Riding a bike is transformative. That feeling of earthbound flying. The sensation of gracefully gliding across the Earth. That zen-like moment of flow. The elusive symbiosis of person and machine, operating as one for a singular purpose.
One of the things that makes cycling so special is precisely that unusual union of human and mechanical, and it’s why the tech aspect of our funny little sport is so fundamental. Your legs and lungs provide the propulsion, but it’s the machine that transforms that energy into motion – or squanders it.
That’s where we come in.
We’re not going to pretend that bikes can be the difference between a world-class performance and one that’s merely average. But even the best pro racer on a world-class machine that’s optimally tuned will beat an identical pro racer on a clapped-out hoopty (all else being equal, of course; don’t @ us).
Gear can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing, but it can also be the difference between a magical day out and a disastrous one. The difference between coming home feeling energized and alive, and feeling shattered and spent. The difference between a bike that fulfills its purpose vs one that falls well short of the desired utility.
We’re here to help guide you to make more informed purchasing decisions – not so you end up with more stuff, but so you end up with the right stuff. The stuff that moves the needle. The stuff that will enhance your experience on a bike. The stuff that brings a smile to your face. The stuff that gets it done. The stuff you won’t wake up to the next morning and wish you hadn’t spent your hard-earned money on.
So what exactly does that look like?
We aim to be a reliable source about whatever bike tech is worth talking about. We’ll offer in-depth product reviews based on decades of collective experience and qualitative testing (and even quantitative testing when possible). We’ll cover whatever tech topics our community finds exciting and worth talking about – and, occasionally, topics nobody else is talking about, but we still deem interesting. And we’ll strive to bring critical thinking to current and emerging trends.
Our goal is to praise and raise awareness for products that promote good – whether that’s money saved, reliability improvements, accessibility and ease of use for all, more enjoyment on your ride, or, if applicable, a meaningful step forward in performance. Perhaps more importantly, we want our objective and independent voice to be something that both consumers and brands grow to trust and, through that, one that can inform good purchases and push brands toward making better products.
We’re also here to help you fix and tune the stuff you already have so it works as well as it should, and lasts as long as it should – so when you’ve decided you’re finally done with it, it can be passed on to someone else and bring them just as much joy as it did for you.
We pledge to guide you on that journey truthfully and knowledgeably, leaning on our collective decades of experience and wisdom so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes we did.
What we’re not here to do is try to get you to buy more stuff just for the sake of it. In fact, we’ll often tell you not to buy something, particularly if we don’t think it’s a worthy product. We’re not here to shill, and we won’t be choosing to cover products based on who’s offering us affiliate revenue or brings us the most ad clicks. And we certainly won’t be covering certain products because some brand asked us to.
Since Escape Collective is a member-driven and employee-owned organization, the simple truth is that, by definition, we answer to no one but you.
We’ll ask the questions that need to be asked, and say the things that need to be said. If we don’t know, we’ll say so – and then we’ll do whatever we can to find out. And if we do have the answer, we’ll always share that information. You already know who we are, so hopefully this isn’t something we need to prove to you all over again.
People are the athletes here; no one can deny that. But to pretend the bike doesn’t also matter is to willfully ignore reality.
Ride.
Train.
Race.
Learn.
Smile.
Enjoy.
Live.
Do all the things to make yourself a better cyclist. But let’s make sure that bike of yours is how it should be, too, eh?
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