You are currently browsing the archives for the 'April 2006' category.
Beautiful weather in British Columbia this week. It’s a great time of the year for riding.
Original content
For Monday, we posted up Denise’s long-term review of the North Shore Racks hitch mount rack, and followed that with Guitar Ted’s article on the final planning stages for the first Trans Iowa event. On Wednesday, Ashwin discussed finding the right saddle for your bike. Alan let us in on Project Transrockies with a look at the bike he’ll be using for the 2006 Transsrockies event.
Elsewhere around the ‘net
Apple.com interviews Jamie Houssian of The Collective, makers of the highly touted mountain bike film, Roam. Yeti Cycles launches a flashy new website. asilvertouch zine posted up a follow up to their first writeup on mountain biking in Bolivia. The Ellsworth Epiphany wins Outdoor Magazine’s Gear of the Year Award. Bike Magazine reviews the Louis Garneau WindDry F2 jacket. Industry Nine wheels look hot. NSMB.com jump on the podcast train, posting up an interview with Norco’s Pete Stace-Smith. And, finally, I thought about posting up some information on the new Juicy Ultimate, but tonnes of other sites posted up everything you need to know.
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Editor’s note: We’ve got another new contributor for this week. Alan Wu is an avid cyclist and he runs SpokeWrench.com, an online specialty bike shop that caters to the high-end bike user. Based near Ottawa, Canada, Alan has raced many 24-hour endurance races on teams of varying size, but this year he’s going to push himself to the limit when he teams up with friend Marc Levesque to try and conquer the Trans Rockies Challenge.
In this writeup, the first in a series of stories leading up to the race, Alan documents the start of ‘Project Trans Rockies’ and describes the process of selecting and building up the bikes that will be used for the race.
This year, I’m participating in the TransRockies Challenge and the first thing that I’m going to write about is the bike build I’ve put together for the race. In addition to giving me a test bed to try new parts, I feel that I have something that will work extremely well for the Trans Rockies Challenge, and all around for that matter.
Keep in mind that the goal of this project bike was to build something that will be at home for all day backwoods type riding or at a 24 hour enduro race. Light weight wasn’t the highest priority because of durability concerns but a downhill bike with 9″ of rear wheel travel wouldn’t fit the bill either. I wanted something that could be pedaled up the hill and still handle the downhill afterwards. Read the rest of this entry »
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26 April »
How tos »
Ashwin
It can be argued that the right saddle has more bearing on one’s enjoyment of cycling than any other component, including that new freeride frame or the carbon trail bike you’re building up in the garage. This article will help you find the perfect saddle to fit your perfect bottom.
Bike saddles were in the popular press a couple of years ago, a result of a study focusing specifically on cycling and a form of ‘erectile dysfunction’ brought about by extended time on the bike. And while the results of the study aren’t definitive, there is no denying that cycling can cause some discomfort in certain parts of the body. Read the rest of this entry »
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25 April »
Events »
Cory
HubTV regularly posts up mountain bike footage on its website and they’ve just started serving up video that third-party sites can embed within their own pages. Check out the following interview with Brian Lopes, recorded during this year’s Sea Otter Classic.
And while the interface doesn’t scale smoothly, the sound is a little tinny, and there’s a whole lot of background noise, it would be interesting to see a little more of this kind of stuff… Also, poke around the rest of the HubTV site for some more mountain bike action.
Via NorCal Mtn Bike Racing.
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In my last installment on the Trans Iowa endurance event, I touched on my quest for a decent map and how gravel roads are not very well documented in Iowa. This week I’ll discuss the significance of that and tell of some of the successes that we got out of the event. Read the rest of this entry »
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24 April »
Reviews »
Denise
Back in early March, I posted up my first impressions of North Shore Racks’ four-bike receiver-hitch mount rack. I really liked how easy it was to load and unload bikes, and that any bikes loaded onto the rack were held firmly in place while my vehicle was moving down the road. Since that first writeup, I’ve had a bunch of time to use the rack in all conditions and to get a feel for its strengths and its limitations. Read the rest of this entry »
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Now that Bruce is officially gone from Survivor, I don’t have to wrestle myself off the couch and onto my bike. Of course, if there’s anything good on the tube and I have a bag of chips for a snack…
Original content
This week was a shortened one but we still snuck in a few updates. Guitar Ted got us rolling again on Tuesday, when he discussed the logistics of planning the first Trans Iowa endurance event. On Wednesday, Ashwin served up a comparison of three Manitou forks — the Black Super, the Black 80 SPV, and the 100mm Minute 2:00 — all ridden on the same bike and then compared to one another. Thursday’s writeup was a guest contribution by Adrian Howard and it looked at the way VPP suspension technologies perform, from the perspective of a graduate student in sports science.
Next week, we’ll have a new review from Denise, a new contributor, and a fresh new way of looking at things. Newness all around!
Elsewhere around the ‘net
Mountain Bike Action has a take on how USA Cycling should go about planning for the 2008 Olympic Games. Wade Simmons, Dave Watson, and Joe Schwartz recently spent some time biking at Alpenrock. Norco and NSMB.com gave back to the trailbuilding community that keeps everybody rolling. Bike Magazine has photos from Hans Rey’s trip to the Phillipines. BikeMagic reviews the Continental Slash 2.3 tires.
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The International Mountain Biking Association has released its Canadian newsletter for April. It addresses the IMBA Summit / World MTB Conference, trailbuilding information, an International Trails Day preview and more. Have a look. Read the rest of this entry »
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19 April »
Tech tips »
Adrian
Editor’s note: This entry was submitted by Adrian Howard. Adrian is in the final stages of a graduate Masters in physiotherapy at the University of Queensland. He has a Masters in sports science (human performance) and has worked in the field of strength and conditioning for twelve years. Adrian currently is living in Brisbane, Australia with his wife and his interests include human performance, musculoskeletal rehabilitation, snowboarding, surfing and, of course, mountain biking.
In this age of full-suspension technology, there is an enormous amount of debate as to which suspension design works best for mountain bikers. There are plenty of reviews all over the ‘net that discuss which design is best, and why it is so. I feel there is a fundamental problem with many of these suspension arguments: very few people ever really seem to consider the rider and how they interact with the bike on the trail.
I recently purchased a Santa Cruz VP-Free for downhill duties and took it on a trip to Mt. Buller in Victoria, Australia. In this article, I want to discuss specifically how a rider interacts with a Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) bike, rather than the usual score of the bike did this well and that poorly. Read the rest of this entry »
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18 April »
Reviews »
Ashwin
I’ve been messing around with several different forks on my full suspension mountain bike for the past while and this writeup summarizes my take on the different forks. The three forks tested for this article were all Manitou products: a Black Super, a Black 80 SPV, a 100 Minute 2:00.
Keep in mind that this comparison was made with me doing the riding that I do, which is primarily cross country and cross country racing. Read the rest of this entry »
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