Upheaval

I've been doing some major restructuring lately that I haven't been sure how to discuss. I finally bought a new roadbike and have been enjoying it very much. However I do not want to write about it yet. It has made me uneasy to realise that when I buy a bike it is seen by some as a strong endorsement of the brand.As I start to take my role as reviewer more seriously, I struggle with how to avoid or at least mitigate this.There are many great bicycles out there, and the ones I buy for myself are not necessarily "better." I've toyed with the idea of not naming the manufacturers of my personal bikes from this point forward, but that would introduce logistic difficulties that would border on absurdity. So I won't go that route. But I do think it's unfair to feature my brand new roadbike here while still in the grips of new bike bliss. I will wait to write about it until I am able to do so dispassionately.



Another big change, is that we now own a couple of folding bikes, which we've been riding for transportationalmost exclusively. It is impossible to hide the brand, because of its very recognisable silhouette, and you will be seeing more and more pictures of them soon. The folding bikes were the Co-Habitant's idea and have been for years. And while I was not entirely on board at first, since owning mine I've changed my mind. The bike works for me, and I am especially excited to be taking it along on an upcoming trip.



In parallel to these purchases, I've been selling off most of my other bicycles. Aside from the financial necessity of selling bikes when new ones are acquired, it is clear that increasingly I am focused on long-term reviews of loaner bikes and on design projects (I've got two going on behind the scenes at the moment). There seem to be always bikes in my tiny apartment that do not belong to me, and so it makes sense to get my personal bicycles down to a minimum.



As someone who is both the author of a moderately known bicycle blog and a real-life person, I feel the need to be transparent about these sorts of things, but I also want to retain some privacy, which I hope is understandable.It's a very personal thing, to buy or sell a bicycle. I am looking forward to writing about new projects soon, and to posting lots of detailed reviews this summer.