If I were considering a new mountain bike, I’d think about a few things. Mountain biking is way fun on any bike, but it’s most fun on a bike that works for you. We are here to help.

Wednesday and Thursday I rode steep trails in Utah on an electric-assist mountain bike, and I loved it. The bike was a Specialized Turbo Levo SL. It’s an interesting bike and is a little bit of a wonderful oddity in the world of e-bikes. It’s lighter and provides less assist than most other options. At […]

For unclear reasons, I’d been thinking about a single-speed cross/gravel bike. I regret having sold my last one, and didn’t want to spend a pile of money on another. I spent a fair amount of time looking for a new frame, but single-speeding appears to have fallen out of fashion. I found very little to […]

Before starting this entry, I looked back and re-read Part 1. How bizarre! A post about a bunch of parts without a bike on which to bolt them. Just to recap, I’m trying to incorporate a bike into more aspects of my life — not just going fast in pursuit of fitness. When I first […]

We started carrying Santa Cruz in late April of 2019. We partnered with Santa Cruz for a few reasons. One is that they focus almost entirely on mountain bikes. A second is that they have a large, loyal following. I like their adherence to and constant tinkering with a consistent suspension platform, VPP. All of […]

Spring is trying to spring, and early Spring makes me think of dirt roads, crud-filled bike lanes and the appeal of what are now referred to as Gravel Bikes. Let’s start with a bit of definition and distinction. Then I’ll ramble about figuring out what you might want in a gravel bike. Finally I’ll finish […]

Beginner Mountain Bike Picks Think about what you you’re gonna do with this thing. Do you want a mountain bike because everybody rides a mountain bike? Or do you wanna rip the new Maple Hill Trail at Markin Glen Park? If you’re looking to commute or cruise the city, we might encourage you to look […]

Man are we happy to be thinking of warmer days and longer trail rides. To supplement our excitement, we put together a list of staff favorites highlighting mountain bikes for a variety of ride types. Specialized Epic Hardtail The Epic Hardtail is new this year. Replacing the Stumpjumper Hardtail, this cross-country race bike looks like […]

We’ve been all over the place recently, meeting with vendors and riding bikes. I love writing about this sort of thing and thought I’d share my experiences of the bikes I rode. Specialized Tarmac Disk: This was a super nice road race bike with all the fixins: Ultegra drivetrain, Ultegra hydraulic brakes, carbon clinchers. Very […]

What should I be doing? Either writing the Bicyclical or packing to go home. What am I doing? Sitting in a sushi restaurant trying to remember the salient points of my visit to Specialized. I rode a few bikes: a Tarmac disk (yum), the new Venge ViAS (so fast), a very nice Diverge, a 29” […]

Innovative, made in America Speedplay recently introduced several updates and new products. First up is the near-mythical SYZR, a mountain bike pedal that’s been in the works for a number of years. You can read all about it here, but the main takeaways are the famous Speedplay float and the fact that the pedal interface […]

This has nothing to do with bikes. This has everything to do with experiences. Taking Stacy Duckett to see Bruce Springsteen in Memphis remains one of the most memorable of my college-age experiences. I believe it was my sophomore year, and Bruce was touring in support of his Born in the USA album. Were I […]

A really long time ago a customer suggested that we round up some bike lights and do some sort of laboratory-controlled comparison thing worthy of a car magazine. Today we had a nice confluence of events: a reasonable number of lights in stock, a short day and a fairly wide open (inside) place where we could […]

It’s that time of year, and maybe a bit past that time of year, when we’re asked about cross tires. I thought I’d talk about what we like around the shop and go from there. Should I go Tubular? No, unless you’ve lost your mind or need another challenge in your life. Yes you can […]

Last week the men from SRAM showed up at the shop to wow us with some of their new wares. And wowed we were. First up was the new RS-1, RockShox new “upside down” fork. As a former motorcycle guy, I’ve often wondered why high-end bicycle suspension forks look like old technology motorcycle suspension forks. […]

Hello! Over the most glorious Memorial Day I can remember in some time, I heard someone around me — maybe even someone I didn’t know — say, “Yeah. That winter was horrible, but I don’t think I’ve ever been more happy about summer.” Too true. And so it is that I find myself finishing the […]

