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Using Computer Aided Manufacturing To Make Titanium Frames
2009-08-16 21:12:00
Ever since the start of this month, Lynskey Performance Bicycles based in Chattanooga, TN has been quietly uploading videos of their manufacturing processes to the internet. As you know, Lynskey is the founder of the brand "Litespeed" which goes back a long ways. If I'm not wrong, it is now owned by another TN based company, American Bicycle Group (ABG) which makes the featherweight Ghisallo frame (weighs about 1.7 pounds). Did you know that apparently, even NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab buys tubing from ABG? I didn't want to shift topics, but something like that really speaks for the quality of titanium tubing these companies deal with.Now in the past, I have showcased some history of the machining technology David Lynskey used in his Litespeed facility on this blog, so click here to read that article if you haven't. Today, Lynskey works with U.S. milled aerospace grade 6AL-4V and 3AL-2.5V titanium and each bike is handcrafted to customer's needs using some special technology.Aft...
More About: Computer , Make , Manufacturing , Titanium , How Its Made

How To Form Excuses On Horrible Climbing Shows
2009-08-13 17:49:00
So your riding buddies trash talked you into riding some monstrous hills out somewhere in the exterior of civilization. But you've felt better on other occasions and boy oh boy, today is just not your day. If only bicycles were made like computers, we could all have an escape key before the bone breaking, lung chopping climb to hell. But there are no shortcuts to escape.Hit hard...So how on earth do you back up and slow down like a rock efficiently on the incline without hurting valuable pride and self-esteem in front of other people?This, it turns out, is an easy one. Let me show you The Way.Things you will need to carry in your jersey pocket :-Pair of scissors.-Wife's makeup. If you're a wife, then borrow your husband's makeup. Look in the garage.-Cell phone.Things you will need to carry on your back :-A camelbak filled to the gills with water. (If it does not have gills, make sure you purchase one with gills)As your attackers, a.k.a riding mates, slam down the pressure a...
More About: Fun , Form , Excuses , Climbing

Kinematics of Bicycle Hub Internal Transmissions
2009-08-10 06:00:00
An internal bicycle hub is an intricate planetary gear mechanism and is made of dozens of small parts. See, long before the derailleur became a staple in racing bikes in the 20th century, internal hub gears ruled the roost. In those days, these beautiful devices offered the first practical ways to shift gears on the fly. What a godsend!In order to fully understand this beautiful system from a technical standpoint, we need to study the kinematics. or motion of the gearing action.Click to zoom up the following one page article which explores the dynamics of the gearing in a 3 speed Sturmey Archer planetary gear hub. It explains how "gear ratios" are obtained in a planetary hub system by following some simple 'rolling contact' principles of gear motion. I borrowed it from my one of my favorite engineering textbooks. I hope this will make you appreciate the science behind bicycle transmissions. Also, when you get a chance, open up a hub and check it out for yourself!* * *
More About: History , Internal , Bicycle

The Rate Of Climbing Uphill Explained
2009-08-01 13:00:00
I've noticed that some cyclists who have been introduced to the concept of the rate of climbing uphill falsely think that Michele Ferrari pulled this out of his own pocket, as in, he invented it or something of that nature. Negative. He only went ahead and popularized the idea, putting a confusing trademark name to it such as "VAM" and developing some of his own methods to look at it with respect to cycling performance. But the idea itself is rooted in centuries old elementary geometry and Newtonian physics. Click here for the history of vectors.Let's have some *serious* fun with climbing rate. You'll start to see simple relationships that may finally make some sense to you as a cyclist. If you love analysis, this may be for you.I'll show 5 different ways to study vertical speed, or rate of climbing. 3 of them are using math. The 4th involves using some field work with math. I'll show you what Tom Danielson's climbing rate was for the record ascent up Mount Washington and I'l...
More About: Climbing , Rate , Perspectives

