14 Zipp B2 Handlebar Failure

Long story short, from the product's user : "I was out for my first road ride in awhile and as I was riding away from a stop sign I heard a mysterious crunch and my left hand became unweighted. I looked down to find my beloved Zipp B2 carbon bars fracture under my own power. This event was even more surprising because the bike has never even fallen over let alone been involved in a crash."

The fracture was to the left of the stem clamping plate. Someone did a high resolution blow up of the image and found a neat crack running at the bottom of the handlebar.



Is this why Zipp recommends running their own carbon stems with these bars? Or is it just another avenue to make more money. Both I would guess..(?)

Since he said the bike never took a fall, we might speculate that this is a clamp over tightening related issue? Its still scary. Imagine if this would happen at a race or while going downhill. Sheesh.

Photos courtesy of Weightweenies

22 Drivers Cut Back By Billions

"[U.S.] Drivers Cut Back by 30 Billion Miles: Americans drove 22 billion fewer miles from November through April than during the same period in 2006-07, the biggest such drop since the Iranian revolution led to gasoline supply shortages in 1979-1980."

—USA Today, June 22, 2008 (Original Article)

P.S : Does this mean safer roads for cycling than last year... what do you think? Do you see any changes traffic wise in your area? And what about you? Are you driving that much?

3 Bicycle Brake Design Analysis : Lever

2 Dimensional Static Loading Case Study (Load Class 1)

Any mechanical design involves a set of preliminary engineering calculations. This is done to determine the loads, forces and moments acting on the system. A knowledge of these things is essential to the design of a robust system. You'll know the weak points in the system, where to add strength, what the factor of safety should be and so on and so forth.

In industry, all the tedious engineering calculations are actually done by computers so that engineers can be removed from this tiring process and devote their brains to actually solving design and production problems, manage operations, and communicate and present material, both in written and word.

Nevertheless, its interesting to see the engineering math behind designing brakes. The simplest case study is for a stationary system with constant loads, and such a system is called a Class 1 system.

The known numbers in the math below are chosen arbitrarily, only to show how the calculations are done. Note that brakes are 3 dimensional elements but for simplicity and reasonably accurate purposes, you can employ a 2 dimensional study.

The fundamentals behind some of this material are Newton's Laws, Euler's equations, free body diagrams, vector math, and a knowledge of force and moment calculations. If you need to know some of this material, get yourself a copy of Machine Design : An Integrated Approach by Robert L. Norton. I have the age old second edition.

Courtesy : Robert L. Norton, Machine Design An Integrated Approach (2nd Edition)

* * *

0 Washinton D.C Launching Bike Share Program

While in an airport in Texas, I picked up an article in the USA Today papers. Washington D.C is poised to become the first U.S city this summer to start a public bike rental program. I managed to get the online version here.

But here's an excerpt. Charisse Jones writes :

"For an annual fee of $40, D.C. residents or visitors will be able to swipe a membership card and borrow a bike, returning it to any one of 10 kiosks downtown. The pilot program, which will start with 100 bicycles, is being paid for by Clear Channel Outdoor as part of its advertising contract with the city."

So if you're in the D.C area, its time to quit grumbling about gas prices. Ride a bike!

4 Customer Service 2.0 : Connecting Bicycles And Blogging

I'm back from a week's trip in hot hot Houston so I'm sorry for the hangups here. I thought this will be an interesting read - knowing some of the IT related business strategies undertaken by big bicycle companies these days, particularly in avenues leading to blogging.

So how important is communication with retailers and customers? Here's a case study on Cannondale.

Manufacturing Case Studies: Customer Service 2.0

Cannondale Bicycle turns to blogging solution to engage customers and partners

Original Article Source (Jan 11,2008) : Industry Week
Compiled By Brad Kenney

Founded in 1971, Cannondale Bicycle Corp. is the leading manufacturer of high-end bicycles, selling more than 80 models in over 70 countries worldwide. Widely regarded as the bike industry's leading innovator, Cannondale and its handcrafted bicycles have won numerous design awards.

In early 2005, Cannondale was looking for new ways to engage more directly and interactively with its customers to strengthen the company's brand and help drive sales. Cannondale saw an opportunity to take advantage of the inherently communal and devoted nature of cyclists and recognized the Internet as a perfect forum to foster and encourage that community. After evaluating a number of different options and technologies, the company turned to enterprise social media solution provider Awareness to make it happen.

"In today's world of heightened customer involvement and immediate interaction, conversations about our industry, company and products are taking place 24/7, with or without us. So it's really important that we participate in an ongoing and direct conversation with our customers," said Janet Maurice, who heads up Cannondale's web operations.

Cannondale was focused on having a proven and flexible platform that could manage the company's blogging presence for both the short and long term. The company realized the possibilities that enterprise social media could deliver, and wanted to make sure it was able to handle future growth in terms of content as well as potential integration with various internal and external business functions.

To get started, Cannondale created a company blog to provide informal information about company developments and respond to customer questions and inquiries.

The company saw this as a more personal and interactive way to interface with its hard core customers and provide an alternative to their current customer service department.

"One of the key benefits that we've seen through the blog is the ability to acknowledge and respond to technical product related questions directly and less formally, and post the answers in an open forum for others to see and comment on. It puts a face on our customer support function, and I believe it has had a direct impact on increasing sales." says Maurice.

