Rapha is proud to announce a range of all-new all dark jerseys that will help you fade into the background of any road, race, or photo.
Inspired by a Milanese espresso machine maker that supported one of the sport’s greatest teams, the Chevron Jersey is an ode to a bygone era of classic kit design. Available now, get yours in time to watch Milan San Remo next weekend.
Yes, they may be inspired by a coffee machine and inanely dull, but they still feature the two things all fans of the brand appreciate — the Rapha logo, and a high price tag. Side note: these kits go perfectly with facial hair, an S-works and the new SRAM’sRed eTap AXS group set (see below). For all the details, please click the link.
As the tradeshow business quickly contracts it’s been interesting to watch Emerald Expositions, one of the largest tradeshow operators in the world consolidating their business. Last year after buying the SIA Snow Show from Snow Industries of America, they slid the Snow Show into Outdoor Retailer, then they cancelled Interbike, and now, they’ve decided that including the bicycle industry in the OR Show is a great idea almost as if they’re bummed they didn’t think of before.
“We’re excited to bring outdoor and bike together at Outdoor Retailer as we launch the winter season,” said Marisa Nicholson, Outdoor Retailer vice president and show director. “It’s a natural fit for bike to be part of Outdoor Retailer. Our data indicates that we already see over 3,000 buyers attending our shows who purchase for bike, so incorporating the category makes the show even more valuable. Additionally, retailers, dealers, and buyers will have an opportunity to discover new brands and products, expand store offerings, and make new connections to support their businesses.”
Will be interesting to see how Emerald will spin adding their other shows like Surf Expo and/or the Swim Collection, into OR eventually to make only one show for their whole sports category. Sad times for trade shows. For the official spin from Emerald, please follow the jump. [click to continue…]
As is rather obvious by our hodge-podge of odd updates and seemingly random posts somewhat relating to cycling, we can’t figure out exactly what cyclists look for when it comes to online content, mostly because we don’t know what we, ourselves, want. We’re not down with the precious, condescending, fetishizations of Rapha podcast missives, nor do we much appreciate the other end of the spectrum at Bicycling Magazine. We’ll occasionally check out RKP for their road racing poetry, and sometimes read reviews on BikeRadar because they come up in our product searches.
Lately, we’ve been noticing the CyclingTips website coming up in our mix more and more and feel relatively positive about it. Can’t really say the same for PinkBike (it’s a blur of MTBing content that we’ve never been able to figure out), however, reading news that BikeExchange has offloaded CyclingTips to PinkBike makes us question a few things. Firstly, what is BikeExchange? Secondly, is consolidation in cycling media good? And finally, will this be good for us as mildly interested cycling media consumers? Obviously, PinkBike founder Radek Burkat believes it’s all good.
“We are excited to commit the talents and resources we have at Pinkbike and Trailforks to allow the CyclingTips team to grow and be the leader in road cycling,” said Burkat.
CyclingTips founder Wade Wallace is also happy about it, saying:
“We are thrilled that CyclingTips has come together with the Pinkbike family. We are confident that this partnership will result in a better product for our readers, members and industry partners.”
Guess we’ll have to wait and see. The entire staff of CyclingTips will reportedly stay with the brand. Thanks for allowing us to think out loud this morning. It likely won’t happen again for a while as we’re sure we’ll be too busy creating highly curated, stylized content for some other failing web property.
Oakley may have underestimated 100% in the early going, but now they’re coming back hard on their SoCal eyewear competitor. Let’s take it back aways. Oakley had the Eyeshade, but they kind of dropped the ball moving instead toward the Jawbreaker® Cavendish. Then 100% launches the Sagan Speedcraft. 100% dropped the Glendale which was a bit of an Eyeshade bite, and now Oakley is biting the Glendale bite right back with the Oakley Sutro, you know for “urban cycling” whatever that is. For reference, below is the 100% Glendale. Bite, bite, bite.
Want to stay warm pre-race or post-ride? Then Portland, Oregon based Rumpl has just the Original Puffy blanket for you, with a little National Park flavor thrown in.
A series of six Original Puffy blankets inspired by America’s magnificent national parks. The Collection gives back as a member of 1% for the Planet. Rumpl is proud to support the work of the National Park Foundation, the official nonprofit partner to the National Park Service. Colors and designs inspired by the individual terrains and landmarks of each park. Arches, Joshua Tree, and Yosemite available now. Rocky Mountain, Grand Canyon & Great Smoky Mountains coming soon.
These light, packable blankets offer the perfect balance of warmth, performance (and they’re light weight). The National Park blankets cost $129 and are available on the Rumpl website or wherever Rumpl is sold. For all the details, please click the link.
This is also the first ever cycling event at Rancho Guejito, a 23,000 acre working ranch in the Escondido Area. There will be a fully guided 15-mile, social paced ride suitable for MTB’s or Gravel bikes. The ride, with around 1000 feet of elevation gain, will follow ranch roads through pastures and past ancient oaks, up shaded valleys, and will include rest stops at two historic points of interest including the Maxcy Winery (est.1850’s) and other adobe ruins. . . This adventure will be followed by a delicious catered BBQ by Bar None BBQ and will feature Rancho Guejito Vineyard wines and Rouleur Brewing Company beer. Live music and lots of Old California hospitality included! Tickets are $110 with proceeds going to support SDMBA trail projects and advocacy efforts.