Not very long ago a really cool customer asked about our race team. “Do you guys have tryouts or need a resume or anything?” While we’re thrilled that someone might think our results could indicate that such might be the case, it isn’t. What we have is a concept that we call the Friend Team. […]

Over the past three years, I’ve almost become used to the extent that bike shop owners are hit up to be part of many different things. There are industry conferences, trade shows of all stripe, this, that and the other. Until recently, I’ve been too busy and Pedal has been too lean-staffed for me to […]

One of the significant barriers to cold weather athletics, biking in particular, is dress. How do you dress for an adventure on a really cold day? Folks in the know speak of three clothing layers: Base, Insulation and Protection. I’ll write a little bit about what these layers are, what I use, why I use […]

I confess: in this time-compressed world we inhabit, I’ve been forced onto the trainer before I would have liked. However, the combination of a fan, an Apple TV and a Netflix account have made the experience not as bad as it could be. A few of the movies I’ve recently viewed from the saddle include: […]

Wow! What spectacular cycling weather. Lately I’ve had the opportunity to ride with friends new and old, and I’ve been continually impressed by how just unbelievably beautiful it is and by how fun it is to ride a bike (relatively) quickly. Lucky! Fun Things To Do Yes! Cyclocross starts in September. Let’s practice! Practice sessions […]

There are folks who believe that there is no life as charmed as that of the bike shop owner. Sometimes that notion is correct. Last week Kona held their 2014 dealer launch in Bellingham, WA, were I learned about the 2014 bikes, rode the 2014 bikes and met many of the people responsible for the […]

Yes, we know it’s last minute. Sorry. It took us and the good folk at Fort Custer a little bit to work out all the details, but we’re happy to host a demo event tomorrow (6/19) afternoon at the trailhead. That’s right: dual-suspension Scotts –both Genius and Spark — and nifty road bikes are yours […]

Maybe it’s a result of my introduction to mountain biking. Maybe it’s our local terrain. Maybe it’s just the status quo around these parts. Regardless, I’ve always been a hard tail kinda guy, be it 26, 29 or 27.5 wheels. Dual suspension bikes always seemed heavy and complicated to me. Traditions like this die hard. […]

I have not participated in many bicycle tours. I hit the Kal-Tour pretty regularly, but not much else. I honestly don’t know why except that I tend to work in the summer and race cyclocross in the fall. There’s not a whole lot of time left over for organized stuff. Earlier this year my brother […]

As you may know, we’re doing something a bit different during Bike Week. We’re making it more convenient to commute to work — provided you work in downtown Kalamazoo. How? Showers and bike storage. We provide a place to shower and a spot to keep your bike during the work day. You just need to […]

Hello! Is there stuff to do on a bike in this town? Yes. There is. The Ft. Custer Stampede is this weekend. What’s that? Your sweetie is running the marathon or half marathon? If you race Sport, you don’t start until a very civilized 12:30, so you can cheer on your beloved AND get some […]

I pimped the living heck out of the Barry Roubaix race this year. Now that it’s over, perhaps a few comments and perspectives are in order. One of the reasons I like the BR is that I think it’s a race for anyone. This is not to say that it’s easy. The course — any […]

One of my favorite past times these days is listening to everyone worry about the right tires and tire pressure for the Barry Roubaix. With that in mind, I took a picture of our current inventory and will share a little information about each. Bottom left is a Vittoria XN. This is a very fast […]

Hello! Look at the lovely winter. Hmmmm. Lots of interesting stuff on the local calendar, such as… Barry Roubaix on March 23rd. This race is now officially a Big Deal. I’m stoked about the Hastings start/finish this year. Should be a hoot. Darn near full. Sign up quickly if you want summathat gravel road race action. Crazy […]

A customer recently lent me a book, “Just Ride, a Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike,” by Grant Peterson. I read it last week and have since spent a good amount of time thinking about the book’s content and tone. This is not a traditional book review. The premise of the book is that […]

One day our friend Amber came by with a metric ton of camera equipment, some sheets and a husband/helper to take pictures of a few of our bikes. I thought it might be a nice change from the typical blurry iPhone photos for which this site is infamous. Like El Guapo. Speaking of El Guapo, […]

