How to Repo a Bike

So yea it sucks but bike theft does exist. It is one of the most revolting, cowardly, back-stabbing things one individual can do to another. I am pretty sure if Jesus was still here, "thall shall not steal another man/womans bicycle" would be added to the Big Ten.

Watch Cam McCaul as he shows the correct method of repossessing a bike here.

Why I Ride: The Art of Bicycling in New York

On a weekly basis I am interrogated by customers regarding how to install a motor on their new bicycle. To which I reply: Nuts! No no; I merely state this is a bicycle sir/mam, you are the motor.

The layman person does not understand why we ride, why we shave our legs, why we enjoy to sweat, or why we could drive but we don't. The guys over at Why I Ride decided they would try to explain to people why. A book somewhat 60 pages long gives details from many through pictures, stories, or other means why they ride. And more specifically why they ride in New York City.

Download the PDF here. Yea its FREE!!!

Speedtest.net

Want to know your broadband bandwith speed for downloading those latest TDF pics? Click icon above. Did you beat 2288 kbps?

Contador Wins, Contador Wins!

Count em...one, two, three men from American Team Discovery have finished in the top 10 of one of the most prestigious, most rigorous races occurring in the world today. Also congrats to super domestique George Hincapie for leading a teammate 8 times to winning this great race. You looked magnificent as you rode toward the Arc de Triumph dressed in the most beautiful flag in the world.

To the Australians: what a glorious race you guys had. Cadel, maybe things could have been different if cheaters were not in our sport, but if the worst thing to happen to you is you received second on one of the most exalted stages ever, then your life was not half bad.

Soler, with your polka-dot jersey win, Barloworld will be extremely happy with all of the publicity you have provided for them and Cannondale. I see many expensive contract possibilities in your near future. As for Tom Boonen, the David Beckham of cycling, your aim with water bottles is as good as your sprinting abilities. You deserve green without a doubt as even some of your rivals could not finish the whole of the race.

Team CSC is always a favorite of mine. Carlos rode magnificently in the mountains however maybe due to Bjarne's recent faults and crashes Sastre nor CSC finished with an podiums.

Finally to Vino, Rasmu, and any others that were arrested due to doping allegations. I hope that the tests may have been tainted from French scientists due to the jealousy of your successes; however if not, you have only brought shame to your name and disgraced a beautiful sport.

Of course the sport of cycling does not end at the conclusion of the Tour de France, it never ends. Many questions have been left unanswered and these gladiators on bikes will continue to train to become even better athletes.

But for now, Au revior le Tour et au revior mes amis

...

No Cyclingnews Flash...Yet

At 22:42 CST there has not yet been a Cyclingnews Flash posted. For the past week we have all been signing on to the great website only to find terrible news of cheaters in our sport. Hopefully there will be no more of these negative news flashes anytime soon.

Bon chance Alberto, Cadel, et Levi! Vive le Tour!

Older Song, New to Me

For some reason I am really liking this song in this week of my life. & it's really cute how the chick and guy philander each other...

Song: Lazy Eyes
Artist: Silversun Pickups

Happiness

SOPHOCLES:

When a man has lost all happiness/ he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse.

Riding a bike makes me very happy, therefore I am very alive.

:)

The Brasstown Climb Teaser

On the way up:

At the Top!

No Vino, Please No

Alexandre Vinokourov allegedly has tested positive for blood doping following the time trial Saturday of the TDF . Nuff said... (Maybe this is all just a bad dream or joke.)

Updates from the extreme climb up Brasstown Bald coming soon!

The Bald

Headed to Brasstown now. 20% grade for two miles. Now I am starting to wonder why. Look for us here, I'll stick my head in front of the cam sometime today if I can.

Carpe' every diem!!!

Miles, Miles, More Miles

The only thing that can help us now is saddle time as we prepare for the hardest there is. More on the bike, less on the comp. Sad, but here is a peak:

CSC and Jens both staying!

Even with all of the controversy surrounding Team Director Bjarne Riis, CSC has vowed to continue their sponsorship of his cycling team following this season "after careful consideration" reports Velonews. Also of great news CSC has extended Jens Voigt's contract for another 2 years. Voigt continually talks of how much he likes riding for CSC and hopes to retire while wearing the colors of red, white, and black. Jens is a favorite not only among his teammates for his hard work and dedication but also within the pro peleton.

