What...

What do you ride, like, use, suggest? These are the questions that I get all day long at the shop. It's not always an easy answer. Sometimes what I like/use isn't something that the shop stocks especially if it is not a service related question. Luckily I have do the ordering for the service department so I stock it with what I like and use personally, the sales floor well that is another story. Often I what I like/use is not what the customer wants to invest on their bike, so it becomes a balancing act between what I know works well and would enhance their experience and what the customer is willing want to spend. Then there are the magazine and internet reviews - aarrrggh. I was talking tires the other day with a customer and they brought up a review on a tire and how great it was in the mud, I asked where he saw the review after he told me what the tire was my response was the reviewer had clearly not ridden "Midwest" mud, he immediately got what I was referring to and let me make a recommendation based on our local conditions.

Since the racing/riding season is just starting to bloom here in Wisconsin everyone has been prepping their machines for the coming season which often means replacing the chain.

So the $60 question - What do you ride? Wippermann.

Why you ask, well they don't spontaneously break, they last much longer than anything else I have tried, and they have a quick connector. I get to see a lot of worn and broken chains working in a bike shop the only two chains I have not personally seen brake are a Wippermann and a Campagnolo. Now don't get me wrong I am a Campy man to the core, but there is just something about the Wippermann chains that make them shift smooth, the one caveat with Wippermann is you must get the quick link going in the correct direction or it will skip in the smaller cogs after that you are golden. Yes they are expensive, but the will outlast and outperform anything from the S's and they will run oh so smooth on your Campy cassette. Don't get hung up on which model, for the record the 10sX has the best wear life, they all rock. Check them out here and buy one form your IBD.

Do your bike a favor, put on a new Wippermann this spring and enjoy the ride.