In her latest video, second-place finisher Jenny Tough unpacks her Highland Trail 550 (HT550) bike to talk about what worked, what didn't, and highlight the VIP pieces of kit that helped get her to finish line in under five days. Watch it here, featuring Lola the labradoodle.The post What Jenny Tough Packed for the HT550 (video) appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Fulcrum is celebrating 20 years of advanced wheelset development with a new aero all-terrain wheelset claimed to have unique riding benefits

After a tricky start to the year, the Astana Qazaqstan Team are reportedly set to be bought out of their license by some Chinese investors, with the intention of doubling the team's budget in the process. Could it be the end to Astana in the peloton?Having been in the professional peloton since all...

Ronan Dunne has continued his dream season with a victory at Red Bull Hardline in Wales, which followed on from his Hardline victory in Tasmania earlier in the year and the first UCI World Cup Downhill victory of his career. The 22-year-old Wicklow rider was best in the tenth edition of Red Bull Hardline Wales. []The post Ronan Dunnes incredible winning run at Red Bull Hardline Wales | Video appeared first on Sticky Bottle.

The latest custom creation from Berlin's Vetra Bikes caught our eye with its beautiful bends, funky prototype truss fork, raw finish, and color-coordinated set of Gramm Tourpacking bags. Take a look at the one-of-a-kind Vetra Venom mountain tourer here...The post The Vetra Venom is a Rolling Work of Art appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

FFWD has updated their affordable aluminum Outride wheelset with a new version that is cheaper, wider, and built with high-quality DT hubs. All around they are a much better and more versatile wheelset, now. And an easy upgrade for everything from road to all-road to gravel bikes. True all-rounders.FFWD Outride affordable aluminum all-road wheelsroad or gravelVersatile. Reliable. Affordable.Thats how FFWD describe the new aluminum Outrides.(Photos/FFWD)New wheels are such an easy way to give your bike a new feel, or newfound versatility. But even with more accessible options, carbon wheels are simply out of many cyclists budget. So its great to see brands develop affordable aluminum wheels built for all-surface riding with wide rims, and trusted hubs for reliable performance, all at a much lower pricepoint.Whats new? Pushing them in the versatility direction, the Outrides now feature a 25mm internal hooked tubeless rim. Thats great for modern 28mm road tires, perfect for 40mm gravel tires too, and rated for up to 50mm/2 adventure tires.Besides impact resistance from the alloy rim, reliability comes from using trusted DT Swiss 350 centerlock hubs, with their latest Ratchet upgrade and quick 36T internals. That also means easy tool-free freehub swaps and compatibility with every type of drivetrain. Then, FFWD lace the wheels with 24 straight-pull Sapim spokes and external brass DT nipples for serviceability.Affordability comes from the sub-five hundred euro price. There are actually plenty of affordable alloy wheels at this price level, but few that offer a modern wide tubeless rim, or a 30mm depth, and fewer still that get DT Ratchet internals and their high-quality sealed bearings.Just to be clear about value, this new 350 hubset alone sells for 300, so the fact that FFWD laces them into modern alloy rims with high-quality spokes for only two hundred more is pretty impressive. I built myself a set of these hubs, a slightly narrower 24mm internal x 25mm deep DT rims, spokes & nipples into a similar wheelset and it cost one hundred forty euros more than these wheels, just for my pile of parts to build with.Tech detailsThe symmetric 6061 alloy rim is 30mm deep x 30mm wide external. Thats not quite an aerofoil shape, but still probably pretty aerodynamic when you mount a 28 or 30mm road tire on there. Both wheels are laced 2:1 for even spoke tension, with 24 spokes front & rear. Of course, they get 12mm thru-axles, and you can pick from all the common freehub bodies to match your drivetrain.Claimed wheelset weight is 1850g (869g front, 990g rear).FFWD Outride alloy wheels Pricing, options & availabilityThe new affordable alloy FFWD Outride all-road & gravel wheels sell for 499 direct from FFWD, with free global shipping. You get to pick from Shimano HG11, Micro Spline, SRAM XDR, classic Campagnolo, or Campy N3W freehubs when you order. And the wheels come pre-taped for tubeless, and include tubeless valves for easy setup.Pick up a pair to upgrade your OEM wheels without breaking the bank. Or to add a second set of wheels with a different tire to broaden the horizons of your road or gravel bike!FFWDwheels.comThe post FFWD Outride are Wider, More Affordable Alloy All-Rounder Wheels for Road & Gravel appeared first on Bikerumor.

World champion takes first victory since he was involved in Itzulia horror crash

As part of Ontarios Bike Month, officers are conducting emphasised enforcement on both cyclists and motorists, while also issuing warnings about drivers rolling coal at people on bikes

This Wednesday will see a very important day for the GC riders at the Criterium du Dauphin. Before hitting the mountains, the big contenders for the yellow jersey will go face-to-face on a hilly 34-kilometer time-trial that will certainly open things up significantly ahead of the mountains. Remco E...

