Richard Sachs stands as an icon. He also breaks conventions as an iconoclast. He likes to say, “I didn’t want to be a framebuilder. I became one.” This phrase neatly captures the serendipity that shaped his career: a young man who intended to become a writer ended up becoming one of America’s most revered builders of the most finely wrought handmade bicycles in America.
There was a time when American gravel cycling felt like coming home to a family reunion you’d been looking forward to all year. It was farm roads and cow gates, a thermos of coffee, and an annual gathering built on trust, shared suffering, and the quiet understanding that some things in this world could remain beautifully imperfect.
In 1975, Bernard Thévenet—a farmer’s son from a village literally named “The Handlebar”—ended Eddy Merckx’s reign as cycling’s most dominant champion. On the melting Alpine asphalt to Pra-Loup, Thévenet watched the seemingly invincible “Cannibal” collapse into mortality, trapped tire-deep in liquified tar. This is the story of how a patient dreamer fed cycling’s greatest predator his final meal, proving that even the most ravenous appetites must eventually be satisfied.
I wonder if the State of Utah will ever update the traffic code to reflect the reality of driving a car here. For example, traffic lights: Green means stop, look both ways a minimum of three (3) times each, then prepare to go on yellow. Yellow means go. Red means FLOOR IT GO GO GO GO GO!
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in association with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), shocked the world this morning by announcing the launch of a new Formula 1 Cycling Series for bicycle racing, set to begin in 2024. The announcement was made during a press conference in Aigle, Switzerland, where UCI President David Lappartient revealed that Lance Armstrong had been named as the Series Race Director.
As a fan of handmade steel bicycle frames, especially those of English design, one of my favorite framebuilders was a gentleman named Ron Cooper. Ron got his start working at A.S. Gillott as a teenager in 1947, before branching out on his own in the late 1960s. The British bicycle industry was robust during this time, but also very close-knit, with some individual builders working for a variety of different companies throughout their career.
Richard Sachs is one of the preeminent bicycle framebuilders in the United States, and yet building bicycles was never really an aspiration of his.
Towards the end of October 2021, I found out that my old friend, mentor, and boss Tony Tom (of A Bicycle Odyssey, in Sausalito, California) passed away the previous week. His death was a suicide. I worked for Tony from 1994-2001. When it came to equipment, I was a complete and utter newbie. Tony taught me pretty much everything I know about bicycles.
One of the most popular routes to ride in Marin County, California is known as the Alpine Dam Loop. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done the loop, but I remember one 4th of July ride over twenty years ago clearly, as if it just happened yesterday.
Winter can be kind of rough for cyclists sometimes, at least for those who don’t have a winter sport that gets them outside. Winter can also be a good season for a little downtime, to either recover from the year’s efforts, or to take your mind off the mind-numbing chore of riding a trainer indoors. As a fan of cycling as a sport, along with its history, I am constantly seeking out new books to read, and I know that others may do the same. As such, I am pleased to present the 2019 version of A Cyclist’s Winter Reading List.
