January 2023

Six things I’ve learned while travelling with a bike

From CyclingNews.com

By Josh Ross

Some thoughts on my luck making it to multiple destinations, and back, with a functioning bike

Right now, in the middle of winter, many of us are either looking to get somewhere warmer right away, or dreaming of summer holidays. As you consider these plans, you are probably thinking about what it takes to bring your bike with you. As with anything, travelling with a bike gets easier the more you’ve done it and, at this point, I’ve done it a lot.

Although I’ve done it a lot now, for most of my life I never travelled with a bike. I either took a break when I travelled or I borrowed a bike from a friend. If I’m being completely honest one of the reasons is that I was kind of scared to do it. These days though, it’s not really an option to leave a bike at home. I make my way across the country, or world, to report on new experiences and I need a bike with me. It’s given me the opportunity to test some of the best bike travel casesbut it’s also given me an opportunity to pick up some tips. It turns out that it’s really not so complicated. I missed out on a lot of adventures because I was too nervous. Now I’m hoping to share some ideas and encourage you to bring your bike next time you travel. Keep reading to see some of what I’ve learned as I’ve travelled with my bike.

1. Use a tracking device

For the last few years, you’ve likely been reading about people who know without a doubt exactly where their luggage is. The airlines might not know where it is but the customers do and it’s all because of an Apple Airtag. How many times do you need to read that story before you decide to add one of those devices to your must have travel accessories? For me the tipping point was watching US airline Southwest completely melt down during the Christmas 2022 holiday. With stacks of luggage all over the country and general pandemonium, I knew it was time to stop procrastinating and grab a tracker.

Without diving too deep into the mechanics of it, Airtags are the most well-known option. They connect to any iPhone and they leverage that network connection to report their location. If you don’t have an iPhone then you can’t use one. Apple didn’t invent the system though. Tile came before, and they still exist. Given that I use an Android phone I grabbed a Tile and had it set up within five minutes.

When it was time to fly, I dropped the Tile tracker into the bag with my bike before heading to the airport. The moment I was away from the bag, I started checking. I found it wouldn’t always give an exact location but it was more than good enough to show that my bike was on my plane and had made it to the next stop. As I was waiting at the oversize bag collection in the next airport I could always see that the bike was somewhere in the airport. I was able to relax even if it took a bit longer for my bike to come out.

If you want more exact tracking, especially in remote locations, another option is the Invoxia GPS Tracker. Unlike a Bluetooth tracker, there is a yearly service cost, but that’s because it has its own cellular connectivity. It doesn’t matter if someone with a phone is around to connect with your tracker and the location is exact. It’s on our list of the Best bike GPS trackers and it’s something I’ll be playing with next time I fly.

 

Image courtesy of EVOC

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Bahati Foundation: Rahsaan, Racing and Racism

From CyclingTips.com

BY JOHN WILCOCKSON

“The reason I started the foundation. I just wanted to get more kids that looked like me on bikes.” — Rahsaan Bahati

Three years ago, in a VeloNews interview, African American cycling champ Rahsaan Bahati, in response to a question on confronting racial injustice in the sport, said: “It’s time for our community to support the Bahati Foundation…and all the other organizations out there. We can’t do it alone. A lot of people say, ‘I don’t see color.’ I call [that] BS. The problem is, you have to understand it. I say, ‘Let’s understand it.’ The more stories, the better.” Well, this is one more story dealing with racism in cycling, and it’s one in which Bahati, at age 40, says he is still being victimized in American bike racing.

Bahati grew up in Compton, just south of downtown Los Angeles, which is one of America’s 10 most dangerous cities and notorious for gun violence and gangsta rap. “I saw someone killed when I was 7,” Bahati has said. He was 10 in 1992 when riots broke out following the acquittal of four white LAPD officers of using excessive force, beating an unarmed Black man, Rodney King, despite a citizen’s video showing the brutality of the attack. When I asked Rahsaan’s father, Rashid Bahati, whether those riots influenced his son’s perspective on how bad things were in LA at the time, he replied, “I’m sure it increased his awareness on some level of certain things, on the social dynamic in a predominantly Black community, but we’ve never discussed that actually.”