The Church Of Lance Armstrong
2009-07-29 00:08:00
Over the past couple of years, I have been sort of a silent surveyor of the emotions people have for Lance Armstrong . You need not go to Austin, Texas for this privilege. Its right here on the internet.While Mr. Armstrong's Twitter account is bludgeoning with over 1.5 million followers, fierce wars are being waged in forums, blogs, news websites, sports commentaries, opinion columns and even video sites like Youtube and Metacafe. I wonder if the numbers of people and the sheer amount of time spent/wasted in these 'word battles' make any sense to a casual observer at all.To give you a small perspective, take Yahoo Sports for example. On stories such as this one in YS, the number of comments from people who were interested in trading and exchanging the war of words on the topic of who was right and who was wrong is easily over 1900. Yes, you read right. One thousand nine hundred comments.Now, if you go through such comments like you slowly flip the pages of a fat book, you can sort...
More About: Church , The Church

The Alberto Contador You May Not Know
2009-07-26 07:16:00
Here are some few items of interest you may not have known about our era's champion of pro cycling, that kid from Pinto named Alberto Contador . I gleaned them from my range of readings. I'm very sorry that most of you won't find this in the western media here as most are busy chanting for Armstrong or writing the 200th biography on him that we hardly need on Amazon.com.1. Brotherly Love : Alberto Contador became a cyclist through his elder brother, Fran Contador. When Fran passed his Spanish entrance exams at school, his parents bought him a new bicycle. The old one, an iron Orbea that weighed like a tanker, was passed onto the scrawny little Alberto, who couldn't have complained that he now had a bicycle as well.Riding with Fran and his friends through the wind swept corridors of Pinto, Alberto would always keep up with the group on that heavy bike, even though the wind blew his tracksuit top open like a parachute. Now Fran enjoys being his champion brother's main PR guy, secr...
More About: History

'Decommisioned' Bicycles & Their Waste Stream
2009-07-22 18:24:00
Keeping in with our theme of spills, crashes, injuries and utter turmoil, it has always struck me as to what people do with their destroyed carbon fiber bikes after a crash. Do they trash it in the dumpster? Do they try their best and send it somewhere for a repair? Do they salvage some parts and try to use them in a different application and setting? What would you do?This blog has shown you a number of instances in the past where bikes and bicycle components have failed. Now often there is a legitimate reason for these occurrences which I don't want to go into. But what happens afterward? What do you do with this pile of seemingly junk metal and carbon fiber?Recently, a reader and fan of this blog - Anthony Hendrickson, with Materials & Process Engineering at Boeing Rotorcraft Systems, sent me a photo of his friend's high end Pinarello. This rider went into a turn about three wide at speed and got pushed to the outside. He wound up going into a ditch/gully running parallel t...
More About: Bicycles , Stream , Waste

Was It Jens Voigt's Steerer Tube? [NOPE]
2009-07-21 20:48:00
Photo Courtesy : Graham WatsonRumors are flying out left and right that the certain "something in the road" that caused Jens Voigt to crash on the final descent in today's stage was infact not on the road but on his bike. His steerer tube snapped or so, it seems. I have no clue. Now I have immense respect for Jens as a bike rider and like many around the world, was absolutely horrified at the crash. According to some of the official doctors at the Tour, his main injuries seem to be mostly all around the face. We can't tell for sure what he's broken until the scan results come out from Grenoble, but suffice to say - Jens' Tour is over. Let's focus a moment on what happened to the bike, if that's what caused this mess. Does anyone have any clue? Feed any information you have here. We'd all appreciate it. Any of you in France at the moment? Bonjour!Here's a video, magnified and played in slow-motion courtesy of Sporza. Seeing this makes you doubt that this crash had anything to...
More About: Tube

