paris-Roubaix Race Weekend 2022
One weekend, two dirt races. BORCA’s Spring Chicken Enduro MTB race, and OBC’s Almonte Paris-Roubaix are the perfect pairing for weekend of racing bikes on dirt.
Implementation: Custom T-Lab X3 #dropbarbraap
The final piece in a series of deep-dives into my titanium dream bike, T-Lab’s X3. Fully custom designed and built to thrive across a broad range of riding conditions, my build biases toward reliability under heavy and frequent use in harsh environments.
MATTER: Devinci Minus NX Fat Bike Makeover - Hit or Miss?
Can an aluminum fat bike actually feel good enough to want to ride it a lot? What would it take to make it rule?
MATTER: Columbus Futura Cross, Adjustable Rake, and Steering Stability
Tire construction influences steering dynamics more ‘strongly’ as volume increases. You WON’T see this jump out from the numbers, and this phenomenon, which has pushed folks away from 650b wheels/tires, is not widely understood.
MATTER: Castelli’s Unlimited Puffy Jacket
How often do products actually live up to their name? Meet Castelli’s Unlimited Puffy jacket.
LAKE MZX304 Winter Boots: Long-term Review
Lake, the first company to build winter cycling boots, remains dedicated to building options that prioritize function, which drives their approach to fit. Lake delivers solutions that enable riders to enjoy their time riding bikes outside, even when they don’t have years of experience riding in the winter.
How to clean your bike in the winter
There’s what I’d consider the ‘proper’ way to clean a bike after a winter ride, then there’s the ‘best-can-do’ way. The former will protect your bike from salt damage to the greatest extend possible, limiting damage to the whatever drivetrain grinding might occur during the ride itself. The ‘best-can-do’ method is likely to allow salt to reside on the bike in hard to access places, and do harm over time.
MATTER: Castelli’s Polare 3 Winter Bib-tights
The Polare 3 departs significantly from its predecessor. Tasked with covering the coldest temperature range Castelli designs and builds for, the 3 prioritizes dry-cold more than the NanoFlex, which is biased toward wet conditions.
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Instability makes riding bikes fun, and fun-riding bikes. The devil is in the details. Let's talk about that.