So, I asked Rahsaan what he remembers about those riots (which saw 63 deaths, damage to more than 3,000 businesses and some 7,000 fires) and how they have affected his life. “The only thing I really remember is seeing our city one way physically and then over the next few days seeing it another way, and not really knowing why,” he said. “Also, in an unfortunate situation, my uncle was an opportunist, and he actually took me with him to go riot, which didn’t settle too well of course with my parents—because they were out working at the time. Luckily, we were both safe…but I don’t remember much. I do remember the cops beating Rodney King—but I don’t know if it has affected me, being that I was so young.”

 

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What Is The Fastest Tire Pressure For Road Bikes?

Tire pressure is one of the most important factors affecting the performance of your bike. But is it something that you spend much time thinking about? Not that long ago, people thought that more pressure meant faster riding, however times have changed and we now know that lower is better. But how low should you go? Si tests to find the optimum tire pressure.

 

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Cycling ancient trails: off-road on an e-bike in Pembrokeshire’s Preseli Hills

From TheGuardian.com

By Alf Anderson

He came up with the term “e-trail” because, he says, he “wanted a name that differentiated what we do from regular mountain biking. Our routes are rideable on a normal mountain bike, of course, but we just reckon they’re more fun – and easier – on an e-mountain bike.”

Ed tells me this as we take a break from riding our state-of-the-art (and rather pricey) Orange Phase e-bikes beneath the summit of 347-metre Carn Ingli to enjoy a wintry view across the wide sweep of Newport Bay.

Heavy rain showers blowing in from the Irish Sea have washed the landscape so that its colours glisten in the watery sunshine – the distant steel-blue sea throws bright white waves on to golden sands that give way to glossy green fields criss-crossed by a maze of drystone walls and ancient hedges. Above these are wind-blown moorlands and the boulder-strewn summit of Carn Ingli, where Saint Brynach is said to have communed with the angels (the preponderance of magic mushrooms growing hereabouts had nothing to do with his supernatural conversations, of course).

Photo by Marc Pell on Unsplash

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Five Things We (Sometimes) Miss About Older Bikes

From PinkBike.com

by Seb Stott

There’s no doubt that bikes have got a lot better over the last few years. I don’t want to go back to fixed seatposts, sketchy geometry, inadequate brakes, and carrying five spare inner tubes on every ride. But there are a few features that have inexplicably gone out of fashion and that I’d like back – at least sometimes.

External cable routing

While brands like Raaw are still fighting the good fight, it’s getting increasingly difficult to find bikes with external cable routing. Long before manufacturers decided it was a good idea to start putting cables through the headset, aesthetics had been edging out serviceability for years as brands went fully internal.

It’s really the external rear brake lines that I miss. Being able to upgrade or swap a brake over was once a matter of minutes but now involves a re-bleed at a minimum. Even if threading the hose through the frame is as painless as possible (which it rarely is), it’s the re-bleed that makes it a fuss. Sure, most people rarely swap brakes, but when you do it’s so nice to be able to simply bolt a new one on. When one of my brakes failed on the first day of a riding holiday in the Alps, I was able to swap to a spare set in minutes.

Not having to charge anything

A bicycle is fundamentally a simple, mechanical device, and that’s a big part of its appeal for many of us. While electronic gears and droppers have considerable advantages over cable-operated versions (the lack of cables being the most obvious one) there’s something about having to connect your smartphone to make adjustments or check that the batteries are charged before you can go out riding that doesn’t sit well with the simplicity of cycling.

Sure, replacing frayed or rusted cables and adjusting cable tension may take more time to maintain in the long run, but at least you know your derailleur’s not going to need to be recharged if you forget to plug in the batteries after the last ride.

Photo by James Hoey on Unsplash

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Why You Should Be VERY Excited About The 2023 Road Season!

The 2023 road racing season is just around the corner. With mouthwatering battles in the spring classics, an inevitable Vingegaard vs Pogačar rematch at the Tour de France, Annemiek van Vleuten’s final season as a pro rider, and much much more on the menu, we are all set for a cracking 2023 season! Here are the reasons why you won’t want to miss it!

 

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How to Keep Bike Commuting All Winter Long

From OutsideOnline.com

By Jakob Schiller

The best cold-weather cycling gear for the daily commuter

Now that I’m back in my office, post-pandemic, I’m back on a commuter bike most days. My office is about four miles away from home, but if I take the long way around and add in an extra hill I can stretch it into a 30-minute ride in the morning and another 30-minute ride on the way home.

