Update from the Lake Tahoe Ride
Made it to the first rest stop. Feeling strong. Switchbacks climb was not as hard as expectede, but I can clearly feel the effects of the altitude on my breathing. More to come from the road and on twitter.
No title required
Casati Photos
Every now and then a bike catches my eye and I just gotta snap a couple of shots. Luckily this owner – who was sitting right next to it – was gracious enough to allow me this indulgence.
The photos were taken at the Palo Alto Caltrain stop. I’ve also added them to the growing Bike Pictures photo archive, which you can find off of the main menu at the top.
The bike that tweets for you
Technology and bikes seem to go hand in hand a lot. It was not to long ago that I wrote about the effect of Twitter on the cycling world. Now, we’ve got a bike that can do the tweeting for you – as well as post ride stats like location, grade and more to a website. Keep reading →
Wow. That’s a lot of labels.
I’m beginning to notice that there are two schools of thought among bike manufactures on how to incorporate their names into the graphics they put on their bikes. On the one hand, you’ve got the traditionalists. The traditionalists like to put the company name on both sides of the down tube, with some sort of a logo on the front of the head tube and that’s pretty much it. On the other hand, you’ve got the folks that seemed to have watched too many nascar races and plaster the bike with as many logos as possible – usually all referencing the company that made the bike.
My biggest complaint about the “nascar-esque” group is that, on professional race cars, those logos represent the sponsors that have paid money to have their logos there. Now, given that no one else has ever chipped in money for one of my bikes, then my bikes have only one sponsor – me. So, if I wanted to really make my bike look like a race car, shouldn’t it be plastered with my name only? After all, I’m my own title sponsor – no?
MC SpandeX gets dirty
MC SpandeX has become something of a cult phenomenon among the cycling internet crowd with over 1.3 million views on YouTube. His video “Performance” is a tongue in cheek humorous rap video simultaneously poking fun at both the roadie and the fixie/urban crowd.
Now, he’s back and taking pot shots at the mountain bike scene in another video “Get Dirty”
I seem to recall reading once that MC SpandeX was actually a Cat 3 racer out of Portland, OR. However, I have not been able to find a reference to that information again.
Both videos can be found on the YouTube channel of Robin Moore, or at the website of Robin Moore Productions. Robin Moore is, in his own words:
I grew up in sunny Santa Cruz, CA, and recently moved up to the frigid Northwest. When I’m not cycling, rock climbing, and traveling around the world, I am producing/directing/editing videos.
Chrissie Wellington to make guest appearance at Tour of California time trial
Yup – you read that right. According to IronMan champion Chrissie Wellington’s blog, she has secured herself a guest slot in the time trial stage of the Amgen Tour of California to be held in LA. Very cool….
When riding through the pain ain’t a good idea
There is no denying a vein of sadomasochism in cycling. Learning to ignore – or even enjoy – pain cause by muscle fatigue is part of the allure of cycling for many. Feel the burn! It is a common mantra, and applicable here.
However, it is also important to know when to stop and listen to the pain. Being able to differentiate between discomfort cause by the natural creation of lactic acid in the muscles and pain indicating a strain or pull can be the difference between one short ride, or several weeks off of the bike.
This has become painfully clear to me (both figuratively and literaly) recently has I’ve been hit with another round of symptoms from Iliotibial Band Syndrome. In a nut shell, this is the irritation of a particular tendon that runs across the outside of your knee. During normal cycling, this tendon rubs across the knee every time the knee bends. In certain circumstances, the tendon will become inflamed and cause pain. Unfortunately, the inflammation of the tendon can actually increase the rubbing and snapping that happens due to the size increase – a kinda nasty feedback loop of sorts.
This is definitely one of those times when riding through the pain will make things worse for you – both short and long term. Aside from long term muscle building and flexibility improvements, the only relief comes from allowing the inflammation to subside. And that isn’t going to happen unless you stay off of the bike for a while.
Group Rides and Forthcoming Videos
I just found out about a blog that has been put together for the Cycle Folsom Peloton Group – the group I ride with on the weekends. It is cool to see these – as these are they types of post that I wish I was writing. However, I generally go into ultra-lazy mode after these rides and don’t do much.
I’m hoping to soon contribute some video, either here or to the Peloton group blog. Very shortly I’m going to get my self a GoPro HD Helmet Pro. This cool little camera has the hardware to mount to your helmet, handlebars, or top tube, among other places. I know the guy from Cyclelicious has used this company’s cameras for some of the video he has posted – and they look great. In fact, I’m off to REI to pick my new camera up now…
Why stop at just stealing a bike.
Apparently for some simply stealing a guys bike isn’t enough. Instead of stopping there, let’s beat him unconscious too. At least that’s what a SacBee article is reporting.
That actually raises an interesting point that has always bothered me. Historically we’ve had much higher legal penalties for stealing primary transportation – first horses and now cars. These penalties have been (and are) higher than the simple financial value of the stolen property. Why? A big reason is that stealing someone’s primary transportation can leave a person stranded in a way that can potentially be dangerous for them. Well, what about those of us that use bikes as our primary transportation? What happens when I am 30, 40, 50 miles or more from home and get my bike stolen? Where’s my “Grand Theft Bicycle” statute?
All that aside, I wish this cyclist a speedy recovery. I’m still feeling the mental effects of the theft of my bike, and I didn’t have the added insult of a physical assault to go along with it.