This post is a break from what we usually discuss here, and is very long to boot. Many regular readers may want to skip it. As noted recently , I returned home to Seattle last month for a few days; at that time, I promised a full report on the Seattle-to-Portland (STP) ride, the event which had been the primary purpose of my trip. It's taken me this long to sit down and put that report together. I write such a report after every major cycling event; I am sharing this one on the blog for anyone out there who may be interested in my experiences and who may want to learn from my mistakes and observations. You'll note the clipped style (many sentence fragments) is also quite different from what I...

Read More

There's a fixie, a women's Mixte-framed bike that we snapped at Eurobike without realising the back story and this classic geared road bike. We first met bike builder Paulus Quiros at Bespoked, Bristol earlier in the year but Mr Paulus and Mr Quiros don't appear to be limiting their ambition to the world of exotic custom frame makers. The benefit for customers who have to buy their own bikes is a lower price while only sacrificing 100 - 200 grams, weight that could more usefully saved in lighter wheels and tyres, anyway. Bianchi's second level of carbon frame below the sub-1,000-gram Oltre is the Sempre which is geometrically identical in offering a full-on road-racers position but employing less expensive carbon in the construction. The complete Bianchi Sempre Di2 package will sell for £3,500 when it first arrives before Christmas. Peugeot has one of its long-standing framebuilders in France making small batches of special frames with old-school chrome, paint and graphics and lots of lovely detail in the lugwork. Paulus Quiros at first big national show. £1,200 for the frame and forks.

Read Article