Clever Electric Hub Motor Bicycle

The Green Wheel - 3 in 1 wireless electric bicycle hub motor is a self contained unit with batteries and motor in the single wheel set up.

The good part of that is that you can change wheels if you want a little motor assist on your pedal.

Also, you can put a Green Wheel on the front, back or both wheels for extra flexibility. And pedaling provides an additional assist for speed letting this puppy top out at almost 30 miles an hour!

Very cool!

Good Advice on Buying/Selling Used Bike Gear

Just read and agree with The Art of Buying and Selling Used Bikes and Components at Mountain Biking by 198

Summarized:
Where do I go to buy/sell used parts?
Typically, there are several places the eager buyer or seller goes to enter the used bike and parts market.

* Forum Classifieds (MTBR.com, Ridemonkey.com, local boards)
* Craigslist
* eBay

I Need to Sell!!
So you have a garage full of biking stuff and you need to get rid of it to fund a new project. There are a couple of things to keep in mind as you go about your journey as a bike and component broker.

I Need To Buy!!
In the market to upgrade your current sled and don’t want to pay taxes or for that pretty box it comes packaged in? Great…there are some incredible deals out there that will make your ride feel new again at the fraction of the cost of retail.

Alot more info on the link, give it a read and let them know you saw it here.

Some Sweet POV Cyclo-Action

Transrockies 2008 Stage 4 - VIO POV.1 from sportkamery.cz on Vimeo.

via Helmet Cam Central.

Excellent Cycling Photo Tips

Cyclelicio.us puts together a really good and useful set of tips and tricks to get the most compelling and pleasing photographs of cyclists.

Summarized here (and expanded upon there), they are:
Get close to the action.
Focus on the face.
Depth of field.
Avoid downhills and straightaways.
Know your autofocus and sensor lag.
Freeze the action.
Composition.
Finally, STAY OUT OF THE WAY!

Very good stuff indeed!

Short Tour Wrap Before Bed

Grady and I, along with thousands of others, braved the cold, wind and rain today to enjoy the Amgen Tour of California as it made its way from Sausalito down to Santa Cruz. Fearing missing the excitement, we got out onto Empire Grade above UCSC by around 11:30 this morning.

And waited. It rained for an hour or so. Then stopped and we waited some more. And then it rained some more.

Every once in a while an Amgen festooned vehicle would come tearing by, lights flashing, horn honking and everyone along our little stretch of the road, all twenty or thirty of us, would get up, get ready and then get disappointed.

The cyclists ended up starting to come through at about a quarter to two. We were smart and I'd turned the Escape around to face the oncoming riders so that we could effectively camp out in the back hatch with it open to avoid most of the rain. And Grady and I played games together, ate snacks, told jokes and took pictures of other stuff while we waited. Grady also had fun kicking gravel into the rain runoff, so much so that he's probably ruined his new(ish) shoes.

When the cyclists did come ripping through, they were proceeded by support cars, police cars, motorcycle cops and photographers on the backs of other motorcycles. And they blazed through even though we were at the top of a pretty good sized hill.

As they tore by, I snapped pictures, shot video from a tripod on the deck in the back of the car and made sure Grady didn't go wandering out into traffic. I had both my big-boy camera, the Canon XTi, and my new SX110. I think I may have ended up opting for the 110 to replace my SD1100 because of today and the desire to zoom in.

Either way, I got some good photos, including Lance!, shot some good video footage and had a good time spending so much time alone with Grady.

My favorite (and recorded) moment occurred after the first big peleton can ripping through with all of its support cars and excitement. Grady appears on the far right of the video, watching, smiling and digging it. After the last car goes by, he turns towards the camera and says, not once but twice, "That was awesome, poppa!"

And it was awesome.

Here's my photo set from the day. I'll probably add a few more as we move forward. I'm currently working on getting the videos converted into a more usable format.

Lance Armstrong squares off with Paul Kimmage

I was listening to the live feed of the Amgen Tour of California press conference last night via an internet feed, when fireworks started to fly! The press conference was pretty typical at first, with nearly all questions being directed at Lance. He even said at one point, "hey I'm not the only rider in this room". Referring to George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian VanDevelde, and Ivan Basso sitting right next to him. I was running in and out of the house trying to BBQ and listen without missing anything. One reporter began to ask Lance a question about doping. Lance paused and said, what is your name sir? Then must have remembered that this particular reporter (Paul Kimmage) had in the past called Lance "the cancer of the peloton". Lance proceeded to rip into him and said he is not worth the chair he is sitting on, among other things.

You can watch the video and here on VeloNews.com's video site.

Good Local to Santa Cruz Info about the Tour of California

If you are planning on getting out to enjoy Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California then visit that site and get some good insight, some news about the race, local events and a map to find great spots to post up and watch some of the best bike racers on the planet go whizzing by.

I'm still deciding on where to set up shop so I can get some quality photos of the race.

I just hope the weather cooperates.

Cat 4 Cherry Pie Criterium Video

I didn't race this race, but a few of my teammates did. Pretty cool video shot from a front tire perspective. If you want to sorta experience what crit racing is like, check this out. The video is about 40 minutes, the entire race. There are supposedly a couple of crashes in there one at 14:55 one one later.


2009 Cherry Pie Criterium Cat 4 from Steven Woo on Vimeo.

Instant Bike Lane!

This is absolutely brilliant (pun intended)!

LightLane's Lasers Make an Instant Bike Lane
A seat mounted laser projects lines on the road with a bike symbol behind the biker to make it very easy to see how much space a car should be giving to the biker.

This is really and truly superb!

It isn't perfect as the mount will project the bike lane anywhere the biker goes and there's nothing to stop the biker from not following the side of the road. But still, it is hard to argue with the visibility and clear marking of a safety zone this new system creates.

Ride a Motorcycle? Wear a Helmet

Lack of helmets causes problems for all, not just bike riders

Just as I am shocked to find out that people don't bother taking basic precautions when driving by putting on their seatbelts, I'm similarly shocked that there are people who routinely ride their motorcycles on public streets without helmets.

A McLeod Health study of motorcycle crash victims treated at the hospital from 2003 to 2007 reveals that only 28 percent of 167 patients wore helmets.
...
In 2007, 41 percent of fatally injured motorcycle operators and 53 percent of fatally injured passengers were not wearing helmets. That same year, the NHTSA estimates that helmets saved the lives of 1,784 motorcyclists and that 800 more could have been saved had they been wearing helmets.

Twenty-eight percent is just barely over one in four. How much more harm did they do to themselves by not bothering with a helmet? Do they wish they'd been wearing one while they recuperate in the hospital following their accidents? If they still retain higher brain function then it would be a good bet that most do wish they had worn a helmet.

I get the freedom of the wind in your hair, I get that helmets are stuffy, constraining and hot. But I've been involved in three accidents over my motorcycling life, two of them involving collisions with another vehicle. One was a t-bone where the jackass made an illegal left in front of me and I mashed into his car between the front and rear door. If I hadn't been wearing my helmet, I would have mashed my head into jelly on the road when I landed after having flipped up and over his car.

The other accident would have had similarly unpleasant and permanent results if I'd not been wearing my helmet. In each case I suffered numerous other injuries but the greatest damage was prevented by my helmet.

I'll never ride my motorcycle, or my bike for that matter, without my helmet (obviously a different helmet for my bike). My brain function is far too important to not do what I can to protect my head and brain in the event of a crash. But then, I'm a bit older now and have a sense of my mortality.

Here are a big bunch of stats from the bicycle side. Short version? Wearing a helmet increases the likelihood of walking away from an accident substantially. Wear one if you've got some brains worth saving.