Author: Rookie

It’s 2 AM. You’ve had one too many beers, and your mind keeps looping back to one question: a gravel bike or a touring bike? You can hear the hum of your tires on cracked pavement, the hiss of the wind through your helmet vents as you dream about crossing Canada. But you’re stuck, aren’t…

So, you’ve spent weeks sweating it out on that stationary bike in the dimly lit studio, you’ve earned the right to call yourself a spinning warrior, and now you’re itching to take it to the open road. You’ve been clocking the miles, keeping your cadence steady, but now you’ve got the whole road to conquer.…

You ever put your foot in a shoe and feel like Cinderella’s ugly stepsister? Shoving, squeezing, praying that the pain will subside after a few miles? Yeah, me too. Except I don’t have dainty princess feet. I have tailor’s bunions—legacy of years in hockey skates and soccer cleats. Now, every ride feels like a medieval…

I hopped off the bike, laced up some running shoes, and thought: how hard could it be? Answer: very. Two minutes in, my lungs were burning, my legs felt like I’d borrowed them from a 90-year-old, and my heart rate? Zone 4, baby. It was a disaster. A slow, humiliating, gasping-for-air disaster. And I’m not…

I just don’t like group rides—fight me. OK, maybe I’m being dramatic. Maybe I’m just a bitter loner with a penchant for suffering in solitude. Or maybe, just maybe, group rides actually suck. I don’t get it. I don’t get why people throw themselves into the sweaty, chaotic mess of wheels, Lycra, and forced camaraderie.…

I never meant to fall into this hole. One bike, that’s all I needed. That’s what I told myself. Now, I’m contemplating my fourth—no, wait, my fifth. The first one was for commuting. The second? A road bike, because speed is intoxicating. Then a gravel bike, because dirt calls like an old vice. Now I’m…

I get on the trainer. I clip in. I start pedaling. Ten minutes later, I hate everything. I can ride outside for hours. I can go 60, 80, hell, even 100 miles and come back grinning like a lunatic. But on the trainer? I want to quit before my coffee has even cooled down. It’s…

So you’ve been riding your bike for a while now, the wheels spinning, your legs cranking, and you’ve been thinking—“Is it time for an upgrade?” Maybe you’ve caught wind of Shimano’s Ultegra R8000 and R8020, and you’re here trying to figure out whether you should spend that hard-earned cash on the latest, greatest thing. Well,…

Let’s get one thing straight: If you think you need a shiny, $5,000 bike, a power meter, a Garmin, and a fancy suit to win a local race, you’re wrong. All you need is a pair of strong legs, a fierce heart, and the right mindset. Maybe a decent bike. But you don’t need to…