Fred's Bike

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Biking to obliterate breast cancer: The Texas Mamma Jamma Ride is ready for volunteers and riders

Speak Up Austin: City bike-share program moves forward

Speak Up Austin: City bike-share program moves forward - YNN - Your News Now

Friday, July 27, 2012

Cycling to the 2012 Olympics |

Cycling to venues is much easier than you may think and offers an easy and fun way of getting to your event. You could make a day of it by combining a cycle trip to visitor attractions on the way to or from your event.
We recommend planning your route in advance using the cycle tab on the spectator journey planner and taking a cycle map with you. Maps are available on the venues travel pages, along with links to cycle route information in the area. Select a venue for details
The Active Travel programme aims to encourage more walking and cycling in the run-up to, during and after the Games, and includes a whole host of events and activities.
Cycle parking
Free, secure, managed cycle parking will be provided at all London 2012 venues.

Opening hours will vary from venue to venue. For details on the location and opening hours of cycle parking, read the venue-specific travel information. Cycle parking at all venues is as accessible as possible and suitable for hand cycles, folding bicycles, recumbent cycles and children’s cycles, as well as standard adult bikes. Cycle locks are not supplied, so please bring one with you.
A list of cycle parking locations in London and Surrey for the road events is also available.

Cycling - 2012 Olympics | London 2012

Olympic Mountain Bike test event hailed a success - London 2012 Olympics

Part of the London Prepares series, the event allowed the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) to test key aspects of its operations in preparation for next year’s Games.
The sold-out event attracted 5,000 spectators who watched 82 athletes compete at the Olympic Games Mountain Bike venue.
Reigning Olympic champion Julien Absalon from France led from the start and went on to win the men’s race. Absalon stormed to the finish line a full one minute and 20 seconds ahead of second placed Christoph Sauser from Switzerland, and one minute and 46 seconds ahead of third place rider Austria's Karl Markt.

Olympic Mountain Bike test event hailed a success - London 2012 Olympics

Located in the Essex countryside on land owned by the Salvation Army, Hadleigh Farm is a 550-acre site that features beautiful grassland and woodland. It also includes the surrounding countryside of Hadleigh Castle Country Park.
Hadleigh Farm offers some fantastic terrain for mountain biking, with gradients measuring 70 metres from top to bottom.

Salsa Bend 2, On One Mary and Felt Albert handlebars for Single Speed

I have been riding with all three of these bars on my single speed bikes. The Salsa Bend 2 is a great bar. I feels good, it's light and manufactured well. The Felt Albert is another swept bar that doesn't quite give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. The Felt seems cheap, uncomfortable and swept a little to much. The Mary bar is the best by far! The point of the swept bar is too give the single speed rider more control on climbs, a hand position that opens the lungs and it also reduces numbness in the hands. Do Mary!

Update: Although I love the Mary bar for single speed I have just purchased a second Salsa Bend 2 for my geared bike.

On One : Mary
Meet Mary... Our classic alt-bar. We like to think of it as an extreme sweep riser bar. It's a bit odd, but makes a lot of sense once you give it a go.

Specification

37mm rise (measured centre to centre)
645mm width
22.2mm outside diameter (MTB levers fit fine)

Salsa : Bend 2 Bar

Available in both 17- or 23-degree back-sweep for a more natural hand position
Bar sweeps forward, then back, to preserve stem length
5-degree upsweep allows adjustment to suit personal preference
Bar can be flip-flopped to run up or down
7050-T76 alloy
31.8 clamp
710 width center-to-center
Double-butted
Graduated ends for easy trimming
Bead-blast Black finish
17-degree = 297 grams, 23-degree = 309 grams

Felt : Albert

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Lance Armstrong July 22 update:

Does anybody really care?

Daily News:

With Lance Armstrong on the offensive, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is in the fight for its life

RGI.com
USADA files motion to dismiss Lance Armstrong lawsuit | Reno Gazette-Journal | rgj.com

Austin American Statesman:
'Loyal' Hincapie's testimony could be damaging to Armstrong

Omaha.com:
Ken Herman: Armstrong hoping to avoid his must-see TV moment

You Big Dummy! - Reviews

Fred Sandford style! Picking junk was never so easy. Carry all of your stuff on the Surly Big Dummy! Listed below are a few reviews for the curious. It's a bit on the expensive side but it is a great utilitarian bike.

Reviews:
Bike Snob NYC

Bicycle Sport Shop

www.bikeradar.com

www.cogandchain.com

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Smoking - Vintage from Kevin Dillard « Bike Blog NYC

I saw these on www.bikeblognyc.com and I had to repost. As the only smoker that I ride with I felt that we must stick together. I often get the stink eye from the other riders but I don't care or make fun of them in their stretchy unicorn suits (at least not in front them :) ).

It's good to see that some people still have the sense of humor and individualism that bike riding embodies. Check out Bike Blog NYC.

Vintage from Kevin Dillard « Bike Blog NYC

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Sasquatch rest stop and exercise.

Even aliens need pets.

Occasionally they let Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yowie, Skunk Ape, Yeti, Swamp Ape, Devil Monkey, Momo or whatever they call him out to go pee. He also gets some much needed exercise on his steel single speed bike! Squatchwatch.com has a unified theory of Cryptozoology. This theory is simple. Bigfoot, Chupacabra, Springheel Jack, Shadow People, Mothman, Hopkinsville Goblin, Sirians are controlled or created by extraterrestrials or some would say demons.

www.squatchwatch.com

Bike Quotes

As I get older the tendency to stick my foot up someone's ass is starting to subside. - Fred on Pump Track Pricks

The 29 inch chingaderra rolls best downhill! ~ Fred

I thought of that while riding my bicycle.

~ Albert Einstein on the Theory of Relativity

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving ~ Albert Einstein

If constellations had been named in the 20th century, I suppose we would see bicycles. ~ Prof. Carl Sagan

It never gets easier, you just go faster. ~ Greg LeMond.

~ Charles M. Schulz

The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind. ~ William Saroyan Nobel prize winner

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race. ~ H.G. Wells

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. ~ H.G. Wells

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live. ~ Mark Twain Taming the Bicycle. 1884

PEDAL. Pray Every Day And Listen. ~ Rev. Johannes Myors, The pedaling preacher

The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine. ~John Howard

A bicycle does get you there and more.... And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun. ~Bill Emerson

Until mountain biking came along, the bike scene was ruled by a small elite cadre of people who seemed allergic to enthusiasm. ~Jacquie Phelan

Bicycling is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own. ~Louis J. Helle

The secret to mountain biking is pretty simple. The slower you go the more likely it is you'll crash. ~Julie Furtado

If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on. ~ Lance Armstrong

Never use your face as a brake pad. ~ Jake Watson

Refrain from throwing your bicycle in public. It shows poor upbringing. ~ Jacquie Phelan

When I was sick, I didn't want to die.
When I race, I don't want to lose.
Dying and losing, it's the same thing. ~ Lance Armstrong

"It is no longer a beast of steel,
no it is a friend it is a faithful
and powerful ally against one's worst
enemies. It is stronger than anxiety,
stronger than sadness. It has all the
power of hope." ~  Maurice Leblanc