Rob English is one of the most highly coveted builders of high-performance steel bikes these days, and he’s also an elite athlete in his own right. His distinctive function-over-form style is very much rooted in his engineering background, but much of his vision and creativity comes from his eclectic experience in folding bikes, tandems, recumbents, unicycles, and even HPVs. What makes English tick, and where does he get his ideas from? How much skinnier does he think his seatstays can get, and ...
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Things have been a little wacky in the road bike world lately, with Specialized launching a new Allez Sprint high-end aluminum race bike that’s both heavier and more expensive (but potentially better?) than the one it replaces, dropper seatposts in pro racing, and bikes that positively laugh in the fact of that 6.8 kg UCI weight limit (how about 3.3 kg instead?). Plus, ever wonder what word sets off Zach? Yeah, we were a little surprised, too. Add in another round of Ask a Mechanic, and you’ve g...
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 14 min
This week’s Nerd Alert episode came about after consumer-direct wheel company Hunt released a 1,213 g ultralight disc brake road wheel with a hookless tubeless rim. Where some of the other more prominent hookless road wheels have 23 to 25 mm internal widths to supposedly support the tyre at lower pressures, Hunt’s have a marginally narrower 21 mm figure. And with that, some readers raised questions through our Mailbag column over whether the recommended 72.5 psi maximum pressure actually makes s...
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr 15 min
This week we’ve got a deep dive episode on a topic that’s applicable to everyone that rides a bike. Chain lube. As we’ve covered plenty before, the difference between running a good chain lube suited to your riding conditions versus a poor lube can come at an enormous financial cost to parts replacements, and that’s if you can find the parts to begin with. Unfortunately, there’s no doubt a load of BS floating around when it comes to chain lubes and what’s best. In August 2021 we had independent ...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 11 min
We’re back with another group show this week, and taking a hard look at the new LeMond 8 carbon aero road bike that was announced last week. It sounds sweet, and includes a lot of intriguing features like structural foam filling, internal carbon truss reinforcements, size-specific chainstays, and — get this — carbon threads in the bottom bracket, bottle mounts, and derailleur hanger. There’s so much we want to love about the thing, but also a whole bunch of red flags. We also discuss the pros an...
Mar 09, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Lots of things have been hard to come by over the last year or two, and while it’s definitely been a big inconvenience for a lot of us, it’s potentially crippling if you’re trying to sell bikes — and maybe especially so if you’re a consumer-direct brand like Fezzari that has a full range of bike types and also prides itself on offering a huge list of custom options. Ever wonder what the logistics look like for such an operation? It’s as complicated as you might think, but thankfully, it turns ou...
Feb 28, 2022•55 min
Roval and Specialized appear to be returning to road tubeless after last year’s curious non-tubeless tubeless wheel launch, we question the merits of Ratio Technology’s latest 12-speed conversion kit, and — no surprise — Shimano made a heck of a lot of money last year. But we also now have more concrete proof that the Covid-fueled bike boom might finally be cooling off a bit. And what’s Dave Rome’s favorite chain checker? What’s on the Nerds’ wish list for internal cable routing? How do you grap...
Feb 22, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Apparel — apparel in general, not just cycling-specific stuff — is predominantly manufactured in bulk, with orders placed through contract factories well before anything will actually be offered for sale. It’s done this way because it’s cheap, but it also carries a lot of downsides, like the uncertainty of forecasting, long lead times, and literal mountains of waste. Maybe there’s a better way? US-based brand Kitsbow certainly thinks so, and while their sewn-on-demand business model has hurdles ...
Feb 14, 2022•54 min
Specialized rocked the industry last week with the announcement of its Rider Direct program, which allows buyers in select markets to have complete bikes delivered right to their door — either by a participating dealer or in a cardboard box. Dedicated consumer-direct brands like Canyon and YT bike brands already do this, of course, but Specialized is the first major traditional brand to go that route. Without question, the world has gotten used to buying anything and everything online, so this i...
Feb 07, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Former MTB pro Nick Martin started The Pro’s Closet out of the back of his old VW van 16 years ago, and now it’s a multi-million dollar operation with nearly 200 employees, a monstrous warehouse, and roughly 2000 used bikes for sale on any given day. TPC’s ace-in-the-hole is its Certified Pro-Owned program, which promises you’re getting a used bike that’s been fully inspected, serviced, safe, and ready to go — and it even comes with a 30-day return policy. The CPO thing has worked wonders for th...
