Ted King’s Favorite Mirror

A couple of years ago, Ted King asked me for a mirror. He wanted to try one… I didn’t think about it again until we explored bikepacking routes in the heart of the Cascades this summer. We started our ride by climbing Cayuse and Chinook Pass in the early morning light. Both passes are paved, and we climbed on a highway that isn’t busy, but sees some traffic.

Riding with Ted showed the value of using a mirror. We rode two abreast and chatted as we climbed. Whenever a car approached from behind, Ted either pulled ahead or dropped behind, long before I noticed the car. He’d been checking his mirror and had seen the car before we could hear it.

There aren’t any drawbacks to using the Berthoud mirror. It’s so small… You can barely see it in the photo above. The mirror doesn’t get in the way when you sprint out of the saddle—in fact, Ted keeps it on his bike for the big gravel races like Unbound, SBT GRVL and Gravel Locos.

Despite its small size, the mirror gives a good field of vision, so you see when a car is approaching from behind—or when a rider is pulling out of the paceline to launch their attack. The mirror is easy to adjust on the go, without tools—just turn the mirror to the position you want (like the inside mirror of a car). CNC-machined from aluminum, the mirrors are durable and elegant in ways that plastic mirrors aren’t. They are available in black or silver. For a while, they were out of stock, but we just got another shipment. The same shipment included many other Berthoud items, so we have most of the program back in stock.

Click here for more information on the mirrors.