Energy Fiend -- Death by Caffeine

Ever wonder how many cups of coffee it would take to put you 6 feet under? I never have but I guess someone did. The guys at energy fiend will tell you in conjunction with your weight how much of your fav. energy drink you can consume before your heart stops beating. Comical in a weird way right? Also find out all you need to know about your special morning wake up drink. But if you think about it, what two things go together like peas and carrots? That's right...cycling and coffee. :)

New York Times Offers Bicycle Commute Advice

What is the most abundant mechanical in cycling? Broken Chain? Broken Spoke? Frame Failure? Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Flat tyres have done everything from destroying a dream of winning your local race to being late to the office for that important meeting with the CEO. Even though steps can be taken so that a flat is some-what preventable, they still happen. When it does happen, are you prepared? Do you hitchhike or can you change the tube/sew-up yourself? Lauren Hefferon, a free lance writer for the New York Times, published today a gear review of pumps that you can carry with you on the bike or in your m-bag to help recover after that devastating piece of glass jumped out in front of your tyre. Personally I am a huge fan of all Crank Brothers products. Here for the article.

Best of YouTube Podcast

Podcasts are great. Whether you are catching up on iPhone reviews, the right way to clean a sensor of a Nikon D80 SLR, or just listening to what is going on in the cycling world there are four or five podcasts that are right for you. Because I am such a fan and listen on a daily basis I want to share the ones that are truly worth a download. My newest added podcast is a video podcast called thebestofyoutube. It can be found on iTunes but check out the above for a little teaser...

Ultegra Shifter Surgery

Cyclists all try in some form or fashion try to do their own mechanical work. Some know what they are doing and everything is fine, some fail miserably, and some know what they are doing but things fail anyway. This is an example of the latter. Great chick however for some reason her derailleur cable decided to totally detach itself from the rest of its body leaving the remainder within the shifter. Kind of reminds me of an umbillical cord being cut from a baby. That's kind of gross to think about but anyway. This actully turned out to not be as bad of a fix as it first started out being and she is now riding very satisfied once again. Even though I am a total SRAM geek and ride Force on my super sweet S-Works Tarmac, Shimano STI is pretty awesome. What I pulled out at the end >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(The shifter fully recovered.)

Anybody have a name for a cable head without the rest of its body? If you want more info about the surgery leave me a comment with your contact info....Thanks!

SOS --Save Our Earth! 7.7.07

Global warming...is it really as bad as scientists say? If we keep our way of living up is it really going to turn out that bad? This generation will never know but our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren may have to suffer the consequences. After watching the amazing broadcast of the Live Earth concerts from 7 different continents put together by Al Gore it makes a lot more sense that we should do everything we can to better our planet. If you don't recycle then start, use mass transit systems, turn your computer off at night, or here is an idea: RIDE A BIKE. I promise riding your bike to and fro not only makes you feel and look good you are also taking an active role in saving our planet. Learn even more ways to save our planet here. Thank You! --Mother Earth

Tour de France -- Prologue Complete

After a year of turmoil, this years Tour de France could not have started off any better. Beginning in a new country, the weather was beautiful, the roads were good, and the bikes were gorgeous. What more could a fan ask for? Except for one Aussie there were no major crashes and everyone should return to the start line tomorrow. Strong riders from just about every team showed up but once again CSC would be on top. The man of the day was Fabian Cancellara as he destroyed every other rider, riding like "a man possessed" as Phil would say in beating Andreas Kloden of team Astana by 13 seconds and George Hincapie of Disco by 23. Although Fabian may not be a main contender for GC he showed the world today exactly why he wears the rainbow World Champ Time Trial jersey. Félicitations!

Vive le Tour

Today in a matter of hours the greatest cycling race in the world will begin. A race surrounded by prestige, beauty, glory, drama, and scandal will last for 22 days to decide who is the best cyclist and team in the sport for the year 2007. Helping to report the latest in the race look to cyclingnews, Pezcycling News, Velonews, and Versus who all do a fantastic job in bringing the world of cycling back to every computer.

As I am posting, the riders of The Tour are warming up on the streets of London to begin the Prologue with a solo time trial. Versus has listed here all the times the race will be aired on US national television. Hats off to those guys as they do a phenomenal job in broadcasting the events of the race usually 3 to 4 times a day.

