Phewwwww! Back home from a big week of helping Outside Magazine with their annual Bike Review, held in Tucson, Arizona. It was an honor to be picked to help them out, it's one of the most prestigious magazines for reviews and involves all $6k – $10k valued bikes…. = lots of carbon! In total there were about 60 bikes, roughly 30 road and 30 mtb. We were tasked with both mechanic duties and bike testing. Although it was a ton of work, our inner bike geekness made it a pleasure. All of the bikes here were "dream bikes" so to speak, so it was definitely interesting to try things out and learn some of the characteristics of the world's top bikes.
Pile O' Carbon:
The Outside crew here was a super fun bunch of people, they really are passionate about the great outdoors and are highly capable athletes themselves. Legitimate people to be steering the magazine for sure. They nicknamed this week of bike testing as "Bourbon Bike" , and there was plenty of amazing bourbon to finish off each day. My kind of people!
What were my favorites? I'd say on the road side I was most impressed with the new "gravel" category bikes, in particular – the new Niner Bikes RLT-9. These bikes are a combination of road and cyclocross, and with the advent of disk brakes for roadies, they handle really really well. Road biking is much more fun and adventurous when incorporating dirt roads and light trails, so it's great to see this category growing. I found the Niner RLT to be really fun to ride, with cornering stability and bunnyhopping ability similar to an XC mountain bike, perfect for getting off the beaten pavement away from cars…. Which is exactly what I was hoping for, as I'm primarily a mountain biker these days but once upon a time I did race Cat 2 road.
On the MTB side, it's a much harder pick. With suspension designs getting so good across the board, this year's crop of test bikes seemed to weed out by spec. Every test bike that came with a dropper post and Sram's X01 drivetrain were the winners, as the drop posts made it easier to push the bike harder and the 1×11 drivetrain made the bike smoother and quieter. And after testing all 3 wheel sizes back to back, it made noticing the subtle advantages of 27.5 wheels that much more clear. Stability, Responsiveness, Maneuverability, and Fun were all noticeable with the 'tweener wheels this past week!
Oh, and my favorite bourbon? Colonel Taylor Straight Rye
