I'm in the process of moving this blog to wordpress. It looks nicer and is a bit more pleasant to use.
Please update your RSS feeds, links, and whatnot, and I hope I don't lose too many of my several faithful readers over the switch.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
World Championships
I woke up late enough to catch only the fun parts of the World Championships last weekend.It's pretty nice to see Cadel Evans, who has a bit of a reputation as an always-the-bridesmaid rider (not to mention a bit of a whiner), ride a strong, well-timed attack to victory. Seeing him alone in the final kilometer, out of the saddle and grinding his gear to the finish line without any flamboyant victory salutes - that's a nice aesthetic of victory. It reminded me of Sergei Ivanov's stage win on stage 14 of the Tour this year - the right attack that gets clear and then a hard, ride, hands in the drops, ass on the nose, pounding home solo. Now that's PRO.
Booger Knights
My track bikes have all left town, but I'm still going to find a way to come to Boogie Nights, a five-week late-night track-bike race series in Prospect Park.
Yes, it's safe.
It's a great way to get some fun end-of-the-season racing in. It's also a good way to get some first-time race experience under your belt, if you haven't raced in a pack, or raced a track bike before. It will get you buying your USAC license and dreaming of Opening Day out at Kissena.
There will be good competition for noobs and for experienced racers, so if you're in the city, come check it out.
Prizes will be multitudinous. A plan ticket to anywhere in the lower 48 states will be raffled off, with all proceeds going to support Gabe's ongoing recovery.
Yes, it's safe.
It's a great way to get some fun end-of-the-season racing in. It's also a good way to get some first-time race experience under your belt, if you haven't raced in a pack, or raced a track bike before. It will get you buying your USAC license and dreaming of Opening Day out at Kissena.
There will be good competition for noobs and for experienced racers, so if you're in the city, come check it out.
Prizes will be multitudinous. A plan ticket to anywhere in the lower 48 states will be raffled off, with all proceeds going to support Gabe's ongoing recovery.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Recycled Content #3
"Race well, race with dignity, race with a conscience:" Sprinter Della Casa proposes USAC policies to punish intentionally dangerous riders, and reminds us that there are some people who take our down-home amateur sport far too seriously - to the detriment and danger of those around them.
I twitter. I apologize.
Everybody's favorite racer, Fabian Cancellara (he's up there with Hincapie and Jens Voigt on everybody's Awesome list, partly due to this stage win), recently won the World Time Trial Championship. He completed the the 49.8 kilometre course in 57:54. That gives him an average speed of 51.5kph, or 32mph, for a whole damn hour. What will it take to get this man on a velodrome to go after the Hour Record?
Yesterday, I rode a friend's custom Johnny Coast (this one, in fact), and was delighted at how soft and comfortable it rode.
Cycling Art reflects on descending, and one of my favorite scenes from this year's Giro d'Italia.
VeloGogo has the best picture of Reynolds' carbon clincher that doesn't use a traditional hook to hold the bead. Hmm. Go figure.
And finally, Hipster Nascar gives a pretty good look at what fixed gear bikes companies are showing at Interbike. I offer a cringe at the decision to display the Bianchi Super Pista with Aerospokes and a thumb's up to Fuji's line, which offers some nice options on the performance end of the spectrum.
I twitter. I apologize.
Everybody's favorite racer, Fabian Cancellara (he's up there with Hincapie and Jens Voigt on everybody's Awesome list, partly due to this stage win), recently won the World Time Trial Championship. He completed the the 49.8 kilometre course in 57:54. That gives him an average speed of 51.5kph, or 32mph, for a whole damn hour. What will it take to get this man on a velodrome to go after the Hour Record?
Yesterday, I rode a friend's custom Johnny Coast (this one, in fact), and was delighted at how soft and comfortable it rode.
Cycling Art reflects on descending, and one of my favorite scenes from this year's Giro d'Italia.
VeloGogo has the best picture of Reynolds' carbon clincher that doesn't use a traditional hook to hold the bead. Hmm. Go figure.
And finally, Hipster Nascar gives a pretty good look at what fixed gear bikes companies are showing at Interbike. I offer a cringe at the decision to display the Bianchi Super Pista with Aerospokes and a thumb's up to Fuji's line, which offers some nice options on the performance end of the spectrum.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Aero Wheels
Recently, some good reading on the subject of aerodynamic wheels came up. I didn't really understand aerodynamic wheels until I read this post and this post by sprinterdellacasa a while back.
A few months ago, NYVelocity posted an equipment review of rental deep carbon wheels from Revolution Wheels. Using Zipps as a familiar point of reference, NYVelocity concluded, "These wheels are maybe 95% as good as Zipps, for 42% of the price. Unless you're lighting cigars with twenty dollar bills these babies are hard to beat."
A few months later, Zipp's lead engineer gave a very open interview to NYVelocity in response. It offers some interesting insight into Zipp's R&D as well as the industry's copycat process. Plus you get to learn some juicy details about ceramic bearings.
Now, another response comes from Steve Hed, who apparently wants to clarify some of the Zipp-v-Hed issues brought up in the interview with Zipp's engineer. Hed picks apart some of the claims and illustrates a chicken-or-the-egg rivalry going on between the two companies: The fact is that since Zipp acquired our patent (sometime in the late 90s) their wheels have changed shape to more closely mirror the wheels we started selling 18 years ago. We have continually improved them since then, but the underlying aero shapes are still similar. As Zipp's wheel shapes have changed to more closely resemble ours, it only follows that their wind tunnel data is more like ours too.
It's a good read for the nerds who enjoy not only technical data but industry sparring as well.
A few months ago, NYVelocity posted an equipment review of rental deep carbon wheels from Revolution Wheels. Using Zipps as a familiar point of reference, NYVelocity concluded, "These wheels are maybe 95% as good as Zipps, for 42% of the price. Unless you're lighting cigars with twenty dollar bills these babies are hard to beat."
A few months later, Zipp's lead engineer gave a very open interview to NYVelocity in response. It offers some interesting insight into Zipp's R&D as well as the industry's copycat process. Plus you get to learn some juicy details about ceramic bearings.
Now, another response comes from Steve Hed, who apparently wants to clarify some of the Zipp-v-Hed issues brought up in the interview with Zipp's engineer. Hed picks apart some of the claims and illustrates a chicken-or-the-egg rivalry going on between the two companies: The fact is that since Zipp acquired our patent (sometime in the late 90s) their wheels have changed shape to more closely mirror the wheels we started selling 18 years ago. We have continually improved them since then, but the underlying aero shapes are still similar. As Zipp's wheel shapes have changed to more closely resemble ours, it only follows that their wind tunnel data is more like ours too.
It's a good read for the nerds who enjoy not only technical data but industry sparring as well.
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