Tag: road

Ridley Noah Disc Essential long-term review – Road Bikes – Bikes

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The Ridley Noah Essential is framed as a more affordable version of the brand’s Noah Fast aero road bike.

The Noah was originally developed as a sprinter’s bike for the likes of Caleb Ewan. Ridley says it has developed into more of an all-rounder over time, something that has become a road bike trend.

This Noah Disc Essential is part of Ridley’s Essential Series, launched in February 2022. Ridley says the bikes in the series retain the same characteristics as the brand’s pro-worthy road bikes in terms of stiffness and ride quality, but use a more cost-effective carbon fibre.

As a result of this different carbon fibre, Ridley says the frameset of the Noah Disc Essential is 100g heavier than the top-of-the-range Noah Fast – so not a great deal of difference, then.

The bike has the same aerodynamic features as the top-tier version, and as result, it looks pretty similar, minus the different paintwork.

It has the same geometry, too, which balances the bike’s racing history with its all-rounder potential.

The bike is available in sizes XXS to XL, with Ridley offering the same frame across genders, recommending riders opt for a bike fitting or custom build rather than a women’s-specific road bike.

The Noah I have costs £4,729/€5,195 and has many of the features you would expect of a road bike at this price. These include a SRAM Rival eTap AXS groupset, Forza carbon wheels and a one-piece bar and stem.

The Ridley Noah Essential should, on paper, ride like the top Ridley Noah Fast but with a marginally increased weight, which arguably isn’t the most important thing for an aero road bike, anyway.

Ridley Noah Disc Essential update three

A new set of wheels

The Fulcrum Speed 42 wheels are the latest update to my long-term test bike.
Stan Portus / Our Media

There has been one significant change to my Ridley Noah Disc Essential since my last update: a new set of wheels.

The wheels were an obvious upgrade. With a depth of 38mm and claimed weight of 1,535g, the stock Forza Levanto DB didn’t really seem to match the go-fast intentions of this bike.

Something a bit deeper and a bit lighter seemed an appropriate fit, bringing the Ridley’s overall weight and aero potential more in line with some of the other best road bikes around the same price point.

Fulcrum’s new Speed 42 wheels struck me as a good fit thanks to their depth, claimed aerodynamic advantages and lower weight.

While the Fulcrum Speed 42 wheels aren’t drastically deeper than the Levanto wheels at – as the name suggests – 42mm, they have an internal rim width that’s wider by 4mm at 23mm.

Fulcrum Speed 42 wheels internal rim width.

The wheels have an internal rim width of 23mm.
Stan Portus / Our Media

The wider internal rim width should improve handling and comfort, thanks to a larger contact patch between the tyre and whatever pot-holed British road I take on.

I’m yet to get them on the scale, but the

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Road Trip: Summer Driving Checklist and Safety Tips

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If you take a Memorial Day road trip, expect a big jump in the number of car travelers compared to last year. Rising inflation and higher fuel costs will not stop Americans from hitting the road, and more drivers will get behind the wheel than fly in the upcoming travel season.

According to AAA, an estimated 37.1 million drivers will hit America’s roads this summer, traveling 50 miles or more from home. That’s a 6% increase or 2 million additional car travelers than in 2022.

“This is expected to be the third busiest Memorial Day weekend since 2000, when AAA started tracking holiday travel,” said Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel. “More Americans are planning trips and booking them earlier, despite inflation. This summer travel season could be one for the record books, especially at airports.”

Before you pack your bags, some vehicle preparation is in order. Check out our tips for a safe and enjoyable road trip.

Road Trip Checklist for Your Vehicle

2023 AAA Memorial Day Travel Forecast

Before setting out, you’ll want to prepare the vehicle for the distance ahead.

1. Inspect and Maintain Your Vehicle

Routine maintenance is a must. Keeping up with your car’s maintenance schedule can help prevent costly breakdowns. Before you pack your bags, perform a basic safety check of your vehicle’s tire pressure, wiper blades, fluid levels, headlights, and heating and air conditioning system. You shouldn’t defer regularly scheduled services such as tune-ups, oil changes, battery checks, and tire rotations.