Knowing it has different market segments to speak with, Cannondale also developed a Race Blog which speaks to its Road Riders and Triathletes with news and topics of interest. For example, during a high profile road race, Cannondale was able to connect to a cyclist's race data, capture it in graphical format and integrate it into one of the blogs. The biking community immediately latched onto the information and shared the link around the web, driving traffic to Cannondale's site.

Cannondale is also using enterprise 2.0 technology to connect externally with its retail partners. The company has an e-commerce site where its retailers go online and order product and is using enterprise social media platform to facilitate communications and discussion between and among the retailers and Cannondale's dealer service group. According to Cannondale, questions regarding pricing, supply chain issues, technical problems or merchandising are frequent topics that retailers discuss with each other and Cannondale.

According to Awareness, Cannondale's foray into blogging has been more successful than the company first imagined, and has gone beyond the tangible benefits of improving relationships with its customers and retailers, increasing sales and improving the corporate brand.

1 Sunday Reconnaissance Ride-Hike

My legs felt like wood and I had a lingering headache from early morning today. Nevertheless, I decided to sneak in shorter ride since I knew there'd be plenty of uphills. The thunderstorms were going to hit later on.

Well, lets just say I got lost.

Most of the roads I took were totally unpaved, which I had hardly expected. Wayman Branch led to Indiana Ave which was 10-12% average gradient at best, and at some points it got really steep. I rode half of it, then my wheels started losing traction. The rains yesterday had gotten the mud wet and puddles were everywhere.

I climbed all that way and then looked back...

More climbing ahead

I lost all momentum and the next half hour was my hiking trip in Lycra and Speedplay cleats. Hiking in speedplay, uphill. I hoped no one would catch me in the act.

For a while it was fun.

Then it got interesting as I spotted this sign.


Then I started hearing weird sounds in the woods and watched a huge bird fly high above my head.

Then I gulped and quickened my pace. I have heard locals here talk about bears.

Deserted Houses....

Check out the gradient...

I think I got an idea of my orientation and somehow hit paved road. I caught an accident in action.



I hope no one was hurt.




I think I had too much going on this past week with the moving and all.

I'm bailing out for another 4 days since I'll be in Texas so hang on until then. I hope to do some chillaxing in the 100 degree weather.

Here's a crazy fun piece from Mademoiselle!! Take care, all!

10 We Might As Well Crash

Johan Bruyneel recently had a book published called We might As Well Win.

Okay, while I envy the Belgian since the day he was born and now the money that he will rake in royalties, I may have a concern too.

Cycling is not all about Team Discovery Channel.

Anyone with me on this? Yeah? Yeah? Can I get some hands here please?

And cycling is also not always about the 'winners'. Wow, if we just concentrate on winning, sport would be terribly boring to watch. Its like cutting off its personality and making it all look the same - winning, winning, winning, podium, wine bottle, go home.

We have so many winners these days, its becoming a drag just watching victory salutes.

Yawn.

I'm so bored with winners that these days, I switch onto cycling channels just to watch who crashed, how and where.

Then, I take a laugh.

Sometimes I rub my teary cheek.

Then I switch off the channel.

End of story.

Good for the guy who won.

Who cares.




THE PERSONALITY OF CYCLING


No one would ever talk about cycling as being one of the most dangerous sports if we all concentrated on winning. What about the risks involved? Whoever made it did it in some special way, but who didn't make it? What happened?

If cycling didn't have risks, none of us would get the 'kick' and the 'thrill' of both riding ourselves, or watching someone else do it. Its something in us that makes us humans.

Face it, watching people crash is, as much horrifying as it sounds and looks, gives us entertainment. Half our cycling conversation would be cut off if we had nothing to talk about in crashes, injuries, risky corners, tight descents, scorching days, melted tar, long climbs, dehydration and fatigue.

Its like being in an amphitheater watching gladiators maim each other.

Turns out, very little people would be watching gladiators had there been no losers.

Someone's got to be on the receiving end too, right?

Losers makes entertainment.

We like to watch losers.

Here's the one side : Some of us are losers ourselves so hey, it feels good not to be alone. Had there been no losers, we would not enjoy the journey ourselves.

You know that saying, 'Oh, its not all about winning, its the journey that counts?'

Well, our journey was pleasant to us because we had some losers to provide company to the finish line.

Hell yeah.

I definitely for one wouldn't want to be alone in that journey.

I'll take as many prisoners of war! Then, I can sit and talk about the journey as if it was the sweetest thing that ever happened to me.

And here's the other side : Some of us are too strong for anyone out there, that it gives us some deep, dark secret pleasure to watch a person suffering.

If there were no losers, how would you gauge your victory? Your season fitness? Your strength? How on earth would you ever make it a classic day?

Hence, my underlying theory : Losers contribute as much to the pleasant journey for all of us losing cyclists as much as they contribute to the relative pleasure and training goals of winners.




SO WE MIGHT AS WELL CRASH


Hence, with the above commentary, I seek to go somewhat along Bruyneel's lines and publish my upcoming "We Might As Well Crash".

Enough of books on winners, history, doping and Lance Armstrong. Terribly boring now, yoohoo.

