Unplugged

Well...

I'm unpluggin' from mass media for a bit (that includes the 'net!), while I take a break for a couple weeks.

I'm not guaranteeing anything, 'cuz I might crack and stop into an internet cafe during our travels, but I really will be doing my best to avoid "takin' a hit" from the busy-ness of information overload...

take it easy out there,

-kraig

Zipp 808 vs TriSpoke

TJS of Minneapolis Minnesota writes about biketechreview's Zipp 808 vs Trispoke wind tunnel test on a public forum (thanks to the friends of BTR for pointing this one out!):

"I wouldn't mind the $15.00 if the test was done a little better. I feel cheated after buying it and don't recommend it for obvious (to those that have seen it) reasons. :(. "

Gotta love folks who complain about how the testing was conducted when 100% of the testing methodology was described in the publicly available, free to view blurb linked to above.

D'oh!

Despite TJS' interesting perceptions, I'm always open to feedback on what the best way to test the aerodynamic properties of wheels is (as a matter of fact, I modified the beta sweep for subsequent wind tunnel equipment tests I've conducted based on feedback from the BTR insider's list).

Anyhoo, let's hear your thoughts on how I should not "cheat" folks like TJS of Minneapolis Minnesota due to poor wind tunnel based wheel testing methodology.

I won't guarantee I'll use any of the ideas mentioned here, but I will guarantee I'll take them into consideration.

Stop. Turn Around. Enjoy.

I drove past the same spot as I usually do on old highway 395 this evening. It's the same spot I've seen probably a thousand times over the last five and a half years.

The sun was setting over the pacific, there were some clouds about. It looked pretty cool.

So...

I thought a bit as I drove.

Then, I stopped 500m down the road, turned around to the spot I had passed, and enjoyed the view.

As I was walking back to the truck, I snapped this cell phone pic:

What's the sunset look like where you live?

Last Race of 2007?

Ventured up to the Ladera Grand Prix in Ladera Ranch. This was supposed to be a quick hour drive for me from the diggs here in willetts-burg...

No dice - traffic was pretty bad and it wound up taking me almost two hours to get to the race.

I haven't really been riding the bike much since I went to Cascade (which ended pretty poorly for me in what amounted to a case of a mistake being made by a confused/creative OBRA official...) - so I was eager to do a race with the goal being to get that bad taste of Cascade out of my mouth prior to gettin' on the ol' KJ train this fall/winter (one of my goals this fall is to drop another 3-4 kilos by Jan 1 - that'll be some serious work, so we'll see how that goes!).

Anyway, back to Ladera where I toed the line with a whoppin' 10-12 hours of bike ridin' in my legs in the last month...

Started at the back of the 40ish rider field after explaining to Eddie M. how one of the Willett's is much better at winning bike races than the other. hmmm... I wonder which I was referring to!

:-)

Yeah, so this course was deceptively tight - not much room for more than two abreast in any of the corners, and if you were on the outside you were pretty much taking your chances. Like five minutes into this thing, a buncha dudes were rolling up the road and I figgered I'd better cover anything that had good representation. Some guys were actively blocking (a pretty dipsticky thing to do, IMHO - a pet peeve of mine - it's pretty poor form to ride your brakes and take dumbass lines in a corner/just prior to a corner while on the front...) but I digress.

So, seein' as how I saw the beginnings of "Active Blocking" in the early laps as a dozen or more guys went up the road - I punched it just prior to turn 1, which is just about when someone on my left decided they were going to try and close the door on me. As I was going past this guy on his right (I think I came from something like third or fourth wheel) he made a sudden move to his right and we touched shoulders.

I didn't really think anything of it as I went across to the 15 guys up the road. Well, I got an earful by my friend who had decided to try to chop me the lap earlier. huh, guess he forgot that he came over on me and got a wee bit freaked out. that's bike racin'.

Anyway, the first 10-15 minutes I was pretty active, which is just about when the winning move went up the road and I basically chickened out trying to go across a twenty-twenty five second gap. Kind of sucks doing the lone wolf thing out there with no teammates - I just couldn't really bring myself to taking any pulls that really would do nothing for my chances of winning - plus, I was a little tapped after those opening few minutes and needed to recover.

So, I sat in and went hard at the end - lost a few positions on the last lap in turn 1 as I wound up on the outside and nearly got put into the curb. Followed Allen R. after that and hit the last corner in about 6th or 7th wheel in the field (there were 7 guys up the road?) and gave it a go before sitting up 25 meters in front of the line and coasting in for a whoppin' fifth spot in the field sprint.

Well, at least I didn't have to deal with any creative officiating this time around! :-)

Here's the SRM screenshot from the race (it was pretty hot - note the high HR in the finale - don't think I've seen 190+bpm in quite some time!):

bike commute

While living here in SoCal, I've lived a variety of distances from where I've worked. The closest I lived to where I "clocked in" was maybe 2k away - I drove to work everyday while living there.

Then, there was a period where I lived maybe 10-12k away and I pedaled nearly every day to work for more than a year.

Where I live now is 40k away and when I first moved out here I pedaled both ways two days a week - that lasted about 6 months until we bought a second vehicle, and that made me a bit more lazy...