Jan 31, 2022•51 min
The Nerds had quite a few new bikes to talk about this week, and a lot of details to debate, especially regarding Cannondale’s new Synapse. On the one hand, it’s strikingly normal now with no proprietary fittings whatsoever (even a threaded bottom bracket — from Cannondale!). But there’s now also a fully integrated onboard battery powering built-in lights and a custom rear-facing Garmin Varia radar. Is this a good thing, or is it a little half-baked? Meanwhile, Canyon has moved away from threade...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 21 min
It turns out Canadian pro Geoff Kabush is pretty good at racing bikes — first in XC MTB and cyclocross, then more recently, gravel and enduro — and throughout it all, he’s never been afraid to speak his mind. But along with chasing podiums, Kabush has always also put his engineering degree and technical mindset to good use in a product development role, providing valuable feedback on what works, and what doesn’t. So what’s he think about gravel gear? James and Dave ask the questions, and Kabush ...
Jan 17, 2022•57 min
There are all sorts of awards handed out in the cycling industry. There’s the Arlo Pfeiffer award for most convoluted cable routing; the Emma Stouffy prize for the more pungent tire; and the David St. Hubbins trophy — the “Hubby” — for blackest paint. But when all is said and done, none of these matter as much as our annual CyclingTippies tech awards. What was the best bike we rode this year (and the worst)? Who shook up the industry the most? What new trend had us really scratching our heads? G...
Jan 10, 2022•1 hr 5 min
If you’ve tried to buy anything bike-related over the last couple of years, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that no one has anything in stock — like, ANYTHING. But why is that? Has the pandemic really disrupted global production that much on the supply side, or is it that so many more people are trying to buy stuff on the demand side? James and Dave sit down with the CEO of SRAM, Ken Lousberg, to get the inside story from one of the biggest players in the industry to get the full story. You won’t wan...
Jan 04, 2022•44 min
The Nerds are finally back with another group show! This week, one of the things we’re discussing is one of the hottest trends in gravel bikes: adjustable frame geometry. On paper, the idea of having multiple bike personalities in one sounds awfully appealing, but how much of a difference does it really make, and how many people are actually going to use it regularly? Is it a way to really make bikes better, or is it just a way bike brands can hedge their bets? And what happens if it’s done poor...
Dec 20, 2021•1 hr 3 min
3D printing is the hottest new development in manufacturing, and as far as cycling goes, saddles have curiously emerged as an area that has seen the most widespread application with several models on offer from both Fizik and Specialized (and more to come, surely). Although they’re horribly expensive, 3D-printed saddles have also proven to be freakishly comfortable while still being extraordinarily light and highly supportive. But what makes them so comfortable? When might they become more affor...
Dec 13, 2021•52 min
This/next week’s episode of the Nerd Alert Podcast has dropped a little early. That’s because it’s a timely chat about the new Cervelo R5-CX cyclocross race bike that was just announced. Our guests for this episode are Cervelo’s director of product management, Maria Benson, and the company’s engineering manager, Scott Roy. Dave Rome fills in as host and chats about all the nerdy details of the new model (such as the new threaded bottom bracket!) that was designed specifically for Marianne Vos an...
Dec 02, 2021•41 min
This week’s episode of the CyclingTips Nerd Alert podcast sees tech editors Dave Rome and Ronan McLaughlin take control of the airwaves. They chat about new headset bearings that apparently can’t be killed, some big industry news, and a few new features you can expect to see on Zwift. Ronan and Dave then share a few of their most loved products for this year that didn’t make their respective Top 10s . And finally, the episode wraps up with a teaser of what they’re working on for CyclingTips now....
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Trek released an inward-facing sustainability report a few months ago, and it’s eye-opening. The document doesn’t paint an especially rosy picture (e-bike haters will have a field day with this one), but it does provide some very useful information along with a solid roadmap for how to improve things. In this episode, The Nerds sit down with Trek’s director of brand marketing and public relations, Eric Bjorling, to discuss some of the details of the report, and also ask some hard questions about...