Toward the tail end of a day at Interbike, the bicycle industry trade show, I was wandering about the Jamis booth, looking for a chair so that I might give my feet a break Through circumstances I cannot really recall, I found myself seated at a table with Greg Webber, the Jamis VP of Product […]

What a premium day we had yesterday during the cyclocross race at Markin Glen. Thanks to all who raced, watched and helped. What a happy time. Our race would not have been possible without the support of the Kalamazoo County Parks. In particular, David Rachowicz is a major advocate of our race and helps us […]

And so it was that we found ourselves wielding pumps and fancy-pants digital pressure gauges in the freezing cold pre-Iceman parking lot when our neighbor, a guy approximately my age on a very nice, very expensive bike with good tires, joined in the conversation. “I run mine about 50,” he said. “Or I’ll just put […]

For the first time in several years, I signed up for Iceman. Truthfully, I’ve never been a huge fan of the race — I never perform as well as I’d like, it wrecks me physically, the sign-up is a disaster, etc. — but I signed up for something to do with my then kinda-new mountain […]

Man. That was a hoot. Thanks to everyone involved in the cyclocross race at Kindleberger Park yesterday, especially including but not limited to: The city of Parchment RunupCX, who did a fantastic job of setting up the course, putting on a good show and being such awesome partners in this exercise The racers The wonderful […]

Our Man Dave writes (and eloquently so) about his trip to the Garden State and participation in the New Jersey Gran Fondo. Sometimes we go to great distances just to take a little step. In the grand scheme of things, even within the short weeks of a summer season, one day on a bicycle has […]

I’ve been using two high-powered bicycle computers lately and (finally?) now have time to express my thoughts. These words will no doubt reveal the reasons that I am not employed as a professional device comparer. I’m not going to waste a lot of space writing about features and specs; those are easy to find. Instead, […]

As 2013 cyclocross bikes begin to appear in advertising and in physical form, those in the market for a new cross bike are faced with a decision: disk brakes or canti? A quick rundown of PEDAL’s 2013 cyclocross offerings: Jamis:  4 disk brake bikes ranging in price from $850 – $4000. Scott:  3 cantilever brake […]

In the sprit of the last post, I thought I’d share a couple of recent projects. First, a set of Velocity Blunt SL 650b rims shod with Schwalbe Racing Ralph tires. The wheels, rim tape and valves came straight from Velocity, the tires from Schwabe and the sealant from Stan’s. This is the tape Velocity […]

As promised (threatened?), let’s talk a little bit about tubeless. First of all, who might care? Interested parties include weight weenies, low-pressure advocates and those concerned about punctures, esp. thorns in their MTB tires. Who doesn’t care? Possibly people with enough stress in their lives who don’t need another thing to think about/spend money actuating. […]

A buddy recently said, “I was reading your blog. I wonder if you’re going to be able to keep up the enthusiasm.” Enthusiasm is high; time to write has been a bit low. Time is still at a premium, but I’d write a few words about things I’ll explore in greater detail later. Tubeless We’ve […]

Do we like multisport? Yes. On occasion, we participate. Thus we have these really awesome, really current multisport tips, in order of occurrence. Buy stretchy laces the night before the race and install them in your shoes. Try out by walking around the house for a few seconds and pronounce good. Also buy a new […]

Someone (wish I could remember who) recently suggested that I write a recap on some of the stuff that I’ve blabbed (er, blogged) about over the past year. Sans ado: Jamis Xenith Elite: This is about as much road bike as you could possibly cram into an MSRP of $5000 or less. Fantastic bike. I […]

Last fall I resumed my love affair with mountain biking and discovered the joys to be had on 29″ wheels. Since then, while I wasn’t paying attention, everybody else in the shop purchased a 29er of their very own. Strange, as I’m usually the first of us to succumb to New Bike Fever. In truth, […]

I’ll say it: there are a LOT of good fluid trainers out there. We sell a few brands and are often asked, “Which one should I buy?” As with bikes, it depends on the person and the budget, but here are a few things that I’ve learned and experienced.   Blackburn Fluid 2 This is […]

People (don’t really) ask me all the time, “What could you possibly do to make that black cross bike of yours even more black?” Maybe a black crank with black rings? This — a Quarq Cinqo crank-based power meter –is something I’ve wanted to try for quite a while. Since I purchased a Garmin Edge […]

