When someone asks me why they should care about bike racing, I think of Soichiro Honda’s famous words: “Racing improves the breed.” Honda was talking about cars and motorcycles—above is a Mercedes in the grueling Liège-Sofia-Liège rally—but the same applies to bicycles. Racing is the reason why modern carbon bikes are so good…. read more

After years of promoting ‘Tubeless for Everybody,’ bike industry and media are finally realizing that many riders prefer tubes—and for good reasons. Sure, if you’re a pro gravel racer at Unbound, you’ll probably want to set up your tires tubeless. Riding in a peloton, you’ll hit huge rocks that you don’t even see… read more

What would happen if you rode Paris-Roubaix on truly wide and supple tires? We now know, because Olly Townsend from the popular Gravel Union website has done that: He rode this year’s Paris-Roubaix Challenge on Rene Herse 700×48 Hatcher Pass tires. Paris-Roubaix is a unique race: It is fascinating because it takes us back… read more