We need a different book to spice up the shelves.




WHAT I MEAN


By the word crash, normal human beings mean falling to bed after a tiring day and just drifting off to wonderland. Its recharge time for many.

Cyclists crash and also fall into bed too.

Except, its in an ambulance before a much needed trip to the hospital.

What are we talking about here?




So, if you didn't crash until now, somethings wrong with you.

You're not a serious cyclist.

C'mon, whats the whole point about shaving those legs?

Go hit the pavement. See how it feels. Take a little nick here and there.

If you're in a comfort zone in cycling, you've too much skin on your body my friend. Thats what Coach Joe Friel missed out on.

So punch a few medical bills. See what you're missing.

Thats what makes cycling cycling.




CRASH CONTROL AND A FEW WORDS ON CRASH CLASSIFICATIONS


Experience comes with crashing. With experience, you'll know exactly how to tweak your crashes. See, yes... there are ways to tweak crashes. Believe me.

If you worked your butt off, never made it, and think the podium guys are going to take all the talk of the town, make your point known to all : YOU are IMPORTANT too. How come the Lantern Rouge never gets a jersey around here, huh?

Hence, you may reserve the most brutal crash from your matches for this scenario.

I call it The Selfless Kamikaze. Here's a gift from a martyr to all the boys back in the peleton. I mean, wayyyy back in the peleton.




Then there's the "I Got A Funny Feeling" type of crash. You're shouldering a huge responsibility in the race, everyone thinks you're strong, and you think you are too but obviously this is not one of your good days. You're either bonking bad, legs are itching to be off the saddle or your taint is rebelling.

Best way to forfeit the race?

Crash.

Simple.

It takes a man to crash and forfeit the race than simply hopping off the bike, throwing it off into the fields aside, and getting into the team car.



Look at it this way. It makes losing more heroic than simply quitting and walking off. It makes losing look good! It overwhelms a mechanical. It overwhelms any internal problems in your own engine. It puts the limelight back on you, where it belongs. I need my limelight, and I need it NOW!

So obviously, this guy below wasn't man enough. I didn't see him crash. Too bad.



You can make a crash as subtle as it needs to be. This is handy if you have family that depends on you to return home in one piece. This is the Subtle Crash.

You can get creative with this. First, in order to cull speed, you need to let the brake pads touch the rims. Too much speed results in bigger crashes and I'm sure you dont want to end Kamikaze.

Then, you can try loosening a seat post bolt, or buy a custom made bike with a 5% chance of shimmy, not more. Try picking races with a lot of railroads, or potholes. Or something along those lines.

Or pretend you're going to win and then do something foolish.

Then, its all a matter of waiting.

Trust me, you will crash.

And you can get creative with this.



And then, there are the "Sponsored Crashes". Some big single day races may be so easy, pro's use them as training for victory salutes.

No promoter of a big race wants to make it so easy.

Well, when you have the die-hard winners at the starting line, what do you do right?

To turn this situation around and project to the media the idea of tough tough day, race promoters may sign secret deals with losers to crash. Often, these lucrative deals have led to some dubious crashes before the finish lines.

If many crash, well...turns out it was a hard race after all. Even though it was just a 60K run, with no hills. C'mon, that sounds easy, but it was tough. Look, just look how many crashed will you??





ENDING WORDS


Wow, how do I go on about the types of crashes and crash control? If I do write everything here, I'll give my book away and the huge profits associated with it so I won't resort to that.

Hence, get ready for my upcoming thriller : We Might as Well Crash.....




....coming to a Cycling Mailbox near you.

* * *

3 Saturday Reconnaissance Ride

After a busy but exciting first week of orientation at D-R, I was able to do a shorter ride on Friday on the fixie around the neighbourhood. Judging by the short steep hills. I think I was fine for the most part, never overgeared.

Today, I met with some local champs from the area. I always like making new friends, and so these guys would show me which roads featured all the nice hills.

So I conveniently skipped breakfast like I always do in excitement and hit the road for a 30-40 mile ride, with plenty of nice climbing and high speed descents.

But the one thing that struck me throughout the ride is how magnificently beautiful this area is. The backroads out in the country took us along water bodies and plenty of big forested hills and the air was just fresh for a great morning ride. Looks like I just got to the right place.

On the right is my nice little apartment

New friends.. there are always serious riders around, its just a matter of looking :)

At the start of a steep climb

3320 ft high up, nice...

As you can see, this area is heavily forested and gets plenty of rainfall. Not far away from where I live is the Alleghany State Park, the largest of its kind in New York.

In two weeks, the Raccoon Rally road race will be held around there and its always a fun race to do. I'll be in Houston, Texas for the next one week for more orientations so no biking until Friday. It'll be just straight to the race. I hope I'll last... :)

13 Bicycle Tutor : Repair Videos Par Excellence

We can sit here and argue about all the good and bad things technology has been giving us cyclists every other day we open our eyes.

But some of the most mundane, personal issues we have with our bikes is repair and maintenance related.

Getting to work on the bike yourself is perhaps the most personal avenue we can take to know our equipment more. You'll get to know what works and what doesn't, why this was designed this way, what can be improved about that design simplicity wise and so on and so forth. Hey, there's a reason for everything.

