Posts Tagged ‘Bicycling Magazine’

A friend of mine who used to ride BMX in his younger years enlightened me about this trick. I ride a mountain bike about town most of the time. In the course of normal use, the ends of the handle bars eventually work their way through the end of the grips. Now this doesn’t bother me much — I’m more about function than style — but if you are style conscious this may lead you to run out and buy a new pair of grips every few months. No need. I recently bought a new pair of Oury grips as my last pair was about 10 years old and had turned into something like those rubber animals that stick to the wall they used to put in your cereal box. Needless to say they were nasty. Anyway, prior to installing your new grips jam a nickel in the end of the grip. Once the grip is installed this nickel will spread the load from any impact to the end of your grip and lessen the likelihood of your bar ends ruining an otherwise lovely grip.

Also, quick tip on installing your grips. Use a compressor to shoot air under the grip when sliding it on. This makes it soooooo much easier.

January 14, 2009
Weathering the Storm
After a few weeks off the bike, Liz returned to riding to work on a day filled with snow, sleet and slush. Read about how she toughed it out.

By Liz DiFebo

Winter weather has set in hard in southeastern Pennsylvania, with its grab bag of rain, ice, wind, stretches of freezing days and sprinklings of unnaturally warm days that give everyone head colds and confuse plants and birds. It was really, I thought, the perfect time of year for my lock to break. As I waited to cash in on its lifetime warranty, my commute turned mainly into a combination of walking and taking the bus, as well as a few rides from my husband and friends. I’d come home and growl as days passed without finding a replacement waiting for me in our mail. Meanwhile, the weather grew more unpredictable, and I began to wonder if I’d even want to start riding again when my lock was returned.

But the day it appeared on my doorstep, there wasn’t even a question as to how I was getting to work the next morning. You know how sometimes you or your significant other goes on a trip and for like a day or two you’re kind of loving your freedom and having your space to yourself, and then it kind of gets boring and lonely, and then when they come back you totally forget that they always leave their socks on the living room floor and they’re just the most beautiful awesome person in the world again, just like they were when you first met? It was totally like that. The forecast for the next day was wretched, but when I walked outside that gray, dreary morning, I hopped on without a second thought.

I headed out in rain and returned home in sleet. I arrived at work with ridiculous helmet hair, and left with wet heavy sort-of-snow clinging to my coat. It was disgusting, cold, uncomfortable–and thoroughly enjoyable.

I rode from work to the gym, to a fast-paced yoga class that thawed me out and warmed me up for the remainder of the ride home. As I stood in the gym lobby after class, arranging my mat on my backpack and untangling my helmet, my yoga teacher looked outside and said, “I feel bad that you have to ride in this.” I replied that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, and then realized that I didn’t HAVE to ride in it at all…it was a choice. An odd choice, maybe, but a choice I’ve rarely regretted.

Since then, there have been quite a few mornings where the absolute grossness of what was going on outside should have convinced me to use the bus, but I’ve found that on those mornings, the ride can be even more satisfying. I feel almost like I’ve accomplished something (I’m not sure what exactly, but I just go with it) and it makes me feel a little stronger, a little tougher and definitely a little happier.

Check out Bicycling’s Winter Gear slideshow so you can ride all season long, just like Liz.

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I read Bicycling and Velonews all of the time, cover to cover I also used to have a description of Mountain Bike Action as well. Not any more. Although I loved the mag, I didn’t keep the subscription up; it must have gotten lost in the mix.

I love all of my cycling mag subscriptions. Even though I don’t like the paper generated by these mags, I can’t help but to renew every year, often in two year intervals. However, I can’t help but think that there is no possible way for these mags to write an honest product review. Just think, Bicycling magazine bashing the newest version of the Trek Madone…. Really? Bash your advertising dollars? No. Never. Even if the reviewer had legitimate complaints about the performance or quality of the bike, would the editor really let those complaints make press. That’s a rhetorical question.

I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’ve been reviewing products on this blog. So, while reading the latest issue of Bicycling I looked for negatively focused comments. I saw few. The only real bashing, more like a soft scolding, was of a Performance Bike offered single speed. I expected this however, since most of the cycling industry has disliked direct-to-consumer online retail of bike related items for some time now. For good reason. It is a service-related industry and local bike shops are necessary for helping you out aftermarket — something the online industry is not very helpful with.

So what’s my message. You’re not going to get an honest product review from a magazine. You need to question heavy users of products you’re interested. Like what I review on this blog. There are many, many places to find these reviews — most easily found on the internet. Just make sure your reviewer does not have a vested interest in the review.

Memphis was designated a Worst Cycling City by Bicycling magazine citing no bike lanes and an uncooperative city government. While I love Bicycling magazine, I strongly disagree with this opinion. I’ve heard through local sources that the author of the article (click here for article), Christine Mattheis, interviewed a few of the bicycle advocates in Memphis as fodder for her story. But that’s what it mostly is, fodder.

I live in mid-town Memphis and bike on the roads on a daily basis – I doubt Christine has done this. Many times, I do this with my two children in tow. While there are no bike lanes, many roads throughout mid-town and downtown are sufficiently wide to for both cars and bikes. The traffic in mid-town is also pretty light for a mid-sized city, even during peak traffic hours. I would also argue that the drivers here, while almost never following traffic rules, are not unfriendly to riders. I have had only one mild confrontation during my year and a half of riding here. I got harassed on a weekly basis in small town Indiana.

While the bike advocates in Memphis have an honorable agenda, I feel their priorities are not aligned with the needs of Memphis. I recently saw that bike advocates are proposing a $50,000 addition of bike lanes to Cooper Avenue. I bike Cooper 5 to 6 times per week and rarely see another cyclist. Nor do I feel unsafe due to heavy traffic. I also seriously doubt that adding a bike lane will suddenly increase the number of people riding bikes. And since Memphis drivers (of undesirable vehicles) rarely follow traffic rules they are certainly not going to observe the bike lanes. It’s comical to think that they would. Furthermore, Memphis has greater problems. Rampant crime and poor schools are more detrimental to cycling than not having bike lanes.

It would be nice to have a pedestrian friendly east-west route. I have a very hard time reaching east Memphis on any of the existing roads. This would be nice but the reality is that few other Memphians would use it.

Memphis is a good city for cycling. Instead of making it a great city for cycling, let’s make it a great place to live and go to school.