Fall (or autumn) is a great time of year to ride a bike, but with days getting shorter and weather more unpredictable, there are a few things that make it different to riding in the summer. Conor outlines his top 7 tips for cycling in the season of falling leaves!
From Wired.com
By Stephanie Pearson
Track your mileage, keep tabs on your heart rate, or map a ride from here to eternity with these handlebar-mounted biking companions.
THERE ARE TWO schools of thought when it comes to cycling computers: Love them or hate them.
Those in the latter category crave the freedom of riding without technological interference. I used to be one of those people. I was disdainful of taking along a computer that could talk to GPS satellites, display where I was on a map, and tell me my speed, distance, heart rate, cadence, and a whole host of other data I didn’t particularly care about or even knew existed. Then my partner started training for a 350-mile gravel race, which in turn inspired me to train for the companion 100-mile race. I quickly discovered on our training rides that it was pretty nice to be able to have a trustworthy device designed to attach to my handlebars so I can safely see it.
Sure, you could always just mount a smartphone on your handlebars, but a bike computer is purpose-built to handle bad weather, a crash, and full days in the sun: all situations where a smartphone might become unreliable or difficult to read. And on those extra-long days when I bailed and my partner was out riding solo in the dark and in hypothermic conditions, I realized it might be good to have a way to find him should he run into trouble, which happened during the race. He blew out the sidewall on a tire and was stranded by the side of the road at midnight. Since his GPS-enabled cycling computer allowed me to remotely track his ride via a companion app on my iPhone, I knew exactly where to pick him up before my own race started at 7 am.
GPS devices aren’t foolproof when it comes to safety, however. Last May, gravel cyclist Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson was murdered by a bad actor who purportedly stalked her via her public settings on a popular training app. It is especially important for solo riders to carefully monitor their fitness apps’ privacy settings so their whereabouts remain protected from public view.
And as for carefree cyclists who prefer to enjoy the ride rather than obsess about stats, there’s a way to have it both ways: Most of these devices have screens that can be preprogrammed to turn off while riding. So I can still enlist safety features like precision mapping, ride tracking, and alarm alerts that will still go off if I get lost or have a crash. If I want to check where I am or how long I’ve ridden, I can push a button and the screen comes back to life. The dopamine rush of a hard-won Strava trophy, however, will have to wait until I get home.
Be sure to check out our other cycling-related guides, including ourbike accessories buying guide, which includes advice on finding the right helmet, lock, saddle, and other essentials. We also have buying guides for ebikes and electric cargo bikes.
Photo: Garmin
From LATimes.com
With year-round sunshine and scenic terrain, L.A. can be a bike-riding playground, but navigating the city solo can be daunting for even the most seasoned cyclists. Luckily, plenty of people are ready to roll alongside you.
There’s a cycling group for every type of rider in the city. Some specialize in specific levels of difficulty, while others host scenic trips or “drop rides” (a type of group ride that doesn’t wait for those who can’t keep up, unless there’s an injury). Many clubs are geared for specific communities. Women-led clubs and LGBTQ+ cycling groups prioritize inclusivity. Interest-based groups like East Side Riders and Bicycle Meals combine biking with charitable work.
Along with safety in numbers, these groups can offer a sense of community in a sometimes lonely city. John Jones III, co-founder of East Side Riders, believes that bicycling allows people to explore the areas they’ve probably sped past by car hundreds of times. “It gives you an opportunity to tour your neighborhood — and enjoy your neighborhood on a different level,” he said.
Ready for a ride? Grab a helmet, strap on a sense of adventure and join one of these nine biking clubs.
Try: East Side Riders
Recreation and altruism intersect for East Side Riders, a nonprofit that aims to feed the homeless, keep youth away from gang activity and drug use, and — of course — bike around the community. The group, founded by father-son duo John Jones Jr. and John Jones III, has served well over 100,000 free meals. Along with weekly rides, the club hosts special events like picnics and workout sessions. Meal distributions are on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. in Compton (2111 W. Compton Blvd.) and 11 a.m. in Watts (1513 E. 103rd St.).
Anyone who wants to make a difference in the community can join. “You don’t have to live in Watts, you don’t have to live in Compton, you don’t have to live in South L.A.,” Jones III said.
Image courtesy of East Side Riders
Over the past three weeks, Alex has been building a super lightweight hill climbing machine on just a £1000 budget. Starting with a cheap second-hand Trek Madone, he has sanded the frame (sorry again!) and bought a load of new budget parts. It’s now time to build the bike, find out how much it weighs and take it for a test ride. It’s super-light bike on a budget: part 3!
From BikeRadar.com
It’s been said many times that performance aero race bikes now all look the same – deep tube sections, dropped seatstays and one-piece integrated cockpits typify the modern aero road bike.
That changed with the launch of the new seventh-generation Trek Madone though; its radical seat tube design, with the saddle cantilevered over the rear of the bike and its cut-out at the top of the seat tube, helps to set it apart from other options on the market.
