James Huang's new substack

[Nohands83]

Great to see you back in the game James. I've just subscribed/subbed now.

I do enjoy most of what Escape is doing but your contribution has been missed!

Discord is a massive turn-off for me as well, I can imagine it probably works OK for quick interactions but I really don't think it works well as a forum.

[warthog101]

Thanks! I need to think about how I cover road bikes and gear. The sad fact of the matter is that while I stil enjoy riding on the road, I do it far, far less than I used to – mostly because I don't exactly love the idea of not knowing for certain if I'm actually going to make it back home in one piece when I roll out of the garage. It's a huge reason – maybe the biggest reason – why gravel riding has grown so popular in the US, and one that's hard to argue with.

Well said
Applicable here too. Middle of the day on quiet roads is my solution.

[spartan]

well i see James posted first review up. review of the MS Sword groupset. great work.

question for James why has EscapeCollective not done any reviews of chinese brands. brands like ExsCycling/Winspace/Cybrei/Farsports/LightBicycle are leading edge yet the mainstream media ignore them. Consumers need to depend on youtube influencers for reviews. EC claim to be 100% indepedent but they only review products from western brands.

[angryasian]

well i see James posted first review up. review of the MS Sword groupset. great work.

question for James why has EscapeCollective not done any reviews of chinese brands. brands like ExsCycling/Winspace/Cybrei/Farsports/LightBicycle are leading edge yet the mainstream media ignore them. Consumers need to depend on youtube influencers for reviews. EC claim to be 100% indepedent but they only review products from western brands.

Thanks for the kind words!

FYI, I have a Wheeltop EDS TX wireless group in for review, too.

[robo]

Echo others comments re supporting more of James's content - will subscribe to your substack James!

I'm a founding member of EC and don't think I'll renew my membership due to recent content and the new contributors not seeming to align with what I valued when EC first set up (and the best of pre-takeover CT).

[spartan]

100% agree. the problem with the tech staff at Escape Collective is their loyalty to the traditional western brands. the biggest trends the last 3 years and ZERO
coverage/reviews from David Rome's staff

explosion of china brands 1200-1300 gm aero carbon wheelsets. no reviews have been done on EC.
new brands like Seka/Tavelo etc no coverage nada
new china groupsets EDS/LTWOO no reviews

Echo others comments re supporting more of James's content - will subscribe to your substack James!

I'm a founding member of EC and don't think I'll renew my membership due to recent content and the new contributors not seeming to align with what I valued when EC first set up (and the best of pre-takeover CT).

[raisinberry777]

There might be some reasons behind that. I could be wrong, but I'm sure I remember James Huang mentioning that he had a L-Twoo electronic groupset in for testing (I think in the very early Escape Collective days) but we never heard anything more of it.

[angryasian]

I don't remember ever having an L-Twoo electronic groupset inbound, but I may have said something about *wanting* to bring one in after my experience on that otherwise terrible Superstrata.

Regarding Chinese brands in general, though, I should point out that oftentimes the issue isn't an inherent bias on the part of the publication or editor. Many of those brands can just be pretty hard to reach in terms of media relations stuff, and given the influencer model many of them also utilize at the moment, there's not a lot of incentive to send samples out to media if/when there's less of a guarantee for positive coverage.

All that said, I really need to finish this Wheeltop review!

[gloscherrybomb]

100% agree. the problem with the tech staff at Escape Collective is their loyalty to the traditional western brands. the biggest trends the last 3 years and ZERO
coverage/reviews from David Rome's staff

explosion of china brands 1200-1300 gm aero carbon wheelsets. no reviews have been done on EC.
new brands like Seka/Tavelo etc no coverage nada
new china groupsets EDS/LTWOO no reviews

Echo others comments re supporting more of James's content - will subscribe to your substack James!

I'm a founding member of EC and don't think I'll renew my membership due to recent content and the new contributors not seeming to align with what I valued when EC first set up (and the best of pre-takeover CT).

There's probably also a question as to whether we really exist in a pretty small bubble here on the WW forum, and therefore the market for such content is small. I do think some of the wheel stuff in particular in the mainstream media is hilarious:

"Check out this amazing wheelset with 23mm internals 50mm/50mm 1350g, $3500"

[glepore]

Lots of folks want to hear from you on the Wheeltop. Me, I want to hear about pizza...steel or stone etc.