If you find anything is amiss, check our vehicle maintenance pricing and service schedules page to see if your car needs a check-up and get the estimated cost. It’s worth running it by a dealership or auto repair shop when you’re unsure whether any service is overdue.

RELATED: Car Maintenance Guide: Everything You Need to Know

2. Make Child Safety Your Top Concern

Roadtrip safety and travel checklist

All children under 13 years old should ride in the back seat. And be aware of the added risks that arise in warm climates. Heatstroke can occur when a child gets left unattended in a parked vehicle.

To understand more about child seat safety, take some time to review the importance of car seat safety.

Hot Car Awareness

Being on vacation can interrupt your routine and distract you from checking the back seat when you exit the vehicle. It’s hard to believe but, on average, heatstroke deaths claim 38 children in the United States each year. Pets are also in grave danger when left in a car, even for a short period with the windows cracked.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reminds everyone to keep our tiny loved ones safe with these tips:

  • Lock your car when you aren’t using it to prevent small children from entering.
  • Never leave your child alone in a car, even if you think you’ll only be away for a moment.
  • Always “look before you lock” so no child or animal remains in the back seat.
  • Many newer vehicles alert you with a rear seat
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Classic Motorcycles Book Review [32 Bikes Road Tested]

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Over the years, author Lester Morris has ridden some of the world’s rarest, most expensive, and highly exotic motorcycles and written comprehensive road tests on them. His latest book, Classic Motorcycles 32 Great Bikes and their Road Test Reports, compiles updated road tests of some of the most interesting bikes.

When I got in touch with Morris about the book and found it included his road test impressions of the 1970 Triumph Bandit prototype, that was it, I wanted to get a copy. Of course, I knew I’d be interested in the other 31 classic reviews, but the saga of the DOHC 350cc twin that was to have been marketed as the Triumph Bandit and BSA Fury is a story I’ve been interested in for some time.

Classic Motorcycle Book Review: Triumph Bandit 350
Morris did a retrospective ride review of the 1970 DOHC 350cc Triumph Bandit in 1984, and that fascinating story is included in his latest book.

Indeed, I wrote about it here six years ago in “The Sad Case of the Triumph Bandit/BSA Fury 350: What Might Have Been.” When I wrote that article, I knew of only two period reviews of the pre-production prototype—one by Bob Braverman in Cycle Guide and the other by Bob Greene in England’s Motorcycle Sport Quarterly. Then, in 2019, a comment from none other than Mr. Morris himself appeared below my article, informing me that he also wrote a retrospective review of a Triumph Bandit 350 that was published in 1984. Here’s what Morris had to say in that comment:

I carried out a carefully detailed road test report on a prototype 350cc DOHC Triumph Bandit for the Australian motorcycle magazine ‘Two Wheels’, the report published in 1984. I found the small machine to a be a mini-rocket ship (for a 350, it must be remembered), with great handling and powerful brakes – yes, including the rear anchor – but also suggested the gear change lever’s travel was far too great, but the riding position was perfect for my diminutive size of just on 1.6M (5′ 3″). The rockerbox covers fouled the top frame rails, and the gearbox filler could not be used unless the carburettors were removed, but both these problems, in particular the ‘long travel’ gear change, were minor quibbles and would assuredly have been attended to before production began. It was a monumental tragedy for Triumph that its senior management were too dumb not to have the little bike’s enormous potential. It would have blown its Japanese competition sideways. How sad it all was, how very sad! 

So, it turns out that Morris—a noted moto-journalist who actually got to ride a Triumph Bandit—came away with the same feeling that I had about the positive impact the bike might have had on the long-term fortunes of the foundering BSA-Triumph company.

