Turn Every Ride into a Charitable Ride

Plus 3 Network to make my ride a charitable cause. You sign up with the site, choose a sponsor and cause and then track your rides with your GPS unit. The system will tally your miles and your sponsor will donate money in your name to your cause.

Its a great idea and the only snag I can see in it is that my GPS unit is old and does not work very well under tree cover. I hope there's a way around that as I can't see myself upgrading to a nicer GPS unit in the near future.

But check it out and see if you can get signed up and start converting your rides into charity rides.

Update: Testing out the Tweetmeme widget.

Sport Crapping

Note, this and the last post are not indicative of a shift in NorCal Bikers core interests of bicycles and motorcycles. But sometimes you need to stop and take a gander at things like the Motorcycle Toilet.

It wasn't what I was expecting.

Man Builds Sidecar from Bathtub | Motorcycle Blog: The Sidecar

If a link titled, Man Builds Sidecar from Bathtub, doesn't make you want to click through then I don't there's any reason to try and convince you to go see a sidecar made out of a bathtub.

Good Customer Support from Topeak

This past weekend I went to pump up my tires with my trusty $24 Topeak Joe Blow Sport floor pump and bam the yellow lever broke off. I submitted a help desk ticket on their website, and received a quick reply. I called the number they provided for Customer Service and was able to easily order a replacement part, "TwinHead". So I give two thumbs up to Todson and their Topeak products.

Crazy Crash Video at the Tour of Turkey

Pause & watch it again at 3:42 - unreal.

A Fantastic Day at the Sea Otter Classic

I was fortunate enough to spend all day yesterday at the Sea Otter Classic at Laguna Seca in Seaside/Monterey. It my first time making the trek down for what it is, basically, cycling mecca on the west coast. It is a grand celebration of all things bicycle. There were roadies racing on the paved race track, there were downhillers blasting corners and whoop-de-dos on a steep dirt track, there were trials riders, there were BMX studs launching themselves high into the air above quarter pipes and ramp boxes. And there were hundreds of manufacturers, accessory makers, nutrition companies and lots of good food too. There were also two distinct demo areas, one for the dirt riders that was like a BMX race track and another road course to demo out the skinny tire road bikes.

And then, there were a ton of activities centered around kids. A short oval dirt track they got to race on that had previously had some obstacles for them to negotiate, a cool bungy bouncer thing, bounce houses, those big bounce house inflatable slides.

I got to worship at the Temple of Ibis, paid $5 to enter a raffle for a sweet orange Mojo SL and also bought myself a cool new sweatshirt though, with the awesome weather, I did not need it until much, much later in the day.

I also connected up with Fritz (aka Richard aka Cyclelicious) and had a really good time walking the booths with him. He knows an amazing amount of people in the industry and those people he doesn't know, he introduces himself and now he does know them. Part of the fun of an event like the Sea Otter is that there is a real communal bike culture element present, everyone there is a bike nut in some way or another. Because of Fritz, I got to meet and talk with a whole host of interesting and, on occasion, luminary bicycle folks including Steven Wild, one of the founders of the Mt. Tam Velo Club waaaaaay back in the days before mountain bikes, and Gary Fisher, yes THAT Gary Fisher. Too cool!

Because Fritz writes for Momentum, the magazine for self-propelled people, he was also very interested in speaking with, interviewing and photographing all the cool bike stuff that caught his or my eye. He'd also scheduled a demo ride on the Delta 7 Ascent, its an isotruss carbon fiber and kevlar frame that is extremely light, extremely strong and extremely stiff, its also extremely expensive. As he was prepping to head out on the demo, he happened to ask if they had another bike for me to try out and, as it happens, they had the Delta 7 Arantix, the mountain version of the bike. I will put together a full write up later but suffice it to say that the bike is very, very fast and feels like you could dyno it over anything you wanted to because it was so light.

