Caught on a bike in SLC: Brian Bernard

You might be intimidated by Brian's stature when you first meet him. At 6'6" Brian and his burly beard command attention, till you hear him laugh and he flashes a you a boyish grin. Brian's bicycle and history knowledge is top notch; which means chances are he knows a lot more about the Versailles treaty and who won the 1988 Giro d'Italia than you do. Meet Brian; a vegan, mountain biking enthusiast, and savvy wordsmith.


Name: Brian Bernard

Age: 27

Hometown: The Western half of America. I have lived in Nevada and Washington, but I have been in Utah for 15 years

Number of years in Salt Lake: Nine

Occupation: Managing editor at Backcountry.com/ Competitivecyclist.com

Number of bikes you own: I have three and my wife owns three. My favorites are my Salsa Mamasita and my All City Mr. Pink.



Favorite places to ride: Mountain biking; Mountain from Deer Valley to the Crest  and down Emigration Canyon. For road; Emigration Canyon Rim loop.

Favorite Restaurant: Chanon Thai

Favorite bike accessory: For mountain biking; my Ergon BC3 Pack. For road; Portland Design Works Magic Flute Pump

Most embarrassing cycling story: Installing the press fit bottom bracket on my Mamasita. I put it together wrong, twice. Pretty sure the plastic sleeve detached from the rest of the body and is permanently in there.

Improvements that could be made to ease cycling SLC: Honestly, street sweeping. If they just swept the roads more it would be great. There is month of road debris in the bike lanes and roads. 

Advice to new cyclists: Just ride more,it all boils down to that. If you want to feel comfortable riding your bike in traffic, do it more. If you want to feel comfortable riding a road bike, ride more. If you want to get better at descending on a mountain bike, do it more. Ride a lot of different bikes too.

Hopes and dreams for cycling: I want to be able to keep on riding forever, whatever that means. I want to be riding when I am old.

As for my hopes and dreams for cycling as a whole; we need to stop trying to be Amsterdam. Not all of our cities were made for cycling. We need a balance between the sport side and the utility side of cycling.

My hopes and dreams for Salt Lake are; it needs to be less hot in the summer and less cold in the winter. (joking) The city needs to plow closer to the shoulder in the winter so more people can commute by bike. I feel more comfortable on my bike in the snow than I do in my car most of the time.

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