After almost a year in beta, bicycles.stackexchange.com has graduated from a beta Stack Exchange website to a full-fledged member of the Stack Exchange family.

What does this mean?

1. We have a beautiful new site design by @Jin:

It's based around "the feeling of riding a bike, rather than focusing on the bike as an object", but has some bicycle themed elements, such as the badges being cogs, the voting and star buttons on questions being road signs and the tags loosely resembling the downtube branding on some bikes.

The logo is a bicycle head badge with a heart, because we love our bikes.

With most Stack Exchange websites, the meta site gets a monochrome version of the main site. Instead we have a night-themed version of the main site, like you're riding home at the end of a long day of riding.

2. Privileges have changed.

Now that we're not a beta site, the privileges required to do certain things have increased. That means there are fewer people to do them, especially closing problematic questions.

1. If you see something problematic, please comment and flag. Your moderators will be happy to close, reopen, migrate, protect or delete questions or answers that need it, especially if there's comments and/or flags from multiple users saying that's what needs to happen.
2. Vote Early, Vote Often, and Vote Some More. Voting builds reputation, which will help more users earn the privileges that let the site be more user-run than moderator-run.

3. We're linked in the footer of regular Stack Exchange sites

This probably means we'll be getting an influx of new users. I know you're normally friendly and helpful, but please take extra care to be super-nice to the newbies as they come in.

4. One More Thing:

Be sure to check out the Error, CAPTCHA (Human Verification), and 404 Page Not Found pages.

On my way to work today, several cyclists coming in the other direction each warned me that there was a policeman at the intersection.

• "What's that to me," I thought, "I'm doing nothing wrong"; and I asked the latest one why she had told me.
• "They're at the stop sign: catching cyclists who don't stop!"

I wanted to know, so I set off to find them, and there they were, just a block away: two policemen, wearing shorts, in the shade of a tree, at a T-junction with a stop sign, with their notebooks out and two police bicycles with them, on a main residential back-street (one of the city's many "suggested on-street routes" for bicycles).

Being cyclists themselves, I reckoned they would know the realities of cycling.

I pulled up to the policeman who was nearest to the curb, and waited for him to look up from his notebook and address me.

• "I heard you were stopping bicycles who don't stop at stop signs", I said.
• "That's right", he replied.
• "How much stop do you like to see in a bicycle, at a stop sign?"

And this is what he told me.

• "80% of the accidents that we know of happen at intersections. We're out here trying to prevent that." [He didn't need to tell me that bicycles often don't stop at stop signs.]

"Some people [bicyclists] don't seem to realise that they're a vehicle," [c.f. 'vehicular cycling'] "and that the traffic laws apply to them." [I know that car drivers, here, can be fined for doing a "rolling stop": i.e. for failing to come to a "complete stop". When driving a car I come to a complete stop, as a matter of principal.]

[At this point I'm thinking, "Yeah but I'm on a bicycle: momentum matters to me. I slow down, to walking speed or less. I look. I continue if the coast is clear, if there's nothing coming on the side-street, if there are no pedestrians about the cross the road. I can see all around me, better than when I'm driving. I obey the laws enough: I ride as safely as I can. Why must I come to a "complete stop" on a bike, put my feet down, only to obey the letter of the law?]

"I see people blow through an intersection without slowing down and without even looking. I'm not saying that people need to stop for 3 full seconds. I do want to see a head-check: look one way, look the other ... and repeat: look again, check each direction twice, and then go on."

[So now I'm thinking, "Yeah, I see what I'm doing right" (I slow down and look); "and what I could be doing better" (look twice).]

"And if you see a policeman, come to a complete stop."

Aside from Bicycles.SE, these are the sites related to Bicycle touring I like the most.