Nov 22, 2021•1 hr 1 min
The Nerds have been pining for some sort of Mario Bros and Zwift mashup that lets us toss turtle shells at our competitors, but Zwift still seems to be too serious for these kinds of shenanigans. However, a new indoor bike called Tiltbike from UK outfit Muoverti nevertheless gives us some hope that we’ll see something like that from someone because built into one of its levers is — for real — a joystick! Will our prayers ever be answered? We chat about some other tech news items in this week’s s...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Aero road wheels are everywhere these days, but it turns out the idea is much harder to execute when it comes to gravel. Why is that, you wonder? We ask the questions, and Hunt wheel engineer Luisa Grappone has the answers.
Nov 05, 2021•55 min
The Right to Repair movement primarily targets the electronics industry, but the concepts behind it strike at the heart of cycling, too: Products should be designed to be repairable, all small parts should be made available — and stay available — manuals, tools, service procedures should be accessible to everyone, and it shouldn’t cost more to repair something than it costs to replace it. In fairness, it’s not all that bad in this respect as far as the bike industry is concerned, but it could be...
Oct 30, 2021•1 hr 15 min
The Nerds make a living nitpicking and critiquing, instead of designing and creating. So what would we change if we could? What products and features would we keep, and what would we get rid of? What would the bikes look like? Be warned: the crew might have gotten a little more animated than usual on this one.
Oct 22, 2021•1 hr 15 min
After several weeks on the road, the Nerds are finally back in the studio! We’ve got a lot to talk about this week, too, like why the same kinds of fork recalls seem to be happening over and over again, what Pon’s recent takeover of Dorel Sports means for consumers and retail, and a recap of the cool stuff James saw at the recent Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California. We also start digging through the giant pile of Ask a Mechanic questions we’ve accumulated, like if you can run road tubeless...
Oct 14, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Sorry, folks, we know our usual Nerd Alert schedule has been a little off-kilter, but we figured it’d be better to shuffle things around to accommodate the World Championships — and next week, Paris-Roubaix! Thanks for your patience, and rest assured, there’s more Nerd Alert to come sooner than later! This week’s episode takes The Nerds to the UCI Road World Championships in Belgium! Caley, Ronan, and Shoddy scoured the team pit areas for all the shiny new bits, and they found what looks to be n...
Sep 30, 2021•33 min
3T recently wound down its carbon fiber frame production in Asia and brought it in-house to Italy. Manufacturing frames the same way would have prohibitory expensive with Italian labor costs, though, so 3T instead developed an entirely new, and highly automated, process that not only dramatically slashes the amount of manual labor required, but also supposedly makes the frames better. What’s the secret sauce in 3T’s new frame building technology, and what are the company’s plans for it moving fo...
Sep 17, 2021•43 min
Are you confused about road tubeless? What works and what doesn’t? Is there an actual rim standard yet? What’s the deal with hookless rims? And why is the whole situation with road tubeless such a mess, anyway? Helping us answer all of these questions — and more — is Zipp product manager Bastien Donzé, who may be feeling a little sore after the flurry of questions the Nerds sent his way on this week’s show.
Sep 10, 2021•1 hr 10 min
This week’s Nerd Alert podcast is a deep dive into the mind of Gustav Gullholm, aka, Dangerholm. Dangerholm is best known for building crazily light and bling mountain bikes, whether they’re for cross country racing, enduro or even downhill. And in recent times some of his builds have included stealthy integrated electronic shifting, or hacked suspension lockouts and dropper posts that run off a single controller. Now the Jort-wearing Swede has turned his attention to the drop bar world and modi...
Sep 02, 2021•54 min
Welcome back to the Nerd Alert podcast, in this week’s episode Dave Rome steps in as host and goes full nerd while diving into the murky waters of chain lube testing. The amount of mixed information related to chain lubes is staggering and it’s undoubtedly one of the more confusing product areas for consumers. That’s an issue because your choice of chain lube can make a substantial difference to the durability and efficiency of your drivetrain. To help unravel these issues we called up Adam Keri...
Aug 26, 2021•1 hr 19 min
We all know there’s still a massive worldwide parts shortage going on. Need a chain? Cassette? A suspension fork??? Ha ha, good luck with that. Groupsets may be particularly hard to find, but it’s important to remember there are more options than just Shimano, SRAM, and Campagnolo. Are off-brands like Microshift truly diamonds in the rough, or is it yet another example of you-get-what-you-pay-for? The Nerds also chat about how the most recent Strava updates might help prevent bike thefts, an enc...
Aug 20, 2021•1 hr 12 min
