Top Road Bicycle Technologies of the Past 20 Years – On-Bike Electronics

Top Road Bicycle Technologies of the Past 20 Years – On-Bike Electronics

Top Road Bicycle Technologies of the Past 20 Years – On-Bike Electronics While electronic shifting, ebikes and the second generation of Smart Trainers are deserving of their own separate categories on our list of most innovative road and triathlon cycling products of the past twenty years, other electronic innovations merit mention too.   Some of the…

Top Road Bicycle Innovations of the Past 20 Years – Compact Cranks & Wide Range Cassettes

Top Road Bicycle Innovations of the Past 20 Years – Compact Cranks & Wide Range Cassettes

Compact Cranks & Wide Range Cassettes We are biased by our hilly area, but the enhancement that having adequate gearing on your bike offers is hard to overstate.   A 53/39 crankset with a 12-25 was considered “low” gearing around twenty years ago.   Today, 1:1 is a common starting point for paved road gearing in hilly…

Top Road Bicycle Innovations of the Past Twenty Years:   Smart Trainers 2.0

Top Road Bicycle Innovations of the Past Twenty Years: Smart Trainers 2.0

We recently released our list of the top road and triathlon bike innovations that have come out since the inception of Fit Werx in 2001.  Smart indoor bike trainers is definitely on this list. While the first readily available smart trainers came out in the ‘80’s, computer technology has come a long way since.   With…

State of the Bike Industry – Spring 2022
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State of the Bike Industry – Spring 2022

A Pandemic Accelerated Divide The pandemic has accelerated a divide that has been developing for years now in the bike industry.   Many of the biggest bike companies are aggressively pursuing factory owned stores and more online sales over independent bike dealer representation.  In some cases this will mean a new “Trek Store” may move into your neighborhood. …

Classified Cycling Powershift – The Beginning of the End for the Front Derailleur?

Classified Cycling Powershift – The Beginning of the End for the Front Derailleur?

The front derailleur has long been the bane of the mechanical components of a bicycle.  While some perfectly set-up front derailleurs, like Shimano’s Di2, are immense improvements over what front derailleurs used to be, there is no escaping that the front derailleur is a rather primitive component by necessity.  There remains room for improvement in…

Make an Appointment to See What Smart Trainers and Indoor Bikes are About
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Make an Appointment to See What Smart Trainers and Indoor Bikes are About

Ride Throughout the World from Home With the time change and colder temperatures, trainer time is here for many of us.   While the CompuTrainer arguably started the smart trainer revolution decades ago, the current crop of options is like comparing a video game on the original Atari to a X Box Series X.   The courses…

Aero Position Progression – The Continued Exploration of the Aero Riding Position of Master’s National Champion Dean Phillips
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Aero Position Progression – The Continued Exploration of the Aero Riding Position of Master’s National Champion Dean Phillips

Background and Old Position: Up until 2017, I spent many years testing and fine tuning my aero position.  I was pursuing record; records where set-up details matter a lot.  I documented a lot of this in prior posts.  However, I stopped riding the position I had put so much time into refining a few years…

Virtual Riding on an Indoor Smart Bike
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Virtual Riding on an Indoor Smart Bike

I am admittedly late to the virtual riding/training experience.  This being said, I’ve used CompuTrainer products (the original “smart” trainer) at work for decades and I’ve worked with different smart trainers from TACX, Wahoo and Saris/Cycleops through the years.   However, until last winter, I did not ride a smart trainer consistently and had not experienced…

ROTOR ALDHU 24 DM &  FSA SL-K MODULAR ADVENTURE BB386 EVO CRANKSETS REVIEWED

ROTOR ALDHU 24 DM & FSA SL-K MODULAR ADVENTURE BB386 EVO CRANKSETS REVIEWED

While today’s gravel bikes see a range of component and gearing options, ranging from compact road to subcompact wide gravel, this was not always so.   Just a few years ago, gravel road bikes all included a “compact” 50/34 crankset that was the same crankset as a dedicated pavement road bike had.  In 2017 Praxis Works…