SB Nation User Blog: Tiki

NYTs on collarbones and cyclists.

Tiki — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:09:29 -0000

NYTs on collarbones and cyclists.

Pretty good story on Lance's collarbone and collarbones in general.

A Better Training Video...

Tiki — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:40:27 -0000

Hey all. I wrote this a couple years ago intending to send it out to a west coast regional bike magazine I wrote a couple small reviews for, but I never did. I checked, and the product I liked below is still out there, and the website is still functioning, so I figured I'd post it here.

"A Better Training Video"

    When I purchased my trainer, I also purchased a couple of DVDs from the Spinervals Fitness Series. “Spinervals 2.0 Sweating Buckets” is a 45-minute ride touted as “a calorie-burning workout,” and “Spinervals 7.0 The Uphill Grind” is also 45 minutes and intended to work on climbing muscles. Both videos are adequate. In both, cycling coach Troy Jacobson––dressed in a sport shirt and khaki shorts––brandishes his stopwatch and shouts commands to a half-dozen people on stationary trainers. The videos are helpful, because Troy tells you what gear to put your bike in and how long to pedal for, and there’s a helpful pair of numbers on the screen and a ticking clock in case you’re a visual learner. Both videos are formatted like aerobics classes; Troy’s enthusiastic voice is about all that really keeps you going. I find them a bit boring.
    I thought it would be a neat invention for somebody to create a simple interface between the bike and my desktop computer, so I could set my computer screen in front of my bike and ride in a live bicycling video game. I’m more inspired by the sight of another rider pedaling away from me than I am by a coach shouting at me to pedal faster. But the only option I discovered like this cost over $1000.
    Eventually, I came across a training DVD called “Race Day with Robbie Ventura.” I ordered a copy after checking out the website (it was $39.95 which is about $15 more than a Spinervals DVD). The producers of “Race Day” hooked up ex-US Postal Pro rider, Robbie Ventura, with a bike-cam and entered him into a 35+ Masters criterium in California. The DVD is a rider’s-eye view of the race with a bar of information across the bottom of the screen that lets you know what kind of power and exertion Ventura is putting out at any given moment, and a ticking clock at the top.
    Cyclists attack and you and Ventura have to sprint to gather them in. They sit up, and you get to rest. It isn’t interactive, but it feels that way. I found myself leaning into corners and standing up on hills. The whole crit last about 40 minutes, not including warm-up and warm-down.
    There are various soundtrack options. The most interesting is Ventura’s live commentary during the actual race (which conveys an enormous amount of inside-the-head-of-a-pro information), but the best for fitness is his voice-over that tells you when you need to work harder and when to step it down. Unlike the Spinervals’ videos, Ventura doesn’t tell you what gear to shift into, he only indicates effort levels. But it’s pretty easy and pretty natural to shift into a smaller rear cog for tougher efforts and a bigger one for when he’s sitting up. If you’re like me, and you find it much easier to put out big watts if you’re actually chasing somebody, you’ll get more enjoyment and more work from this DVD than the ones with a coach and a stopwatch. “Race Day” is now my regular indoor ride. I’m still hoping somebody will invent some cheap interactive training software, but until they do, “Race Day” is a solid substitute.

For more info check out: www.realrides.tv

If you've got insights into an inexpensive interactive computer program or other videos like the Robbie Ventura ones, please comment after the post.

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?