For some of the leading stories: Disco goes Green, Fabian should be the first to wear yellow, and will Tom be able to ride his bike?

Fabian Should Wear Yellow After Today

"I can win. On paper it is possible that I can really win."

During an interview with cyclingnews World Champion Time Trialist Fabian Cancellara of Team CSC states that he really think he will be wearing the maillot jaune after todays prologue. As long as his powerful legs are doing their job he along with his teammate US National Time Trial Champ Dave Zabriskie should put CSC on top to begin even without Riis there to guide them.

Boonen's New TT Bike
Specialized just released a week ago their revamp of the Transition Time Trial bike. As gorgeous as it looks it took UCI officials a while to decide if it was legal because of the position of the rear tyre with the seat tube of the machine. However, it did pass regulations so Tom now has a better chance of beginning the Tour with yellow.



Now off to a place where I too will be a team mechanic for many riders in my town who seek to put on the miles that our foreign friends will be doing in France for the next three weeks.

Bon Chance!

JMC 4th of July Ride

Cyclists in the South? Those exist? Yes we do. Click the title for pics from the JMC 4th of July ride. There is a very special woman (mum) in this pic. Just find the most beautiful one and thats her!

Etymotic Research

So I love bikes but I also love technology as previously indicated with my iPhone posts. Now I need to send a shout-out to the guys over at Etymotic Research. I have been using their ER.6 headphones for at least 1.5 years now and they are awesome. Easy to carry, great sound, good quality, and they look really sweet around you neck too. But not only is the product good, the customer service is phenomenal. Right after I got the earbuds I left the carrying case and bag of goodies on a plane by accident but without even blinking an eye the guys at ER had me a new bag of goodies in the mail once they found out what happened. I recently placed an order for new filters and once again ER hooked me up with some Free new eartips to try. Keep up the awesome work and I would recommend any of their headphones to any audiophile...

Jet Powered Kayak

Nuff said in title... (Click here for full article)

SRAM Red --The Shifter

Months after releasing SRAM Force, the new sexy, lighter than Dura-Ace 1:1 Actuation groupo, they (SRAM) secretly released to us vendors through various mediums that a newer, better road group would be released soon. After a call to SRAM to find out more I was given nothing...notta...no soup. However it seems just in time for THE Tour, SRAM is leaking pics and info. regarding the newer, even lighter, even sexier group. Above is the new shifter with an improved double-tap mechanism and adjustable reach brake/shift lever. Go here for more pics and info. Ahh so beautiful...

CSC without their Leader during Tour

Velonews is reporting CSC's Director Sportif Bjarne Riis will not be following his Team CSC during the Tour de France set to start Saturday. Do to more allegations involving drug scandals, Riis has decided to stay out of the Tour. How will this affect CSC? Will the doping EVER end?

Jittery Joes Bean Team Docu To Air Today

Coolest car in pro cycling? Maybe...best choice? Def. not. But oh well hey these guys documentary is to air today on Versus at 3:30 pm est. Don't know anything about it however it is a cycling team sponsored by a coffee company. Are there any other two things that go better then that? FYI: The Tour starts Saturday!

Happy 4th!

Today, we celebrate our independence. Have an exciting but safe 4th of July. God bless...

Tour De France Crash Vid

OUCH!--presented by cyclingnews

Urban Velo #2--Now Available!

From some of the original guys of Dirt Rag Mag, Brad & Jeff produce this bi-monthly periodical that is FREE! The focus of the magazine in on everything urban cyclists have to deal with on a daily basis. Like others it doesn't just focus on gear, nutrition, or the pro peleton, but more on the people that ride in the city and commute to work just because they love to ride. Messengers aren't the only guys that like to dodge cars to get to where they are going. Urban Velo #1 was awesome and #2 is sure to please. You can get to these guys website here or download the mag on this page. By the way thanks to CD for an amazing night on Saturday, if only we had met sooner...

Newton's Third Law

For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action...

OBC Customer of the Month: Freebird

Perhaps the "most unique" Specialized Roubaix on the road right now. Complete with aerobars, HED Tri-spoke and Disc wheels, headlight, rear rack with protection secured discreetly, front and rear fender, FM radio, Camelback, Lumbar pack, Mueller anti-glare strips and a guy with a REALLY big heart. "Don't pass up life with Christ." God love you Freebird...