For the many uninitiated in bicycle maintenance and repair, its easy to get lost in a host of books and online literature.

I'm not saying they're necessarily bad, but they have their downsides as well. Think about it. Do you really want to read 3 and a half pages worth of information just to repair something small?

Do you want to buy that expensive repair book over the counter and then find out that you're still lost?

Time and money is really worth something these days.

And don't we all learn better by doing, or watching people doing something?

Visual learning is a really powerful tool and the internet media is quickly catching up. And if we discard some of the junk videos we have on YouTube and so forth, we can start to talk business.

Alex Ramon is one of the latest movers and shakers in this field. Those of you who don't quite know him might still have come across the young and growing Bicycle Tutor website. Alex is the owner and the calm yet friendly face in all of the videos.



Now you can all play around on his site but quickly, here's what I really like about BT :

1. Quality : Videos are super crisp and clear. Alex has taken a good initiative with his knowledge of video production and editing.

2. No Nonsense : Everything is absolutely to the point and concise. Some of the techniques may be slightly different from what we commonly are more familiar with, but it works well.

3. Communication : The site is built like an open forum. Written instructions complement the videos. Every video is almost like a blog post, in which users can immediately put in their comments after viewing. This is good because it adds depth to the material in each tutorial. Alex is also fairly quickly to respond to emails and he's among the few I've seen who actually acknowledges your time and effort in writing to him.

4. Presentation : Not all cyclists are in America or in the U.K. You want to hear good, crisp and simple tutorials in English. The presentation is very methodical. Everything has a step by step procedure to it. Thats how you learn. This site has the international focus.

In all, Bicycle Tutor is raising the bar on repair tutorials.

For a sample, here's one in which he talks about bottom bracket overhaul. Click here if the video does not open.






Putting all my thoughts aside, I was lucky to catch up with busy Alex this past week and so, posed him a few questions. My questions and his replies follow. Enjoy the read as you get to know more about this young man and his background.




Q. Your full name?

Alex Ramon.



Q. How did you get into cycling, Alex?

I've loved bikes since I first learned to ride one. Growing up, I was a motocross and BMX nut. I did a lot of dirt jumping and vert riding at the local skatepark, but my real passion was flatland freestyling. Unfortunately when I was a teen I injured my hips and had to give up the sport. As an adult I discovered gears and started commuting to work, which I've done ever since. I also love cycle-touring with my camera as much as possible. Whenever I get the chance I also love fooling around on a unicycle.



Q. Where did you work as a mechanic and how many years of experience do you have?

When I was 16, I got my first job at Cap's Bicycles in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. I learned a lot as a salesperson, but I was always envious of the mechanics and longed to get behind a wrench. In the end I left because I disagreed with the way they operated (kind of like a McDonald's for cyclists).

A few years later I moved back to Kitimat, BC and applied at a local shop called Rock N' Road Bicycles. They were desperate for a mechanic and hired me on the spot. Les Dunlop, the shop owner, had a day job and needed someone to run the shop for him during the week. He took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew about bike repair and good customer service. I spent several years as the shop manager and mechanic before I felt the need to move out of town. It was very sad because my leaving forced them to close the shop. Les still repairs bikes out of his house on a casual basis.

I then moved to Victoria, BC, where I applied at all of the bike shops and was quickly hired at Goldstream Cycles. I only stayed there for 6 months as I didn't agree with their customer service philosophy. Basically the owner was a real penny-pincher and I found it difficult to work with limited tools and respect.

Soon after I left I was hired by Richard Miller at Fairfield Bicycles, which is where I had originally wanted to work. It was hands-down the best shop in Victoria (and possibly all of Canada). The focus was on customer service and quality repairs, and we were paid very well. We sold and serviced all makes and models of bikes: 3-speeds, electric bikes, hybrids, kids bikes, mountain bikes, recumbents, road bikes, touring bikes, tricycles, unicycles and anything else you can think of. All of the staff were well-trained and expected to perform all shop functions including management, sales and repair. Once every year Richard would always pick two of us to go to Interbike in Las Vegas. I'd say that trip (and meeting all those top-level industry people) was the highlight of my career.

After I'd been there for just over three years we all decided it would be good to open a second shop in town. I was put in charge of renovating and stocking the new shop. It took several months to set up, and by the end of it I was quite burnt out. I decided to move to Vancouver and get a higher education.



Q. Wow, very interesting. So in between all this, how did an idea for a tutorial website come about?

When I quit working as a shop mechanic, I finished my degree and was hired by the Vancouver Public Library. While it's been a great job, I've really missed working with bikes, and I started feeling like all of my tools and knowledge were going to waste. I did a quick domain name search for bicycletutor.com one day, and I was shocked to see that it was actually available! On a whim I bought a video camcorder and a more powerful computer for video editing. After recording and uploading the first tutorial, I was blown away by the response, and I realized that there were a lot of people looking for this kind of website.

All of the comments and requests I've been getting have kept me going since then. I look forward to covering as many topics as possible. In the future I'd like to get a proper studio with better lighting and video equipment. I'm also on the lookout for more bikes so I can cover the many different types of components. It's going to take a few years to get through all of the requests I've received so far, but the satisfaction that comes from helping others learn how to fix their own bikes is like nothing I've ever experienced!



