SB Nation User Blog: Tiki

Did you know your Bianchi is a Giant?

Tiki — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:46:10 -0000

I just found an interesting website that seems to know where bike frames are manufactured, and the blogger is claiming that Bianchi frames are actually made in Giant factories. And Bianchi isn't the only one. Chances are, no matter how much you paid for your bike frame, it was made by Giant or an Asian company just like Giant. Which sort of indicates to me that if you paid more for your frame than I paid for my carbon fiber Giant, then you paid a lot of extra money to have a Spanish/Italian/Canadian guy slap a sticker on it and spray paint it.

I've heard things like this in the past but never to this degree of specificity. Check out the site here:

http://allanti.com/page.cfm?PageID=328

Sarah Palin rumored to consider Alaskan sponsorship for Amore & Vita

Tiki — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:04:23 -0000

Hot off the wire: Will the former Italy-based cycling team sponsored by the Vatican as a way to promote and publicize the pro-life politics of the Church wear the Blue-and-Gold of the 49th state? Protestant fundamentalist governor Sarah Palin is said to be considering the move largely because her husband Larry or Ted (something like that) has taken up MTB riding in the off-season (Ted or Larry is a professional ski mobiler... no seriously, he is). News conference planned from Juneau on Monday.

NYT article on high-tech bike fitting

Tiki — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:38:36 -0000

NYT article on high-tech bike fitting

Using lasers and lights to make your bones hurt less.

Team Cervélo, Zipp, Speedplay, Vittoria and 3T!

Tiki — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:35:50 -0000

Wow, I haven't been following cycling closely enough. These allstar manufacturers are making their own team, and presumably retiring from sponsoring other teams (Cervelo definitely is). I have never seen an array of sponsors that ever appeared to offer a genuine technological advantage before. But Cervelo & Zipp & Speedplay?

Does anybody else think that you could actually gain a minor technological edge in cycling? In other words, could you actually scrub a couple seconds off by using Cervelo over Speedplay, Zipp over Dura Ace (defiinitely, I think), Speedplay over anything? (I mean, everybody knows that there's a great advantage to using Shimano instead of Campy... that's just common knowledge, but I'm talking about an actual debate over things that are still up in the air).

Beijing Air Quality

Tiki — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:18:43 -0000

So, in about four weeks, the Olympic cyclists will be racing in Beijing. As a resident of Beijing, I'm interested in seeing what the international community reports about the air quality problems there. I think the cyclists will race and survive, but I'm excited to see the international community wake up to the following facts:

- it is common for new arrivals to Beijing to fall sick with minor ailments relating to breathing. Sore throats, ear aches, bronchitis and pneumonia are common among new arrivals and little kids.

- the Chinese authorities block this information. They control access to the internet (blog sites are blocked in China) and their own internal media. They also control, to some extent, external media. If somebody like the New York Times or BBC reports stuff they don't like, they block their internet sites in the country, block distribution of their media in the country, revoke the visas of their journalists, and basically prevent them from both reporting and distributing in China. Because media organizations are capitalists, they are reluctant to face these problems, so they tend to be careful about what and how they report on China. As a result, you aren't getting all the facts.

- comparisons between Beijing and cities in first world countries are nonsense. The worst day of pollution in LA is the best day of pollution in Beijing.

- people don't realize this but the smog in China doesn't just cover Beijing. If you look at a satellite photo of China, most days you cannot see China. The smog stretches from the border of Mongolia to the ocean, and south to at least Shanghai, and some days further.

- increasingly, these levels of smog are common across India as well.

- in other words, the longer people put this off as China's problem, the sooner their pollution is going to grow so bad that it will make it across the Pacific and into the USA. If you think this sounds like hyperbole, read the first link I've pasted below.

- the following sites are not accessible in China:

http://asia-pacific-news.blogspot.com/2006/07/chinas-smog-reaches-us_29.html

http://mnweekly.ru/sport/20080710/55337102.html

http://www.pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1722450,00.html

TdF Kits (best and worst)

Tiki — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:26:27 -0000

Okay, I haven't been keeping up while I was in China, so forgive me if this vital topic has already been discussed up and down by all of you, but all the shake-ups with sponsors have resulted in not only tons of new teams but new kits on familiar bodies. Have to say I was disappointed with the simplistic alterations to the CSC-Saxophone uniform. Very bland.

So who has the best kit in your opinion and why? And who has the worst? And what makes a good kit in general? I have to say, I have always been a fan of FdJ's white-on-white with the big blue shamrock lottery logo. It's nice to have a graphic of some kind on a jersey. Plus the all white is just bold. I mean, imagine the cleaning bills.