• Crazy Guy on a Bike is home to the largest collection of bike touring journals on the planet. Many of them are worth reading, and some of them are excellent. The site started out as simply a place for site owner Neil Gunton's journal, and is now home to nearly 6,000 journals (including twenty of mine). This one about a Florida-to-Washington tour is my current favorite. The forums there are also quite good.
• Biking across the USA by John Dorsey is a sentimental favorite of mine. It's the first tour journal I ever read and it, along with this book, was one of the things planted the idea of touring into my head. I don't know if I'll ever do a tour loger than a week or two, but I found this site inspring. (If only he would finish the last few pages!)
• The Touring Store is my favorite place to buy racks and panniers and other bike luggage. The proprietor is extremely knowledgable about his merchandise, and genuinely wants his customers to be happy with their purchases--and also for them to buy the right stuff in the first place.
• The Touring subforum at BikeForums is also a very good resource. I've found many of the people there to be a good source of information, and sometimes to be very inspiring.
• Warm Showers is a shared hospitality site for bike tourists, similar to Couch Surfing.
• Icebike hasn't been updated in years, but the site still has a lot of great information. I've consulted it when planning winter tours.

Can anyone recommend any other really top-shelf sites that should be here?

Lately, I’ve been commuting to rehearsals on the Delaware and Raritan Canal trail. It’s a great way to get away from traffic and potholes for a good chunk of the eight-mile ride. It’s also cooler, as much of the path is covered by trees. The only problem is that it adds ten minutes to the ride, if not more.

The other only problem is that Hildy, my touring bike, has standard touring tires. She’s reliable and fits me like an old, shirt, the kind that’s getting a little ratty, but is too comfortable to get rid of despite the worn hems on the sleeves. She can handle a little gravel, but she’s fickle. Loose gravel or uneven stone will make her say: “Neil, you might consider getting off and walking—or I’ll toss you on your ass.” Yeah, that wouldn’t be pretty. I walk over those nasty bits of path.

Last week, after riding this bit of towpath every Monday for several weeks, I decided that it was time to put my knobby “winter” tires back on Hildy. While the recent resurfacing of the path made it possible for us to ride it on those 700x32 tires, there are still small sections of gravel where I’ll walk the bike, not to mention spillways. My first ride on the towpath with the knobbies I got for last winter was—there’s no other word for it—fun! And Hildy said barely a word until I got to that thousand-foot overgrown rock spillway. I didn’t even wait for her to tell me, I walked that one. (Along with the last spillway where one has to balance on rocks in the Raritan River to get to the other side.)

A patch of coarse gravel or sand became damn awesome, and these are no longer barely-balancing jaw-clenching moments. There’s something exhilarating about riding over an uneven, ephemeral surface.

Of course, there’s a price for all this. The ride takes about five to ten minutes longer now. (Fifteen, with today’s headwinds.) And there are still stone spillways I can’t ride over, although that’s down to two (from five previously unrideable rock-and-concrete stretches.) Also, the bike doesn’t corner as well on concrete. But that’s okay. I’ve gotten much faster at swapping out tires.

I’ve just ordered parts for my mountain bike build again, and may soon finish my offroad project of the last three years. Imagine the fun I could have with proper two-inch knobby tires on that 1994 Stumpjumper frame! No dirt or rock would be unclimbable. Those helmet-cam mountain-maniacs I see on Youtube may be insane, but I can’t argue that they’re not having a good time.

Whoops! Sorry, Hildy. You’re still my favorite, I promise. Maybe it’s time we did an offroad tour.

This post is a copy of a news article I wrote for a local webzine in Dubai:

There is a very interesting new website that I am involved with. It is part of the StackExchange network of Question and Answer sites, and it is all about bicycles and cyclists.

The idea is, if you have a question about what headset fits your 2006 Scott Addict at 3am, when all of the Wolfi’s mechanics are off in dreamland, log on and ask. I’ve yet to have a question come up with no answers.

One of the questions I was asked this morning was this one:

• Best value for money on aero wheels?

The answers varied, and the questioners’ purpose for looking at aero wheels was not particularly effective, but he got answers and discussion that pointed him in the right direction.

It also pointed me at the subject of this issue’s Gearbox column:

What makes a wheel a good wheel?

For the purposes of this discussion, the definition of good is “best suited to its purpose”, and assumes the additional definition of “doesn’t make me sell a kidney to own it.”

Using that definition, we have to first look at the purpose of a wheel. So what is the purpose of a wheel? How do we benefit from the differences in wheel categories available for our beautiful machines? And what are those categories?

First the options:

Training wheels:

This is the everyday option. The workhorse wheel. Strong, and relatively cheap, these are the wheels that come stock on your average bike.