“It needs to be a bike you can just look at and say ‘wow’ and that’s differentiated from everybody else. Our industrial design language helps the bike’s performance as well,” says Jordan Roessingh, director of road bikes at Trek.
Trek says the new Madone is also very efficient, losing 300 grams of weight from the previous model and gaining 20 watts of aerodynamic advantage. This adds up to a saving of around a minute for every hour of riding over a range of speeds, according to the brand.
We talked to Roessingh about the development of the new Madone and its benefits.
Development of the latest seventh-generation Madone started almost three years ago, as soon as the previous generation was launched.
“We already knew a lot of areas of improvement that we could apply to the next version,” says Roessingh.
Trek’s main focus was on reducing the weight of the new Madone.
“Any time we’re talking about a race bike, speed, aerodynamics and weight become the primary factors that we focus on. The previous version of the Madone was a really fast bike, it was a great-riding bike, it was not a light bike,” Roessingh continues.
The City of Los Angeles has an opportunity to make improvements to 3rd Street from Main St to Alameda St. In coordination with scheduled street repaving, LADOT proposes to implement street safety improvements, including fresh paint, upgraded high-visibility crosswalks, and repurposing one travel lane to calm traffic and create space for upgraded and protected bike lanes in one direction.
3rd Street is designated as a Tier 1 Bicycle Enhanced Network (BEN) in the Mobility Plan 2035. This means that it’s on LADOT’s list of streets to prioritize for bicycle and mobility enhancement. In addition, as it intersects with Main St, a Vision Zero High Injury Network street, it is an LADOT priority to address safety and accessibility issues. Once implemented, this segment will close the bicycle network gap on 3rd Street from San Pedro Street to Main Street.
A bike computer can be a cyclist’s best friend. It allows you to keep track of your power numbers, speed, cadence and almost every other kind of data you can think of while on your rides. However, lots of people don’t make the most out of their bike computers, so if you use a Wahoo head unit on your rides, this is a video for you!
From BikeRumor.com
We’re sure many of you know the Roval Rapide CLX II wheels — super light, stable in the wind, and already have Tour stage wins and Grand Tour victory on their palmares. The premium performance comes at a premium price though, and for most, the slight weight savings isn’t enough to justify the $2800 price tag. That’s where the new Rapide CL II comes in. The new wheels bring along the same rim as the Rapide CLX and DT-Swiss hubs, for a lot less.
The all-new Rapide CL II wheelset brings the same Rapide CLX II speed and handling but at nearly half the price. Built on the same rims as the Rapide CLX II, the performance is similar, and the build is robust.
We’ve seen this before from the team at Roval; take the top-end wheelset (in this case, the Rapide CLX II), use the same rim, and swap out the DT-Swiss 240 hubs to a DT-Swiss 350. Mating the lightweight, performance-driven rim with a more economical hub creates a fast wheel that can take a beating and is much more cost-efficient.
Image courtesy of Specialized.
From BikeRadar.com
By Paul Norman
We’ve finally got our hands on Shimano’s latest 105 Di2 R7100 groupset and weighed all the shiny bits and pieces
Shimano’s new 105 Di2 groupset adds a long-anticipated third tier to the brand’s electronic shifting. Sitting below Dura-Ace R9200 and Ultegra R8100, it shares a lot of tech with those two groupsets, just with slightly fewer flashy materials and increased weight.
It’s that weight we’re going to focus on here – Shimano supplied claimed weights for all the components when Shimano 105 Di2 12-speed was launched back in June 2022. Now we’ve got a complete groupset in for review and we’ve started off by putting everything on the scales to find out how much each component actually weighs
Here’s a run-down of key features that Shimano 105 Di2 has to offer.
First up, it’s semi-wireless with a non-wired connection between the shifters and the rear derailleur driving shifting.
The shifters lose some functionality seen on Ultegra and Dura-Ace, such as a third button and the option to add satellite shifters.
In compensation, 105 Di2 levers have space for two coin cells rather than one, doubling battery life.
There are 50/34t or 52/36t chainset options with a wide range of crank lengths, but there’s no power meter.
That’s paired with cassettes offering 11-34t or 11-36t range, although without the faster-shifting and smoother Hyperglide+ technology of Ultegra and Dura-Ace.
Like those groupsets, 105 Di2 uses brake rotors and chain borrowed from Shimano’s mountain bike groupsets – in this case SLX.
The new 105 Di2 groupset doesn’t offer rim brakes and its disc brakes don’t have the Servowave tech of its more expensive siblings, but as with them, the brake pads retract 10 per cent further, so you should get less brake rub.
Image courtesy of Shimano
Recently we tested a retro time trial bike against a modern superbike, and rather unsurprisingly the superbike easily won. But what about a bike just a few years newer, a TT bike with the latest innovation, the tri bar? We borrowed one of Greg Lemond’s retro TT bike to find out whether that bike can finally beat a modern superbike!