Q. Lastly, how this site is supported? You take all the initiative so I'm curious.

So far this has been a solo project, and I've been paying for the expenses myself. I really don't mind since making money with this project is not a priority, although I do earn some small pocket change from the commissions on Jenson USA tool sales. I've also started offering download memberships which brings in a few extra dollars. My priority is to always keep the tutorials free for visitors.

* * *

So make use of Bicycle Tutor and learn something new!

6 Bontrager Moving Tragedy, Ultimate Downhill Bike, A Case for WD-40 as Bike Lube....

Guys! I'm back and in one piece and so, I want to pass on a few pollinations on my radar.


1. A Little On My New Job to Those Who Asked : First off, thank you for all the well wishes on my new job!!! Yes indeed, I have officially kick started a remarkably exciting career at D-R. Their EMAP program, or Engineering Management Acceleration Program if one were to spell it out, is a 5-year rotational assignment where candidates will take up different engineering positions within the same company at different locations in the U.S and abroad [France, Brazil etc]. If you're a young engineer and single, and you don't mind all the traveling, this is like Blue mentioned, PRO. You learn all the skills and disciplines within the company, do assignments at different locations, meet tons of people and have lots of fun. For the first year, I'm with the auxiliary and control systems engineering group (what they call 'Package' Engineering) so it should be quite an experience.

What do we make? We design, engineer and manufacture mammoth centrifugal and reciprocating compressors, gas and steam turbines and a host of other smaller products like expanders for instance. Possibly every big oil refinery out there will have one of our compressors running, and the latest and greatest U.S Navy ships run our turbines in them. There's plenty of serious engineering going on here because every single thing we make is CUSTOM made, nothing is standard or cataloged. And
high gas prices means every compressor design has to be more efficient than before. Our machines run 24 hours a day for 30-40 years at our client's sites without disruption in service and thats hard to imagine. The last thing they want to hear is downtime. For most of those refineries, shutting down for a day means a loss of close to half a million dollars in revenue.

This is a real learning experience for me and the people here are amazing, so yes I'm very thrilled. Turbo machinery is a highly exciting and specialized field to get into which is what I want to do. And I really hope as time evolves that I can check out a client's site like an offshore oil rig....coool!




2. Here are the only casualties of the moving. The movers dropped my stuff off at the apartment in Olean and left. Later on when I got there from Buffalo, here's what I spotted quickly with my 20/20 vision.




Are you kidding me??




A piece of the aluminum alloy flange broke off, leaving 3 spokes to dangle from the rim. This was my Bontrager Race X-Lite tubulars. It left me stumped. Okay, granted these wheels are not the best design out there, this coming from a past post of mine. But how could a piece just break off like that? Surely something must have happened during the turbid trip in the truck.

Dear Cook Moving Systems, you did a great job with most of my things but expertly managed to break the very item dear to me. So I'm out to claim every dollar for this mess. Thanks.



3.
Here's a link James passed out at Bicycle Design. It talks about the decade long design and engineering behind the Wilson line of downhill bikes from Cycles Devinci. This is a Canadian company.

Researchers had built an instrumented bike to aid in the development process and among some of the interesting things they found was the fact that some of the shock forces experienced by the rear triangle of a typical mountain bike frame is enough to lift a small car! Though they are only momentary shocks, the magnitude is still something. So this is a great little read, especially for me as I know little about downhill bikes in general.




4. Here's an interesting question - What do you do if you want to measure the drag effects of bike and positioning in a 9 man TTT? Obviously its not feasible to pay for the ridiculous uptime at the wind tunnel testing facility.

Then there are computers. For those of you who like reading something from the past, CD-Adapco, a business supplying CFD solutions for industry, measured and validated the energy savings we all have come to recognize through the skill of drafting. Here's an interesting excerpt from their CFD analysis on a TTT with multiple riders :

"The CFD models were constructed and run using the STAR-CAD Series, a range of CAD-embedded CFD products.....

.... The results of the simulations were illuminating. Compared with the lead cyclist, the drag of the rider in second place is reduced by 21% - a significant saving. The third rider feels a further small decrease in drag over the second, but from the third rider back all other cyclists experience almost identical drag. As the riders are continually progressing towards the front of the chain, taking a short turn on the front, before freewheeling to the rear of the line, on average (assuming a constant rate of rider rotation and ignoring the effect of dropping back) the drag coefficient of a rider in the TTT is around 27% lower than experienced by an individual rider.

Perhaps the most surprising conclusion from the CFD simulation is that, despite feeling the full force of the oncoming air, the lead rider experiences lower drag than if he were riding an ITT at the same speed. The drag coefficient of the leading TTT rider is 0.277, while that of an individual rider is 0.285 [drag coeffient is measure of the force each rider experiences corrected for differences in size]."

Very illuminating indeed. Read the entire case study here on this site.




5. And in upcoming sports, I think 'wave biking' is just beating the heck out of bike polo. This intelligent person might make it to the other shore some day. "Rider's log, June 29, 2030...I rode my bike .5 inches into the water today...Will try tomorrow. End."