Tour Of The Highlands
2009-07-20 20:04:00
100 Miles 5000 Ft Climbing 7.5-8 hours saddle timeI'd like to report to you that I recently relocated myself, three bikes and little bit of money I have to Rochester, NY. Personal reasons. Now I was overcome emotionally with the move. Having found a climber's paradise in Cattaraugus, where I lived before for a year, this new area sort of first felt like having the urban feel to it, flat and fit for the street smarts. I wondered whether I would ever see valleys and mountains again.I may have been right about the fact that there is a certain absence of long climbs. But I tell you, the terrain south of Monroe County can be punishing. The relentless rollers provide endless interval training. And if you keep riding your bike southeast, you'll find the great area of the Finger Lakes. If you don't know what it is, consider it New York's answer to the Napa Valley area in California. Simply put, it is NY's biggest wine producing region. And lot of hills out there.So I decided to check ...
More About: Tour , Highlands , The Highlands

Winner Of AllModern 'Who..What...Why' Contest
2009-07-20 15:25:00
Good morning. I checked in with the jury from AllModern.com who helped me run the competition and looks like we have a winner. They put the total number of comments in a random number generator and apparently, comment#28 has the prize!The comment belonged to Michael from Seattle. He handles commercial aviation insurance for companies all over the world and enjoys riding bicycles of all kinds be in track, mountain or road. He discovered Cozy Beehive through a link on another site and likes to keep coming back for something different. As winner of the contest, he gets to pick anything in the 100.00 dollar price range from AllModern for his home or office.Michael, please contact me as soon as possible to further discuss how you would go about this. Email me at cozy(dot)beehive(at)gmail(dot)com. The link to my contact is also on your left side under my handsome face.A big thank you to everyone who came out and participated and especially to AllModern who provided this opportunity. Just ...
More About: Contest , Winner

Saturday Stupidity V
2009-07-18 06:00:00
Good morning.Our acrobat, a certain Olympics gold medal winner from Switzerland, is seemingly in a breakaway in the Tour de France. Of course, not many took notice as all this happened way behind. A video essay of the day's hard work....behind the peloton :In other big news, two prominent persons broke their wrists in the world this week.One came out of plain overuse, as this picture, this picture, this picture and this picture suggests. Isn't it said, "Thou shalt not use that arm in vain"?The other was borne out of trying arm wrestling with Alberto Contador in order to get under his skin. Il resulto :Somewhere else, a winner's ordeal didn't get over with the race :But another one's ordeal ended in rightful emotion.In the style category, to the ladies --> this is how to dress and walk past a cyclist. The cyclist's appreciation is then administered thus :AND NOT, I repeat...NOT... like this :It seems teams are not just limiting the yellow color to kits, bikes and urine bottles....
More About: Fun , Stupidity , Saturday

Micro Machining The World's Smallest Bicycle
2009-07-16 06:00:00
While I was away for a week, I saw that a bunch of you replied in comments to the "Who, What, Where" contest. Thank you so much for your thoughts. It gives me better insight into what some of my readers actually do in life. Now I will keep the contest and the comments section open for one more day. If you're a reader and you haven't checked it out, please do now. Comments close 12pm on Friday, July 17.Let's get that persistently annoying housefly at your place a new hobby. Let him ride a bike! The smallest bicycle in the world has no practical application for humans. Researchers at Swiss-based GF AgieCharmilles played around with the capabilities of small wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) to produce a micro sized mountain bike. Check this out : The tiny cycle was machined out of 1-mm-thick Inox stainless steel (steel alloy with a minimum of 11% chromium by mass) using a 0.020-mm wire. The smallest internal radius measures a mere 0.013 mm it seems, with a tolerance of +/- ...
More About: Micro , Manufacturing , Bicycle , How Its Made

AllModern 'Who..What...Why' Competition
2009-07-08 17:25:00
Cozy Beehive is a unique cycling blog with its own niche. Although it is not as popular as some of the other ones on the web, I get readers from far and wide, all the way from Anchorage in Alaska to Porirua in New Zealand. From small interactions on this blog, I have come to know that some of my readers are from reputed places such as MIT, U Cal, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and from a variety of cycling companies. Others are everyday people (like me) who love to bike and connect with like minded people across social media.Thank you very much for reading. I'd still like to get to know you all, so I thought I'd ask you to chime in and tell a little about yourself while having a chance to win something special from AllModern. AllModern has a great selection of modern furniture and home accessories from many leading designers. Part of CSN Stores, All Modern is just one of over 260 retail sites that offer a diverse array of products from Herman Miller?s popular Aeron Chair to cookware by ...
More About: Competition

