Go Clipless

Hearty souls

Damn it's cold up here in Boston! Wind chill temps below zero yesterday. I'm impressed with the number of cyclists out and about despite the cold. Tons of bike commuters. This bike rack outside of a library is jam packed with bikes from these hearty souls.

--  Sent from my Treo

Hazmat?

Posts have been and probably will be sparse for the next few days as I have been crazy busy and will be traveling until Wednesday.

Today is my first business trip with the Chrome Backbone (review coming soon) I bought for bike commuting. Well I forgot to empty it of bike equipment before heading through the security line at Washington National Airport. The x-ray guy paused for quite some time before calling for a bag check...gulp...I realized I had a Co2 canister and multi-tool.

They let me keep the multi-tool, but determined that the carbon dioxide was a hazmat. I asked if I could keep the dispensing unit and she could take the Co2 canister. She said that the hazardous material had already been dispensed through the unit therefore the unit was hazardous as well. I didn't think it was wise to remind her that our mouth's also dispense that same hazardous material. Oh well...at least they noticed something.

Plane's leaving...gotta go...

Levi Leipheimer wins first Tour of California prologue

  Levi Leipheimer 
  Originally uploaded by flickbert.

As I write this I am watching the Tour of California prologue on the DVR. I already know the results, but it's just great to be watching cycling on T.V.

I'm not going to cover the race on this blog, but I do have a few random thoughts  to spew:

What perfect timing for this race to keep cycling alive in the minds of Americans. Here we are in the tail end of winter, getting tired of riding our trainers and just plain sick of the cold. Nothing like watching a stage race on T.V. to kick start the season and motivate cyclists to ride and to keep up with pro cycling now that Lance is gone.

All of the U.S. cycling stars showed up for the race. I can't think of anyone that pulled the old "this race doesn't fit with my training plan for the TdF so I'm sitting out," routine.

There's a new American cycling team to compete on the world stage in Team Toyota-United.

Did you hear the race announcers in the background (not Bob Roll and Paul Sherwen...I'm talking about the announcer for the fans at the race)? Classic American style...getting the crowd excited for certain riders...just a little WWF style.

This race is great for cycling fans. But, I don't think anyone else knows about it. How will it move from the mindshare of the cycling enthusiast to the mindshare of the average American?

Marla Streb pregnant and still riding

By my calculations, Marla Streb is now seven months pregnant and is still going strong on her mountain bike. Unbelievable!

Of course, the prevailing medical wisdom is that exercise is good for pregnant women, particularly those that already exercise regularly before becoming pregnant. Clearly Marla falls in this category. Still, my feeble male mind can't help but think that this has got to be dangerous at this stage in the game.

Rather than allow my neanderthal thinking to overcome me, I looked it up:

• Riding while pregnant from MotherNature.com
• Bicycling during pregnancy from About.com

My conclusion after reading the articles; it is perfectly valid to continue cycling while pregnant as long as you were an active cyclist before becoming pregnant. Assuming an otherwise healthy pregnancy the most critical health risks appear to be from falling, primarily in the third trimester. An average rider should probably consider riding in more controlled circumstances (trainer, paved bike paths, etc.) to reduce risk. Certainly technical singletrack could be risky.

Of course Marla is not your average rider. Although she appears to be riding on dirt trails, they do not seem to be of the extreme variety she has been known to ride. She's a smart cookie so I am sure Marla is aware of the risks and taking what she considers to be reasonable precautions.

This is one tenacious woman...I'm sure she'll snap back to this kind of shape in a matter of weeks!

Meanwhile, where is the cycling papa razzi? We have no pictures of Marla pregnant.

Runaway Bike Sign

  Runaway Bike Sign 
  Originally uploaded by Kevan.

Who wouldn't want to live in the city with signs like these?

NYC biking - what the hell is happening?

I've been reading Michael Greene's BikeBlog for some time now and I gotta tell you, he paints a pretty bleak picture of cycling in New York City. From the sound of things it seems the Bloomberg administration has a vendetta against cyclists.

It seems the trouble all started during the Republican National Convention in 2004 when hundreds of Critical Mass cyclists showed up to protest. Ever since then the city has been cracking down on cyclists of all kinds and not only at Critical Mass rides. Apparently all kinds of esoteric rules around cycling are being enforced in disproportionate numbers. Things like crossing the bike lane line or not having proper lighting, etc.