6. I happened to catch an interesting thread on the the Bike Tech Review forums. User Tigermilk tested some popular bike lubricants in his custom made rig and here's what his observations and results were :

I recently completed a set of tests to see if there was a difference in lubricants. The lubricants tested included lubricants directly marketed to the cycling market (e.g., Pedros or Pro Link) as well as general household products (WD-40, 3-in-1). A leap of faith is taken in terms of this testing in that it is assumed that the materials sliding against each other don’t matter to the degree as the lubricant. A 440C ball was slid against an Inconel sample (an exotic nickel alloy based steel) on a pin-on-disk tribometer. Dry sliding tests were performed to establish a baseline (dry friction above 0.60). A wear track was developed, and this wear track was used for all tests rather than starting a new track. This was done to keep the effect of roughness in the testing. After a lubricated test, the Inconel sample was cleaned and stripped of the lubricant. A dry run-in test was performed to verify the cleaned sample was free of lubricant and that the dry sliding friction was at least the initial dry value (i.e., over 0.60). Contact force was set at 5 N. Tests were run wet, immediately after application of the lubricant (later tests will including wiping off excess and allowing lube to "dry"). Below are the results when the lubes were performing their best. Some started to break down significantly.

Which performed the best? 3-in-1, a heavier household oil (would attract dirt), was darn good, but the one that took the prize was, of all things, WD-40. Pro-Link rated 3rd in my tests, with the others jumping up in friction near the conclusion of the tests. Should be noted that the expected range below is simply 3-sigma min/max values. I doubt the first 2 on the list would go as low as written. Just the large deviation (in other words, poor stability) brings the values down that low.

This is an interesting thread so you can follow it all here, including the results of his testing. I wonder how repeatable these results are but I do have to add - wow, is WD-40 making a comeback as bike lube?

To you Tiger, definitely continue your investigations if you have the time and money....

Because I said so .....?

:)



Will Smith for ya'll. The coolest, and cleanest grooves out there....

7 Ay'll Be Bach

First off, RIP Tim Russert. We lost one of the best journalists in the nation.

And finally for me, its goodbye Buffalo. I'm starting my new job with D-R in Olean, NY this Monday. I'll be back in 3-4 days, so do check in then!

Take signs seriously...

Aaah, this should do the trick.

Wow, don't we all go through this? Courtesy : Yehuda Moon

.

8 Coffee Blunts Blood Flow, The Oldest Cyclist, Opus Goes L.E.E.D and More Pollinations

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1. Roughly speaking, industrial designers focus on outward shapes, forms and aesthetics of products while mechanical engineers look to fill in that box with all the technicalities. But some of you may have a misconception that these two professionals work a world apart in industry. In fact, a February feature article in the ME Magazine (A Focus on Use, Design for Human Factors) put that idea to the grave. Not any more, it says. Its a nice article, I think, since it also discussed department cross-collaboration at the TREK Bicycle Corporation. Take a look.



2. Check out this Bike Counter, set up along the Green Path in the city of Frederiksberg in Zealand, an island in Denmark. It counts the number of cyclists passing and the idea is to encourage more cycling by displaying that number on big screen. Its always nice to see novel ideas like these in other countries. Quick question : Will it be triggered by a bystander or lets say a dog, not on a bike? :) Certainly the motion sensor should be more clever than that, eh?

Courtesy : Copenhagenize

3. Its official. The oldest cyclist lives in Ladysmith, a town in the KwaZulu-Natal district of South Africa. As of April 27 2007, "Mkhulu" Mkhize was a ripe 112 years old, and was still riding his bicycle around town! If he's still alive and I hope he sure is, he is 113 already! Read this neat newspaper clipping about his story in the Times of Ladysmith . By the way, did I tell you? I plan on contesting that figure, by hook or by crook. Beer, some anti-aging creams from Olay, a regimen of Botox, 12 hour daily naps and wearing helmets more often should do the trick. What do you think?

Btw, if you have no idea how to pronounce African names, Russell Peters will tell you how. Ha!



4. There's a video interview of Mark Sinyard, founder of Specialized Bicycles here on CNN Money. Like most businessmen, he too had a tough time in the early years setting up the company. Venturing into business is a risk, and having the adequate cash flow is always a problem. Its hard to imagine they came this far.



5.
Canadian Bicycle maker Opus certainly has something different to boast about than most others - its Office Headquarters! Its the third L.E.E.D certified building in Quebec. For starters, L.E.E.D is the Leadership In Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating system, developed by the U.S Green Building Council and is the accepted benchmark for the design and construction of high performance green buildings. The use of geothermal energy for heating and cooling the facility has brought down energy consumption costs while decreasing the overall energy footprint. Great going!



6. Andy over at Competitive Cyclist has a new video review of the latest Shimano Dura Ace 2009 gruppo. Its a nice, detailed video and takes you through every single component, step by step. Along with the video also comes a cross compatibility chart between Dura Ace 7900 and the older 7800 version for the curious cat.



7.
Interbike Times recently had a video interview with Nicholas Woodman of GoPro digital cameras. These cameras are meant for the outdoor enthusiast, especially cyclists, boaters and motorbike folks. Cameras are compact, lightweight, made of impact resistant polycarbonate and can be mounted on helmets, anywhere on your bike or even wrist. This will really find a market, I believe. Its easy to lose, drop and damage conventional cameras on a biking trip and other helmet mounted designs can be cumbersome too.



