Reviewed By Bill Bryant
Back in February of 2003 American Randonneur reviewed Vintage Bicycle Quarterly, then a promising new magazine dedicated to our favorite sport. In the intervening years the magazine has only grown better.
Recently "vintage" was dropped from the name and now Bicycle Quarterly includes more modern bicycles and cycling than before. RUSA member and veteran randonneur Jan Heine has spent a lot of time and energy developing his publication and expanding its content.
It has been a worthwhile pursuit. Now (along with American Randonneur, of course), it is one of the very best cycling periodicals available—period. BQ lacks the usual advertising-driven hype, bombast, and nonsense that fills so many other cycling magazines these days. Instead, it has lots of factual information, useful advice, cycling history, and well-conducted equipment tests that all of us can learn from. BQ features real-world bicycles that regular riders like you and I might be interested in using on our brevets, tours, or while commuting to and from work or running errands.
Heine has also made in-depth explorations of topics like the rolling resistance of various bicycle tires and bicycle steering—vital matters given scant attention elsewhere in the American cycling press.
For RUSA members, much of the BQ content is aimed squarely at randonneuring, and we have a lot to gain by reading its pages. BQ's on-going "Randonneuring Basics" is first-rate advice that any newcomer to our sport would appreciate, while articles on how to carry a load effectively will help randonneurs and randonneuses adapt their machines so that they don't lack the various layers of clothes and other items we need to cover the long distances common to our particular form of self-sufficient endurance cycling. I've also enjoyed the series entitled the "Builders Speak", wherein accomplished frame-builders are invited to explain and illustrate how they ply their craft.
This short space won't allow a fuller listing of its contents, but it is all Good Stuff and I recommend Bicycle Quarterly highly.
More information can be found at: www.vintagebicyclepress.com.