About bikes, cycling and cycle to work - Tredz Blog

Brake a habit not your skull

The guys over at Fat Cyclist can ride. Really ride. I mean 10,000-feet-of-climbing-in-about-80-miles-on-a-Saturday-morning type of riding. But criminal stupidity can even be found within such clear cycling enthusiasts. Yep, this is a use-a-helmet-you-prat type of post.

This is Kenny. Kenny sounds about as hardcore as you can get on 700Cs with joining the peloton. He takes his track bike — modified to have a freewheel and a front brake — as his ride of choice when other are presumably on Roubaixs, Madones and the like with 9 or 10 gear choices donning their rear wheels. But Kenny's talents for strange choices includes riding in a cycling cap and no lid. I’m thinking he may be regretting his anti-helmet stance having bombed on a fast, slippery decent last weekend.

This is Kenny with an ambulance man

This is Kenny The Wise’s head minus tarmac, oil, grit etc. V.nice.

Before seat belt laws were introduced, many said they were safer without their belts because you could exit the car quicker if an accident occurred. No kidding genius – through the front window. Likewise, how can anyone pretend not wearing a lid actually makes them safer?

IMBA has a blog

I didn’t realise that staff at the International Mountain Bicycling Association have an ‘official blog’.  It’s only been going for about three months but has loads of photos and plenty of riding talk. I hooked into this video of Nat Lopes from there. It’s worth watching to the end to see him bail on some big marble-looking stairs (too much "Dude" but hey, they're in Minnesota). I’m honestly thinking how we could set this up in our local hospital?

Visit Wales gets e-update

You wont be surprised to read that Visit Wales is an the organisation responsible for promoting tourism activities in Wales. (The clue is in the title, right?) Well, they’ve had a website for ever at visitwales.com but they’ve gone all Web 2.0 and built wales1000things.com.

The difference? They want to become a home for everything you could want to post about activities in Wales. Get out and about, take some photos and post them up. There’s even vouchers available as an incentive from them.

Cycling tests are reborn

After a successful pilot of more than 5,000 children tested in eight regions, the new cycling proficiency test gets the green light. This more modern test will take place in the real cycling environment not the playground and is known as the Bikeability award scheme. The BBC said,

The government is putting £10m into children's cycling, which will pay for around half of all 10-year-olds to take the Bikeability course.

Amazingly they went on to claim that more than 90% of youngsters have never cycled to school. The government wants to buck that trend and is investing £10 million into children’s cycling in order to convince parents and teachers alike that cycling is safe. There’s a video article and a new test here.

Bike rack meets optical illusion

Equals bike as urban art. I got this from the fabulous Go Clipless blog.

The Shocker's First Air

Jules, Tredz' DH rider, on his new Cove Shocker frame                 

           

Cyclists get free lunch

Wanna free protein bar? Not tried 'em myself but they've got that magic sound about them, free. It was advertised in Men's Fitness magazine and appears on their website http://www.easuk.info/mf%2Dstorm/

'The second you experience a Storm bar, you'll forget it's loaded with 27g of high quality protein and formulated to support muscle growth and recovery. And you'll definitely forget it's a nutrition bar - packed with flavour Myoplex Storm is the taste of sports nutrition!

Try Myoplex Storm for free! Enter you details here to receive your free sample bar'.

*Only one bar per household.
*Offer closes 30th April 2007, or whilst stocks last.

Cycling is key to quitting smoking

I’m a little out of sync with National No Smoking Day and should’ve posted this last week. StaffNurse.com writes “A cycling machine or a breath of fresh air may be enough to help smokers beat their cravings. Exercise is one of the best ways for smokers to manage their cravings when they are trying to give up, according to the Exeter University study.”

Is that ‘manage their cravings’ by distracting them with the pain of exercise? I don’t suppose it really matters, but as many as four million people may be inspired to get riding not puffing in light of Britain’s imminent ban on smoking in public places and workplaces on July 1 (already happened in Scotland and in effect from April 2nd in Wales).

New camera needed?

