Velocio’s premium women’s ES kit. The CamelBak Solstice 10LR hydration pack. The classic looking Cafe du Cycliste Violette and Heidi jersies. Shimano’s high-ish end women’s WR84 road shoes. The bright and grippy Specialized Cliplite 2FO MTB trail shoes. Specialized SWAT apparel, which has secret pockets to stash your riding goods. Adidas Eyewear Evil Eye Evo with Vario lenses, and their new casual glasses, the Excalates. Custom merino kit from Sydney-based Eleven Velo. Updated Scuffers from Nzo, the women’s baggy shorts that redefined women’s baggy shorts.
That’s a fair few product reviews and write ups over the last year! Most are designed for women, but by brands that do some excellent man-gear too, using similar fabrics, gadgets and technologies. The main exception here is the Adidas Evil Eye Evo sunglasses, which come in different unisex size options and are adjustable for different face shapes. Read More
E-bikes are one of the big, divisive curiosities of the cycling world at the moment. E-mountain bikes even more so.
Along with several other influential people in my local riding community – trail builders, Specialized shop staff, keen riders, other media – I was recently invited to test ride the Specialized Turbo Levo. The social media froth was high as everyone took to Instagram and Facebook to confirm that riding bikes, including this one, is a heap of fun. Read More
This a question I get asked a lot. The thing is, media changes so quickly, my response changes too.
I often tell students that the jobs they’ll end up doing after their degree haven’t been invented yet. In this way, it’s not the number of essays completed or exams passed that make people suited to a workplace. It’s the broader skills learned through doing these tasks that matter most, like seeing patterns, managing workflow, choosing where to invest your energy, attention to detail, knowing where to look when you don’t have an answer. Journalism is about creating clear communication, across a variety of channels, with the audience of that form of communication in mind.
Three weeks, three destinations, two helicopter flights, many articles, stunning images and lots and lots of riding.
I travelled to New Zealand five times between 2015 and 2016, mostly for work, sometimes for holidays. It’s beginning to feel like a second home. The most recent trip took in one of my favourite places, Rotorua on the North Island, and two I’d never been to before, Queenstown and Wanaka, on the South Island.
When you buy this women’s bike, you’re buying into a community as well.
There are a lot of things that go into choosing a new bike. In my opinion, some people fixate too much on brands, the drool level of the parts, weight and appearance, and forget about other important aspects which determine how much they enjoy using it.
Tthe 2016 Liv Avail 1 Women’s Disc is so much more than the sum of its (well thought out) parts. For new riders this alloy, Shimano 105 specced, AU$ 1,799 disc model is an entry point into a whole new community. In Australia, there are regular rides in most capital cities, and a quick look at the #LivBeyond hashtag on instagram will show you how big this community is becoming on a global scale.
I tested the Avail 1 Disc for the Summer 2016 issue of Bike magazine (Australia). The bike itself has a robust and instinctive ride feel with a frame geometry that encourages comfort and stability. A PDF copy of the full review is here. An excerpt and a gallery of extra images from the very first ride are below (so clean!). Double tap the images to see them bigger if you’re reading from your mobile.
