Bike Hugger 

We’re proud to announce the birth of our newest baby Snow Hugger. Manned by me, Snow Hugger is Bike Hugger’s colder, more mountainous cousin: a blog for ski and snowboard enthusiasts.

I’ll be enlisting some of my fellow aficionados to help me post from ski shows, demo equipment, and try out the slopes. We’re going to share our tips, hacks, and experiences, and if you’re a skiing, snowboarder, or other snow enthusiast, we want to hear yours.

Oh, and Byron has promised to own the snow tube beat.

A Pez-Fan was either ahead, behind us, or nearby in Girona! Check Thom Fox’s report on his rides in Girona, the food, and more. Tom stayed at BeauneImports and hooked up with BikeCat. A few miles away, we stayed at the Moli de Mig and rode with maps provided by Cicloturisme.

Read more about our trip and see the photos. We agreed with Tom, Girona is cycling nirvana.

new CERES bike dome, by snorrrlax.

Here’s another, wider shot. Also, here’s more on CERES, Melbourne’s Center for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies.

Pam was checking out the NYC marathon and noticed that Lance’s number is “Lance,” not like 1 or 00, just “Lance.” She also thought he sort of ran like a girl (on that, I’d win an award for running like a girl).

The first rain ride of the Fall is usually dirty with all the grime, oil, grit and dirt built up from the summer bubbling across the road. This year, because it’s already rained so much, the grime was much less after the ride.

That was great, but I think this much early Fall rain means it’s going to be a very wet winter.

Treehugger | Bike Lamps from Treeline Designs

Treehugger offers up Treeline Designs, which offers lamps built around suspension forks.

Among the coolest features are the way the lights get activated: On some, you flip the canti brake to turn the lamp on or off, and on others you do it by compressing the fork itself.

If you’ve got a sentimental attachment to an old unused RockShox Judy, this is the perfect way to keep it around and drive your spouse crazy at the same time. Just tell her it’s a major award.

Kipchoge Spencer of the Ginger Ninjas (and Xtracycle fame) is in town playing his guitar and Aaron is promoting a bike ride for the occasion. On Friday November 10th, 2006 at 6 PM depart from Aaron’s Bicycle Repair and ride to Westlake Plaza to meet more riders. Heavy rain plan is to meet at the Bat Cave. Check the discussion on the .83 forum for more details.

For the past few days, we’ve been quietly working in the background to make Bike Hugger lighter, faster, and an all around better hugger (what cyclist wouldn’t want to be lighter and faster!)

We’ve also got more huggers coming and we’ll post on that soon.

Today, in the pouring rain, the 2007 racing season begins. I’ll ride the south end of the lake with the Wines of Washington team for about a 3 hour ride. On Sunday, another 3 to 4 hours with Mike Rogers.

This year is already promising with more of the older guys racing masters and I’m upping the training ante with a Tacx Cosmos. I’ll blog more about that once I’ve spent some painful, sweaty time on it.

Recumbent bicycle, by manganite.