The Crash General Classification
2009-07-07 06:00:00
Participants in this year's Tour will heavily contest the Crash General Classification or CGC for short. The coveted prize has more to it than the crappy yellow and green jerseys. Winners of the CGC will receive an emblematic white top with gory blood stains all over it. To go along, they will be presented with torn black shorts, a Polaroid photo of the moment they crashed and full medical expenses paid for the surgery/surgeries required.But winning the C.G.C, as it turns out, is no small feat. It takes several hard years of experience and training to loiter about precisely in the dangerous back end of the pack, while correctly timing when to scrape wheels with riders in front, or to slam into a traffic island at 70mph, or to hook your handlebar on a bystander's bag or his wife's long hair, or to ride over a stray water bottle, somersaulting in the air and falling on top of others while they ride, or to select the biggest, deepest, darkest dungeon of a ditch to drop into, or to g...
More About: Fun

How Its Made : Bicycles
2009-07-04 06:01:00
1. Mass Produced Metal Alloy Bikes : Episode 3 from Season 1 of Science Channel's How Its Made series explores the making of bicycles. The narrator was the show's first ever anchor, Mark Tewksbury. Now some of you might be bothered that this is not the "enthusiast" level bicycle and may even ridicule it for its lack of craftsmanship. The manufacturing steps are really interesting to look at regardless. Some of you may also be bothered by Mark's accent. It may help to know that he's a Canadian with an interesting athletic background and How Its Made is a Canadian documentary. For nerds like me, watching this show is better than having ice cream. Let's hope they run it on Discovery forever.The part on bicycles starts from 0:43 seconds. Video courtesy --> bamboopasia.2. Colnago & Milano Carbon Bikes : Part of Bike Radar's 'Industry Insider' series, they have a video revealing the full production process of a Colnago EPS frame. It shows how the filament wound carbon fiber tu...
More About: Bicycles , Manufacturing

Tour Wins, Probability & Sporting Misconceptions
2009-07-01 06:00:00
We have more or less 3 days to go for this year's Tour de France. It is that time again when various websites, blogs, forums and paper publications devote many many words and pages in prediction of who will win the yellow jersey in Paris. The focus is often on a handful of men. The other 200 or so odd racers who participate with them never grab much media attention at all. However unfair that may sound, there's some interesting things an astute observer can spot here. Most predictions will pick as favorites a band of individuals based solely on good results in the past. These ones then go into the Petri dish for review. Then one or two are picked and we tell ourselves or our friends, "You know what, I think he's so going to win because he can climb well, 'cause he won so and so stage in the mountains in 2003....and he can time trial like a beast because he won so and so stage at this pace in 2006 and 2007."This sort of thinking to me is a little absurd. In fact, its a fallacy of...
More About: Sporting , Probability , Wins , Misconceptions

Bike Shop Dreams
2009-06-29 17:02:00
"As long as you're going to think anyway, think big." - Donald TrumpBe cautious. Have you ever found yourself, that day, fooling around in the bike shop, looking at mediocre bikes with modicum price tags when a clever little salesman decides to reel in your interest by quoting Donnie Trump (see above) ? And then he escorts you like a long lost brother towards a sleek and voluptuous looking bike hanging on the wall at the premium end of the shop. Your eyes suddenly widen and you stare at it for a long time. You are entranced as it captivates you in a spellbind. You are gaping like a hippo. You are literally drooling from the mouth. There is a puddle of it near your feet. Now there is so much of it that it has become a scaled down human version of Lake Baikal. Ofcourse, in no way is he asking you to make the purchase. You see, bike shop salesmen have an innate sixth sense. Without much physical contact, they already know how worn out your wallet is, the amount of cobwebs residing i...
More About: Fun , Dreams , Bike , Shop