Obviously, Rock Racing takes these ideas to the tacky extreme. I think a great kit would somehow simplify the sponsor names and highlight a geometric logo of some kind. Plus a bold color that's consistent on both top and bottom.

F--k Rock Racing

Tiki — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:52:15 -0000

Rock Racing? One of the coolest parts of bike racing for me has always been the bizarre anonymity of the teams -- You know them by their sponsor's names and not by some dumb-ass nickname. It made a joke of the American habit of city's adopting teams (not that I'm not guilty of this, too), when really the things are money-making franchises owned by individuals. When I was rooting for T-Mobile, I was rooting for the working athletes on the team, not the communications company.

I feel the way about Rock Racing the way that fans of acoustic Dylan feel about electric Dylan, the way that punk rockers felt about disco, the way fans of early alternative music feel now that alternative and mainstream are the same thing -- I feel like something I thought was raw and real has been co-opted by some marketing bastard to sell crap.

Rock Racing is stupid people cool. Like buying Pepsi because the commercial told you to. A certain amount of this is unavoidable -- like the taste in tattoos you had in high school and the taste in literature you had in middle school and like it's unavoidable that certain people are going to accept money to be professional skateboarders -- but grown-ups with even the vaguest familiarity with the smell of their own shit should know better.

Exhale. I feel better now. Yes I do.

Beijing Diaries (mileage)

Tiki — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 01:04:03 -0000

Awful quiet on the site this week, so here's a question: How much did you ride last week?

Here's my answer: I live in Beijing, China, and last week I rode my cross bike across the city twice to squash practice for a grand total of about 20 miles, and my Chinese $40 bicycle to my daughter's busstop three times, for a total of 24 miles, for a grand total of 44 miles, so I'm totally jealous of those of you getting out for decent rides in decent weather (here the pollution keeps most people indoors). Maybe I'll get a chance to do a ride outside the city this weekend.

What about all you First Worlders?

Top Ten Riders Who Never Doped

Tiki — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 12:56:13 -0000

Okay, like ten minutes after washing my hands of the Pro Tour, I'm back to discuss them, but only with this mildly cynical idea. These are the ten riders I would like to think never doped, and why:

Jens Voigt (doping's too complicated)
Levi Liepheimer (mum wouldn't let him)
Cadel Evans (gee-shucks, we don't have any dope in the Northern Territory, or much else)
Sebastian Chavanel (he spat on it... and hasn't won anything anyway)
Sandy Casar (French sprinter... need I say more)
Tom Boonen (because he's Tom Boonen and I'm a fool)
Robbie McEwen (already has too much testoterone)
Tyler Ferrar (he's just a young kid for Christ's sake!)
Magnus Backstedt (he doesn't seem like the type... )
Sebastian Joly (basically, I think all of FdJ is dope-free, so whenever I can't think of anybody, I put in the name of a boy in white--I think Bougyues Telecom is probably clean, too, but I still can't quite pronounce their name)

Poll

Who do you think has never doped? (multiple selections permitted)

Magnus Backstedt

5 votes

All of Francais des Jeux

4 votes

Jens

8 votes

Dammit, they're all guilty!

7 votes

Robbie McEwen

1 votes

Tom Boonen

5 votes

Cadel

6 votes

Bethie

7 votes

Ale-Jet

1 votes

LL

2 votes

46 votes | Poll has closed

Do you know where your bike frame was made?

Tiki — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:39:39 -0000

Okay, I live in Beijing, China, now. And I'm finding out there are two kinds of factories in China: Factories that are only allowed to sell their products domestically, and factories that are only allowed to sell their products abroad. In other words, I cannot buy decent bike parts in China, despite the fact that they are made here, unless I pay 10-20 percent MORE than I would in the States. Goods made in China for the foreign market can be shipped to Hong Kong, then shipped (and taxed) back into China.

These days, most bike frames, especially the carbon fiber ones, are made in China. After I ask this question, I have another one: Was your frame made ONLY for the manufacturer you bought it from, or is it painted different colors and labeled different things and sold by several different bike companies??

Poll

Do you know where your bike frame was made?

Not sure, the company's European, but the frame sure looks a lot like a Giant frame.

0 votes

Yes, someplace in Europe.

11 votes

Of course I know, don't I?

2 votes

Yes, someplace in the States.

17 votes

No, I have no idea and don't care.

2 votes

Yes, someplace in China.

12 votes

Not sure, the bike frame sticker says, "Designed in _____," but where was it made?

1 votes

Yes, someplace in North Africa.

1 votes

46 votes | Poll has closed