Picking out my commuter gear was easy during the summer and fall. Once temps dropped and the sun started disappearing earlier, however, I had to up my gear game. To get everything dialed, I asked for recommendations from Lee LaMunyon, a school counselor and adventure course builder who rides his bike daily in the cold and wind of Wichita, Kansas. Then I did my own experimenting here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our recommendations will keep you pedaling no matter how dark or cold a commute you’re facing.

Velocio Alpha Glove ($120)

Riding a commuter bike in the cold without the right gloves is a recipe for never riding again. That’s why I’m advocating for these admittedly pricey gloves. Just launched by Velocio, they layer a windproof and water-resistant softshell outer over a lush, instantly warm, and highly breathable Polartec Alpha Direct lining. I’ve worn these gloves in temps below freezing while pedaling 15 miles an hour for 30 minutes and my hands were warm and happy. They also allow a ton of dexterity so you don’t have to take them off to pull out your wallet or turn your bike lights on.

HotHands Toe Warmers ($23 for 20)

LaMunyon usually puts in 100–200 miles on a road or gravel bike each week. He’s become accustomed to shitty Kansas weather that often dips into the 20s, and he says toe warmers have saved him more than once. LaMunyon lets the packets heat up and then places them on top of his toes before putting his bike shoes on. These HotHands warmers are small enough to fit well in a compact shoe.

 

Image courtesy of Pearl Izumi

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Bicyclists Weigh in on Highway 39 Reopening in San Gabriel Mountains

From LA.Streetsblog.org

Public comment will close soon for the reopening plans for the northmost tip of Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains, at its junction with Angeles Crest Highway 2. Until Monday January 16, the public can try to influence which of six options Caltrans will move forward with. These include: no build, emergency vehicles only, active transportation use, full reopening, building a separate viaduct, and a single travel lane.

SBLA spoke to several bike club members about their hopes for it (as well as a Caltrans representative and the Mayor of Azusa). They gave a variety of takes.

“I’d like it to be open to pedestrians and cyclists only. And keep it you know, for fire and emergency vehicles. And that’s it.” – Jeff Sewell, Monterey Park

“Yep, yep, no, that won’t happen, right? Because that’s going to be additional cost and work for Caltrans, and just for recreational use, there’s so many other options already for that area and nearby, so that’s probably not realistic.” – Peter Rinde, La Cañada Flintridge

“I’d rather not see it open at all. What happened to P-22 really hit me. It’s like, oh my god, you know, it’s their land.” – Leticia Montanez, El Sereno

“When a fire starts down below, there’s nowhere for anybody to exit. These people are stuck up there. So yeah, they do need to have a secondary exit strategy.” – Art Hernandez, Downey

 

The part of Highway 39 at stake is a 4.4 mile stretch between Snow Springs and Islip Saddle that’s been closed since 1978, “when it experienced massive mud and rock slides caused by heavy rains and floods,” says Caltrans Spokesperson Alisa Almanzan

Image courtesy of CalTrans

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Does Bike Crank Length Matter & Should You Change Yours?

Bike fit expert Jake Yarranton is back to take a deep dive into crank length with Alex. They discuss the basics of crank lengths and how changing the length of your crank arms can change your performance on the bike. Alex also gets on the indoor trainer to compare the extremes of crank lengths. Does it make a difference and should you change yours?

 

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The rising cost of cycling — when will this crisis stop!?

From Road.cc

by JAMIE WILLIAMS

The cost of living is being felt everywhere, but is inflation the sole reason for super high bikes and components?

Cycling has always been a relatively costly sport, but recently it has seemingly become more ridiculous than ever. In the UK, inflation remains near a 40-year high; but can that justify the increase in the prices of bikes and bike components?

To answer this question, we’ve taken a look at some high-end bikes, entry-level bikes, and component prices since 2009 (which happens to be the year that I started cycling properly) to find out.

It’s not uncommon now for some of the best road bikes on the market to cost the same as a nice car, with many premium models costing in excess of £10,000. More worryingly perhaps, up until now, brands have seemingly had little trouble selling them. At the same time, entry-level bikes have evolved massively, often with price tags to match.

Photo by Mikkel Bech on Unsplash

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