Bike Hugger 

C’dale Evo with Hydro

To properly test the hydraulic brakes, SRAM took us on routes that climbed Mulholland Drive and descended steep, windy descents. We rode 96 miles, 6 hours, and 8K feet of climbing in 2 days. My legs are toast.

• West Lake Test Loop
• Rock Store
• Another Muhulland Climb.

The climbers rode away to put 20 minutes into us, we brought back 10 on the descent

Each of those rides is Strava’d, like to the yard, the mailbox. You’ll get the details of the road disc brakes with posts from me and Mark V on Monday.

Got a personal Red Kite Prayer this weekend

What I can tell you now I said on Twitter last night, when we got back from another Mulholland climb

A @ridecannondale Evo with Hydro is one of the hottest setups we’ve ridden; hot to a corner, light pull on the lever, out the other side.

— byron@bikehugger (@bikehugger) April 14, 2013

Their 11 speed is SRAM RED 2012 with another click, Hydro is a game changer.

A Moots Boutique

After watching powerpoints and test riding SRAM 22 and Hydro (11 speed drivetrain and hydraulic road disc brakes), we dined at Pedaler’s Fork. That’s a bike shop, restaurant, coffee roaster, Moots Boutique. But not necessarily in that order.

Serving New Belgium

It’s like the owners combined everything they’re into in one place and did it for the cycling community in Calabasas. For the foodie, the dishes are made with locally sourced, organic food, wine, and cooked by top chefs. Served by the best wait staff too and, off course, with New Belgium on tap.

Wait staff

For the bike geek, the Moots Boutique is the only one in the States and includes a wall where the bike-building process is displayed like a modern museum.

Pedaler’s Fork reminded me our trips to Moli del Mig and Zi Martino, where a retired pro made a life for himself with a bike hotel. If Pedaler’s expands, they just need a few rooms and routes to share with guests for a destination experience. It’s also a place where you can think about what to do with money in the bike industry and for the culture.

More photos on G+ and Flickr.

Video from a recent cargo bike festival in Nijmegen. The video has many oddities, curiosities, and huge bikes. Read more about the event on Bicycle Dutch.

Timless hallway in LA

The LAX hallway that looks like a hangover feels, never changes. Same hangover. Timeless. When I shared this photo, friends responded

Interesting hallway, that. When in 1st grade (1964) our class took a field trip to LAX, which then had only recently been built into more or less it’s current form. Each terminal had a version of one of these mosaics, which depict the light and weather of a 24 hour day. I think only one of these is left, and is protected by Los Angeles. Weird what you remember after almost 50 years… – Phil

and from Therese

I was in 1st grade then as well. Grew up in Westchester and that hallway at terminal 2 (not literally - my dad was the special service manager for Pan Am there). We traveled the world in and out of that terminal multiple times a year and yes Byron it is timeless. Amazing how some things stay the same and others never change. I went on to work at American Airlines ticket counter on breaks from UCLA across the terminal and yes the same wall and hall greeted me every day at work, multiple times again throughout my days of higher learning. Not sure what I learned…

On this trip, at the end of that hallway, was a shuttle to Westwood Village for SRAM 22. The media is embargoed until Monday. We’re riding, testing, and learning about SRAM’s latest road group.

In a lull after CX Worlds, me writing for Wired, and SXSW, we’ve been posting lighter than usual, less frequency and volume. We’re also working on a new project and cleaning up our site before that launches – already mentioned PSS and we switched to an ad server too.

Sushi to go

We’re not ready yet to tell you what the project is, but it’s not a Sushi Taco Truck! Far less contradictory than that and more of what we do here. To that point, as always, thanks for following us wherever you do.

We’ll have another channel soon. For now, we’re en route to California for the SRAM 22 launch, and more posts to follow.