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Bern Watts Helmet
July 3, 2009
I have never really worn the "bucket" style helmet for a couple of reasons. Firstly they never seem to fit me. The 3 size options with extra pads just never seem to feel righ on my big head. The other is that they all kinda seem the same. I feel like I should be a 12 year old boy at the skate park. Bern has a fresh new take on this style of helmet and with there new look I will avoid using the term "bucket" helmet. Bern offers a brimmed helmet that has a nice new look, and to top it all off they have some amazing sizing features.
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Fashion and Cycling: Urban Style
July 2, 2009
Take a look at cyclists rolling down the streets of Toronto, Vancouver, Amsterdam or any other major city in the world and you can tell that the days of looking like a loser on a bicycle are over. People are taking to the streets and looking good, and it is not reserved for these metropolitan cities. Companies are popping up all over the place and providing fashion and function for cyclists.
Point A to Point B with a rolled up cuff on your jeans and an ugly helmet is no longer. Companies like Bern are making helmets that actually look good and work. With great colours and designs to choose from you can actually match your style that day to one of your helmets. Rudy Project has been fitting some of the worlds best athletes for years, but you don't always want to look like you are ready to race, so they have an amazing line of fashion eyewear, that is way ahead of the game in terms of fashion and function.
Jeans can still be rocked on the bike, but they all seem to be a little skinnier now adays. Take the scissors to your pants, cut them down and make some shants, it is all good. At least you are not going to be getting you pants caught in your chain. Better yet, for the women, wear a dress. Smoking Lily is making funtional and fashionable clothing for everything from a day at the beach to a night on the town. Some of the nicest screen prints around.
So get out there and rock the bike. Look good, feel good, and get out of that car. Show the world you got that Bicycle Smile.
Gone Riding
July 1, 2009
It is Canada Day and we have gone riding! Check in tomorrow for the beginning of our 2 week long focus on fashion. Who says you can't look sweet upon the seat.
Zinn And The Art Of Mountain Bike Maintenance
June 30, 2009
Lennard Zinn is the author of numerous book and is also a frame builder, and if you haven't been hiding under a rock for the last few decades you will have heard of him at some point. I remember a few years ago looking through one of his repair manuals and thinking that is looked really cool, but at that time I had no desire to fix my own stuff. Now older and wiser, and having accumulated some tools I am ready to tackle some of the more challenging tasks. That is where his new edition of Zinn & The Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance come in.
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That's A Lot Of Bikes
June 29, 2009
I always think that my city seems to be prety pro-active and has a lot of cyclist, and then I think of these image I have taken when travelling. Some places just have more bicycles, some by choice, others by economic factors. Either way it is all good.
Harlot H4M Hawkeye Shorts
June 26, 2009
Hot summer days on the trail need a good short, and it is even better if you can wear the shorts out when you are not on the bike too. Harlot Wear has made such a short with the H4M Hawkeye. Harlot has been making great women's clothing and has made this great men's version of their popular Houlihan short. I am not the biggest fan of camo, but some how this rugged and every fading camo short has become a favorite.
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Join The Rat Race
June 25, 2009
It is officially official now. We have the prizes, we have made the posters, we even have a few tricks up our sleeves. Join The Rat Race!!
Bike Bins Pannier
June 24, 2009
I have panniers on a few of my bikes, some are for touring, others are for the commute. They all seem to have upsides and downsides. Sometimes they do not fit on my rack very well, others my heals tend to clip, or sometimes the durability just is not there. When I saw Bike Bins I got excited, a hard shell case seems like a great idea. The fact that it is waterproof lockable, I had to try it.
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Pedros Trixie
June 23, 2009
It is kind of strange because just as I was waiting to my new Pedros Trixie, I thought to myself, when was the last time I needed to remove let alone tighten my lock ring on my fixed gear? The answer was two years ago. But as strange luck would have it, within days of getting the Trixie, I felt my rear wheel slip. I kinda thought it was mud on the tire, but then it happened again. And all of the sudden I needed my Trixie.