8.
Swiss Researchers found that coffee blunts blood flow during exercise (myocardial flow reserve) to the heart. I'm not a coffee drinker, and its high time people learnt that injesting a lot of this nonsense isn't good for you, leave alone provide any athletic performance boosts.



9. The mother of a 13-year old is sueing Walmart for an improperly assembled bicycle. Due to the crappy bike, the young boy took a harsh spill that broke his right collarbone, gave him a torn labrum and an AC joint injury, excluding other injuries that he obtained on his head and neck. I was so angry after reading this but hey whats new? Walmart bikes SUCK, so are the unqualified people behind its operations. Read this article from Madison Record. Please spend your money wisely.



10.
Reports have surfaced that President Bush sold his TREK on Craigslist and Mr. Barrack has picked it up. Okay, fine that report was concocted by me but will you check out that rear tire? Surely someone can advise him on the importance of pressure as in PSI's? Sometimes pressure is good for you! And what is that ugly snake like thing on his seat post? A divine halo of the rear wheel, fender on steroids or is he towing Mrs. Clinton along for the ride?



Finally, for the chill out section. Here's a special pick from a great band. Ignore the initial crappy sponsor message, if any.

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3 Tagged By Cyclelicio.us

I've never taken part in a more serious discourse in my life. I have been tagged by Fritz over at Cyclelicio.us in the "chain of fortune". The rules are over here. I thought twice about it, but when he mentioned something about the corrupted Blackwater Security Agency in the list of consequences, I quickly became a sport.

I am to pick the nearest book to me, open to page 123 and type out the 6th, 7th and 8th sentences into this post.

The nearest book is "The Physics of Nascar" by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky. The chapter is "Texas Motor Speedway at 150mph".

Here goes, please bear with me if this does not make any sense whatsoever.

"I started with the car in second and the clutch pressed down. Mike had warned us that the accelerator really revs the engine, so we should let the clutch out all the way before depressing the throttle. We trundled down pit road, and when Paul motioned, I pushed in the clutch and shifted to third, the shift lever being spring loaded moves to the right all by itself."

Here's the nice part. I get to curse another 5 more. So Chris, Ed W, Rachel, Blue and Don, take it or face the dilemma mentioned here.

11 The Invasion of the Frogs : Rrriiiibike!

A DEEP AND EVIL CONSPIRACY PLOT IS ABOUT TO BE REVEALED. READERS MAY FIND EITHER TIGHTENING THEIR GRIP ON THEIR CHAIR SUPPORTS OR GOING FOR A REALLY LONG RIDE AFTERWARDS TO BE COMFORTING.

I WILL SHARE IN THE PAIN.

ITS REAL....

* * *

As a casual industry observer, I have a penchant for looking outside the box of worms.

Which is precisely why I have spotted an intruder outside that said box.

Frogs!

Rrriiiibike!

I think frogs are cute and fine and all that jizz, but lo and behold...this sick four limbed psychopath is invading human territory.

Or shall I more aptly say, human powered territory?

Can't we for once keep what we discovered to ourselves instead of petty concessions to some wide eyed amphibian?

The tendency of the bicycle toward the frog or the frog towards the bicycle is interesting but alarming nevertheless. Products have come and gone over the past 5-10 years but the subtle evil character behind all the design decisions stands pretty clear.

They are frogs.

Did the wrong beaker break in the product design laboratory that caused designers to inhale some ancient power of marshes? Did they get some sort of....fetish as a consequence?

Is there such a thing even as frog fetish?

"Hey whats your fetish?"

"Oh yeah...hemm, frogs"

"Wha--?"

To get an idea of the severity of this tendency, lets survey some of the following items specially handpicked from good ol' velo land. You may make a mental note of the number of frogs as we go along the way. Alright, if you can't count, you may use a scientific calculator.

Ready?




1. KERMIT THE ELDER


After cross checking my facts with Sheldon Brown's website, I have confirmed my discoveries.

The great grandpa of all frogs, Kermit the Elder, was the first frog to ride a bicycle.



Historians recount how a happy, go lucky Kermit the Elder rode his basket stricken vintage Bianchi celeste for many many miles in scorching temperatures in the hope of getting to Hollywood, before the Burning Frog Syndrome caught up with him and he was essentially fried, on the his Brooks B-17 saddle, without even knowing it.

What an utter tragedy.



2. DELAWARE LEAP FROG BICYCLE TOUR




In Kermit's memory, a handful of striders and riders in downtown Delaware got together to ride a 50 miler. Though a charity ride (contributions that would later go to the Hungry Toad's Association), like all charity rides, they shamelessly made this one into a race as well. And so, it became a frantic race for all or nothing.

The gold? Top finishers were awarded with funky frog jerseys. What do you know, it was Primal Wear! They were upto their substandards from day one.




After the hard ride, tired riders eat and leapt, I mean, slept. Their children lit candles and stuck frog spinners in the garden.



Dogs particularly didn't favor these new irritating specimens that had taken over their territory.




So they were chewed on, pissed at and torn apart in a merciless blood coup like ragdolls.



3. FROG BIKE


Pass 2-3 years. Soon bicycle manufacturers start seeing the nation wide reverence for frogs and sought to introduce the first ever frog bike that would make this reverence a complete reverence. Enthusiasts could pay homage to Kermit the Elder, at the same time, enjoying the sport they so love and adore.