[rollinslow]

No ideas, although I am thinking of cancelling my subscription as it has gone off in strange directions recently into a long form Rouleur style journalism world.

I am really only still a subscriber to Escape for Dave Rome and Ronan McLaughlin contributions. The rest is not so good.

I somehow missed this thread back in October but stumbled on the sub-stack. Good to see James back as I appreciated his thoroughness and objectivity.

I did cancel my Escape CC and had my name taken off their founders wall a while back. I found it to be a toxic environment and way too much "eat the rich" hypocrisy for me to stomach anymore. Just read the comment sections of articles. The F1 article was it for me (and I have zero interest in car racing). I went the other day to look at the site (been months) and the top comments are about Colnago's pricing of clothing not meeting socialist standards. Unfortunately, cycling as a sport does not meet those standards hence the hypocrisy.

[Nickldn]

No ideas, although I am thinking of cancelling my subscription as it has gone off in strange directions recently into a long form Rouleur style journalism world.

I am really only still a subscriber to Escape for Dave Rome and Ronan McLaughlin contributions. The rest is not so good.

I somehow missed this thread back in October but stumbled on the sub-stack. Good to see James back as I appreciated his thoroughness and objectivity.

I did cancel my Escape CC and had my name taken off their founders wall a while back. I found it to be a toxic environment and way too much "eat the rich" hypocrisy for me to stomach anymore. Just read the comment sections of articles. The F1 article was it for me (and I have zero interest in car racing). I went the other day to look at the site (been months) and the top comments are about Colnago's pricing of clothing not meeting socialist standards. Unfortunately, cycling as a sport does not meet those standards hence the hypocrisy.

Look, from an ESG perspective we're hypocrites really with our unrecyclable carbon frames and wheels. I bet our high performance low RR tyres cause lots of environmental damage too. I also agree with criticism of Colango/UAE Team, it may not benot healthy for the cycling industry to be associated with ultra wealth.

Perhaps the cycling industry press should consider where to draw the line?

[rollinslow]

No ideas, although I am thinking of cancelling my subscription as it has gone off in strange directions recently into a long form Rouleur style journalism world.

I am really only still a subscriber to Escape for Dave Rome and Ronan McLaughlin contributions. The rest is not so good.

I somehow missed this thread back in October but stumbled on the sub-stack. Good to see James back as I appreciated his thoroughness and objectivity.

I did cancel my Escape CC and had my name taken off their founders wall a while back. I found it to be a toxic environment and way too much "eat the rich" hypocrisy for me to stomach anymore. Just read the comment sections of articles. The F1 article was it for me (and I have zero interest in car racing). I went the other day to look at the site (been months) and the top comments are about Colnago's pricing of clothing not meeting socialist standards. Unfortunately, cycling as a sport does not meet those standards hence the hypocrisy.

Look, from an ESG perspective we're hypocrites really with our unrecyclable carbon frames and wheels. I bet our high performance low RR tyres cause lots of environmental damage too. I also agree with criticism of Colango/UAE Team, it may not benot healthy for the cycling industry to be associated with ultra wealth.

Perhaps the cycling industry press should consider where to draw the line?

Yeah, I largely agree. Don't get me started on Colnago as a brand since acquisition by the UAE private equity. I was more along the lines of what you pointed out. The whole thing is hypocritical and I felt the Escape CC team and many of the members felt they were somehow above this.

Anyway, not sure why James ultimately left but I went to Velo now which I thought I would never do the way Cycling Tips imploded.

[spud]

I did cancel my Escape CC and had my name taken off their founders wall a while back. I found it to be a toxic environment and way too much "eat the rich" hypocrisy for me to stomach anymore. Just read the comment sections of articles. The F1 article was it for me (and I have zero interest in car racing). I went the other day to look at the site (been months) and the top comments are about Colnago's pricing of clothing not meeting socialist standards. Unfortunately, cycling as a sport does not meet those standards hence the hypocrisy.
[/quote]

Instant deal breaker. Some of these people act like 1) there's no used equipment market 2) no value brands available 3) there's some kind of exorbitant admission/membership fee to ride a bike. Miserable people like to spread the misery.

[kode54]

I haven't cancelled my Escape CC subscription yet, since I really enjoy Dave Rome's tool reviews on Threaded. Once he goes, my subscription will as well. I plan to sign up on James' substack to support him in his endeavors.