Welcome to the first-of-its-kind Cyclingnews Awards Week. This week, from the 17th to the 23rd of July, we will be crowning the best products, borne out of countless hours of using, researching, and testing thousands of pieces of cycling tech in a whole host of categories.
I am Josh, the Tech Editor here. I joined Cyclingnews in 2019 following five years working in a bike shop and more than a decade racing road bikes, mountain bikes and CX. I'm ably assisted by Will Jones and Tom Wieckowski, who have also been riding, racing, and nerding out over bikes since their own respective youths. We also have Josh Ross over in the USA, who spends his days poring over the details of everything he tests, unafraid to question the claims of marketers worldwide.
Our everyday goal in our roles (i.e. our "editorial content strategy") is simple: To help you, our readers, choose the right products at the best price available, within categories you're already looking to buy. We're not here to force you to buy anything you don't need, and we're not here to share products we wouldn't use ourselves. Like many of our competitors, we monetise this content via affiliate marketing, but our recommendations are, and always will be, resolutely independent from this and any other paid advertisement. Thankfully, our bosses (Future Publishing) have commercial teams that handle all of that, while we get to focus on the editorial fun stuff.
Our strategy is anchored by our hundreds of buyer's guides, which primarily capture Google searches for queries like "what are the best…XYZ?". That XYZ could be anything from 'cycling shoes' and 'road bikes' to 'bike computers' or 'winter socks'; wherever there's interest, we put our focus on finding the best product in that category.
The strategy also extends to covering deal events such as Prime Day and Black Friday, where our focus shifts towards finding the best price for products we rate.
This week, the strategy finds a new outlet: Awards! Here, we will be taking time to call out not only a selection of great products within a category but our absolute top picks. For most categories, we've adopted a structure of awarding the 'best overall,' the 'best value,' and where we feel it's applicable, an 'honourable mention.'
In addition, we have specifically back-to-back field-tested two groups of bikes, road and gravel, with a price limit set at £4,000 (or equivalent in dollars and euros). The results of those tests, along with the two-dozen other categories we've covered via more long-term ongoing testing, will be published in no particular order from today (Monday) until Friday.
To a large extent, the criteria for each award are variable. Of course, there are objective tests and comparisons that we can make within most categories, such as weight, but as you'll be well aware, testing a track pump requires different criteria to helmets, shoes, bikes, and so on.
It's also worth noting that our subjective opinions will form part of the equation too. In some cases with these awards, the 'best overall' will simply be the one that, after testing 20 products within a category, we pick up on our way out the door for a ride. Or it might be that the 'best overall' is an easy winner on paper, backed up by our own testing, of course, and therefore is the clear winner, but maybe based on some intangible quality, or the way it fits, looks, feels or functions, we personally prefer another. Or in other cases, we might really want to celebrate the way a different product has challenged the status quo. These are instances where the 'honourable mention' would come into play.
Hopefully, that's all relatively clear. If it isn't, it should become so as the week progresses and our first few winners are crowned.
If you disagree with our takes, don't be shy, we're an open book and we're always happy to discuss. If we've not tested a product that you love, or if we've not tackled a category in which you're trying to buy, let us know! We're always working on the next piece of buying advice.
Award Winners
As and when we announce the products that we think worthy of an award we will add them to the list below, so check back as the week progresses to find more winners.
