Autumn Bicycle Quarterly
The Autumn Bicycle Quarterly is coming off the press this week. And in case you wondered based on the photo above: We aren’t going to publish the first bike magazine with a cover that doesn’t show a cyclist at all! Here’s the full cover:
This is one of my favorite covers of all time. I love how little the cyclist appears in the majestic Himalaya mountain landscape. Sandro Büttel takes us on an incredible, two-part adventure. First he rides the famous Annapurna Trek in Nepal. And since he’s already traveled that far, he then continues with a two-month tour on the backroads of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand with a friend. Sandro tells the story of this adventure with deep respect for the places he visits.
That isn’t the only high-elevation adventure in the new Bicycle Quarterly. Leo Brasil takes us on a bikepacking trip with friends across the high passes of Colorado. Autumn leaves render the mountains at their most beautiful, but it’s a bittersweet farewell. Not just because winter snow is going to make the high passes impassable soon, but also because it’s Leo’s last ride before he leaves the U.S.
If you like road cycling, you’ll love this adventure. Every autumn, a few friends traverse the Swiss Alps one last time before the winter closes the famous passes (above the Gotthard). This time, the weather forecast was predicting winter to arrive early, yet two friends braved the elements for an epic ride. They tell their story with great humor. You’ll laugh out loud (or at least smile) as you read about their struggles, not just with weather and mountains, but also with each other when their morale flags.
At much lower elevation and with even more spectacular autumn colors, Eigo Shimojo takes us ‘Island Hopping’ in Japan, where a series of spectacular bridges connect the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.
If the headline on the cover—Steel vs Carbon—has caught your attention, you won’t be disappointed. We tested Fairlight’s brand-new Strael 4.0: a steel bike that weighs just 20.0 lb. (9.1 kg) and clears 38 mm tires.
The Strael impressed us so much that we decided to expand our test into a comparison with our favorite carbon bike, the OPEN MIN.D. How does the best in steel compare with the best in carbon? We pushed both bikes (and their riders) to the limit to find out.
At the other end of the cycling spectrum is Fenderfest, where lovers of beautiful bikes meet in Germany. Peter Weigle’s French Fender Day was the inspiration for this event. And this year the great builder from Connecticut made the trip to Germany. Gerolf Meyer tells the story.
When Yoko Hirose, wife of the late builder H. Hirose, showed us their photo album, we dove into the golden age of Japanese cyclotouring. We asked her whether we could share these images with our readers… because we know you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.
We tested chain wear checking tools. We show you how to build a simple bike storage solution that holds 50% more bikes than the ‘standard’ method of hanging the bikes from hooks on the ceiling. Plus the Readers’ Forum is filled with interesting discussion on a variety of topics.
We’re preparing the mailing list for the new issue right now. Subscribe (or renew, if your subscription has expired) by Wednesday (11/5/25), and we’ll make sure you get your copy straight from the printer, so you’ll be among the first to read this exciting edition.
One last thing: We know how hard it is to keep track of subscriptions. That’s why Bicycle Quarterly subscriptions don’t auto-renew. We don’t want to sell you anything you don’t want or need any longer, so we charge you only once, for one year. When your subscription expires, we’ll send you an email. Then it’s up to you whether you want to renew or not.
