One bike to rule them all
A couple of my friends who’ve recently bought new bikes have taken a much more serious view of what they’re actually going to do on their bike. It reflects a growing sense of realism about how many bikes you need.
Bike manufacturers have got a lot better at making bikes suitable for more than one discipline. The Trek Checkpoint, as you can see in the above video, is marketed as a gravel bike, but the low gearing invites you to climb, as well as crossing a continent by trails. If you’re going to buy a bike in 2019, make sure it does EVERYTHING you need it to do. After all, you can only take one bike with you.
DIY Telemetry
Is 2019 the year that telemetry will come to the masses? If you’re happy with your bike but believe you can get more out of it with a decent tune-up, then telemetry may be the tech-solution you’re looking for. And you can make sure you get in there first thanks to BYB’s Kickstarter page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9ZjI5P2kyY&t=72s
For sure, this is expensive technology, but regardless of the price range of your bike, telemetry will tell you something important about your ride that you may not have considered before. And the benefits of tuning your bike well are usually proportional to the money you spent on it in the first place.
Bike rental gets electric
The next logical step in city-based bike-hire services is to make them electric, and Uber are keen to jump across the Atlantic and bring their Jump service to Europe. These pedal-assisted e-bikes may prove popular with tourists and residents alike, especially for those not wanting to arrive in a sweat.
It looks likely the service will be launched in Berlin before being introduced to other cities – and is designed to improve traffic flow which will, in turn, help Uber’s car services too. Nice to see that Uber’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, is thinking about how to compliment modern cities’ travel strategies.
The reluctant acceptance of e-bikes
It’s fair to say that until very recently, e-bikes lacked glamour or even a cool factor. Having a battery strapped to your bike with a bottom bracket the size of a bowling ball was not a good look. But look how sexy e-bikes have become:
Most of us cycle for fitness as well as fun, so e-bikes have an aura of the lazy about them. Why not just man up, and cycle normally? You’ll be fast and fit within a couple of months of hard slog. Maybe 2019 is the year we stop judging e-bike riders.
Get smart – Electronic integration
Buying a new bike in 2019, you should be considering anything from integrated power meters like you see on the beautiful new Giant Defy Advanced Pro 0, to customised wireless MTB cockpits, dropper posts and all…