Here we are, almost one year into Pedal’s existence. It might be a good time to talk about what we’ve done, what we’d like to do and where we’re going. The Pedal approach is about the bike shop as primarily a service enterprise as opposed to a traditional retail store. In our first year, this […]

Our goal here at Pedal is better. Better service. Better value. Better advice. Better everything! We’re not perfect, but we’re trying, trying to be better. The foundation of Pedal’s business model is our interaction with people — customers, potential customers, even people who are unlikely to be customers but might need our assistance with something […]

MountainBIKE Mag Awards

From one of my favorite blogs about a year ago, a review of the Giro Factor. Then, this summer some cycling magazine had something to say: BicyclingEditorsChoice Maybe these guys are onto something. And it comes in black.

We’ve had occasion to play with a few nifty gizmos as of late. Item One: a PowerTap G3 Wheelset. This is PowerTap’s latest, lightest hub (the G3) laced to a Velocity A23 rim. The whole shebang weighs 1850g, making it significantly lighter than my old, wired PowerTaps. For 2012 PowerTap (finally?) ditched wired power meters […]

We’ve been racing a lot of cross this fall, the last five weekends in a row. As a result, we had no idea what to do with ourselves with a shocking Sunday off. We were discussing it yesterday and decided that we should try some mountain biking. My mountain bike for the last several years has […]

  This is a poorly-focused picture of a very cool bike, one that I’ve been anxious to see and ride:  a Jamis Dragon 650B.   650B is a wheel/tire specification. In short words, 650B is halfway between a 26″ and a 29″ wheel. 650B proponents say that this size gives the rider the benefits of […]

Hello. Today’s blog is a little bit different from those you may have seen in the past. For starters, I, Lily Krone (aka Tim’s Daughter, or just That Girl With Glasses Who’s Sometimes in the Shop and Often has Food Stains on Her T-Shirt), am writing this post. Secondly, today’s blog is not so much […]

  Tired of the same old black seat bag? Me too. These guys sport cool designs, plenty of storage and a loop for your blinky light. For your safety. Because we care.    

The weather the past few days has been spectacular — cool in the morning and rising to 70ish in the afternoon. Where was this weather all September? I do not know. Anyway, thanks to the wonder of Winter Hours (Pedal doesn’t open until noon) I’ve been out riding between the hours of school starting and […]

We’ll be open a little bit less for the next few months — setting up at noon and close at the usual time, with a couple of changes. We’re now open until seven on Monday and Wednesday, and six for the remainder of the week days. Saturday remains the same, 10-5. I have to admit […]

We take a different approach to tri-bike fitting than that seen in many shops. We don’t have a ton of models on the floor, though we sell a marvelous selection of tri bikes, both in stock and custom geometries. When you walk into Pedal and express an interest in a triathlon bike, we don’t start […]

You might think that the #1 bestest thing about working at a bike should would be access to cool bikes. And you would be correct. Yet sometimes access isn’t enough; sometimes you have to sample the merchandise on a more permanent basis. In that spirit,  I bought myself a new cyclocross bike, a custom steel […]

As we keep yelling, the 2011 Cyclocross season is almost here. To prepare for this, we here at Pedal have organized a weekly event to practice barrier jumping, running up hills, riding through sand and much, much more.  Last night was our second practice. We set up some barriers made of PVC pipe in the […]

We’re making a lot of noise about cyclocross bikes, culture and racing around here, so I guess it’s time to start getting ready for the season. PEDAL will host cyclocross skills training on Tuesday evenings from now until it becomes to cold/dark/whatever. Let’s start this Tuesday at Winchell Elementary at 6:30. Time and location will […]

I’ve been meaning to write about my bike all summer, but summer has been busy and I’ve had better things to write about, if I’ve had time at all. Better late than never? I spent some quality time with the Jamis catalog last winter, trying to figure out what I’d ride this year. The Xenith […]

I was riding with a buddy of mine a couple of weeks ago, rather early on a Saturday morning. It was going to be a very hot day, but it wasn’t hot yet. We could see the damage to corn fields and trees from the recent wind storms. We’d both apparently had enough sleep, because […]