A new digital camera is needed necessary being considered. I don't really need one but I'm working on building enough excuses to convince myself, and my wallet, otherwise. A toddling daughter and more blog work are an obvious pair for starters. Summer's coming, that's three. I hate my Sony and its 10 minute shutter lag. Four. Photoshop is becoming my favourite computer package. Five.

Six (and this could be the biggie) is the newly-discovered Seb Rogers blog. He regularly gets covers on the UK's best MTB press and his blog explains his craft in more detail - almost makes you want to shoot riders as much as riding yourself. You can see more of his portfolio here. Trouble is, he's recommending this Nikon. Uh oh.

The kid is getting GOOD

You've gotta love these shots. As a father, a marketer and a cyclist, I think they're perfect. There's more on Albes.com

Team Discovery sign Brit sprinter

The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team have announced the signing of three riders for 2007. Most notably, from a British point of view, is the addition of Wirral born Steve Cummings. Sports Director Johan Bruyneel said “Steve’s track background will be an asset to this team and provide us the opportunity to be competitive in races where we have not been in the past—those with a sprint finish. I am sure he will adapt to the road style quickly and prove his worth immediately.”

The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 2007 Roster is:

Ivan Basso (Italy) *   
Fumiyuki Beppu (Japan)
Volodymyr Bileka (Ukraine)
Jani Brajkovic (Slovenia)
Alberto Contador (Spain) *
Tony Cruz (USA) *
Steve Cummings (Great Britain) *
Tom Danielson (USA)
John Devine (USA) *
Stijn Devolder (Belgium)
Vladimir Gusev (Russia)
George Hincapie (USA)
Fuyu Li (China) *
Levi Leipheimer (USA) *
Trent Lowe (Australia)
Egoi Martinez (Spain)
Jason McCartney (USA)
Gianni Meersman (Belgium) *
Uros Murn (Slovenia) *
Benjamin Noval (Spain)
Pavel Padrnos (Czech Republic)
Sergio Paulinho (Portugal) *
Yaroslav Popovych (Ukraine)
Chechu Rubiera (Spain)
Tomas Vaitkus (Lithuania) *
Brian Vandborg (Denmark) *
Jurgen Van Goolen (Belgium)
Matt White (Australia)

* New to team

Helmet or no helmet?

Treehugger, the eco-friendly blog, has run several posts about cycling and wearing helmets, sparked off by a photograph on one of their blog posts of a Dutch mother transporting three kids on a bike.

Several readers commented about the riders not wearing helmets. Treehugger’s author feels strongly that it's wrong for the safety onus to be on cyclists and not on cars, given that they are the cause of the majority of accidents.

We have posted before about the pros/cons of helmets and could write a disertation on the subject (to go with the hundreds of others already out there), but we'll spare you. The short version really is a no-brainer (pun intended): if anyone's head is going to hit something, surely they'd prefer it to do so wearing a helmet?
Posted by Caroline

New Year's Resolutions

I read the other day that over 90% of the population write New Year’s Resolutions. Common sense says these resolutions are more about announcing dreams than setting real goals to aspire to. Well, I decided to start thinking about putting a goal of two forward regarding my cycling abilities.
I was thinking about a jaunt at Mountain Mayhem and the odd sprint triathlon when Jody Cundy (profile page here) called in the office and told me about his plans for 2007. Ashamed may not be the right word but I definitely didn’t want to compare lists. His reads like this:

2007 Cycling Schedule:
Jan – training camp Melbourne
Feb – Australian National track champs (Sydney)
Mar – home training
Apr – home training
May – Paralympic world cup (1 day event, Manchester), European champs (Newport)
Jun – training camp La Parma
Jul – prep camp World champs (Manchester)
Aug – Paralympic World Championships (Bordeaux)

I don’t know about you but I certainly can’t match that. Perhaps you’ve not raced before but have always wanted to join an organised comp but never plucked up enough courage to sign on? Check out the BCF calendar to find an event that tickles your front mech and dive in. Come on, raise the bar a bit and set yourself a challenge.

Shimano Screensavers

I've been passed a couple of Shimano screensavers that advertise the pure craftsmanship that goes into their XTR Range. If you're that tight you might even be able to say it's a Christmas present!