For all the details, and to purchase your ticket please click the link.
Competition in the indoor trainer market is about to get more interesting as Garmin announced today (February 12, 2019) their plans to buy Tacx the Dutch makers of connected indoor training systems and software.
“Tacx brings an entirely new product category to Garmin’s fitness portfolio that expands our reach into the indoor training market,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin president and CEO. “Together with Tacx, Garmin will offer a seamless, enjoyable and motivating indoor and outdoor experience for cyclists
all year long.”
Totally makes sense, doesn’t it? Might as well keep all our cycling tech in the family, right? Tacx seems pretty happy with the sale as well.
“We are excited to have the support of a technology leader like Garmin,” said Koos Tacx, CEO of Tacx. “With Garmin’s extensive R&D capabilities and global distribution network, we look forward to working together to further enhance our indoor training products and technologies, and bring them to cyclists around the world.”
For the official word from Garmin, please follow the jump.
Last night (February 7, 2019) we were invited to Canyon Bicycles North American headquarters in Carlsbad, California for a day after roll out of SRAM’s new Red eTap AXS group set. You know, the one that retails for $4,600.
After a welcome from Canyon NA CEO Blair Clark SRAM’s marketing mastermind Dave Zimberoff (pictured above) gave an overview of the idea behind the ground-breakingly expensive wireless, customizable, smartphone app-powered group set. Here’s a little of what he said.
“At SRAM we believe that simplicity is always the best philosophy and if we can make something better and simpler then we win. So we’ve done that in this new connected platform,” Zimberoff said. “What we launched yesterday was a new Red eTap AXS enabled group set, a new XS and XO mountain bike enabled group set, and an electronic seat post from Rock Shox called Reverb. So a whole suite of products that are all interwoven they can all connect to one another, there’s a badass app that allows you to customize, personalize, monitor and control things.”
Nothing we heard from Mr. Zimberoff regarding the group sounded “simple.” Cables are “simple.” Wireless protocols? Smart apps that must be individually paired with each piece of the group? Not so much.
Since we didn’t get to do much more than look at it while dodging the occasional drool gob from some of Southern California’s strongest cyclists, we decided to let the guys at GCN explain the complex setup, features, and the rest of the details surrounding a group set that we likely won’t be riding for at least a decade — cha-ching. Enjoy.
Oh, one more thing: mountain bikers, the Reverb AXS dropper post costs $800. So you better start saving all those beer cans. . .
In a story posted on Medium today (February 7, 2019), Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos claims that Bike Magazine’s new parent company American Media (through its tabloid The National Enquirer) has threatened to publish photos of Mr. Bezos’ penis “as well as nine other images” if Mr. Bezos didn’t call the Washington Postoff its investigation of American Media CEO David Pecker’s relationship with Donald Trump, according to a story on the Huffington Post.
Here’s a little of what Mr. Bezos is claiming:
I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the National Enquirer thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing. Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten. . . They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.
Usually these stories that have nothing to do with cycling would be well outside our “lane.” But last week’s sale brings it all home to our world. Think about it? This suggests that those left at what once was TEN are now in a not-so-roundabout way working for the Trump Administration. We would imagine this might get some bicycle industry marketing asking themselves, “Do we really want to support Donald Trump by spending advertising and marketing dollars with American Media right now?”
We can say this for certain: if this is how American Media does business, then the people who had their jobs eliminated last week are the lucky ones.
Nate Hills and Lars Romig go risking in Sedona, Arizona. Here’s how Hills explains it:
Overcoming and safely managing risk IS the reward. This makes me feel alive, and I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything. Lars Romig and I have been riding this type of terrain for years and are able to mitigate the danger as much as possible. We fully accept the risk and respect the reality of our actions. We didn’t do this for the camera, we did this for ourselves. Scenic Sedona has never been ridden quite like this. The infamous “White Line” is the easy part.
Like feeling puckered while at the computer? Click play.
As the tradeshow business quickly contracts it’s been interesting to watch Emerald Expositions, one of the largest tradeshow operators in the world consolidating their business. Last year after buying the SIA Snow Show from Snow Industries of America, they slid the Snow Show into Outdoor Retailer, then they cancelled Interbike, and now, they’ve decided that including the bicycle industry in the OR Show is a great idea almost as if they’re bummed they didn’t think of before.
As is rather obvious by our hodge-podge of odd updates and seemingly random posts somewhat relating to cycling, we can’t figure out exactly what cyclists look for when it comes to online content, mostly because we don’t know what we, ourselves, want. We’re not down with the precious, condescending, fetishizations of Rapha podcast missives, nor do we much appreciate the other end of the spectrum at Bicycling Magazine. We’ll occasionally check out RKP for their road racing poetry, and sometimes read reviews on BikeRadar because they come up in our product searches.
In a 