In his review of the Bandit, Morris goes into great technical detail on the design and workings of the machine, its performance on the road, and how it did in some play racing against

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Vaast R/1 road bike review: Magnesium tubing offers a distinctly cushy ride

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Story Highlights

  • What it is:Vaast’s dedicated road riding adaptation of Allite “Super Magnesium” frame materials.
  • Frame features:Innovative magnesium TIG-welded construction, semi-aero tube shaping with matching aero carbon seatpost, full carbon fork, partially internal cable routing, T47 threaded bottom bracket shell, hidden wedge-type seatpost binder.
  • Weight:1,250 g (claimed, unpainted medium frame only without hardware); 420 g (fork only, claimed, uncut); 8.94 kg (19.71 lb), as tested, medium size, without pedals or accessories.
  • Price:US$2,300 / AU$TBC / £2,300 / €2,900.
  • Highs:Remarkably damped ride quality, appropriately quick handling, competitively stiff chassis.
  • Lows:Muted ride quality borders on dead, some questionable spec choices, disappointing assembly quality.

Vaast is continuing to build its collection of magnesium-framed bikes, with its latest addition being the R/1. As compared to Vaast’s existing drop-bar model – the versatile A/1 all-roader – the R/1 is a more purpose-built steed intended solely for paved surfaces. As is often the case with road bikes, speed is the focus here, with a semi-aero welded magnesium frame, full-carbon fork, and a variety of performance-minded build kits with aero wheelsets. 

It looks good on paper, it looks good in person, it’s a solid value, and previous experience with the A/1 has proven magnesium’s worthiness as a higher-end frame material. So why am I not more excited about this thing?

All-in on magnesium

I’m not sure if this is strictly an American colloquialism, but “one-trick pony” comes to mind when I think of Vaast. To be clear, I don’t intend for that to be a disparagement, but there are few other bike brands in recent memory that have hinged so much of their identity on a single attribute.

Much as Niner banked everything on 29″ mountain bike wheels early on, Vaast is betting the farm on magnesium. In fact, the brand’s entire existence is predicated on the stuff, as the public-facing construct of parent company Allite Inc., the manufacturer of Vaast’s so-called “Super Magnesium” alloys. Allite is targeting a range of applications for its magnesium products, including aerospace, consumer electronics, marine, and even construction, and whether you want your magnesium for forgings, castings, machining, welding, or extruding, Allite can apparently fill that order.

The magnesium material is truly impressive, offering an incredibly well-damped ride.

But why magnesium in the first place? Looking strictly in terms of material properties, it’s about one-third lower-density than aluminum while also boasting higher strength. And while it’s technically more flexible than aluminum by volume, it’s stiffer than aluminum by weight – and either way, the difference isn’t so great that it can’t be compensated by slightly increasing tubing diameters. It also generally damps vibrations more effectively than aluminum, which can yield a smoother ride.

That’s all well and good, but isn’t a magnesium bike basically going to melt if it gets wet, or even worse, catch on fire like I’ve seen on TikTok??? 

In short, no. Allite claims its proprietary alloys and electrolytic surface treatments make the stuff far less prone to corrosion than people

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Fezzari chases the aero all-rounder unicorn with with the new Veyo road bike

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Utah-based consumer-direct brand Fezzari Bicycles has had a lightweight carbon road bike in its lineup for the past several years, but when it comes to aerodynamically efficiency, there’s been a conspicuous gap in the lineup. Debuting today, however, is a new model called the Veyo that promises to be a high-performance aero all-rounder at pretty incredible prices.

The Veyo formula

Fezzari historically hasn’t exactly been known as a disruptor when it comes to bicycle design and engineering, and while the Veyo appears to tick a lot of boxes, it doesn’t exactly move the needle (and that’s ok).

The overall profile of the carbon frame is about what you’d expect, with a slightly sloping top tube and aggressively dropped seat stays. Truncated airfoil cross-sections are used in the down tube, seat tube, and matching carbon seatpost, and the hourglass-profile head tube is equipped with an oversized upper headset bearing and Vision’s ACR fully hidden routing system for a clean front end. 

