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13 October »
Events »
Dan
CLEVELAND ROCKS IS BACK
That’s right folks, Cleveland Rocks is back for a third year!
The first bus trip of the season from St. Catharines, Ontario to Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park in Cleveland, Ohio has been scheduled for Nov. 25.
Registration is now open on the official trip site located here.
The trips this year will be organized through the TheBikingHub.com, so be sure to check back here often for updates and trip reports.
The trip can only happen if we get 35 people on board, so register at the Cleveland Rocks website as soon as possible. Registration will be $5 cheaper if you sign up and pay before Nov. 1.
And watch for a complete “What did you ride today” review on Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park, which now has something for everyone with box jumps, north shore stunts, a foam pit, cross country courses, a skatepark-style area and more!
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Interbike Wrapup
Well, I’m back from Vegas and after resting for a week or so I can finally get back to the grind here. Once again the show was incredible with literally thousands of new products from hundreds of companies.
Every year there seems to be some sort of theme that emerges from the. Last year was the year of carbon, where every manufacturer seemed the need to make multiple items out of the weave. This year there seems to be a few emerging trends which was quickly evident by walking around a few booths. The first is sort of a continuation of a theme from last year, which is 29” mountain bikes. More manufacturers have added 29” bikes to their lineups, but many have started playing with the mix from going to a single-speed model to using the 69-er style, which is a 26” wheel on the back and a 29” wheel up front.
The second theme is cyclocross. With the road bike segment starting to cool off a little bit, it seems retailers are spreading their buying dollars around. Cyclocross is a growing segment and the options at Interbike range from basic models with alloy frames and low-end groupsets to full carbon fibre frames with SRAM Force and Shimano Dura-Ace grouppos.
Here are some of the bigger companies with some interesting new products to show. In the next few weeks, we’ll have a few reviews of some of the funkier new products that were on display. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Cut crew visits LA Hospital
For sometimes obvious reasons, freeride and downhill mountain bikers sometimes get the reputation as being party animals who care more about themselves than anyone else.
That’s why it’s nice to hear some riders are trying to change that opinion by doing something nice to make the lives of other people better.
Cannondale’s team riders known as The Cut headed to the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles Monday where they visited with the kids and put on a riding demonstration. Read the rest of this entry »
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There are three seasons in a cyclist’s calendar – riding season, off-season and trade show season. There are hundreds of bike shows across North America each year, but only a handful register on the radars of nearly every rider out there.
With Eurobike already out of the way and Interbike less than two weeks away, the Canadian cycling industry held its annual ExpoCycle trade show in Montreal Sept. 10-12. Most of the 3,000 bike shops across the country sent some sort of representation to the show, which gives dealers and media the chance to see some of the new products that will be on the market for the upcoming riding season. I had a chance to cover the show once again for Pedal Magazine (see the stories at www.pedalmag.com) and it was as bling-blingy and fun as ever.
Where the 2005 shows seemed to be the year of the all-carbon-all-the-time attitude, 2006 seems to have manufacturers classing up their use of carbon with more dramatic and artistic molding, more paint-covered designs and mixing the weave with exotic materials such as carbon and magnesium.
The show this year also showed the increased popularity in triathlons, with dozens of manufacturers making components, bikes or clothing specifically designed for tri events. Triathlons are a fun alternative to just biking, and you’ll read more about these here on TheBikingHub in the future.
Anyway, after hours and hours of walking around the ExpoCycle show at Place Bonaventure in downtown Montreal, I’ve come up with a list of companies with products that really blew me away. Here’s my top 10 list of favourite items found at this year’s show. Read the rest of this entry »
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So it looks as though Operacion Puerto, the witchhunt that has turned pro cycling into a world-wide farce, has reared its ugly head in the mountain biking world.
Jose Antonio Hermida has been forced by the Spanish Cycling Association to withdraw from the World Championships after a nick name with which he is believed to be associated showed up in documents produced by officials involved with the case. For his part, Hermida seems pretty pissed off, and his press release makes two key points:
1. There are no existing legal charges against me.
2. There are no current sanctions against me
So let me get get this straight: Hermida hasn’t been found guilty of anything; he hasn’t been suspended for any past infractions; officials used the existence of a nickname to justify his expulsion from the Worlds.
If you ask me, that’s pretty darn weak. Another top rider is gone from a world-level pro event because he might be involved in a doping case that’s already ruined the seasons of riders who were eventually cleared for lack of substantive evidence. And why the heck is this info only coming to light now, a couple days before a major event, when it’s obviously been available for almost three months.
This one smacks of publicity hunting, regardless of Hermida’s guilt or innocence which, by the way, has not been given due process.
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Long time readers of The Biking Hub might recall my stories about the Trans Iowa ultra endurance event. The event is promoted, organized, and run by two bicycle mechanics that love long distance cycling. One of those mechanics is me, and the other is Jeff Kerkove, who is also an endurance off road cyclist for the Cat Eye Enduro Team.
Since the event is stretched out over 300 miles of gravel roads, and the route changes each year, the work load for planning this little outing is pretty heavy for two fellows. After each running of the event, Jeff and I say, “No more!” It’s partly a feeling of relief to be done with the event, and the pain of putting it on is still fresh in your mind.
So, how does it happen that we are doing this crazy event again? Read the rest of this entry »
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It won’t be long now until that special time of the year comes up for bicycle gear junkies like myself. Interbike is just around the corner and it’s almost like Christmas in fall for those who love bicycles.
When I was young, we got a catalog every fall that was called the “Wish Book” by the retailer that sent it out. I remember the day when it would come in the mail. I would turn right to the toy section and gaze for hours at the myriads of toys pictured in its glossy pages. Nowadays, it’s the fall bike show in Las Vegas called Interbike that does the same thing for me. It’s like the “wish book” for cyclists, especially now with the coverage that you can get on the web. Picture upon picture of new bikes, gear, and cycling celebrities are getting my attention now, much like the toy pages did in that catalog years ago. Read the rest of this entry »
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This past weekend, I travelled with a teammate to the fifth race in the Plastiglas /Chico Racing’s Ontario Cup Series. The drive from From Guelph to Sudbury takes about six hours and we only had a Pontiac Firefly to stretch out in, but watching the event in the flesh and riding the course afterwards were well worth the cramped legs.
Our trip began on Saturday around 5:30pm with Derek picking me up in his little three cylinder which we call ‘Booger’ (it’s a faded forest green which could have been sampled from a five year old’s trousers). We loaded the bikes on the rack, packed another layer in the hatchback, and took off like an excited sneeze. Having brought my laptop, I burned us a ten hour MP3 CD to cruise to and we were settled in for the long haul by the time we hit HWY 401. Read the rest of this entry »
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5 July »
Events »
Dan
So, the fun is now over. The camping gear is back on its shelf in the garage, the coolers have been emptied, the extra bike parts have been put away. Yes, another 24 Hours of Summer Solstice race is now behind me. Read the rest of this entry »
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22 June »
Events »
Dan
There are two, maybe three events on my annual calendar that I really get stoked for: the first is Christmas (yes, even big kids get excited); the second is my anniversary (yes my wife is sitting next to this as I write); the third is the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice (yes you’re right…It’s really first on the list).
Yes it’s that time of year again when the camping gear gets dusted off, the HIDs get charged up, and the vat of pasta salad gets stirred up. I’ll probably do around 30 races this year, but none get me giddy like a school girl as much as the 24-hour race. Read the rest of this entry »
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