You have got to read a few of these articles to get a flavor for what's going on:

• A recent Critical Mass ride ends in serious police injury after some questionable crowd control tactics
• The NYC National Lawyers Guild holds a presentation on the constitutionality of the city's cycling control policies
• Most recently the city is giving pedicabs a hard time

To be fair, I have not read any of the opposing sides point of view. In fact, I'd be interested in reading more from the mainstream press on these events to see what is being said.

I can tell you that there is another point of view here that was expressed by my mother who lives just outside of NYC in New Jersey. I started talking to her about my blog and cycling culture, etc. and brought up the happenings in NYC. She was familiar with the events on a surface level from her readings of the New York Times and other local papers. Her view was that there were a bunch of subversive anarchists running around on bikes out to destroy the city. Now my mother can be a bit dramatic at times so I would take this view with a grain of salt...but still, the truth probably lies somewhere in between the two views.

I'm inclined to give the cyclists the benefit of the doubt, however. What do you think?

Cannondale's corporate blog program

Many of you are familiar with Cannondale's The Brad Blog and the Cannondale Race Blog, but we may be on the verge of a Cannondale blog explosion if things go as planned. According to this article in Business Week, Cannondale has shifted a portion of its website from a traditional content management system over to a blogging platform and provided fifteen additional sales and marketing staffers with the ability to update the company site.

Janet Maurice is Cannondale's Webmaster. She explains that the staffers will not necessarily be blogging in the traditional sense, but they will have unfiltered access to update the site with news, photos, press releases, etc. A special section of the site has been added (Cannondale Community) to aggregate the news and information from across Cannondale and also includes the posts made to the two established corporate blogs. There is even a single RSS feed to help you keep track of all of the happenings at Cannondale.

So with all of this unfettered access to the corporate website will the corporate brass at Cannondale lose control of the brand? This is a common feeling expressed by executives and traditional corporate communications types. Most marketing thought leaders would argue that all companies have already lost control of their brands with the rise of social networking on the web and self-publishing or blogging. Cannondale deserves credit for recognizing this and participating in the conversation instead of trying to control it.

For a glimpse into how this initiative developed at Cannondale check out this post and comments from Jonathan Maus's old blog, Just Riding Along. You'll notice I called Brad out on the corporate blogging practices and he responded with some nice insight on the progress that was being made with the corporate leadership at Cannondale.

Now that the platform is in place and staffers have greater access to publishing, I will look forward to new Cannondale blogs that spawn from the enthusiasm of these employees.

I wonder how long it will take the other big guys to join in the conversation?

Neighborhood snow riding

Ok...so yesterday I was a little bitter. Let's balance that with a bit of snow fun!

The D.C. area got socked with about ten inches of snow the other day. Truth be told, it's the first serious snow storm in these parts in about two years.

All of us in the neighborhood have been laughing at Dr.P for having bought a snow blower three seasons ago.

Today Dr.P got the last laugh.

He's been waiting for this day for years. After giving me the business for a few minutes he let me borrow the blower and the two of us proceeded to clear the driveways of about six of our neighbors and friends.

While everyone gathered in the street to sip hot chocolate, the good doctor and I began tooling around on our bikes (hey Dr.P, how old is that Jets jacket?). After fishtailing a couple of times I grabbed my helmet to set out on a longer expedition. I tried to rally the group (there are four of us in the neighborhood that ride) to head to the local trail network, but no one wanted to load up the cars, etc. Dr.P decided he would rather do his taxes then play in the snow so Jim (that's him slogging through the snow) and I headed out on the paved trails in the neighborhood (we have nine solid miles of connected paved trail).

Turned out riding on the paved path provided a singletrack like experience. It was actually easier to push through the fresh snow areas then to ride on the portion of the path where people had walked. Every once in a while I'd catch the edge of the path and slide out and have to throw the foot down. All in all it was a fun day playing in the snow like a kid again.

Speaking of kids...here's mine...Jack and Claire...hey...I'm a proud papa and it's my blog!

Snow rant

I'm sending a big tall skinny middle finger to all of the slovenly pigs out there that drive around like this after a snow fall.

You make me sick!

POTUS's Mountain Bike (up close and personal)

Last night Dr.P and I went down to Revolution Cycles to pick up his bike which was being repaired. For those who don't know, Revolution Cycles in Clarendon, VA is the shop which outfits the President of the United States (POTUS) and the Secret Service with bikes.

Lo an behold...there was George W. Bush's mountain bike. Apparently Revolution built two identical bikes for the prez. and he took one and the other was left for display. It's a Trek Top Fuel 98 with a custom paint job. Check it out...it's got the presidential seal and everything.