Bike geeks who like to 'simplify' their life through electronics should be getting quite interested in the state of cycling computers.  Biologic has been creating bike computer software and mounts for the 3G iPhone as well as the iPhone 4 for the past year and sales are up.  Take a look HERE if you'd like to see Biologic's BikeBrain in action.  Of course with Garmin purchasing Metrigear every coach and geek should be waiting with baited breath for the new pedal based power system named the Garmin Vector which is due out the 4th quarter of 2011.  Velonews gave a brief snippet for the Vector system that included an observation on riders who've been using Exustar pedals; whereas, during development of the Metrigear product Speedplay pedals were used.  One can only speculate on use of the Exustar pedal may be due to its generic platform use of Look type cleats and possibly licensing issues with major pedal manufacturers.  Once again, DC Rainmaker, has done a great job of providing great bike computer pr0n to the scene in his state of affairs with CycleOps.  The Joule head units are getting a name and functionality upgrade to the Joule and Joule GPS.  Gone is the joystick to be replaced with the ever familiar rubber buttons.  See the pic below for a comparison of the Garmin 800, Joule GPS, Joule, Garmin 500 respectively.

via lh4.googleusercontent.com photo cred DC Rainmaker

All the advances in computers are great, but BikeHugger posted that during the information sharing at BikePressCamp Wahoo and Biologic seems to think within 5 years smartphone use as cycling computers will be more than a niche market.  I will be the first to say my smartphone does many things for me to keep me organized, but strapping that 4 inch screen wafer to my handlebars directly in line with my sweat path is not high on my list of to do's.  If the smartphone is truly the way to go, then design changes for supposed athlete phones will definitely need to occur.  Haptic touch while nice isn't feasible while riding all out and getting the beat down from the sun.  Ever try doing a drag and slide while going over bumps or in the rain?  Right now phone manufacturers see smartphones as mobile processors and not elegant cycling computers.  Size of the phone and interaction will have to be more of a smaller, elegant design as opposed to larger and bricklike in order for it to take off as a viable cycle computer.

One thing I see wrong with the cycle computer is no one has gone beyond a flat display to answer that space on the handlebars question.  Flexible OLED or FOLED has been knocking on doors now for a while and it should be time to have a cycle computer designer pick up the challenge to make a display that wraps around your stem and bars or even on the top tube.  Rubber button ANT+ pods for the shifters or flat bar to get away from the static display buttons or haptic touch?  Flat ribbon cable for analog wired devices with plugs into the pods that pop out when stretched beyond capacity instead of wire breaks?  C'mon designers give me something to check my mail, calendar, power and heart rate and truly be proud of to mount on my handlebars.

I found it kind of hard to read the US Pro Start list so I revised it.  Grouped all the teams/riders together to get a good look at how deep each team went with their riders.  So here you go:

Jonathan Vaughters gave a good rider representative viewpoint on the race radio issue this morning over at Velonews.  I have to agree on some key points he had about cooperation between the riders in particular being an active voice in decisions concerning the race:

"...the effect we want is to provoke change. We don’t want any punch; we want proper governance, for the teams and riders to be considered, to have our opinion heard and to have the possibility of voting. We’re simply saying we’re not going to race in an event that is promoted by a governing body that’s very far from having a democratic process."

And not only being heard, but having an actual effect on the decisions made collectively once they're made:

"The teams and riders have reps on advisory boards, but they have no power into what’s passed into rules. I stand on CCP, though I am not sure anymore, because I think we might have gotten kicked off. At a meeting in Birmingham, when the decision was being made on the new ranking system for the teams, I asked that a vote be allowed, but there was no voting process allowed. Once the management committee of the UCI makes its decision, it does not need to take into account what the others think. Our representation is just on an advisory board. The riders, the teams and the race organizers have no direct voting on the rules and regulations outlining our sport."

