Along with building up Cross bikes this week, Mark V took an inventory of the rain bike wheels that needed replacing and/or rebuilding. None looked as bad at this one, which by all accounts is legendary. Like how did it not explode and cause a bad crash. And yes disc brake fanbois, your wheels don’t need replacing. Check your pads though as I’ve seen you lose control when they wear.
Uploaded by Cycling Northwest | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Rob Anderson tipped us to Mark Ronson’s Bike Song — we’d loop that all day in a bike shop
along with Pee Wee at Sturgis.
This photo of a Joint Hedgerow Maneuver with Teammates Signaling the Achievement was found in an archive at a local library and depicts a technique we’ve had stashed in the Vault of Cross Knowledge, alongside Ocean Runups and Baryshnikov over the Barriers.
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
You may have noticed the bussle of Cross posts, tweets, and statuses. We’re back racing this season after spending last Fall riding the Mobile Social Worldwide. We’re training now in our neighbors hedgerows, at local parks, and running up stadium steps.
Our Season started at Kruger’s Kermesse — a dirt crit in Portland that has no barriers or runups, but a huge turnout and fun, fast course.
Mark V received this complimentary gift in his race. We’re not sure how it went down. What we know is I heard the Emcee call for “friends of Mark V” to the registration tent to tend to him. He got his bell rung, ticket punched, and learned about avoiding the potholes on a hardtail with 700c wheels.
He’s ok and back at it. Said some really funny things with a concussion too. Oddly his embrocation reeks of alchohol. Will inquire about that later.
... Read more »When Light & Motion offered to send me a prototype of the VIS 360 "commuter" headlight, I didn't think I could possibly become so smitten with such an innocuous seeming bit of gear.
The $169 VIS 360 is a winner in almost every single way (save one, which I'll get to in a moment) and is now a permanent resident on my helmet as fall creeps ever closer.
The VIS 360 is a rechargeable system with an unbelievably bright front light, side "markers" (lights that don't flash) and a rear 4-lumen tail light.
My main headlight is a NightRider Pro 1400 LED, a dual-beam system that throws 1400 lumens at full power. The VIS 360 creates a beam that (thanks to the greater concentration of focus) appears brighter than the NightRider. While I wouldn't use it as a rgular light for riding without streetlights—something I do with the Nightrider (and for the record not something the VIS is designed to do) it's a superb light for the commuter, especially to fill in the dark patches and times when other lights fail.
As an example, I recently was doing an impromptu night ride when my NightRider, which I had been riding all week without recharging, gave up the ghost. I was able to ride home with the VIS 360 and felt comfortable the whole way. It's also a great light for grabbing the attention of drivers. When I have a brighter light on my helmet and I turn to look at an approaching car, I often run the risk of blinding the driver. The VIS is bright enough to catch their eye but not bright enough to put that eye out of commission.
The rear flashing light isn't the brightest light I own (that award goes to either the VIS 180, also by Light & Motion or the hellishly-bright Planet bike flashers I own) but it is more than sufficiently bright to be seen for great distances. Be aware that since the light is mounted to the helmet it shouldn't be the only rear light—look left or right and you'll turn the light away from cars behind you.
Of course nothing's perfect and in the case of the VIS 360 there's one little issue that irritates me. The light is designed to be charged over USB instead of with an accessory adapter (yay!) which means that it's possible to ride to work and plug the VIS in to one's desktop to juice up for the ride home. The charging jack is the less-common Micro USB cable, not the standard Mini-USB found so ubiquitously on so many products. When I asked the company about this they said that the Micro USB is more common "on 2010 cell phones." That might be the case, but anyone who uses an iPhone or an older phone won't have this cable and anyone with one of these phones will likely be using the cable to charge their phone.
It also means that anyone who loses the Micro USB cable or forgets it at home can't just grab one of the common Mini USB cables found on other phones, card readers, hubs, cameras, video cameras, hard drives and any of the other thousands of items with a Mini USB cable.
That aside the VIS 360 is a praise-worthy light that won't let you down and more than lives up to the company's claims.
America has a problem. Our citizens are overweight and lazy. Most of our trips, and more specifically most of our trips under five miles are made by auto.
For a variety of reasons it is either impractical or impossible to perform a number of tasks via bicycle. Some of this has to do with infrastructure, some with society and some with bicycles.