Climbing wheels:

These wheels have one purpose. To go fast, uphill. To feel light and nimble on the climb, and to make you feel more powerful and more efficient as you take that first HC ascent. They are designed to pull as much weight as is possible in toward the hub of the wheel, and reduce the rotating mass at the edge of the rim. This allows you to get up to speed faster, as you have less of a lever distance between your directly driven hub, and the mass it is pushing.

Translation:  Faster starts and easier to maintain speeds.

Aero wheels:

The last general category of wheels is the aero wheel. These wheels are specialists’ wheels. They are made to reduce the drag on your bike and your body to the minimum possible, and shave seconds off your final time.

This is the wheel for the aspiring Time Trialist, or Triathlon geek. This is the wheel for the guy who wants to “win” the Friday morning local club ride, just for the bragging rights.

The shape of a the rim and the depth of the sidewall are the two primary characteristics of a wheel designed for its aerodynamics.

This video shows the flow of air around the shape of the Zipp 1080 front wheel.

As you can see, the Firecrest shape directs the airflow into a wedge shape, which allows the bike and the rider to rest inside the wedge. That’s not a perfect analogy, nor does the “wedge” completely eliminate air resistance. But that is the basic idea.

All aero wheels work with a version of this idea behind their design.

So how do you decide what wheels are best for you?

The first step is to determine your purpose for looking at a new wheel.

Are you a racer?

Do you run Triathlons, or Time Trials?

Do seconds matter on your ride, even if it’s just to be sure your best buddy doesn’t get to Starbucks with his wheel in front of yours?

Do you have flat, open terrain and smooth roads that will allow you to really benefit from a good aerodynamic wheel? (In Dubai, the answer to that last one is yes.)

Then perhaps the aero wheel is for you.

Do you ride when you travel? Would you like to? Do you often visit more mountainous areas of Europe or the Americas?

Have you ever wanted to see the view from the Col du Tourmalet as you top it’s crest?

Then maybe the right choice is a good climbing wheel, like the Xentis Squad 2.5, or the Zipp 303 Tubular.

Choosing the right set of wheels is a personal choice, and one with no “right” answer. It is a matter of finding the best wheel for your purpose, your budget and your bike.

One of the coolest trends we are seeing with new product coming into the new year is the idea of integrating aerodynamic shapes and benefits into all-arounder type bikes. A road bike like the Scott Foil or the Felt AR Zero gives a majority of the advantage of a traditional aero frame, with the body position and the stability of a club racer.

A bike that is stable enough for the average rider to use on his local group ride, and snappy enough off the line to be a Pro Tour bike, while simultaneously gaining near perfect aerodynamics?

Sign me up. And throw in a set of those Xentis Squad 5.8 Carbon clinchers while you’re at it.

See you next time.

Every year every cyclist I know, in every country around the world, speaks the same language. What language, you ask?

Well, there’s some Spanish, some Portuguese, German, a little English of both varieties and with a few accents, and of course more than a touch of French. It’s that pidgin, that polyglot language, the one we all speak this time of year, even when we don’t bother the rest of the year. It’s the language of the Tour de France.

Whether they root for the sprinter, the climber, the new guy or the old favorite, every cyclist I know watches this race. It’s more than just a race. It’s an Epic, a Grand Classic. It’s a way of life for the pro cyclist, the event they train the year to ride, and they base the success or failure of the season on their performance in the French Alps. And for 21 days in July, we get to follow on the journey with them.

We see every lone breakaway, every crash, and every triumphant finish. The strategy and the communication and the amazing machinery and the most powerful riders in the world make this a mesmerizing draw. Something we just can’t not watch.

And when your friends and neighbors don’t understand why you get up at 5 am to watch the day’s stage, and when the mailman’s only reference to the Tour is to the doping scandals that have plagued cycling in the press, sometimes deserved and sometimes not, all you can do is sit back, watch that day’s finish, and try to explain it to them in terms that they will understand.

It’s our World Cup, our Superbowl, The Final Four, Wimbledon and baseball’s World Series. It’s 21 days of glory and pain and human suffering and human triumph. And we get to ride along.

We get to see what is the best that every cyclist can be. We see heroes fall, and youth take up their challenge. We see the best of humanity in those 21 days.

And it never fails to make us part of the action in some small way. That is why we watch the Tour.

And that is why I hope you’ll watch it with us.