I broke most of my “buying a bike” rules because of the broken bike market, but I’m thrilled I did.…
Blog Featured Review
January 11, 2021
Cannondale Fat CAAD 1 – Rolling With Scarcity
Blog Featured
January 8, 2021
Hi Xert, I need to take back most of the nasty things I’ve said about you…
About a year ago, on the advice of several of my friends, I gave Baron Biosystem’s Xert platform a try. It was supposed to calculate my FTP, offer automated coaching (i.e. pick the best workout to keep me getting stronger), and provide insight into my fitness that I couldn’t get at the time (now I get some of that, poorly, from Garmin, but that’s the subject for another post). Long story short,…
Blog Featured
January 7, 2021
Lynskey GR300 – Fender Dilemma
I would never buy a gravel bike without fender mounts, but it turns out that confirming the presence of mounts isn’t enough to ensure that it’s easy to get the mud guards on……
Blog
January 4, 2021
Where have all the Fat Bikes gone?
While I don’t like cold, per se, I do enjoy riding in the snow. A lot. It’s a very different kind of cycling to what I do the rest of the year. Speed and endurance take the backseat to staying upright, and enjoying the back of the bike squirm. Studs on the gravel bike help, both with confidence and traction, but I learned yesterday that there is no substitute for contact patch.…
News
December 22, 2020
Wait?! “Sweet Spot” isn’t Sweet?
I did not expect the conclusion that Dylan came to in this video. After all, we all know that the “sweet” in “Sweet Spot Training” (SST) means that it’s placed in the perfect location to push up the FTP over time. Right? Well, apparently that’s not the case because “science”. Sigh, going to have to get that name changed… One thing that Dylan states clearly, but is easy to miss on the…
Featured Review
December 20, 2020
Lezyne Trigger Speed Drive CO2 Inflator
Blog
December 16, 2020
Ramp It Up?
Don’t tell anyone, but it’s been ages since I did a structured FTP test. There are a few reasons behind this, but mostly it comes down to laziness. This is something I’ve been meaning to correct, so I’ve been looking at the various tests out there. The last time I did one of these, the 20-Minute Test was the standard, but in the time since the Ramp Test seems to be what…
Featured Review
December 13, 2020
Giant Revolt Fender
Sometimes it’s necessary to learn things the hard way. No instructions made figuring out how to install the fenders Giant created specifically for the Revolt gravel bike much more difficult than it needed to be. Doing it over, I probably would have opted for a different solution.…
News
December 11, 2020
It’s not just you. Strava is borked.
You would think that somewhere in their vast pool of employee talent, Strava would have at least one person who understand how to keep the service up and working correctly. But, that’s clearly not the case even though their “am I up” page is reporting “all-good”. Hmm… Update: Strava is back online.…
News
December 9, 2020
Garmin Releases Firmware 13.10 for fēnix 6
Fixes and improvements galore in the latest firmware for the fēnix 6 family of fitness watches. Unfortunately Garmin hasn’t provided a direct download, but I was able to encourage it with Garmin Express. That could have been because I was running the 13.00 RC, and the 12.77 BETA before that, both without any showstopper issues. The only niggle that I experienced was that I needed to reboot my phone to get it…