I've been really lazy when it comes to the bike commuting thing for the past few years, BTW!



While living where we are right now, I've also been known to drive about halfway, park the rig, and then ride the rest of the way in, and that's just what I did two times this week. Felt pretty good to pedal in the morning with no real goals other than to eventually make it to work.



The driving part way and then riding the rest, trick, really only costs me an additional ten to fifteen minutes, as the part I ride is the traffic-y portion of my regular commute.



Of course, I use the SRM and hey, check that out, I actually get some goin' hard time in on the ride! ;-)





I hope to make this bike commute a more regular occurrence, besides, burnin' a few more KJ's is a good thing for me right about now.

It's going to start getting dark here pretty soon around quittin' time - and my old light system is, well, kinda old (circa 1996/1997 where it got good use in Blacksburg!) - I reckon the light systems these days are a wee-bit better than what was available 10 years ago...

Anybody have any light recommendations for me?

The LANCE effect or the DOPING effect?

or both of them combined?

Velonews ran a story about how great things were going for the media players and their website this year during "tour time":

velonews article

BTW, I was pointed to this article after reading the "shut up and drink the kool-aid" blog a few days ago...

kool-aid blog post

Here's a stat from my blog that is similar to the ones quoted in the blog above:

increase in unique views during the tour compared to similar period during last month(which was June - my best blog views month ever):

218%

I can't really make any other comparisons for my blog, though, since my webstats skillz aren't as good as they should be, I reckon (or my host provider's stats package isn't servicing me to the same level as other blog providers appear to be).

However, being the passionately curious person I am, I tried to see if I couldn't get some independent confirmation on just how rosy things were for the big dawgs of the online cycling media (like velonews.com, cyclingnews.com, pezcyclingnews.com - any others out there???) by typing a few words in over at alexa.com - and wound up being able to generate this plot for the past five years (you'll have to click on the link):

image link at alexa.com

I reckon Alexa's info more closely matches what BTR's overall web statistics reflects year over year in terms of expected growth - in other words, my BTR data suggests (BTR's overall positive growth this year during the tour wasn't as big as last year's growth around "tour time") that velonews is possibly doing a bit of cherry picking of their website data - otherwise known as "spin".

BTR is still growing at a pretty consistent rate, but I reckon the LANCE/Doping effect is real (i.e, LANCE's absence and the increased awareness around cycling and doping is having a negative impact on the cycling industry in general on the web) - at least that's what the data I have access to supports.

The industry spin might be different though.

What are everyone else's thoughts on this one?

Rolling Resistance

What's the potential rolling resistance of this sucker when executed well on bi-cycle:

http://www.gizmag.com/go/3603/

that's pretty cool, if you ask me - why? cuz it seems to be demonstrating concepts that strike at the core of reducing "rolling resistance" in an outside the box approach.

Then again, y'all must remember that I think decoding SRM binary power meter files is prety cool too, so yeah, YMMV!

Trek Tour

Saw this one out there in blogville:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/08/my-visit-to-tre.html


Trek flew me out to their facility for a job interview a long time ago - didn't get the job, but I did meet some nice folks while there and got a tour that was pretty similar to the one described.


I flew into Madison, WI and made the drive out to Waterloo on that trip - pretty cool area even though I was there during the winter and it was a wee-bit cold!


I've crossed paths with some of the engineers and reps of the Trek crew over the years at various wind tunnels (most recently at lswt.com - Scott, Mark, Brad, and Damon: keep up the good work and I hope you're keeping it fun and the chins up even though the disco boyz have pulled the plug!

Oooh, I wonder if I can get 13-15 cm behind the BB on one of those new Trek TT frames?!

That'd be sweet.

The Iliac Artery and Bike Racers

Some recent stuff in the news about iliac arteries and bike racing:

http://www.velonews.com/train/articles/13064.0.html

which is undoubtedly a result of the tragic death of Ryan Cox:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/aug07/aug01news2

Some of you BTR regulars might have read this one in the past:

http://www.biketechreview.com/misc/bikes_blood.htm

which describes Kirk's experience with the ol' iliac artery.

Personally, I had a bit of scare earlier this year when I started experiencing some leg pain/numbness - thanks to my brother's experience, I was aware of the whole iliac artery/leg pain/numbness/cycling connection - I mentioned the family history to my doc and got a doppler/ultrasound scan approved by my HMO.

They didn't find anything with the test (which was painless and took less than 45 minutes), but I reckon it's better safe than sorry on something like this, eh?

If you are experiencing something like this with one/both of your legs when the supercomputer doesn't think the sensation is appropriate for the effort, have a chat with your doc.

Anybody else out there have an experience they'd like to share regarding the topic?

Ok, Which one of you Cervelo Worshipper's Wrote this Letter to Abby?

This Blog has some pretty consistently "out there" commentary, and this one is par for the course:

http://www.howtoavoidthebummerlife.com/weblog/archives/2007/08/yep.html

That link is rated pg-13, BTW - though, it might be worse than that since I'm not a member of the MPAA or anything and I don't have kids...

