BQ 76 (Summer 2021)

In the Summer 2021 Bicycle Quarterly, we explore the broad range of cycling philosophies from all-out racing to leisurely touring. Ted King talks about Unbound 2021, and how he raced for 200 miles across the Flint Hills of Kansas just weeks after breaking his collarbone. At the other end of the spectrum, Natsuko explains why she loves mountain passes, even though she has no interest in riding hard or getting her heart rate up. Lael Wilcox shows that there’s no need to choose one approach over another. She toured the Ruby Road in southern Arizona first, then rode it as a time trial in one day.

We test one of Fern’s dreamy creations, a pure adventure bike equipped to handle everything from fast road riding (with aerobars) to ultra-steep technical terrain (with a dropper seatpost).

We wouldn’t be Bicycle Quarterly if we didn’t add a historic perspective: Few people know that bikepacking was the original way to carry gear on a bike, more than a century ago. We discovered a 1950s article by one of the pioneers of camping bikes, Louis Pitard. Read how he and others developed racks and panniers through many iterations before arriving at the low-riders that remain popular today.

Each Bicycle Quarterly includes a project with useful step-by-step instructions. This time, we explore how to mount metal fenders and go into many of the small tricks that come from decades of experience in refining this process. Taken together, they’ll save much time and frustration, plus make sure your fenders are quiet and last as long as your bike.