There are two to choose from:
- the 3D XTR shows the components that bear the XTR branding and demonstrates how they're assembled and work;
- the Shimano XTR shows the newest edition to the XTR component group and has a pretty nifty lightning effect.

Help yourselves...

3D XTR Screensaver.zip.zip (12 MB)
New Shimano XTR Screensaver.zip (6 MB)

1, 2, 3 awwww

Who said my posts are immature? I’ll have you know I’m one today, thank you very much.
Posted by Abbie

Steam bike from Santa

Fancy this bike for Christmas? I found this mentioned on BoingBoing. Personally I'm not sure anyone under the age of 75 would be too interested. And if they were, would you hate them enough to let them ride it?

Lance Armstrong running injury

TredzTalk recently posted about Lance Armstrong running an excellent sub 3 hour New York marathon. Well it turns out he did on a fractured leg! Just when I thought this guy can’t go up in my estimation any further he shows he’s even more super human.

Lance’s site shows a mini interview from ThePaceline.com:

"I knew I had shin splints from training, but I certainly didn't think there was anything broken, and I just attributed the pain to the amount of effort it takes to complete a marathon." No wonder he thought it was more difficult than any Tour he’s ridden.

We’ve all got two opportunities to race him next year: the NYC marathon again next November and the Leadville 100 mile bike race in Colorado in August - if you want to travel to the States, that is.

I am a watch whore

I love them. I have more watches than trainers – and there’s many a pair of size 7s in the wardrobe. I’m not sure if the obsession is because:

a) I’m incredibly anal about time (if I’m not 10 mins early for a everything, I’m late);
b) they’re the only jewellery a guy is encouraged to wear from a young age (apart from my wedding ring it’s all I’ve ever worn); or
c) I’m also a brand freak and there are definitely the Specialized, Kona and Trek of the watch world (not that I can afford them!).

      

Tim Jackson, aka Masi Guy, another self confessed watch whore, posted about lusting after Festina watches for 15-20 years before actually purchasing one recently. His Tour de France edition is on the left and looks very top-end to me. Festina used to sponsor the Specialized road racing team and lidle-ol-me was given this Specialized edition titanium Festina watch (on skiny arm to right) a couple of years back. Needless to say I was over the moon at the time. But what a disappointment. I find the face is easily marked and the strap is pretty useless – it opens every time you move your hand upwards. Thankfully I didn’t pay for it. I’d be devastated if I’d psyched myself up for years about the purchase. Better luck with yours Tim, you deserve more with what it must’ve cost you.

Note to very generous readers: I'd love to add a Tag Heuer Monaco Sixty Nine to my rather more down-market collection – if anyone wants to splash out a deluxe Christmas present that is…

Chris King calendar

Chris King Components, known largely in the UK for their de rigeur headsets, is launching a limited edition 2007 calendar. As ever, anything this company produces reeks of quality and their calendar appears no different. Mr King's disciples say:

It features many of our favorite components cast together with a reprise company of actors and models from 2004 depicting the strange and curious language of cycling.

We’d love to say Tredz has hundreds in stock, but unfortunately their one and only print run is available at the BikeCraft Bazaar today – in Portland, Oregon!

Trek bikes go rideabout

Our sales contact at Trek Bikes has gone. The helpful Angela has not just moved jobs, but continents as well. Her and a mate have buggered off on a ‘round the world adventure on a pair of motorbikes. They’ve been doing their Michael Palin bit for a week now and are in Delhi (I think) at the mo. Catch up with the (brave?) lucky sods at their blog, Two Wheels Whirled.

Folding A-Bike on TV's Ch5

Channel 5’s Gadget Show now features Top Gearesque challenges. This week the presenters raced each other in a transport triathlon. A featured product in this race was the new folding bike from Sir Clive Sinclair: the A-bike. I’m not a fan of the bike reviews these ‘experts’ impart on the public (too narrow in product offering and rarely focused on riders’ experiences) but this is apparently a more entertaining way of informing us about technology.