The design may be pretty generic, but it looks good regardless.

Although ostensibly meant to be an aero bike, Fezzari isn’t drawing a massive amount of attention to that, nor is the company providing any wind tunnel or CFD-simulated data. Instead, Fezzari’s press materials are conspicuously vaguer: “It’s easy to show impressive aerodynamic numbers in an artificially perfect wind tunnel setting, but Fezzari built Veyo for real riding.”

Fezzari’s director of product development, Tyler Cloward, was a bit more informative, saying the company intentionally went for more of a balanced approach.

“Veyo is all about a holistic approach to a complete performance bike, balancing all ride characteristics,” he explained. “While aerodynamics is one of the big considerations in Veyo, it was not the only or top consideration. Power transfer, comfort and weight really played into our aero profile decisions. Could we have made the tube profiles more aerodynamic? Yes. But what would we have been sacrificing in terms of comfort and weight? Adding more aerodynamic tube profiles would increase this frame weight. A heavier bike takes longer to get up to speed. If the bike is overly stiff and the rider can’t keep the power into the bike, the aerodynamic properties have less of a bonus on speed and efficiency. We combated this with placement of the seat stay (lower on the seat tube allows more seat tube flex), and more fore-aft flex in the fork, while keeping front end rigidity for sprinting and cornering. Wall tube thicknesses were also adjusted on the frame to provide compliance as well. It is how we balanced the full system that makes Veyo so appealing.”

The down tube sports a truncated teardrop profile.

Reading between the lines, it seems safe to assume the Veyo is probably nominally aerodynamic – at least compared to a non-aero bike – but it was also designed to just feel good, which for most everyday riders is likely just fine.

Other features include compatibility with both electronic and mechanical drivetrains – a rarity with modern aero frames –

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6 Easy Suggestions to Put together for a Winter Road Vacation in and all-around Oregon

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About the river and by the woods? That’s just a common Sunday drive in the Pacific Northwest. But as winter season methods, that uncomplicated street vacation you’ve been carrying out for years—or possibly for the first time—can get dicey quick. We’ve received some recommendations that will help hold you harmless en route to meet up with loved ones and good friends to rejoice the vacations. This is all tips you have in all probability read ahead of from your father, but consider it from a new father: You can never ever be also geared up.

Know Before You Go

No matter if you are heading throughout city or across just one of Oregon’s many mountain passes, it’s generally superior to know what lies forward than blindly head into a significant pile up or winter season storm. Luckily, the Oregon Division of Transportation maintains a single of the most effective websites for checking website traffic problems. If you are highway tripping to go to household this holiday break time, do you a favor and give TripCheck a swift appear right before you go away the dwelling, and whenever you get again in the car or truck. Washington and California also have internet sites to check out in on ailments. 

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Have Chains or Use Traction Tires

These shiny-orange flashing symptoms on the highways top into the mountains are not just advisories. You must carry chains and use them if your vehicle does not have snow tires. It is the law, and in Oregon, for whatsoever reason, ill-preparedness seems to be a running topic lately on roads these as Freeway 26 in excess of Mount Hood. Do all people a favor—especially you and your family—and prevent by your community tire retail outlet, car elements keep, Bi-Mart, Fred Meyer, and just about any other major box shop you can think of to choose up a set. They price tag about $120 on common, and get just 10-15 minutes to install. Make guaranteed when you lay them out that there are no twists in the side chain before carefully placing them over your tires. Assure that the fasteners are struggling with outwards, and check out to preserve them from relocating under the tire when you roll forward to set them in place in advance of tightening them in position. Finding a very good spot to put chains on can be challenging, but make sure you, for the like of all that is good in this environment, please do not prevent in the middle of the highway or 0n a runaway truck ramp to put in. Be positive to continue to keep a pair of work gloves with your kit because trying to put metal chains on in cold weather can do a quantity on your fingers. Having chains in your trunk this winter could mean the variation between getting caught for several hours and earning it to grandma’s on time. Or even keeping you and

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