We also met with the BikeGlow guys and got a chance to see just how well the system worked. They'd constructed a dark room with a bike outfitted with the safety system and it definitely makes a bike much, much more visible. Also makes the bike look pretty cool too.

We were momentarily beset by the Mountain Pipe militia, two guys decked out in bandoliers of CO2 cartridges and some very slick widgets to make using them easy. The neatest product they demo'ed for us was a CO2 inflator that, when the cartridge was empty, could be screwed into the end of the tube and used as a handle for a manual pump. Good guys and some neat products!

We also hit up the Larabar booth for some delicious samples, the Clif Bar booth for some gummy samples and drinks and the FRS booth for a sample. My favorite was the Larabar but the FRS drink was pretty good too.

I'm sure I'm forgetting more than I'm remembering. But it was a great and memorable day. I am deeply thankful of connecting up with Richard, he was great company and I'm not just saying that because he got me dinner at Panda Express!

I wish I could be headed back down there today with the whole family but, alas, it isn't in the cards. Next year we will plan a much more ambitious outing and I might even enter a race or two but no promises.

File Under: Nah, Not for Me

I saw the Quike and checked out the pictures and, honestly, don't see much point. Its enormous, its ungainly, it doesn't do much for me.

I like bicycling because its a practical means of getting around, I can go damned near anywhere I want and I can either put it in my car or on my hitch rack.

This monster needs a trailer, goes slowly, corners oddly and just doesn't do it for me. Kind of neat in a dorky sort of way though.

Helmet Fit Check List

I was happy to replace to replace my aging and slightly battered cycling helmet the other day. Attached to the helmet was a handy little fit check list and I thought it would be useful to remind all the cyclists out there of how to get a good fit for yourself and for our little budding cyclists.

I've found that getting a good tight fit on a kid's helmet is harder than it is for me to get a good fit on my helmet. And its waaaay more important.

So here we go:
Eyes - The rim of the helmet should be 1 to 2 finger widths above the eyebrows.

Ears - The straps should form a "V" just underneath the ear lobe.

Mouth - When the rider opens his mouth, the buckle should feel snug on the chin and the helmet should hug the head.

Before using the helmet, check the fit, stand in front of a mirror and grab the helmet with both hands and twist it to the left and to the right. If the helmet fits right, the skin on the forehead will move as the helmet moves. If the skin does not move, then the helmet is too loose and is unsafe for use and you need to start over with the fitting. If it does fit right then grab the helmet with both hands and try to remove it by rolling the helmet forward and backward. If you can roll it off the head completely or so far that it blocks vision or backward enough to expose the forehead, then, surprise, it doesn't fit right and is unsafe to use.

Lastly, take a short test ride to ensure proper fit without being too tight. Most helmets these days come with a set of fit pads to finalize the fit and make it feel just right.

And, oh yeah, always wear your helmet when you go out and ride your bike.

Hang Time

Hang Time
Originally uploaded by fenriq

Shot this today with my telephoto across the dog park. This younger rider, must have been 16 or 17, was getting great air over the jumps. He's probably a solid ten feet off the ground here.

As an aside, I found out that one of my teacher's teenaged sons was practicing his jumps at the Polo Grounds where this shot was taken. He crashed very, very hard. He was wearing a helmet but not a full face MX style helmet and smashed his face into his handlebars causing massive bruising but did not, apparently, break any bones.

Unfortunately though, he hit hard enough to cause permanent damage to one of his ears and has since gone deaf on one side of his head.

The bottom line is, if you're going to launch yourself ten, twelve or more feet in the air, wear as much protective gear as you can possibly muster.

Easy Folding Bicycles

The IF MODE: the sleek folding bicycle with a clever twist is easy to compact down from a full-sized bike. A single action mechanism automatically folds the bike, guides the wheels together and requires no parts to be removed.

The resulting compact bike is wheelable and even includes a usable handle for maneuvering. Take the wheels off and the bike can even fit in a suitcase!

Very cool, indeed.