Understanding Cycling Through Practice: Everything is Connected
Tekné is an ancient Greek concept describing knowledge gained through making, doing, and experience.
Tekne Cycling is where I document and share what I learn through riding, experimentation, field testing, product evaluation, and writing. Whether exploring remote routes, testing equipment, developing products through Matter Lab, or analyzing complex cycling systems, the goal is the same: to better understand the relationships between riders, equipment, behaviour, and environment, and share learnings with the cycling community and industry.
Collective Excellence
Journal
Long-form writing, analysis, field notes, and technical investigations.
Ride Guides
Routes, travel reports, and lessons learned from the road and trail.
MATTER LAB
Product testing, development, prototyping, and small-scale manufacturing.
Work with Tekne
Product testing, technical storytelling, and development feedback.
Featured Posts
ALL POSTS
Field Notes: The ‘Secret Gravel Stelvio’
This post was inspired by the mismatch between perception of the gravel Stelvio route - also referred to as ‘the fourth way’ - based on a popular summer 2025 GCN video, and the actual experience of riding it. This is at once a cautionary tale and a valorization of the route. The last thing I or anyone would want is for a novice gravel rider to take on the route and fall off a cliff.
Venice - Verona by Way of Mountains
The second explosion sounds louder than the first, probably because I’m conscious from the go this time. What time? 05:00. What is going on here? I feel fairly certain that was some sort of cannon, and wow, did it ever pack a concussive punch. It didn’t go off in Mals, I’m pretty sure; somewhere else in the valley. An avalanche cannon? If so, why, it’s August. There’s no snow around here.
Implementation: Custom T-Lab X3 #dropbarbraap
The final piece in a series of deep-dives into my titanium dream bike, T-Lab’s X3. Fully custom designed and built to thrive across a broad range of riding conditions, my build biases toward reliability under heavy and frequent use in harsh environments.
Grinduro Canada: The Mind-Body-Bike Trifecta
Here’s the thing. GRINDURO is not ‘gravel.’ ‘Gravel’ is not a thing. It’s also not nothing.
GENESIS of a Modern Gravel Dreambike
The first in a three-part series on the process of designing a dream gravel bike, this piece walks through the way I conceived my custom T-Lab X3 modern gravel bike build. This is a principles-based approach, which is meant to support decision making that lands riders on bikes they love.
Appeal to the stone
Smooth surfaces, in the form of narratives and infrastructure, gloss the past and physical spaces that constitute each of our realities.
Understanding the Cyborg Cyclist
In cycling, technologies that quantify performance have supplanted keen attention to sensations, yielding what has been referred to as a ‘robotic’ riding and racing. Honestly, it makes me cringe a bit whenever I hear riders say: ‘The numbers were good.’
MATTER OF FACT: Gravel Bike Frame Materials
“What frame material should I focus on for a gravel bike?”
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3 days, 3 riders, and a loop around Parc Mont Tremblant connecting Rouge Matawin Wildlife Reserve and ZEC des Nymphes. Here’s what we learned about surface conditions, campsite availability, water filtration, and wheel setups.