
a fan of
Jens Voigt
Columbia
RSSUser Blog
Cipo talking comeback at the Giro...whaaat?
Do we get another shot of the Lion King skinsuit at the ITT this year?
I humbly bow to my new overlords..check out number 1
Photocred: pulled from Ciclismo-Espresso.com
Toyota Prius X Parlee concept bike video with hipster music dub. How I like to watch me some cool new stuff and jam to some acoustic guitar music.
Di2 is so nineties
Toyota Prius Project/Parlee/Deeplocal concept bike project with a helmet that shifts for you when you think about it.
You knew it had to happen
Hoogerland T-shirts hitting the internets. They should be shipped with barbed wire as packing peanuts.
Nice pants
Bikerumor posted that Nalini is selling these again. As ugly as they are I have this strange compulsion to pull out the credit card. What is wrong with me? Now available just search on Nalini and Carrera in Google shopping.
Gilbert gets a fancy ride for le Tour
Obviously someone did not get the Philemagne memo. Tsk tsk.
Geeks rejoice, designers lament
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.
Calling all D.C. cyclists
It's a long post, but a good read and intentions behind it. Long story short a cyclist in D.C. was hit. The trial date is set for August 19th. The cyclist who was hit is calling D.C. cyclists to pack the court room with individuals who have had the 'pleasure' of being harassed while riding.
US Pro RR Start List
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:
| Rider | Team/City |
| Kyle Wamsley | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Alburbs |
| Christopher Baldwin | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Boulder |
| K Frank Pipp | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Boulder |
| Paul Mach | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Davis |
| Andrew Baker | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Easley |
| David Williams | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Indianapolis |
| Andrew Dahlheim | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Richardson |
| Chase Pinkham | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Salt Lake City |
| Andy Jacques Maynes | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Watsonville |
| Benjamin Jacques Maynes | Bissell Pro Cycling Team Watsonville |
| Brent Bookwalter | BMC Racing Team Athens |
| Taylor Phinney | BMC Racing Team Boulder |
| George Hincapie | BMC Racing Team Greenville |
| Christopher Butler | BMC Racing Team Hilton Head Island |
| Chris Barton | BMC Racing Team Ojai |
| Jeff Louder | BMC Racing Team Salt Lake City |
| Chad Beyer | BMC Racing Team Tucson |
| Kirk Carlsen | Chipotle Development Team Berkeley |
| Alex Howes | Chipotle Development Team Boulder |
| Daniel Summerhill | Chipotle Development Team Centennial |
| Robert Bush | Chipotle Development Team Louisville |
| Alfredo Cruz | Chipotle Development Team San Ysidro |
| Thacker Reeves | Chipotle Development Team Tyler |
| Taylor Shelden | Fly V Australia Boulder |
| David Zabriskie | Garmin Cervelo Westlake Village |
| Tom Zirbel | Jamis/Sutter Home Boulder |
| Andrew Gupbll | Jamis/Sutter Home Charlottesville |
| Nicolas Frey | Jamis/Sutter Home Fort Collins |
| Tyler Wren | Jamis/Sutter Home Salt Lake City |
| James Driscoll | Jamis/Sutter Home Winooski |
| Cameron Cogburn | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Asheville |
| Carson Miller | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Bend |
| Emerson Oronte | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Cohasset |
| Jeremy Powers | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Easthampton |
| Alexander Hagman | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Fort Collins |
| Sean Mazich | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Phoenix |
| Sergio Hernandez | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda San Pedro |
| Kenneth Hanson | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Santa Barbara |
| Bernard Van Ulden | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Springfield |
| Charles Huff | Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda Springfield |
| Thomas Soladay | Kelly Benefit Strategies Bethesda |
| Jesse Anthony | Kelly Benefit Strategies Beverly |
| Andrew Bajadali | Kelly Benefit Strategies Boulder |
| Jason Donald | Kelly Benefit Strategies Brighton |
| Michael Creed | Kelly Benefit Strategies Colorado Springs |
| Daniel Bowman | Kelly Benefit Strategies Durango |
| Michael Sherer | Kelly Benefit Strategies Glencoe |
| Daniel Holloway | Kelly Benefit Strategies Morgan Hill |
| Alexander Candelario | Kelly Benefit Strategies Reno |
| Jonathan Mumford | Kelly Benefit Strategies Sandy |
| Julian Kyer | Kelly Benefit Strategies Santa Rosa |
| Michael Friedman | Kelly Benefit Strategies Superior |
| Shawn Milne | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Beverly |
| Jacob Rytlewski | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Brownsburg |
| Spencer Gaddy | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Charlotte |
| Robert Sweebng | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Danbury |
| Chad Hartley | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Fox Point |
| James Stemper | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Milwaukee |
| Roman Kilun | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Oakland |
| Scofe Weiss | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Radford |
| Patrick Lemieux | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Saint Paul |
| Phillip Gaimon | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Tucker |
| Christopher Monteleone | KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER Winston Salem |
| Jonathan Sundt | Kenda/5Rhour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder Dallas |
| Gregg Brandt | Kenda/5Rhour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder Winona |
| Timothy (Timmy Duggan) | Liquigas Cannondale Boulder |
| Ted King | Liquigas Cannondale Brentwood |
| Adrian Hegyvary | United Health Care |
| Maxim Jenkins | United Health Care |
| Christopher Jones | United Health Care |
| Jacob Keough | United Health Care |
| Morgan Schmitt | United Health Care |
| Bradley White | United Health Care |
| Scott Zwizanski | United Health Care |
| Jonathan McCarty | SpiderTech powered by C10 Ausbn |
| Kiel Reijnen | Team Type 1 Boulder |
| Scott Stewart | Team Type 1 Highland |
| William Dugan | Team Type 1 Santa Barbara |
| Alex Bowden | Team Type 1 Sugar Grove |
| Matthew Crane | Realcyclist.com Athens |
| Oscar Clark | Realcyclist.com Atlanta |
| Michael Midlarsky | Realcyclist.com Delray Beach |
| Ian Burnett | Realcyclist.com Durango |
| Yosvany Falcon | Realcyclist.com Miami |
| Cole House | Realcyclist.com Oneida |
| Evan Hyde | Realcyclist.com Park City |
| Joshua Berry | Realcyclist.com Portland |
| Frank Travieso | Realcyclist.com Winterville |
| Kai Applequist | Team Exergy Boise |
| Sam Johnson | Team Exergy Boise |
| Remi McManus | Team Exergy Boise |
| Erik Slack | Team Exergy Boise |
| Matthew Cooke | Team Exergy Boulder |
| Eric Barlevav | Team Exergy Encino |
| Christopher Hong | Team Exergy Lutherville |
| Quinn Keogh | Team Exergy Portland |
| Caleb Fairly | Team HTC Highroad Colorado Springs |
| Danny Pate | Team HTC Highroad Colorado Springs |
| Tejay Van Garderen | Team HTC Highroad Fort Collins |
| Jason McCartney | Team RadioShack Coralville |
| Benjamin King | Team RadioShack North Garden |
| Matthew Busche | Team RadioShack Wauwatosa |
| Lucas Euser | Track: Black Dog Professional Cycling Team Napa |
| Nathan Brown | Trek Livestrong |
Luck o' the Cyclist-ish?
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:
"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
Techs Mechs - ANT+ and other fun acronyms
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.
Eurobike 2008 demo day
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.
Of Hammers and Fatties
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.
Showing 1 - 14 of 14



