Crashing a bike that’s not yours

My kid is always appalled when I say, “But, don’t worry, the bike’s OK,” after I come home from a ride scratched up. The kid is perpetually annoyed by this routine that I, that many of us, perform: after a crash, we show more concern about our bikes than ourselves. My child, ever the sensible one with a strong sense of right and wrong (which I love about them), is repelled by the idea of putting the well-being of an object above that of a person. Of course, there’s no arguing that a person is more important than a bike, but the reversal is what makes the dark humour work when a rider says, “I have Tegaderm on my hip, but the bike’s OK.”

But, holy cow, crashing a bike can be stressful, especially when it’s not yours.

I appreciate every person who’s ever sent Canadian Cycling Magazine a bike to test, and who will do so in the future, whether directly to me or to any other of the magazine’s reviewers. That person trusts us with a machine that’s valued at thousands of dollars. In 2024, for the first time, I was swapping between two bikes that were each more than $20,000. While my reviewers and I all look at test bikes dispassionately and critically, we all respect the machines, and time and work that goes into creating them. All these factors make a test-bike crash so fraught.

Once, when I pulled a test bike out of its box, I noticed a chip on the top tube. It came pre-nicked, if you will. I snapped a photo of it and sent it to the brand. The response: “Thanks for the heads-up on the ding. A clear sign of a marketing demo. Hahaha.” (That is the exact quote. I pasted it from the original email.) Clearly, many brands, especially the bigger ones, are prepared to see some wear and scuffs on their test bikes. But smaller outfits, or lone Canadian reps, can’t afford to have their bikes bashed up.

“Thanks for the heads-up on the ding. A clear sign of a marketing demo. Hahaha.”

This past summer, I crashed while riding one of the bikes that’s in this issue’s buyer’s guide. I was on a local trail. Everything was overgrown; grass and weeds covered the singletrack. I hit a deep wheel-stopping hole. In an instant, I was on the ground. It was so fast and so hard that I actually didn’t worry about the bike at first. The split-second diagnostics went from head (concussion? don’t think so, but monitor), to body (anything broken? bleeding? nope) to bike (as soon as I can get up, I’ll check). I collected myself, and then the machine. Oh, yes! Not a scratch. Even better—there was no concussion. I thanked the Ekoi Stradale helmet for its service. I was so rattled, though, that I never made any jokes about that crash with my kid.

This issue’s buyer’s guide is an annual tradition. It lands just as the outdoor riding season gets going in some parts of the country and is tantalizingly close to starting in others. For me, its release means it’s now time to start testing bikes on roads and trails. Testing diligently, and making sure everything is OK.

Matthew Pioro

Editor

On the Cover

The Trek Madone SLR 9 is the latest top-end road racing machine by the Waterloo, Wisc.-based company. The eighth-generation of Trek’s aero bike keeps the wind-cheating abilities of the previous model, while sporting a similar weight to the company’s old climbing bike, Émonda. In fact, with the release of this Madone, the carbon-fibre Émonda line came to an end. The bike on our cover not only features Trek’s premium composite formula, 900 Series OCLV Carbon, but its top-of-the-line paint. Here, you see the shiny Icon Interstellar finish. Find out more about the dream machine.

Photo: Matt Stetson