While cycling is, fortunately, not usually as awful as running in this incredibly hot and humid weather, there are some things you can do or use that’ll help keep extreme discomfort at bay. Number one: drink a lot of water. A Lot Of Water. Measuring your sweat rate* at this time of year often yields […]

We like bikes. We like talking about monocoque carbon fiber frames, 2×10 drivetrains, light wheels… all that stuff. We also like riding bikes. Sometimes we like to ride bikes as fast as we can. Sometimes we can’t help but appreciate folks who can ride faster than us. Lots and lots faster. So, yeah. We got […]

Sunday is the KalTour, a marvelous tour of the Kalamazoo area put on by the Kalamazoo Bicycle Club. At least one Pedal human will attempt to undertake the century, probably starting around 8:00 in the morning. Join us if you’d like. The more the merrier. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to include maps […]

Unless the current show concerns sports or politics, we typically have the shop radio tuned to WIDR. We love it. I asked the nice folks at our favorite radio station if I could give them a huge sack of money in exchange for a really cool ad. They told me that they’d create the coolest […]

To date we’ve spent a few words writing about fancy bikes, bikes that cost a pretty good chunk of change and are generally purpose-built for racing and/or going pretty fast. But we like other bikes, too. One of our favorites is the Jamis Coda. It’s a really cool bike — steel frame, good paint scheme, […]

This dang Guru Photon has been sitting here, built, in the shop for several weeks. Many are the Thursday nights (we ride on Thursdays) that I’ve thought about taking out the bike and, you know, doing some consumer research. Inevitably it’s rained or we got really busy or some horrible thing happened to prevent me […]

First, a bit more data and detail about the talk we’ve (loosely) organized with Chris Gottwald. Chris’s talk will be held in conjunction with a Trikat meeting on Tuesday, May 24th at the lovely CityScape Center in downtown Kalamazoo. Pedal and the Trikats extend an invitation to anyone who might want to attend. Chis does […]

What a marvelous time was had at the Kalamazoo Marathon today. Most of Pedal ran, but I was part of a “spirit station” on Oakland Drive at approximately mile 13.6. What fun! It was very awesome cheering as the marathon participants ran past. But I’m ahead of myself. I went to grab some Water Street […]

Through very happy circumstance, I happened to meet Chris Gottwald earlier this year. Chris is a Kalamazoo resident, a professional pilot, a former domestic pro bike racer and, by the way, a competitor in the Race Across America. And he does the latter to raise money for charity. With our Trikat friends, we’ve arranged for […]

Many, many people come in the shop to look around and check things out. Several of those people (you people?) are kind enough to wish us well and ask how things are going.   Despite the crummy weather, things are going better than expected, so we’re a tad overwhelmed right now. This post will communicate […]

WMU has a thing called “Finals Finish.” It’s held in the rec center and is a chance for students to blow off steam during finals week. Pedal was invited to attend this year, and we wanted to try something marginally more exciting and steam-blowing than a table with a bunch of crap on it. After […]

One of our favorite people came in, sat on every 29-er in the store, thought about it for a while, and said, “Gimme that steel 26-inch bike.” So we did, a Dragon Pro.

And one happy day our Photon frame showed up. Wow! We thought long and hard about the build for this bike. I’ve wanted to build a Campy bike for some time, and thought the Photon frame would be the perfect platform. It’s also a great way to show off some nice Easton carbon parts, particularly […]

Many are the days that have passed since I posted a few pics of the Guru Praemio titanium frame we received. Since then we’ve built the bike with a SRAM Red drivetrain, HED Ardennes SL wheels, a Ritchey cockpit and a Thomson seatpost. It’s a very understated, very cool bicycle that weighs just over 16 […]

As mentioned on This Very Blog at some point in the recent past, our Jamis rep abandoned a Xenith Team at Pedal. Though the weather has been cold and/or miserable, I’ve been anxious to ride this thing before he comes back to retrieve it. Probably the most distinctive thing about the Xenith Team is its […]

I was locating the greater trochanter (pointy hip bone) on a customer during a bike fit this week and couldn’t help myself.  “Are you wearing underpants under your bike shorts?” Public Service Announcement:  Don’t do that. You’re just asking for bunching, chafing and other sorts of discomfort that give biking a bad name. Forge that […]

