RoadRash

Salzburg, Austria home of “The Sound of Music” and Mozart. This Alpine city is filled with shops serving coffee, gelato, and giant slices of apple strudel. It also has a convenient cycling path that cuts through the heart of the city. I recently joined a friend on a 48-hour layover in Salzburg where we fit in a nice cycling tour of the city. It was March and the mountains were still white with snow but the temperatures in the city were still pleasant enough to ride a bike and work up a sweat. After a quick search on google we found a bike shop called aVelo that had a decent selection of city, road, and gravel bikes. We rented a pair of gravel bikes, and we sat off the see the city. Our first stop was the Red Bull Hangar-7, a museum showcasing a historical of airplanes, helicopters, and other Red Bull sponsored vehicles such as jet packs and Formula 1 cars. This museum is also home to a coffee shop and restaurant. We also stopped for a tour of the most iconic structure in Salzburg...

Buying a new bike is not as straightforward as you may think. At least, it wasn't for me. In this post I'll offer some advice and antidotes to help you avoid making the same mistakes I did.  I grew up in a small town with gravel and dirt roads. With exception to the occasional Bike Across Kansas event, there wasn't a road bike within 50 miles. My first bike was a blue single speed bike shaped object (BSO) with knobby wheels, a banana seat, an orange flag on a five foot pole, and a chrome shock bolted to the frame that served no function other than looking awesome. This bike was built like a Sherman tank, and it weight almost as much. At some point I outgrew this bike and moved on to a Huffy Mountain bike. During my first year of college that bike was stolen so I purchased a new Giant mountain bike from a local bike shop. My riding experience was limited but I did ride on local trails and even went mountain biking in Switzerland once. So, when I needed a bike for my first ...