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Google Streetview
June 22, 2009
Anyone else seen those Google Streetview cars roaming around. Presumable snapping photos of you doing things you should not be doing. Yeah it snapped a shot of you running that red light last week. Well now they have started to fit in a little more with us cyclists. The Google Tricycle is out there now. They call this guy a cartographer, and he will be "mapping" your college campus soon. So no more riding with that Pabst in your hand!
(AP Photo/Mark Stehle)
Taking It To The Streets
June 19, 2009
In a bit of a role reversal, it appears that an individual in Boulder Colorado is organizing a critical mass for cars. Fliers started appearing last week entitled "Civil Disobedience, July 25th Block Dangerous Cyclist Day, Boulder, CO.". There intent is to block the Sunrise Century, a bicycle ride in its third year and consisting of 1500 riders.
The letter mentions a new law that will go into effect on August 5, 2009. A law which will require motorists to keep 3 feet between themselves and cyclist. Apparently this is a difficult task as confrontation has been building between motorists and cyclist in recent weeks after a motorist was ticketed with suspicion of endangering a cyclist.
The Sunrise Century takes place July 25th and lets hope that this does not escalate into something more than it needs to be.
Minnehaha Canvas Utility Pannier
June 18, 2009
Along with the Minnehaha Medium Saddle Bag reviewed last month (which rocked!) I also had the opportunity to try out a pair of Minnehaha Canvas Utility Panniers
These, like the saddlebag, are stylish lookin’ canvas and leather bicycle panniers. They sport a pair of hefty metal hooks to attach the pannier to the top of your rack and an equally sturdy metal D-ring on an adjustable leather/bungee combo strap to hook on the bottom. It has a beefy leather strap (no pun intended) wrapping over the top of the flap, with a sturdy steel buckle on another beefy strap coming up from the bottom to fasten down the hatch and secure your load. I really love that there are no zippers, plastic buckles or Velcro on these – all of which eventually fail through wear and/or breakage. The metal hooks are considerably heftier than ones I’ve had on other bags that eventually got beaten and bent out of shape after years of use. These seem like they might last longer.
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Harlot Wear Murray Shorts
June 17, 2009
I have been hitting the mountain bike trails more and more this year, so in turn, I need some clothing to wear. I got a few pairs of shorts from Harlot, the first being the Murray. Not sure who Murray is, but based on these shorts I would say he likes to get out there and ride. Heck these shorts have so much stretch you could even do some yoga in them.
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London: Hard Court
June 16, 2009
**We now have a look at cycling from across the Atlantic. Will Melling is our voice over in London. He was nice enough to share his thoughts and photos from the London hard court polo scene.**
Until recently I was a bike courier. Bike couriers are suspicious of journalists because over the years the journalists who write about couriers keep getting it wrong. A similar feeling seems to exist amongst bike-polo players so I'm reluctant to write much in case I annoy or alienate my polo playing friends. I don't play, I just hang around and take pictures. I'm not an expert on the game, not an expert on it's history and it's development. I asked a few players to write me with their experiences and thoughts. Not unreasonably they mostly ignored the request. Playing is the thing. These men and women love to play, four, five times a week. In the last year the number of players has got larger and the standard of play has got higher. These players are good, really good.
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Tricycle Smile
June 15, 2009
The world of cycling has come a long way. If I ever image cycling in the past, in it's early years, I picture the Tour De France riders. Fixed gear bicycles, riders wearing wool jersey's with a spare tire over their back and maybe even a cigarette being smoked. There was a different image out there though. One where Victorian era women rode, and it might very well have changed their world.
There is no denying the fact, tricycling for women was somewhat doubtfully regarded by the majority.
But all good causes conquer in the end; and tricycling for women has won its way steadily, through prejudice and opposition, to its present acknowledged station among the favorite exercises of nineteenth-centurt maids and matrons.
Medical men are agreed that for the majority if ills that feminine flesh is heir to, there is no medicine like regular doses of the three wheels.
