After ten years, I retired from full-time work as Service Manager at Fit Werx, in Waitsfield, Vermont on January 1, 2019. While I may make the occasional guest appearance with a wrench, my days of full-time management and working on bikes has come to a close. In exchange, I hope to have more time to…
Consumer habits and expectations in general are changing rapidly. There is some good from this and some real challenges. In the bike industry, one of the biggest changes is growing media attention and thus interest in riders buying specialty bikes directly from the manufacturer. The most recognized brand on the market pursuing this method is…
Hopefully our recent article on segments of gravel capable road bikes helped you figure out what type of gravel road bike makes the most sense for you. Now it is time to learn a bit more about some of the better options within those segments. Felt VR. Road Bike Roots, Dirt Road Friendly, Endurance Bike…
The “gravel road” category remains one of the more popular bike segments for 2018. However, the category is significantly more diverse than it was just a few years ago. With all the options in the category, it is easy to get lost and then potentially end up with the wrong type of gravel bike. There…
We get it (and have preached it for years). Sustainable full-vehicle (bike and rider) aerodynamics is really important for triathletes looking to maximize their performance. This being said, there are a lot of aero tri bikes on the market. Making a decision based on one being slightly more aero than another in a wind tunnel…
Shimano’s Di2 electronic shifting has long been an excellent shifting system on road bikes, but is arguably even better on tri bikes. Eliminating the numerous twists and kinks that are inherent in aero bike cabling, while offering push button ease, offers big benefits when it comes to staying aero, reducing maintenance, maintaining cadence and improving…
Zipp and Enve are two of the most respected and well-known brands in the carbon wheel world for good reason. We’ve represented both for a long-time – Zipp since our inception in ’01 and Enve since not long after their inception, back when they were called Edge Composites. The hardest thing about trying to compare…
Felt, Cervelo, Trek and Parlee all make nice tri bikes that we carry. None are introducing revolutionary new frames for 2018. Cervelo introduced the revolutionary P5X last year and Parlee introduced the first disc brake equipped tri bike in the TTiR disc a little before the P5X. The veritable Cervelo P2 and P3 have the…
With few exceptions, most XC and Trail oriented mountain bikes shipped today come with 175mm cranks. While some brands spec 170mm cranks, it is often only on their smallest sizes. However, the evidence leans towards mountain bike crank lengths being too long in general. Why are current lengths not optimal for many riders and why…
Great Road, Gravel/Adventure and Tri Bikes at Great Sale Prices Shimano has been late to delivery the new Dura Ace components and now they are sounding like they are going to be earlier than the industry anticipated with the ’18 Ultegra R8000 components.The net result is that manufacturers are heavy on some of their most…
It is April 12, 2017 and I’m about to aero test the latest Felt TA FRD, reportedly the fastest track frame in the world. I’ll be riding dozens of 30mph laps around the Velo Sports indoor velodrome in Carson, California. I was personally invited by Felt, as the only retailer representative, to test the bike…
I recently posted my test results from my trip with Marty to use the cutting edge Alphamantis Track Aero System (TAS) at the Mattamy National Cycling Center in Milton, Ontario. The TAS provides real-time aerodynamic data to the tester while you’re riding, which facilitates faster on-the-spot results and decisions compared to my normal field testing routine….