Deceleration And Force Of A Helmeted Head Impact
2009-06-25 07:48:00
For a final post this week, I'd like to make you wonder what it is like to slam your head bolt on in an accident while cycling. The agenda is objectively put some numbers out there and give a feel for things, using myself as an example. I'll show you how you can do the rough math yourself without much paper and ink.So I went over to the shelf and grabbed my utilitarian Giro bike helmet to see what the foam thickness on it would be. It came out to about 1.8 inches, so let's take it as 2 inches for sake of simplicity. Now say one morning, I'm out riding my bike at 25mph on my street. Suddenly, out comes this mad old lady from hell, backing out of her driveway in her car without spotting me over her shoulder. Unable to react quickly, (yeah I had a hangover from last night) I can't swerve away in time and CRASH I do right onto the vehicle, with my helmeted head slamming onto glistening sheet metal.My head just decelerated from 25mph to 0mph in seconds. What was my head's decelerat...
More About: Force , Head

How Its Made : Tokyo Underground Bike Parking
2009-06-24 10:37:00
Readers will remember that I blogged last year about the brilliant underground bike parking system made by the Japanese at Nishi-Kasai Station in Edogawa, Tokyo . I just happened to discover a cool video from Japanese news broadcaster Newsline which details how one of these these automated parking systems, called Eco Cycle, was designed & constructed and the machines which were employed in the process. This really looks to have been a neat little civil engineering project for the developers - Giken Seisakusho Group. A picture of Giken's 'Silent Piling Machine' which takes prefabricated structural piles and presses them into the ground at high pressure without vibration and excessive noise. Courtesy Giken.ADDITIONAL READING :How Servomotors WorkDeep Foundation Construction
More About: Parking , Bike , Made , Underground

Efficiency In Inefficiency
2009-06-23 06:00:00
Cycling is said to be an efficient mode of transport, when compared to running or driving a motor vehicle. Agreed. Mile for mile, far lesser calories and energy is spent, far lesser pollution emitted. But might that idea topple upside down when the road heads uphill?When road grade rises, there is a seesaw effect in the amount of resistance wind and gravity play. Wind drag now goes down resisting less, and gravity comes up slowing you considerably. All that matters now is how much weight you carry and what gearing you have on the bike. The same gearing that perhaps tripled your speed output on a given rotational crank input on flats will plunge on a steep climb. If you choose to go with a lower gearing, your speed drops. So there is an apparent tradeoff there.But it stands out, I guess, that one of the obvious elements of cycling athleticism - this notion of how good a cyclist someone is - is by assessing how well they can climb steep roads. Some of us may have this thinking that we...
More About: Efficiency

Alma 100
2009-06-22 20:50:00
On Father's Day I decided to go out to put some long miles in rural country. This adventure included one of my favorite spots to climb. Known as Alma Hill Road, in Alma NY, it happens to be the highest point in Western New York at 760m above sea level. At 4 miles and 1000 feet of climbing on dirty, grainy, rain washed road at an average of 5-6% gradient (steepest around 12%), it will quickly tell you whether you are in climbing shape, or if you aren't, readily provide a poorly done road before you to blame and vent your frustration onto. This breezy, rainy day here in the enchanted mountains region saw me riding to Alma, Wellsville, and down south into darn rural Pennsylvania before I took the difficult highway 6 with 15mph headwind and rain to Port Allegany. From there, I rode up north to Eldred PA, switched left onto Duke Center, and climbed back into New York via one of the leg tinglers of this area, Oil Valley Road (546). From there it was all downhill to Olean, NY which is, k...

