Bicycle Quarterly Tire Test

I posted this originally in November 2006. Since then I’ve resubscribed and found BQ to be an amazing resource. This is one of the few sources for scientific test data on bicycle performance you’ll find.  I suppose that makes sense as unlike with other glossy bike magazines BQ gets most of it’s revenue from reader subscriptions not from advertising so it can afford to actually point out what works and what doesn’t.  The tire test in the issue below is one of the most useful articles I’ve ever read and something I refer to on a regular basis.

Jan Heine deserves kudos for putting out a very special publication.  If you have never read BQ I encourage you to order up this one back issue just for the tire test.  You will likely find yourself subscribing and looking forward to each issue.

I received my first issue of Bicycle Quarterly Magazine yesterday published by Jan Heine. I have heard about this publication for a while, but was hesitant to subscribe. It was formerly titled Vintage Bicycle Quarterly and I was not sure how much of the content would be of interest to me.

There was a lot of commotion on the ‘net about a recent article in BQ about the rolling resistance of bicycle tires. I decided it was time to get a subscription to find out what the hubhub was about and worst case I would be supporting a small business in the cycling world.

Wow – what a great magazine. The tire article alone was worth the cost of the entire subscription. An objective repeatable test was performed that shatters a lot of long held beliefs about tires. I think most cyclists would agree that narrow high pressure tires are inherently faster. It’s too bad that notion is wrong. Interesting Jan found over 20% difference in speed between some of the tires he tested. Think about that 24kph instead of 20kph just by swapping out tires. Now add to that the fact the fast tires might be wider lower pressure ones that are much more comfortable. Pretty amazing stuff.

BQ also running a series of articles about how to be a better randonneur. This issue discusses how to make a randonneur bike faster.

LLamas & Empanadas

Great cycle touring book - click on photo to buy.

My friend Eleanor wrote a book about her 5000km solo bike tour in South America. It’s funny and inspirig – well worth a read if you like travel stories.

Salar de Uyni - Bolivia

She has posted photos from her tour on her Flickr site.  These are two of my favourites.

...endless road in Patagonia