Personally I think riding this thing is a bit frightening (those 6" wheels – argh!), but I do think there’s a market for a tiny folder, certainly in anti-car London. The A-bike is definitely portable - at just 5.5kgs it's the lightest folding bike on the market. The question is, would you rather ride it or carry it? Either way you can buy the A-bike here at Tredz.

Cycling screensaver

Our previous post giving you cycling desktop pictures to download has proved very popular and we thought we'd offer you a screensaver we liked...

Download NSMB_screensaver.exe (1532.2K)

Biking downloads

One of our IT guys gave my desktop a cool cycling background picture this morning (can't be working hard enough, eh?). He's found some crackers, take your pick:

Download Whistlerbanking.jpg (1057.2K)

Download Whistlerbeforedescent.jpg (828.0K)

Download Whistlercablecar.jpg (1229.9K)

Download Whistlerdoubles.jpg (1079.2K)

Download Whistlerseesaw.jpg (1133.5K)

Download Whistlersnowbackground.jpg (845.3K)

Turn your bike into furniture

Surfing last night for other cool bike blogs led me to a firm in the US that turn bikes into furniture. There's some really cool stuff here.

Polling that aint political

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that TredzTalk has added a polling section called ‘What’s your bag’ on the right hand column. We have bantered about suggestions that we think you’d be interested in but would welcome your input. We’d love you to post a comment with your ideas or you could email poll@tredz.co.uk.

How NOT to use a cycle rack

Viscount Linley was photographed  riding his bike on the King's Road in London yesterday. Ordinarily, this would be hailed as responsible transportation - beating the congestion charge and saving the environment. Unless, that is, you've got a 4-year-old sitting on the rear rack (who’s 14th in line to the throne) holding on to your back pocket. The whole scene looks like Bambi on ice. The Daily Mail covers it best here.

Could you work with Clarkson?

There are a handful of dream jobs out there for most of us. It's a personal and subjective list that can probably be counted on one hand. My school boy wishes include fighter pilot and international rugby captain. It also includes presenting the BBC's Top Gear programme and I suspect this is true for 80% of males who've reached puberty.

One of the three lucky gents to hold that job title, Richard Hammond, is in hospital following a major accident while filming. The BBC writes "The 36-year-old presenter was taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary's neurological unit... he had been driving a dragster-style car capable of reaching speeds of up to 300mph." Unbelievably, Hammond was looking to break the British land speed record and was doing a second run when the accident happened.

A member of the fire services at the scene said "He was regaining consciousness at that point and said he had some lower back pain. But he was drifting in and out of consciousness a little bit." I hope he recovers fully and rejoins the show ASAP. He and the other two fools make me laugh and open up a car show to far more than just break horse power and number of valves.

And Jeremy, if you're looking for a stand in, I, and about 20 million other guys in the UK, would love to keep Richard's seat warm until he recovers (weekend work you understand boss).

Al Gore and his Inconvenient Truths

Saw this on a blog I like called Marketing Tom penned by Alun John. Without analysing the Kyoto Protocol's whys and wherefores, Mr Gore, the 'ex-next president of the United States', seems to be finally putting a reasonable, measured and hard hitting political voice to global warming. All the more reason to be gutted he didn't make it to the Oval Office then.

Over 2.3 million Americans have watched the documentary to date. Here's a clip to help you add your face to the UK turnout...

Get a pony tail not a peek?

A friend pointed me to an article on the BBC from Monday (here) which discusses research that claims wearing a helmet on the road is more dangerous than not. How could I possibly have missed that!?

Dr Ian Walker published the research earlier this year. The gist of the findings insinuate that when drivers see a helmeted cyclist they presume the rider to be competent and safe and give him/her less room when overtaking. The Doc then tested his theory further by riding with a long wig rather than a lid and found that drivers gave him a wider birth. His future research will investigate why drivers are more cautious of (apparently) female cyclists, allowing them more room: because women cyclists are more erratic or because they are seen less often than men on the road. Don't shout at me, it's the Docs question.

Regardless of the sexist arguments I think my chances are a damn site better off if I'm underneath my Specialized Instinct than a pony tail, thank you very much.