Thursday, May 29, 2008

any who rides...



must read this book. it will not only give you insight into the mind of a roadie (if you are not one), but you may even come away for a greater appreciation of the 'roadie world', or even cycling in general. even though i'm not a roadie, i came away with greater insight into myself as a cyclist.

if you have someone near and dear to you that doesn't quite understand your 'hobby'/sport...buy this book for them. so that they are able to understand you, as a cyclist, more.

jamie smith writes in a style that is clear, and humorist to get the world of the roadie across. and jef mallett does the art for the book (hell, mallett is just awesome for his work in frazz, who is a cyclist too...if you haven't read this comic...do so).

smith answers the question of why roadies are the way they are. and even working in a shop, and going to cross races i've asked myself this question...'what's up their ass?' maybe because i consider myself more of a 'general cyclist', and not limited to one style of riding...the roadie is a confusing thing. when a roadie comes into the shop in peak wrenching season, and wants his bike back in five minutes...when i know the problem is more than that even if we were dead, much less packed. i now have an idea. so thanks for the enlightenment.

namaste...

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

a few notes...

from my point of view...

it seems like contador is the rider that i thought he is. it seems that last year at the tour was not a fluke; like phil and bob said he was. a couple of weeks ago on versus they said that it was a good thing that contador and the astana team won't be at the tour, because contador is such a young rider, and how could he deal with the responsibility of being last years champion? that the only reason that he won was because of the mis-hap of rasmussen.

well before that, correct me if i am wrong, wasn't contador in second place? so if he couldn't handle the responsibility, if he couldn't be a great cyclist, then how the hell was he in second?

last year wasn't a fluke. contador is able to handle the responsibility. he is a great rider. if he couldn't handle the 'pressure' then wouldn't he have 'cracked' by now? why is he in the lead? hell...go for it.

new product...

i picked up the gel-bot the other day, and tried it on the ride home from the shop. it's a water bottle that has a gel flask built in. so you are able to get your gel and water from the same system. not a bad idea. you are able to 'squeeze and suck' (keep it clean...) the gel from the flask, and then open the top for water. the flask carries about three gel packets, not a bad number for a ride. you are obviously able to carry less for shorter rides. it's not a bad system. you are able to get away from carrying multiple packets on you. to get away from carrying gel flasks with you. and from what i understand that they will be (if they haven't already) selling just the tops/gel flask separately so you don't have to buy a whole new bottle. these tops work with any specialized bottle. the whole system cost about eighteen bones; that includes both bottle and system.

i'm not sure how much i'm going to use it, maybe often/not, but i enjoyed it on the ride. you able to take small 'sips' of gel as you go, instead of a whole one or nothing. you obviously able to do that with a flask too, but then you are dealing with two systems. this seems like a nice combination/ratio of gel to water.

worst case...this will make a great gift idea for the cyclist in your life.

namaste...

Sunday, May 25, 2008

able to get...


road riding in ct...
Originally uploaded by divine_gear
away for a few days to ct to do some visiting and riding. have not been doing a lot of riding recently because of school and the shop, so this was a great chance to do some of that.

got out there wednesday night, and thursday hit the ground running...a sixty-seven miler road ride. mind you i haven't been on this bike not more than ten miles...what a break in ride. the giant ocr c two road great. and other than dealing with some cable tension, the sram rival was amazing. i have to say...i'm a convert. not only is sram crisper than the others, but i think the shifting itself follows a more 'natural' hand flow than anything else. the bike itself is light, responsive, and comfortable. it's not a 'stiff' racer, but that's not what i want. their tcr series is stiffer and 'racer'. don't get me wrong...the ocr is stiff, but not racer stiff.

than after that we hit a local mtn bike trail near the house. so for the whole day we, maybe, close to eighty miles.

light day on friday. we went to hartman park, and did a couple of hours out there.

saturday was our trip to r.i. to arcadia wildlife management area. what a great day of riding.

one thing that i learned really quickly during my mtn biking adventure...how to ride rocks. uphill and down. in ct and ri you can't get away from them. they are such a natural part of the trail, that you either learn really fast, or you walk; and where is the fun in that?

some amazing views, great riding, and great company. thanks for the hospitality.

namaste...