The frog bike was known for its sketchy handling and tons of backpain, but thats what it was. Designers wanted to let riders feel what it feels like to be a frog.

It was an instant success.

A commuters folding version of the bike was also released by a German company the same year.


Soon we had a good following of bowlegged, back broken frog riders. Somehow, the whole topic escaped the butcher's cutting board at BikeSnobNYC.



4. FROG MATCH SPRINTS


While progression marched on in the North, the darker alleys of New Mexico city saw the rise of a new gambling phenomenon. Like cock fights, they placed their bets on handicapped frogs riding custom made Titanium wheelchairs. The frog that toppled first on the banked path because of a lack of skill to manage a track stand usually lost the money.



For police, it was a match sprint of their own, a never ending headache to track these gamblers down, put them rightly behind bars and ship their slimy compatriots to rehab.



5. COMPONENTS & ACCESSORIES


Going back to the developed north, accessories were popping up everywhere, like maaaddd frogs.

A custom frame designer Richard Axe carved out some nifty frog dropouts like these....




.......only to be later sued by a child's mother after she discovered that the frog faithlessly gave up its duties of holding the skewer in place for a more convenient mischief of craftily scooping up neighborhood flies.

That was scary.

Serious people in the industry like Noginsox soon became aware of this safety situation and brought out the frog head lid. They could protect your noggins in case the dropout frog went beserk.




Atleast your head wouldn't go beserk.

And the fairy tale continued. Apparel makers followed Primal's "the path least ridden".
Sheebeest released their Leaf Frog cycling socks.



So if your legs gave the dreaded stink, at least you had an excuse.

And Wishing Fish launched their hip frog bike bells.





Riders could now 'croak' to warn unwary motorists not to run them over.

In reality, the opposite would happen.

But of course, safety wasn't exactly guaranteed unless you had a set of neat Knog Frog lights.


In a clever act of bio-mimicry, they designed the lights to look like two frogs tightly clinching onto the handlebars. But they did this in a very subtle, lightweight and water proof manner, their target rider being the ultra lightweight Rasmussen disciple who eat nuts for meals and climbed ridges deep under water on his bike.

But perhaps the march of the frogs into the industry wouldn't have been more pronounced hadn't it been for two major products that we all commonly waste money on.

The male Speedplay Frog pedals :




And the petite and slender female Frog cleats :




Talk about a mating ritual right underneath our feet. High season or what??

Adding insult to injury, SRAM recently launched their "Will You Make the Leap" effort, making a hideous looking red frog their mascot.




The first set of Red aerobars came with a complementary frog that looked like it was the real captain of the ship.


We interviewed a local triathlete who had used them at the Ironman cult camp and asked him :

"Did you make the Leap?"

He replied : "No, not really...but that frog sure did!"

Yes, we too discovered that the opportunistic frog was gone, leaving a terrible, naked empty space between the handlebars that didn't look so good as in the catalogues.

SRAM refused to comment on the incident.



After reviewing products like these and hundreds of incidents for many months and days, I was deeply frustrated.

My anger really filleth the cup when I heard Kurt Kinetic was upto something fishy at their Minneapolis manufacturing plant. I hired an inside guy to give me the details.

What he would tell me later really shook me.

Kurt was changing the paint work on their trainers for that year.

A certain variety of rare Tasmanian frog had inspired them, I was told.

Impossible!!!

I desperately asked him to give me the CEO Kurt Cobain's phone number, but he told me that Mr. Cobain needed no land lines anymore, he was free in mind and spirit to communicate however he pleased.

He was dead.

I decided to board the next plane to MN to seriously contend Kurt's design decision. I showed them records, paperwork, pictures, floppy disks worth of information.

The new CEO was apparently ignorant of all these prior developments, or was he deliberately choosing to ignore them?

"Its a conspiracy, sir!" I told him, under labored breath. "The evil Cabal of Kermit the Elder is forcing frogs everywhere. Don't you see? We're going to look like frogs, and ride like frogs...Don't fall into this disaster!"

"This man is mad! Guards...!"

Before I could finish my hurried statements, the unconvinced man in the black chair had his two sidekick brutes pull me away and out of the room.

A physician would later pat my shoulder and in a morose tone, diagnose me with acute Ranidaphobia.

Come again?

Ranidophobia. The fear of frogs you know.




Everyone had abandoned me.

I thought atleast the press would be faithful.

But my heroic attempts at stopping Kurt dead in their tracks would soon be overshadowed in the news next morning by none other than Britney Spears, who reportedly shaved her head and then crashed her car into a coconut tree. It was big big news.

I would later turn the page of the same newspaper and land somehow on this picture in the "New Sports Products" section.

The launch of a certain Rock n Roll Trainer....


And there it was, the thousand mile stare.

The sheepish stare of a frog.

Legs flared out like a frog.

Mouth ready in wait, like a frog.

And color, unmistakably, of a frog.

There was only one authorized retailer in the country. Fearing the worst, I hunted the sentences for a name.

There...!

A certain Fat Frogs Bike and Fitness in Virginia.


Stumped, my heart skipped a beat.

.