The new issue of COG has plenty of Keirin heritage tribute material, for max NJS fans.
It’s interesting to me that the NJS thing caught on before public awareness of what NJS is. COG is catching English-speakers up on all that.
They seem to take a design sensibility from Japanese magazines, a great idea, I think. These are sweet mags indeed—world’s best, I’d say. …And I note plenty of kanji in their mag, too! In fact, there’s a topical summary of Japanese fine print on the back page—just like I used to have to live with a couple pages of English translation tucked into Miroir in the early 80’s. And their website is partly bilingual as well. It’s a good place to have your heart!
(Can you believe that I was bike racing before you could find out THAT MONTH what was happening/happened in the Tour de France? For the bulk of what happened in pro cycling, forget it. It wasn’t available in the USA. So I subbed to French and UK mags. Sigh. The only US mags clued us in SEVERAL months after the event. The days of ignorance. Heck, it wasn’t until the mid-80’s that a description of how to ride an echelon was put into a print diagram in the USA. It came in a secret how-to-race journal written by Thomas Prehn. BPC. Before personal computers. But I digress.)
The Six Days of Munich and such aren’t a bad place either…but do they still have these events? Either way, I bet COG gives a nod to that lore pretty darn soon. Who could resist? I might highlight Danny Clark, king of the 80’s 6-Day stars, who probably hundreds of pro wins under his mustached belt (hmm, that couldn’t work).
This issue also has an always-great story on L’Eroica, perhaps the most wonderful annual ride in the most wonderful bike countryside of Tuscany, Italy. It’s a ride that brings out the retro vintage people from around the world to ride oldstyle steeds and enjoy great food and drink. Man, oh, man!
The oversized COG has just SO MUCH editorial content that it’s hard to list it all.
Extensive profile on bike builder Circle A.
Multipage reports on messengering scenes and races from around the world, namely Chicago, Paris and London.
Portland’s new cyclocross series…got it.
Autumnal photo series of fixies in the Vermont mountains. Yes, they look out of place, but beauty is fashion no matter where you find it.
Ooh! An insider look at the Brooks factory, where stuff is as it was since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, literally. Peen those rivets!
Plus hundreds of supersnappy coggish pics.
Tell ’em OYB sent ya!
They have a first annual hardcover photo edition available now, too!
https://www.cogmag.com/
