This bicycle blog is not aimed at racers or bike-fanatics.
It is for the everyday commuter, the families who like to tour together, and everyone else who uses their bikes in their daily lifestyle.
It aims to answer the daily questions you may have when using bicycles leisurely.
This blog aims to be different – It is not stuffed with product reviews or Tour-de-France reports. It does not claim that you need a $2.000 gravel bike to go on a bike trip. It does not target athletes. It does not push you to go tube-less or to switch to 650Bs.
Instead, it wants to help you find the puncture in your tube on the side of the road when you have 5% battery life left.
It’s supposed to tell you if that collectible 90’s MTB Craigslist find is actually a sweet deal or if it will turn out to be a money pit.
Or if Fat Bikes really help you in the winter.
Or if the different Shimano product tiers actually make a difference in your life.
About Me
Growing Up in BiCycle Country
My name is Daniel Richter and I grew up using bicycles as my main means of transportation for as long as I can remember.
Growing up in Germany and later living in the Netherlands, I rode my bicycles to kindergarten, school, my first summer jobs, college, internships, sports, bars, friends, and anywhere else I needed to go.
My friends and I rode our city bikes on off-road trails and our mountain bikes to the bar. We changed our own tires and fine-tuned the mechanics of our bicycles at the age of 10. The only thing we could never fix was a broken frame. We were young, maybe a little reckless, and we never thought much about the bicycles we had. It was just how life worked.
I clocked at least 20.000km before the age of 20 and countless more since. I did that without ever seeing biking as a sport. It was just the most efficient and fastest way to get through the city to wherever I needed to go.
As an added bonus, I was never stuck in a traffic jam, enjoyed some fresh air, stayed in shape, and did not emit any greenhouse gases on my daily errands. I also saved a bunch of money by avoiding high gas prices and public transport costs.
Cycling through Canadian winters
I moved to Canada in my 30s and I traded my bicycle for a car. Only then did I really start to appreciate the benefits of cycling for my mental health, exercise, and transportation.
These days, I try to cycle year-round – even through the Canadian winter – to show that you really don’t have to be overly fit to pull it off.
All you need is a decent bike with good tires, some layered clothes, and a good attitude.
In all of this there’s one thing I found to be universally true:
If you bike somewhere, you’ll arrive much happier than if you took a car.