Bicycle wheels. Theyre one of the most important components there is in cycling. Without wheels, your bicycle will be much lighter, but it will also be much, much slower, and it will handle very poorly. So yes, while there are certain situations when you may opt to forego the front for weight savings, generally speaking you want to always make sure your bicycle is equipped with two round wheels:[If you ride without a front wheel make sure you substitute it with plenty of love.]But which wheels should you choose? Well I cant help you there. Frankly, in the age of dick breaks and 32-inchers and tubeless and all the rest of it Im hopelessly lost and out of touch. For example, based on this headline, I infer that for many cyclists a $4,000 wheel isnt absurd:Wait, it takes a $1,400 wheelset to make a $4,000 wheelset look absurd? What if you think $1,400 is absurd, where does that leave you? What if youre like me and want your wheels to be as boring as possible?The wheels above are the best ones I currently own. I got them from Paul at Classic Cyclemaybe seven years ago? By my standard theyre exotic because they have Campagnolo Record hubs, but otherwise theyre a snooze-fest, and as far as Im concerned thats the highest level of praise you can bestow upon a wheel. Theyre currently on the Roadini, but Ive used them on many bikes, and Ive switched the freehub body back and forth between Campagnolo and Shimano, which on this hub is very easy to do. Aesthetically and mechanically they are the embodiment of What A Bicycle Wheel Should Be.Of course as an aging Fred, I understand the appeal of hot rod wheels. For example, a really light pair with a total of like three spokes does feel really fast:I even had crabon wheels on the Tan Tenovo, and those felt really fast too, though I did discover they were slowly eating my tires:But ultimately after dalliances such as these I always find my way back to boring, because hanging out with someone who likes to party is one thing, but you dont want to marry them.Anyway, heres the Bicycling article about the wheels:He does acknowledge that even a $1,400 wheelset is expensive, which I appreciate, and the rest Im too old and slow to care about, though this did stand out:My biggest complaint was the rear hub. I loved the silver finish, but the freehub is incredibly loud and has a high-pitched tone that I found more irritating than most loud hubs. That is subjective, but it was easily my least favorite part of the wheelset.Im glad he acknowledged this too, because I hateabsolutely loathe, detest, abhor, etc.the way wheels sound today. Its horrible. HORRIBLE. Seriously, do people know how goddamn horrible their ridiculous raspy plastic bikes sound? THAT GOD-AWFUL RATTLING!!! Its like somethings broken, its embarrassing. How could you pay that kind of money for a bicycle component and accept that it sounds that way? It would be like paying $5,000 for a pair of speakers that only plays the sound of cats fucking. Im old enough to remember that period when Kysrium wheels used to howl when the freehub went bad. If it happened to someone during a race you were terrified, because it sounded like an elk was dying. But by modern wheel standards that sound was positively musical, and weve now reached the point where a functional wheel sounds worse than a malfunctioning one.Speaking of the Kysrium, it came out in 1999, and it is absolutely the wheel thats responsible for the current state of affairs:Of course there were expensive, exotic wheels before this, such as the Tri Spoke and the Spinergy Rev-X, and of course Mavic had already been selling the Helium, which really helped kick off the whole ready-to-ride complete wheel thing. But the Ksyrium was the first wheel that successfully convinced the Freds that they should use an expensive, proprietary wheel all the time, for everything. And once they adjusted to that, the Ksyrium became a training wheel and they had to use something even more expensive and exotic for special events. The upshot was sort of a reset whereby race wheels were considered training wheels and normal wheels with normal rims, hubs, and spokes were considered garbage. In those days a decent pair of traditional wheels might have cost $300, whereas the Ksyriums cost more like $900. So basically thanks to this one wheel the price for what people considered a basic wheel tripled overnight.Anyway, as a former semi-professional bike blogger and current gentleman bike blogger Im also completely out of touch with what stuff costs now:But according to a quick consultation with a popular search engine, the price of the Ksyrium of Yesteryear is equivalent to about $1,600 today, so I guess in that context the wheel in the review is in fact a good deal.Still, Im happy to be an aging rim brake enthusiast, because even if you dont want to build a wheel or have someone else to do it you can get a decent quality normal wheel like this for like a quarter of what those Light Bicycle wheels cost:I have a couple pairs of these and theyre pretty good. Butted spokes would be nice, which they dont have, but Shimano 105 11 hubs are great, and theyre backwards-compatible with pretty much everythingplus they even work perfectly with 11-speed Campagnolo:Dont let the clashing colors fool you, this bike runs smoother than warm Pepto-Bismol.And the rims even work with tubeless tires if youre into that, though that does come at the expense of truly easy flat repair if youre still using tubes.Meanwhile, ironically, the radical-for-its-day Ksyrium now comes in a Heritage edition:Note the inflation-beating price, which is about what the originals cost back in 1999.Hey, theyre practically free!

Good morning and welcome to the liveblog of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes. The seventh stage of the race could go a long way towards revealing who is the strongest rider in the peloton. It is a high-mountain stage with a brutal finale, culminating in the climb to the legendary Mont Ventoux. Will we...