Now having said all that I have to take an opposing side on his comments about how the "the best athlete on the best team with the best strategy with the best coaching" and that luck shouldn't play a roll.  Cycling has been romanticized by many announcers as being a sport that reflects life.  If it really reflects life, then all that you can do to prepare won't stop luck from smashing its hammer down on you or lifting you up on feathered wings to achieve a goal.  His argument doesn't really ring true as a few of his quotes on luck reveal:

JV on bad luck: 

"Sure, we’ve had bad luck, but look at what these guys have gone through to get this far into the race." - Versus

"It's very disappointing. I've had some horrible luck in the Tour before." - BBC Sports

JV on transitioning luck:

“But you never really know when your luck is going to change and go your direction." - Velonation

JV on good luck:

"It seems like we've had really good luck with it, so I don't see any reason to stop it." - NYVelocity

My first experience with Pioneer was in my Uncle's '76 Impala cranking 'Slow Ride' on one of their HiFi eight track players.  The honking AV equipment that Pioneer doles out is just one of their electronics divisions.  On January 6th in Las Vegas at CES Pioneer in partnership with Nordic Semiconductor, ANT, Qualcomm, Trek, AnyData and Yellow Digital Health Lab, Inc. released their prototype ANT+ enabled 3G cyclocomputer.  So it's a cyclocomputer that's a phone right?  No, not exactly.  The device runs a version of the Google Android operating system and is 3G capable, which means it acts sort of like a Kindle/Nook in that it records and delivers data, but that destination is Yellow Digital Health Lab for now.  The device has GPS and an SD card (memory or map expansion) slot.  Yellow Digital Health Lab has created a cloud (yep there is that annoying buzzword) application, aptly named Yellow Wellness Promotion Platform, which tracks real time data from health computers such as the Pioneer cyclocomputer.  Pioneer has also developed right/left side crank arm/spider modules which deliver torque data.  The Pioneer head unit software allows for left/right side power differential data to distinguish pedal stroke or fit issues.  Computrainer fans should recognize this as the SpinScan feature in CompCS.  So how is this device different from say an iBike Pro, Powertap, Quarq, SRM, etc. ?  This unit delivers the rider's data real time to the internets not entirely unlike the HTC/Columbia experiment with MyTracks during the 2010 Tour de France.  That is really only a step away from delivering that data to just about any other director sportif car or social application.  Note that since it can be delivered to the internet, then DS's would of course want to ensure that doesn't fall into the hands of a rival.  

Really this is just the first of many devices which should start proliferating the endurance community over the next few years.  The ANT+ hardware Pioneer used to get this functionality is from Texas Instruments.  The technology is an RF chip for WLAN/GPS/Bluetooth/FM called WiLink .  Many current Android phones already have this chip installed, but it is not enabled by the manufacturer.  Namely the Droid X and many flavors of HTC phones.  The Sony Xperia X8 and X10 are the first to ship with the chip enabled.

DigInfo.TV captured some of the goodness and has published it out on YouTube below.

For those of us who can't drop the cash money to fly over the pond to taste, touch and sniff the new goods being showcased at this year's Eurobike there are some Flickr photo's being posted.  I followed a Velonews link this morning for spy shots, but was met with no link to the uploads.  After which I started to mine for some links and found a good one from Franzjakob Thaler.  Yeah, I don't know who it is either, but he took some good shots of the demo day goods.  Link to pics is HERE.  There are no captions to the pics, but you can pick up on quite a bit of the meat.  Such as up close shots of the electronic DA on the first page.  And some tech info on the downhill gearbox setup at the of the stream.  And finally a shot of a Cannondale commuter.

Your chance to drop some industrial grade Craftsmen clawhammers on the seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is around the corner.  Lance Armstrong has signed up for the Leadville 100 this coming August 9th.  Let's hope that this time there are no schedule conflicts and that Mr. Floyd Landis decides to show up as well.  In case you're wondering this is not the first time the Triathlete/Road Champion/Marathon Runner/Marathon MTBer has thrown his hand into the dirt pot.  Way back in 1999 at Mt. Snow Lance decided to get some skills training in for the year at the NORBA nationals.  He came across the line sixth 3 minutes behind Travis Brown that year.  It seems he has also been doing some closet training in the form of competing in a local marathon race at the beginning of the year.  Your local Home Depot awaits.