Comment & Analysis: Electric cars are the subject of scaremongering, but wheres the fear of owning fossil fuel cars? With most people holding onto new cars for over five years, could they be left standing when the music stops?The world is still turning towards electric cars the International Energy Agency (IEA) in April said that Strong electric car sales in the first quarter of 2024 surpass the annual total from just four years ago. Let that sink in: More electric cars in three months of this year than in a whole year just a few years ago.New data from Denmark shows that battery electric vehicles are, for the first time, outselling diesel, petrol, and plugin hybrid vehicles combined. This is significant as problematic plugin hybrid car sales often make the electric picture seem better than it is. I maj blev der indregistreret 7.241 nye elbiler og 4.966 brugte, importerede elbiler, heraf 2.684 som var under 2 r gamle og derfor er med i figuren. 40 procent af tilgangen af elbiler er brugte biler som importeres fra Tyskland mv. pic.twitter.com/DsDrD2sScQ Sren Jakobsen (@SrenJakobsen2) June 3, 2024IMAGE: The uneven yellow line shows ICE and hybrid vehicle sales, while the blue line shows electric sales.The Green Party has said the swing towards buying energy efficient diesel cars confirms that green policies do work, reads a 2009 article in the Irish Examiner. So, its understandable that some people are sceptical.The Green Party has since admitted that it was a huge mistake to incentivise diesel cars, which are more toxic to human health than petrol cars. The car industry lied about emission tests, underestimating the effects of pollution on human health and overestimating the reduction in carbon emissions from using diesel instead of petrol.Some people out there claim that electric cars are the same kind of mistake. Independent research indicates otherwise. In technology terms, the fight between electric cars vs petrol and diesel cars isnt like VHS vs Betamax. Its more like saying nostalgia for cathode-ray tubes is going to stop the rise of LED TVs and monitors.And if hydrogencars are like Betamax, its so far behind that claiming it will win out anytime soon is not even cute anymore.IrishCycle.com has previously stressed that far too many of Irelands climate action targets are focused on electric cars, but electric cars should be promoted over internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, especially outside of cities.Whats going on around at the moment about the electric cars in Ireland is collective hysteria. Oh, but some claim that Germany is abandoning electric cars; sales are down. The dip in sales of battery electric cars in Germany is directly linked to the removal of subsidies. The IEA views that competition and reduced costs of EVs should correct that.Both in Ireland and elsewhere, there are understandable reasons why sales are down, including people getting caught up in collective hysteria caused by a range of factors, including a shortage of chargers for longer trips (ie something that doesnt affect people most of the time and is slowly but surely being fixed).There are other reasons not talked about as much on air or in the comments section of articles.This includes (regardless of whether it was a good or bad decision) the reduction of incentives here in Ireland. It takes time for a correction in sales after subsidies are removed, and anticipation of the reduction happening caused a bump in sales last year.Theres also resistance to electric cars not just from oil companies, which want to slow progress away from their products, but also ranging from European and some other car manufacturers who cannot compete with Chinese electric car makers to Irelands sales and maintenance system, which is based mainly on ICE cars. Of course, some are willing to adopt more than others.In the short term, some car makers just want to sell off less efficient cars ahead of more stringent EU environmental rules.There are other reasons, too, but they are a bit more complicated (lets park those issues and get to them later in the article).With all of the above, its amazing that the percentage of sales which are electric is similar to that in 2022 before the boost in sales last year ahead of the removal of incentives.With most people holding onto new cars for over five years, they could be left standing when the music stops. The switch to electric could be accelerated by anything from cheaper electric cars to a shock in oil prices from an expansion of the current conflict in the Middle East.An oil shock, which might have been seen as a temporary blimp a decade ago, would now be the nail in the coffin for ICE cars.When the music stopsGoing by the IEA method of combining of battery electric and plug-in hybrid, Irelands combined electric car sales are now around 22% of the market (based on SIMI figures of electric being at 12.99% and plug-in hybrid at 8.86%). Were a laggard here with Germany, France and the UK at around 25%, the Netherlands at 30%, Sweden at 60%, and Norway at 95% (based on the IEA assessment).When the music stops, Irish consumers will be worse off than car owners in other countries. We can say politicians didnt do enough, but the main issue was the collective hysteria.We shouldnt be promoting electric cars (as much) in citiesElectric cars are still cars. They will continue to be highly inefficient in urban and suburban settings. There will still be noise issues on higher-speed roads (after a certain point, drag, road contact, etc., cause more noise than the engine), and there will still be air pollution from tyres, road particles, and brakes.The impact of non-tailpipe emissions including the microplastics in tyres is an issue to human health and the environment that has been underestimated and largely unregulated. The heavier weight of EVs will also cause more road wear and there will be more dust from that.With mass electric vehicle use, as with mass ICE car use, we still have all the associated issues, from health issues to inactivity to the use of our public space.The public space element of this is largely not very well thought about because our national discourse is polarised. If we look at cities like Paris or Utrecht, we can see that its not just about space for cycle lanes or buses or trams but also space to support more people living in cities, from playgrounds in dense areas to space for greenery. The latter is important for not just biodiversity but also water management, which is becoming more important due to heavy rain from climate change. For all of the above reasons combined, the target should be to make it attractive to reduce car use and ownership in cities and even towns. Its important to say that a reduction in ownership doesnt mean no ownership for many, it will mean reducing from two or three cars in the household to one.FairnessPrivate on-street charging where residents have no off-street parking is problematic. It gives a sense of ownership to public space outside of private homes. A mix of public on-street charging and charging at hubs is needed. Both should be offered to residents without parking at electricity rates equal to charging at home.The IEA estimated that the average price of a medium-sized battery electric car in Germany in 2022 was 10-20% more expensive than its ICE equivalent, but 10-20% cheaper in cumulative costs of ownership after 5 years. This gap is closing with cheaper electric cars, which are starting to be sold, but with an upfront cost difference between electric and the equivalent non-electric car, many consumers will pick the latter.One unanswered level of unfairness that isnt talked about enough is homeowners with off-street parking who can afford to buy solar panels and storage batteries vs anybody else who wants an electric car. Measures such as zero-interest loans for solar panels and/or storage batteries might be one solution, but authorities seem very reluctant to offer zero-interest loans and even reluctant to offer such loans for electric bicycles.If were serious about a just transition with climate action, these types of measures will need to be looked at again.