While countries like the Netherlands and Denmark have great cargo-carrying bikes, they largely have not hit our shores. Personally I think that Americans aren’t partial to the Amish-black color that these bikes come in.
Biomega and Puma’s long-term collaboration has resulted in a new approach to the U.S. cargo bike market. The new “fashionable” cargo bike reminds me a bit of the 1980’s mountain bike scene (right down to the Judy-yellow color on the fork) but it might just solve a problem—if you can get past the name..
The Mopion (sounds like a Volkswaggen moped) is an aluminum cargo bike that weighs in at a mere 50 pounds, and is available in more traditional colors like white and black as well as this eye-grabbing color scheme.
I’m looking forward to trying this bike out, as my current cargo-carrying solutions tend to feel a bit awkward and unsteady. I’ve ridden the fietbikes that these are based on in Amsterdam and the small front pivot wheel makes them a tad bit faster to navigate than what I ride currently.
This bike might not solve the urban cargo problem, but it’s a start, and it’s a much-needed one if we’re ever going to get our cities to look more like Copenhagen than like Newark.
Polar and Look have worked together to announce a new Power meter that measures wattage at the pedal and speaks with the Polar head unit. From what I can tell, it’s not ANT+ (sad), but they we should hear more as it’s formally announced at Eurobike. It seems that these two big companies may get to market before Metrigear that was the talk of Interbike for 2009.
That’s Julie with her Schwinn Cream. She was on Martha Stewart one time, and she loves bicycle style.
Uploaded by Dmitry Gudkov | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
I’ve often wished I could think of a way to tell motorists what I’m thinking, but I hadn’t really come up with the idea of doing a custom jersey to do it. The cyclists over at ShareTheDamnRoad.com did it for me. Now the question is—which one do I buy?
My introduction to the sport and the bike — before urban, fixed, or cargo — was with Lemond and Fignon. Hinault, Merckx, Indurain, Mussewu, and Rominger.
Photo: unknown
That’s when the sport seemed far away in Europe and otherworldly to someone that rode his Fisher Paragon in the Eastern Washington shrub steppe desert. Theirs were names told in stories of epic heroism on roads in France. I studied them, watched grainy videos recorded from Satellite TV and learned to ride road. Fell of rollers in the back of a bike shop, read Eddie B’s eat horse-meat book, and was thrilled to get even an hour of Tour coverage on ABC with ridiculous commentary from Adrian Karsten.
Like other mountain bikers, I wanted to get faster by spending more time on the road. This was when the American sport of mountain bike racing was getting overrun by World Cup-class Europeans who were fitter, thinner, and faster. Everyone was turning to road and riding bikes like the carbon-tubed Epic Allez or picture-perfect painted Colnagos, and fishing-lure-green Treks.
The story of a coke-can shimmed Aero Bar, invented by a Triathlete, WWII vet in Idaho was marvelous. Later came the Americanization of the Sport with Lance Armstrong.
What a rich history and dark side this sport has had in the 20 odd years I’ve been into it.
Fignon was many things, a complex character, a true Frenchman and a champion. He blamed his cancer on the dope he took and maybe his death will signal a turning point in this decades-old battle with the two speeds in the peloton. I expect other old pros are wondering about what they did to their bodies. Time for them to come clean too.
Photo: Sirotti via Cyclingnews
RIP Laurent. Today you’re trending on Twitter. I’ll remember you for the wins, the 8 seconds, and the courage it took for you to tell us you doped.
In another time, you were Young and Carefree.
Photo uploaded by BeWePa.
The gadget and design blogs posted on Redfish Creative’s Bicycle Speedometer concept over the weekend and whether or not the idea actually goes into production, it demontrates how the electronic accessories market hasn’t caught up to the urban aesthetic.
Image: Redfish
Leather, stainless, automotive style dials with click counters to replace the boring LEDs we use now? Sure and we’d welcome that because what we’re using is based on late 90s designs from Avocet, Cateye et al. Sure we’ve got power, heart rate, and more but the bicycle computer is essentially the same.
Photo: Wikipedia
Extend that to lights and a family of products that would match your bespoke bike and maybe you’re onto something. What have we seen in updated accessories with a modern design aesthetic besides:
If not the Porsche design studio style, could go to a Steampunky Home Depot DIY vibe with galvanized pipe and PVC or use your phone that talks to a sensor.
What would a redesigned bicycle computer look like to you?
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