Lovely purple things arrived at Pedal today: Nine saddles! What gives? Well, we have three road bike saddles, three mountain bike saddles and three Versus saddles.  “Versus,” you ask, “What the heck is that?” Frankly, this is about the best answer you’re gonna get:  http://www.pelotonmagazine.com/Tested-Goods/video/9/469/Fizik-Arione-VS-Video-Review A few things that the reviewer mentioned match my thinking […]

The Kalamazoo Gazette was apparently woefully lacking in actual news, so they were forced to print this. Yesterday was Pedal’s grand opening. What fun! It was terrific to see old friends and meet some new folks. Matt, our awesome Jamis rep, showed up with a couple of Jamis Team Di2 bikes and a dual-suspension 650B […]

Late breaking news:  Pedal will have a Grand Opening next Saturday. This has been on the shop calendar for about six weeks, but we’ve never really gotten around to promoting it… until now. If you have a chance, please come by and say hello. We’ll have a band (!) and some food. We’ll give away […]

We received our first display frame from Guru.  It’s a lovely titanium Praemio with a 54 cm top tube.  We’ll shortly build it up with a SRAM Red drivetrain, Easton wheels and a few other nice touches. As something of a titanium aficionado, I’m impressed so far. More words on this subject once we get […]

Even though it was sixteen degrees when I looked at the thermometer this morning, summer hours are now in effect at Pedal. We’re open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 10 to 6, Wednesday and Friday from 10-7 and Saturday from 10 to 5. Come on down and we’ll talk about the warm days that are […]

We had a customer in the shop the other day who took a look at a few of the bikes on display and said, “Woah!  This must be a place for serious cyclists.” I almost cried. While Pedal is a place for serious cyclists, it is also a place for beginning cyclists, commuters, kids, folks […]

Today was Pedal for Hope. What a marvelous event. Good energy. Very good organization. Fun instructors. And an incredibly worthy cause, the West Michigan Cancer Center. My sincere thanks to TJ for spearheading things and allowing Pedal to participate. Every last one of us has been affected by the awful thing that is cancer. If you […]

A customer came in last night and said, “You need to put some current pictures on your site. I don’t think people know that you actually have stuff.” Stuff? We have stuff. Cool stuff. And now we see how bad I am at this picture upload/format/edit thing. I ask your forbearance in advance.

Pedal is very excited to have signed up with our second bike company this week.  Guru crafts handmade, custom bicycles in Montreal, Canada.  If you’re looking for a very special triathlon/TT, road or cyclocross bike, come talk to us about Guru. For your ogling pleasure, we’ll have examples of Guru’s work in the shop soon, […]

In the event that you, gentle reader, have been having a difficult time getting to sleep, this article should do the trick. For the record, Pedal does not recommend dozing with a hot laptop in your lap. Ever. The first two bikes brought into Pedal for service had chain stretch, and both owners were moderately […]

Pedal received a letter from this guy (the one in the red coat), concerned about the lack of hup on the site.  Sorry.

It has come to my attention that Google and every other map provider has a tough time with the location of the shop. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that — for the moment — we lack signage. Why? In short words, mail hasn’t been delivered to this building since the dawn of the […]

One of the things that I treasure about Pedal is that we ride bikes. We love bikes. We’d love to help you solve your biking conundrum. Such text has been used elsewhere on this site.  Other places in the interworld say “We’re bikers!” and I wonder if that lovely slogan translates to the average dudette […]

I had a chance to ride a couple of competitor bikes when I went to Louisville this fall. Saturday I rode an aluminum 54 Specialized with Zipp 303s and a SRAM Force drivetrain.  My cross bike is a 51 Felt, so I was a bit nervous about riding a 54.  My worries were for naught […]

One of the things you can only learn from the School of Hard Knocks: If you purchase clothing before your shop is open and store said clothing at your home in the room that was once your office, there is some possibility that your dog will get into your stuff and eat the tags off […]

We lucked into a super-nice location, but a bit of construction must be done before we’re ready for operation.  Herewith pictures and, hopefully, signs of progress. Next:  pick the paint.  And the fixtures.  And every other darn thing.