At the tail end of last season, I did what I once thought I would never do: I bought a winter bike. For nearly a decade, I rode a crappy, 20-year-old single-speed mountain bike because, mostly, I feared riding a good bike. Winter in my city rust: salt, slush, muck and grime that eat components …
Read more “Here’s how my ‘perfect’ winter bike held up through its first (brutal) winter”
My blog earlier this winter offering tips for keeping your feet warm on a bike prompted some questions, so I thought I would expand a bit in video format. So here it is: Five tips for keeping your feet warm on a bike: the expanded edition. For more videos like this, susbscribe to our YouTube channel. …
Read more “More tips for keeping your feet warm while riding a bike”
It’s been a long, cold winter for many of us, so it felt like the perfect time to add a little bicycle fun to the world. The challenge: Build a bike that will smoothly roll over ice. The result: Success! Mostly. Check out the video to see more. Follow Shifter on Youtube, Facebook or Medium. Follow Tom Babin on Twitter, Facebook or Medium. …
Read more “We built an ice-bike to ride on frozen ponds. And it’s amazing”
When should I ride a bike? Here’s a guide for choosing the right trips.
If you ever doubted the global appeal of the bicycle in winter, today’s third annual Moscow Winter Bike Parade ought to disabuse you of the notion. More than 3,000 Muscovites braved the snow and cold to ride together in the shadow of the Kremlin. For cyclists in this megapolis that is just beginning to look …
Read more “The wonderful (and inspiring) bike lovers of the Moscow Winter Bike Parade”
This sounds stupid, I know, but one of the keys to happy urban cycling is learning how to slow down. Riding more slowly in a city is safer, calmer, more relaxing and is conducive to being in the moment and enjoying the surroundings. So why is that hard? Because much of the bicycle industry is …
Read more “How to ride a bike slowly (and why you would want to)”
As a rootless, tribeless and bike-agnostic cyclist, I ride anything with two wheels. My daily rides can range from fast road bikes when I’m looking for a workout, to a city cruiser when I’m on a slow roll to the pub. But I’ve often wondered which method was best for my commute to work. So …
Read more “The bicycle commute test: Cruiser, road or mountain bike – which one is best?”
Here’s a novel new idea for making cycling safer: Ban men’s bikes. Seriously, this is a real idea, but don’t stop reading yet. Since the recommendation came out of the Netherlands, where they know a thing or two about biking, it’s worth a closer look. It wasn’t exactly “men’s” bikes that were targetted, rather bikes …
Read more “Here’s an idea to make cycling seem safer: Ban the crossbar”
Few things in the bike world are as hot right now as e-bikes. Every manufacturer seems to be sensing that now is the time for electric bikes to finally catch hold in North America. Here’s the latest evidence: Two approaches to ebikes, from both an industry leader and an upstart, that are almost complete opposites. …
Read more “Yes, this is how weird (and how elegant) e-bikes are getting”
It was a long and uninteresting series of events that led me to ride my daughter’s Breezer Downtown EX down the side of a mountain, but here’s the important part: It was fun. An outing during a family camping trip that went a little bit differently than expected found us at the head of a …
Read more “Bombing down a mountain on a totally inappropriate bike taught me this”