BQ 71 (Spring 2020)

The Spring 2020 edition offers an engaging mix of stories. Karen Yung keeps our dreams alive, with her story of a challenging bikepacking trip to the Andes of Peru – the cover shows one of her fellow adventuresses.

For our bike test, we stay closer to home. We take the Horse, an American-made modern steel bike, on a mid-winter adventure in the Cascade foothills with their countless miles of remote logging roads. It was wet and muddy – and a lot of fun!

We reminisce of a mid-summer adventure: The Oregon Cascades Volcanic Arc 400 is a new bikepacking route that travels 400 miles along the crest of the Cascade Mountains. It’s challenging, it’s beautiful, and after reading our report from the inaugural ride on this route, you’ll want to ride it yourself!

Paulette Porthault started cyclotouring in the early 1930s. During the 1940s, she rode in brevets and Concours de Machines (above). She cycled all over Europe at a time when few people traveled abroad. She was good friends with the constructeurs Narcisse, René Herse and Jo Routens. During 70 years of cyclotouring, she experienced the entire golden age of cyclotouring in France. Her adventures are the stuff of legends, and her spirit will continue to inspire us.

Natsuko Hirose explains why she loves navigating with paper maps. She compares following a GPS course with charting your course on a paper map that provides a bird’s eye view of the landscape and shows at a glance whether interesting sideroads are worth exploring.

Our Shop Visit takes you into the hallowed halls of Seven Cycles in Boston, where skilled craftspeople create amazing titanium bikes. See how the frames are crafted and learn how Seven can build them one-by-one without the long lead time usually associated with custom bikes.