Remember
the days when you would have to wait for the latest issue of VeloNews to get
race results? The first time you would
see new products was when they showed up in your local shop—group rides were
organized via rotary phone—and getting how-to instructions for that pesky front
derailleur meant making your way to your favorite wrench’s shop to pick their
brain. Do you remember those days? Yeah,
neither do I. I just had the pleasure of
turning the ripe old age of 26 two days ago (with a wonderful little shindig
put together by my wife, I might add).
So it is safe to say that my adult life has been quite firmly set in the
digital age.
You,
however, may be of the required age to look back nostalgically upon the age of
print media. Maybe waiting for those
race results increased the suspense of it all, or maybe you really like rotary
phones—I don’t know. But like I used to
say to my dad when he told me that when he was a kid he “walked to school,
uphill both ways, in three feet of snow, everyday,” I would rather take the
bus.
Nowadays,
there is a superfluous amount of coverage on anything and everything related to
cycling and its culture—and it exists within easy reach. You only need to know where to look. Sometimes separating the good from the bad,
the legit from the phony, or the experts from the misinformed is a little
difficult to sort out. So today I am
bringing you a reading list of sorts. I want to clue you in to what I check and read
on a daily basis in the hope that you will like them too. So here it is. Here is what I’m reading:
Many people read BikeSnob for the humor, but I find that he
usually has fantastically good points when he is railing against the sometimes
ridiculous tendencies of cyclists and the like.
Well written, dependable, and wonderfully entertaining posts keep me
checking his site with extreme regularity.
Quit taking yourself and your bike so seriously and read this
stuff.
Bicycling Magazine always has good content and their online
content is no different. HQ’ed in
Emmaus, PA, Bicycling.com has a lot of local spin to it. Contributors include many local riders like
Harlan Price and Selene Yeager—both of whom you can regularly find ripping the
Wissahickon on many a sunny afternoon or Sunday morning.
Check out all of their blogs and feature articles on everything from
tech coverage to bike handling tips. Ms.
Yeager’s Fit Chick has great insight
into her personal riding experiences as well as fitness and general life
coaching tips. Well worth your time to
become a regular reader.
Velonews also provides some great race coverage, specifically
for domestic events. I keep coming back
for their tech coverage. Nick Legan and
Leonard Zinn regularly provide amazing content—both having a wealth of
experience most wrenches, including myself, can only look at enviably.
Irreverent? Yes. Bitter?
Yes. Inappropriate? Maybe. That
is why I love this blog. Read it without
shame and embrace the wrongness of it all.
Best of all, DrunkCyclist knows what he is talking about. The eclectic mix of material he produces is
entertaining to say the least, while still being quite informative. Check out the review of his new 616 Fabrications fat tire bike. Beautiful
bike.
A moody look at all things cycling. From serious road cycling, to serious off road
riding, to serious alleycats, to other not so serious topics, AHTBM covers it all, with some great photography to boot. Check here for some “off the beaten path”
stuff that you won’t see many other places.
Definitely not mainstream cycling media, and that is why you should love
it.
Pez is similar to CyclingNews or VeloNews, except not
really. It seems like they approach cycling
news from a different angle. They offer
much more coverage of track racing and six day events, along with interviews
with pros from all different roles in the pro peloton, all while still giving
you good mainstream race coverage, tech news, and training advice. Some seriously good picture galleries as
well.
Go
forth now, and read about your favorite pastime on your smartphone while you
should be working. Let me know if I
missed something that is on your list of favorites, as I’m always interested in
finding some new and interesting reading material.
Until next week…..
Epilogue: I’m still looking for questions to fill a
Q&A post, so don’t hesitate to hit me up about anything/everything that you
have questions about. Ask anything,
really. If I don’t have the expertise
necessary, I will pass it to someone in the know. Ask away!
No comments:
Post a Comment