Campagnolo 11 Speed Chain Failure
2009-06-19 06:01:00
Now if you don't use the Campy recommended, "200 dollar" chain tool to hook up your 11 speed chain, it will break. If not now, at some point. Because of the smaller tolerances and a special peening procedure involved, your conventional tool will not be able to seat the union bushing into the links properly. It will bend out and take the paper thin link along with it. Only the mighty Campy tool can properly do the following while crapping in your wallet :a) Support the left end of the link by clamping it while pushing the union bushing in adequately with a conical pusher.b) Split the protruding end by a special hole provided in the tool. c) Lock the bushing in the link ("locking the link").  Trust me, this is the Cadillac of chain tools. Your grandpa's tool just won't cut it.Now I myself thought I could somehow get away without 'following the rules'. Oh no. Didn't work. The following chain failure happened to me while climbing a long hill. I asked my local bike shop to equip th...
More About: Failure , Speed , Chain

How Your Pump's Pressure Gauge Works
2009-06-18 20:46:00
Recently, my 5 year old Park Tool floor pump started bleeding from its ears. The gauge hose ruptured and there was a major air leak, rendering the pump useless unless I replaced that hose (this is one of the most common failures that could happen to any pump, so if you don't want to be irritated, consider keeping a replacement hose with you for safe measure). Since the pump was old anyway, I decided to get a new one instead. Anyway, just for fun, I opened up the pressure gauge of the old one to show you what is contained inside of it. I'm sure some of you may have wondered...'hmm, how on earth does my pump detect the pressure inside my tube?'So what is the pressure gauge anyway? It is a pressure sensor, right? And what does it do? It does the following 3 things :1) It senses the pressure to be measured.2) Part of the instrument responds physically to that pressure by stretching, bending or changing positions.3) The instrument then converts this response to a pressure signal whi...
More About: Works , Gauge

Renewing Research Interest In Bicycles
2009-06-11 17:20:00
"The early bicycle manufacturing industry laid the groundwork for interchangeable parts and the assembly line was used to bring down the costs of automobiles. Even Henry Ford's first automobile was driven on four bicycle wheels. The Wright Brothers utilized much from their knowledge of bicycle stability and component design to loft the worlds first airplane into the air. The automobile and airplane have received unbridled attention since their discoveries. We are now flying into space and developing cars with engines that run on water, but the bicycle has sadly lost the interest, both scientifically and financially, of the past century's scientists and engineers. If a renewed emphasis were given to the bicycle we may find we have already developed the truest "green" solution to many of the world's environmental, global warming, obesity, sprawl and gridlock problems. Using other industries as examples, these kinds of solutions most likely did not come from tinkering and backyard e...
More About: Research , Bicycles , Interest

Budbrake Modulator : Proportional Brake Control For Safer Bike Stops
2009-06-08 13:17:00
Front wheel lockup upon brake lever activation is something that often sends riders (beginners and experienced alike) to pitch-over the handlebars and get injured often seriously. We are all told to feather the front brakes, and apply more braking to the rear wheel especially in a downhill scenario. But what happens in a panic situation? We are all bound to get the shivers and haphazardly slam both levers with full might in the hope that it will stop us quicker. But that's when the front wheel locks up, the bike skids and off you go toppling over the bars.Now, can a mechanical contraption be made to commit to such braking control automatically for you while you enjoy your ride?Thats where this nifty little device comes in. I contacted Bud Nilsson from Lodi, CA to explain his patented invention to me and perhaps send me his last sample (incidentally, he had it installed on his bike) so I could take a look at it and see what it was for myself. I have previously introduced the brakes ...
More About: Bike , Stops , Control

A TT Concept, The Million Dollar Bike and Something Else
2008-06-07 22:14:00
1. The recent edition of the RBA Mag featured a section on a future time trial bike concept. As the RBA staff looked back at time trial bikes from the last 20 years or so, they were left wondering what the future might hold.So here's their take on the future, among which are hydraulic disc brakes, integrated everything, electronic shifting and an imaginative internal drinking system for the rider. Take a look...2. Big thing on the news right now is that Dutch bike maker Koga Miyata has built the ultimate bike for track champion, Theo Bos for his Olympic run. Watch a Reuters based video of the bike here. It costs a little over 580,000 Euros. Since the dollar is sucking bad, if you do the math, that number comes around to 1 million dollars.Bike with the lowest air resistance in the world??From what I read, this bike was in the making for 3.5 years or so, during which they ran multiple wind tunnel tests and hired folks who had previously worked on the Ariane 5 Space rocket progra...
More About: Dollar , Million , Concept