Though, now that I think about it... I have watched the first two episodes of "the power of ten" on TV the last two nights and got a few questions exactly right, so, yeah, I pretty much have my finger on the pulse of popular "uhmerikuhn" opinion... ;-)

YMMV.

Bike Racin', Pocono's, and NASCAR

The NASCAR Nextel Cup road show rolled into Long Pond, Pennsylvania this weekend. Long Pond is the home of the Pocono Raceway. What the heck, this is supposed to be a bike related blog, eh? Don't be alarmed, you're in the right spot for bike stuff!

Well here's one tie-in for bikes, NASCAR, and BTR: back in 1996, or 1997 or sometime around then, I did a stage race at the Pocono raceway. It was a one lap TT, then a circuit race that wound it's way around the infield after taking in turns 1 and 2. I don't recall much from that weekend (maybe someone else out there did this race and can fill in some more of the details for me!), but one thing I do remember is the piece of raceway between turns one and two - more specifically, the fifteen inches of pavement adjacent to the concrete retaining wall...

There was a cross-tailwind on raceday IIRC, and we were strung out single file groveling for the wheels on that portion of the course (well, at least I was!). We had to have been goin' something like 50-55kph on that section (wait another ten years and ask me - I'll probably say we were going 60-65 kph! :-) )...

Anyway, from a car racin' perspective, Pocono is a crazy fast tri oval that probably has two of the most difficult left hand turns of all the super-speedways (if not all racetracks!). Turn one sees the likes of Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, and Dale Jr. rippin' it down the front stretch at 200mph before haulin' their cars around the banked turn 1.

Turn 2 has it's own name on the NASCAR circuit - they call it the "tunnel turn", and I reckon it's pretty hairy at the speeds these guys are going - not much banking on this turn.

Turn 3 at Pocono is also flat, but lots of speed has been scrubbed off.

The "optimal" setup required to go fast on the tunnel turn is a different one than the one needed to go fast around turn 1 which is different than the setup needed to go fastest around turn 3. These three dynamically different turns, or demands, of this track create a real challenge for the teams and drivers. How is that? I mean, all these guys have to do is push on the gas and turn left, eh? ;-)

I think the challenges of bike racin', whether it be from a TT, or a stage racin', or a single day racin' perspective are similar to those that these NASCAR teams see every week. Whether it's bi-cycle racin' or auto-mobile racin' both teams have to identify the demands, prepare for those demands, determine the correct equipment and setups, and then ultimately blend in the human element.

That's some tough and challengin' bidness, if you ask me.

So, the next time one of y'alls bike racin' buddies wants to poo-poo NASCAR, I'd recommend considering the perspective that in the end, the disciplines have far more similarities than differences.

PS - in true NASCAR fashion, this blog entry has been brought to you by Craftsman: not the official tools of ...-

BTR Turns 5 years old

Well, on August 2nd, 2002, BTR became a tiny little spec on the world wide web. That orange ad up there (Whoa, anybody else remember when BTR was orange? ha! What the heck was I thinking, and when am I going to re-design this unorganzied site???) is one of the first ads I ran as a result of working with Candice and Larry over at bike.com . It's these two that really sparked the re-kindling of my passion for bikes and technology in 2001 - without their generosity and encouragement, BTR wouldn't be on the path it is today.

Since that day five years ago, and with the help of lots of people, it has become a wee-bit bigger spec on the world wide web (but still just a little spec out there!!!).

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=biketechreview.com

My unbelievably patient and supportive wife is the heart and soul of BTR - what other kind of woman would help their husband do this:

http://www.biketechreview.com/misc/hangin_hub.htm

and think it was funny - yep, my wife rocks! ;-)

The Willett crew in Bendville has provided an immense amount of support, direction, and inspiration. I reckon, though, that Tina sure wishes I'd stop calling so much - but alas, there are just too many things to do and not enough time to get done what needs to be done! ;-)

Special thanks also goes out to the crew at LSWT.com (Dave, Dave, Frank, Donna, and Dave!)who have "learned me" a thing or two (or twenty) along the way.

Also, a big thanks to the many contributors on the BTR forum who provide many different perspectives for folks to consider.

I'm deeply grateful to everyone out there who takes a few minutes out of their day to poke around and explore the little nuggets here on biketechreview.com.

Lets make BTR bigger and better over the next five years!

Michael Shermer Nuggets

This post has absolutely nothing to do with bikes (but there is a bike frame in a couple of the videos below!), and will probably get me into lots of trouble with some folks, but oh well...

So, I read this book a couple years ago:



and when the skeptic society was running a special on signed copies, I ordered a copy:



I dig Michael Shermer and the way he thinks. I've read a few of his books over the years, and I was fortunate enough to see him debate Kent Hovind a few years back at UC Irvine.

Here's a clip I dug up after receiving my latest skeptic email newsletter that pretty much shows what he's all about:



and the second part:




Good stuff to keep in mind when evaluating ideas/products or doing science, I reckon. Ah, crap, I reckon we all should just shut up and drink the Kool-aid, though, eh?

That's a great blog, that kool-aid one - navigate to the home page after reading that link I just couldn't help but posting... hee hee... good stuff over there!