And to those who seek in the tricycle a means of health, how great is the reward! Headache, rheumatism, neuralgia, and a thousand kindred pains disappear as by magic: strained and tortured nerves are smoothed and stregthened. To the sickly woman, bent beneath a load of nameless aches and weariness, her life darkened by formless shadows, terrible though intangible, I would give but one word of advice, 'Tricycle.' To the girl who is devoid of every charm of brilliant complexion and a sparkling eve, who longs in vain for the loveliness she sees in those about her, I would say 'Try tricycling.'
Neatness and simplicity are the beauties of a cyclng costume, and there must be no lod colours, no floating ends, artificial flowers, ribbons, or feathers. A plain Norfolk jacket for cold weather completes the whole. A linen collar, or tiny frill, fastened by a plain brooch, finishes this pretty and trim costume. Let me add that corsets should never be worn; they are both inconvenient and injurious.
In conclusion...Never ride carelessly, or forget that it is possible for a lady to be as graceful and elegant in the saddle of a tricycle as in any other position in life. Never attemp to ride up a hill after the effort becomes severe; and remember to put on the brake before dismounting on an incline.
From Victorian Women's Magazines: An Anthology. Ed. Margaret Beetham, Kay Boardman. Manchester: Manchester UP. 2001.
Originally published in 'Pastimes for Ladies. On Three Wheels', Woman's World, vol. 6, 1887, pp. 243-44
Planet Bike Aries Glove
June 12, 2009
Planet Bike loves bike culture, and that is one of the reasons we love Planet Bike. I had a chance to check out the Aries Glove and put it to the test. This glove, well, it fits like a glove. It actually fits really well. I find that a lot of short finger gloves do not have a good overall fit, and are often tight between my fingers, but the Aries is great in this sense.
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It's Coming...
June 11, 2009
More prizes, more sweat, more laws broken, more nudity, more drunkeness, more random check points, and more hustle and bustle than ever before....
July 15 the Alleycat is back!!!!
Vancouver vs. Cyclists
June 10, 2009
Seems like Vancouver cyclists may be getting injured a little more than most. A recent UBC study showed that 670 cyclist were taken to Vancouver emergency rooms in the last year. This is far greater then Toronto's 450. The study also traces the steps of the cyclist to see how the accident occured, this information is then used to highlight dangerous areas.
Hopefully with more cycling routes and dedicated road lanes these numbers will fall. But as bike use increases it seems like this may become par for the course. My recent trip to Vancouver saw a messenger plow into the back of a city bus at high speed, it looke like it hurt. The thing about this study is that Vancouver has a mandatory helmet law, and the injuries are still high. Makes me wonder what all these injuries are.
Fuji Outland RC 29'er
June 9, 2009
Let's get to it, because this bike means business. I have been a big 29'er fan for the last few years, but I was not sure if the aspects I liked about them would translate well into a full suspension bike. Heck I had been riding a 29'er with no front suspension up until this Spring. The Fuji OUtland RC 29'er is one big bike. At 6'1 I fit the medium frame just perfect and looking at it from a far I feel like it is a monster truck, this thing is set to roll over some big terrain.
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Dakine Yo Whale T-Shirt
June 8, 2009
Yeah, it's a T-shirt, and a T-shirt's a T-shirt, but if you're going to wear a T-shirt, why wouldn't you wear one with a whale on it? Better yet, a bright pink whale? Even better yet, a supercool bright pink whale who spouts a heart and says "yo!" ? Yeah, it's a T-shirt, but it's a whale of a T-shirt!
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Peace Coffee Blends
June 5, 2009
There is a triad in the bicycle world, it consists of bicycles, beers and brews. Well maybe that is just in my world. It was really only a year ago that I hardly even drank coffee and now it is my morning start to a good bike ride. Last year Peace Coffee sent us some of their coffee to try out and it was great. This year we are lucky enough to try our their blends. Twin Cities, Birchwood, and Blue Ox have been on the menu every morning for the last two months and after all that time I can tell you I am a big fan.
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