Economic Cycling Stimulation
2008-06-05 21:52:00
Rich Uncle Sam and his IRS drinking buddies are sending everyone a tax rebate check this June.Oh boy, here they come with more band-aids. "Dude, but did you know I have malaria?!"You see, its like a feedzone in a long hilly road race on a hot hot day.Your water bottles are empty and someone hands you a cold drink after 70 miles of painful work. You go another 10 more, and you're still tired, managing a snail's 10mph pace.Well, turns out the big underlying problem is not thirst, its fatigue! Your urine was a weird shade of brown this morning, arrhythmic heart beats are putting bad techno music to shame, the legs are like powerless twigs in a 90mph gust, and your tongue seems like the drought ridden soil of Somalia.Basically, you are going to die so get off the damn bike already.Or.. its like a thick and mercilessly wrapped handlebar tape to solve your wrists' accumulating problems, when the fundamental fitting technique you used on the bike in the first place was completely flawed...
More About: Fun , Cycling , Economic , Perspectives

An All-Automatic CVT Based Bicycle
2008-06-04 06:38:00
Personally, I'm not much interested in wanting to have an all-auto bike. Maybe its nice to have one in my collection, if such a contraption ever exists, just for the kicks. But the very notion of riderless shifting is sort of repelling to me. But all people aren't like me, so its okay. Its nice to be sensitive to everyone when you're out to design something.A month or two back, I had written a post called "New Ideas for Cycling Products". It was mostly science fiction, which I admitted. It was fun though.Well it seems like I missed out on the All-Automatic Bicycle , a bike that thinks and shifts on its own without the rider's mechanical involvement at the handlebars.This daydreaming of mine is based on a post on Ari's blog, pointed out to readers by James' Bicycle Design. Ari calls it "The NuFixie challenge : Can you build a 'fixed effort' bicycle?"I want to take a small dab at this. Nothing is too technical or specific. I'm beating around the bush but I hope you see where i...
More About: Modern

Car Crash, Art of Peeing, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov & More..
2008-06-03 08:32:00
1. First off, check this latest CNN story out. A car with a sleepy, intoxicated driver plows into a road race at the U.S - Mexico border. 1 dead, 10 injured, and we are left with a striking picture of recklessness, injury and death all perfectly frozen in time. Some pictures silently give you a nudge pointing to you how dangerous cycling in traffic could get. This one though, literally gave me a push and had me gaping in shock.2. I was alerted to a review of my blog from none other than Competitive Cyclist. Says CC :(2) The Cozy Beehive is another daily delight for us. The King Bee clearly has a serious engineering background, but in place of wonkiness he demystifies & educates on the design elements of high-end bike gear. He's like your favorite college professor: He's full of brains, enthusiasm, and joy for the subject matter. He has a remarkable ability to triangulate the engineering qualities, marketing efforts, and practical benefits of cool bike products.I had a nice l...
More About: Modern , Crash

BBC Boston/Colden Part 2
2008-06-03 01:45:00
Contd from Part 1BBC Boston /ColdenMay 25Result : 14th in the Cat4/5 raceIt was a nice day for racing on the 25th of last month. The course loop was short but quite hilly, some sections being particularly steep. The B race did the loop some 3 times.One road was a fun, crazy downhill where I reached 60mph on two occasions. To top that with some danger, there was a railroad track running diagonally across the road! On the first lap going down that road, I lost my water bottle. Thats okay. I was safe on the bike. Phew.. You really have to come to these races prepared with good bike handling skills and a confident mindset. Otherwise, you're in for a nasty medical treat.Course ProfileI came to the race with not much training as I had other things to do that previous week. Still, I thought it was nice that I was able to get on with a breakaway group early in the race, when we dropped pretty much half the field right then and there.My friend Dave Horn attacked right off the bat, going up t...