For the third consecutive year, Nicolette Jones is the first woman to complete the 2026 Colorado Trail Race. She finished in just 4 days, 21 hours, and 45 minutes, taking sixth place overall. Learn more about her impressive ride here...The post Nicolette Jones is Fastest Woman at Colorado Trail Race for Third Year in a Row appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney flew to stage seven victory and into the yellow jersey on Mont Ventoux and the Tour de France Femmes on Friday, in an historic ride.The Canyon-SRAM rider, winner of the race in 2024, attacked with 9.1km to go on the famous mountain, and gradually built up a huge lead as race leader Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) looked at each other. The pair were unable, or unwilling, to close the gap, as Niewiadoma-Phinney pressed on.Stage seven's winner was 1:17 behind Reusser heading into the stage, but ended the day ahead, with Vollering driving off the front in the final 500m to also take time on the yellow jersey. Niewiadoma-Phinney now leads the race, 15 seconds ahead of Vollering, with Reusser in third, a further 24 seconds behind. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L'IMAD) was third on the stage, ahead of Reusser.Despite winning the race overall two years ago, this was Niewiadoma-Phinney's first Tour stage win, putting her in pole position with two more stages of the race to come.Vollering could not leave behind Reusser until the closing stages, as Niewiadoma-Phinney flew away, not just holding onto her lead, but extending it on one of cycling's most famous climbs. How it happenedThere was action before the race reached Mont Ventoux, with Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) gaining yet more points on the mountains classification, but in reality, nothing really mattered until Mont Ventoux.The classified climb began with 15.7km to go, making the first 130km to go essentially a giant neutralised zone. Even this early on the climb, there were around just 20 riders left in the front of the race. Among those distanced early was Pauline Ferrand-Prvot (Visma-Lease a Bike), as world champion Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly) and Clia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) forged off the front. The pair were soon caught, and Gery returned to setting the pace for Vollering. Just 13 riders were left in the group of favourites with 13.5km to go, with most of the leaders isolated within that.Vollering first attacked with 10.7kn to go, splintering the front of the race. She was followed by yellow jersey Reusser and Niewiadoma-Phinney, the top three on general classification together again.Next to attack from this group, with 9.1km to go, was Niewiadoma-Phinney, which left Vollering and Reusser looking at each other. The gap grew to 20 seconds, then to over 40 seconds, with 7.3km to go. Behind, Vollering and Reusser continued to look at each other, while further down the road, the group containing Longo Borghini, her teammate Paula Blasi, Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) and Cdrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) closed in. As Niewiadoma-Phinney forged on alone, Vollering finally managed to distance Reusser inside the final 500m, putting 30 seconds into her. However, it wasnt enough to secure yellow, which went to Niewiadoma-Phinney.

Stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes was expected to be the key day of the race, and it might have changed the entire outcome of the battle for the yellow jersey. Whilst Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser were touted to fight for the race lead on Mont Ventoux, they had to settle for minor places as K...

This weeks Debrief features new all-terrain flat bars and other components, Onyx hub keychains, a quest to take men's Strava KOMs, Tarptent's latest model, fresh videos from our routes, two events to follow live, and more. Find it all hereThe post Friday Debrief: Tiny Onyx Hubs, Buckaroo ATB Bars, a Job at Revelate, Love Handles, Huracan Documentary, and More appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

The 2026 Tour de France Femmes classifications will shift across nine stages of racing, from the Grand Depart in Lausanne on 1 August to the final stage in Nice on 9 August. Across sprint stages, hilly terrain, an individual time trial and major mountain tests, each day can alter the shape of the ra...

Finishing fifth overall in just 4 days, 21 hours, and 23 minutes, Matt Annabel takes the singlespeed win at the 2026 Colorado Trail Race! Learn more about his ride and his bike setup here... The post Matt Annabel is First Singlespeeder at the 2026 Colorado Trail Race appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Bristols Mud Dock Cycleworks is set to close 32 years after the husband and wife owners, Jerry and Beverly Arron, began selling bikes.Since 1994, the shop has sold 15,000 bicycles and has become a beloved mainstay of Bristols cycling scene. But its owners say theyre ready to swap selling bikes for spending more time riding them.The Mud Dock cafe, above the bicycle shop, remains unaffected and will continue trading.Jerry, 70, says: We're fortunate to have worked with some of the best people and brands in the industry. Back in the 90s, this was just a dream of two 20-something bike-loving design escapees from London!Our then-unique take on how bicycle retail could change, coupled with the new sport of mountain biking and its speed of innovation, produced the most exciting times. For more than 30 years weve been helping Bristolians enjoy life on two wheels something thats been good for them, good for Bristol and good for the planet. Im happy with that legacy.Beverly, 60, says: It's been an incredible, enjoyable and massively fulfilling journey. As well as numerous new faces, we've seen countless repeat customers over the years people who've come back for second, third and fourth bikes for themselves or to buy bikes for spouses and then their children. And the best bit is the number of staff and customers who have become friends. The Mud Dock cafe will continue trading. Mud Dock Mud Dock Cycleworks will continue trading until the end of August while the shop offers extraordinary deals on its remaining stock, including on road bikes and electric bikes.

Kataezyna Niewiadoma has been crowned the queen of Mont Ventoux. The Canyon//SRAM rider entered the queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes in third place and perhaps as a secondary figure to the battle between Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser. She turned this around and turned the Gant de Proven...