Molly - the other muse - It's not about the bike part 3!

Here she is again.

And yes - I will be branching out but probably on another blog and another email.

More cycling news and artwork to come soon - including the fact that I have ordered a replacement bike for the Cannondale and will surprise my friends with this when it arrives.

Thanks, Steve

Light lane!!

Somehow this just strikes me as a bad idea.

Initially do we really want driver's eyes diverted to the cool flashing laser lights and moving stripes on the road when they approach us from behind.

There will be a few drivers inspired to see how close they can get to the line, daring themselves to enter your 'lane'.

Bike lanes painted on the road are designed to make roads safe for all cyclists at all times of day.
Drivers should be penalized for parking in, blocking and blatantly driving in bike lanes. Note I am not keen on cyclists being enforced to use bike lanes due to differences in road surfaces, grids, park cars etc - sort all this out then the lanes will be safer for riders.

Of course we need more bike lanes too - make them useful, make bike lanes take us to places and not just dead end, we need networks of bike lanes that connect.

If this idea is to keep riders safe on the roads, then the majority ride during the day and therefore this current light effect fails, but I am sure they are working on that.

Note to guy on bike in video: wear yellow or white, wear something truly reflective....

Ok I'll apologize already!

I read around some of their press and in those interviews the designers agree with pretty much everything I say and do see this as a reaction and first strike to the problems of riding on streets safely. Whereas all I am doing is sitting here reading stuff - my hats off to you guys - good luck.

ANN WOOLDRIDGE: “I don’t want my RAAM dream to end in a ditch in Missouri.”

Camdenton, MO.
June 24, 2009

By Vic Armijo

As the sole entrant in the women’s age 50+ category, from the very beginning UK racer Ann Wooldridge’s RAAM has been a race against herself. But after taking a fall yesterday and losing time in attending to her abrasions, she’s now in a race against the clock to beat the time cut-off at the Mississippi River.

Ann Wooldridge fell into a drainage ditch at the side of the road yesterday and is fighting on to make the next time cut-off and complete the race.

"Keep it going Ann, you are over halfway. Once you make that time check it will be easier - just think of it as an RTTC TT for those 200 miles - with better weather."

RAAM - what a wonderful event. Another cycling dream of mine - but I am a long way from it.

Jure Robic was riding like a sure fire winner, but has been losing some pace and now Dani Wyss has just passed him on the road. It could be an epic fight between those too.

People talk about the time differences in the top ten of the Tour De France over 2000 miles being minutes. Right now I think it is 3 minutes between these two guys after almost 2000 miles on the bike continuously!

VeloDramatic - Great photography

I found this blog due to snarky comment re Lance and Levi sandbagging at the Nevada City race on the vicious NYVelocity message boards.

Anyhow - what amazing cycling photography and apparently one of the first times he has photographed from a moto.

All of his photography is beautiful and dramatic - just check out the archive.

Interesting site too.

Details on all the bikes, equipment and clothing he owns and a running annual cycling expenditure tab too. Don't think I have spent that much in 20+ years of riding!

I hope Velodramatic doesn't mind me posting these images to show you - how better to celebrate his art.

British Cake is energy food

Emma Pooley shows that her British cycling club runs were great training and fuel for cycling success. She just won the Grande Boucle Feminine - bet you didn't know that!

Why - because women's cycling still gets no coverage and for some reason, even though I never see any and can't claim to be an avid follower, it still seems more exciting and open than the men's.

When I do check the results it's never one constant winner throughout the year - it's always a mix of 6 or so riders winning events and the others being close enough. I support Cooke as you know but Pooley's cake love has me rooting for her too, their rivals in Vos and Bruins etc are always close.

I can't even find photos from today's result to show you!

So here is a great shot of Emma climbing.

Happy Father's Day

Go play with your kids.

Well I have spent a week umming and aaahing about my replacement bike / frame.

Cannondale's replacement scheme only works if you are a competent bike mechanic (ie bottom brackets, chains and headsets) or you don't need to replace a wheel too. They will sell me a frame at wholesale price ($600) but by the time I have replaced parts and a wheel and paid for labour I have spent as much as buying a new CAAD 9. Funny isn't it.

So right now I have narrowed it down to 3 options. Really only able to afford entry level stuff though - though that's probably good enough for me for now - better for me to lose 15lbs than the bike to be 3lbs lighter.

Also read up on helmets a little. I knew that the one I crashed which has been my favourite for a long time now needed to be retired. That's probably the 4th impact it's taken. I know they are technically useless after the first crash. But it's so nice, a white Met Ippogriffo from 2002!!

Yeah that's the new discovery I made. Many helmet manufacturers are asking you to discard your helmet after 3 years, others give them a 5 year lifespan. The materials involved decay over time and therefore their structural integrity is compromised. Their seems to be some debate that the 3 year lifespan is partly marketing but it's worth noting that the more high-end the model, the less structure exists and maybe they therefore are compromised earlier.

So I shouldn't have been wearing that helmet. I owe it to my wife and daughter to get a new one and whilst we are at it my wife gets a new one too. Anyway this issue seems like something worth pursuing and probably publicising more - did you know about the lifespan of helmets?

UCI killing bike design and hunting Team GB?!

Read the full article here on Road.cc

From January 2010 any bike used in road, time trial, cyclo-cross or track competiton has to be available to purchase.

This is what the regulations say: "It must be marketed (i.e. available for sale on the market) or marketable (i.e. available for sale directly from the manufacturer, by subscription or through an alternative distribution network). Prototypes and the use of equipment specially designed for a particular athlete, event or performance is prohibited. 'Special design' means a bicycle with a "technical added value when compared with other equipment."

At a stroke this would take out a fair chunk of the bikes and equipment currently being used in the pro road races and time trials – even those that meet the UCI's technical rules. Much of what is being raced now is the prototype of next year's, or even the year after's, production bike.

The upshot of this is that if manufacturers can't test new designs under race conditions there isn't much point of coming up with new designs - and race proven technology ends up being used on more than just race bikes.

There would be numerous unintended consequnces too - one of which ironically might be that aero bikes get much more aero… but more on that later.

The intended consequences of the new regs are not just aimed at the road pro's bikes: unless they start selling them in Halford's some time soon, Team GB's track bikes will be illegal come January 1.

Shake and Break, Steve

"Shake and Break, Dave..."

When you are looking for a muse, turn to those you love.
Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant in 'American Flyers'.

It's a great movie and we all know the technical faults, blah blah blah.
But it's a cyling movie with some great scenery and some great riding footage, some of stock footage of the actual 'Hell of the West'. Which sounds like a race that needs to be reborn.

I decided to loosen up with some ink on some very expensive paper that has been hanging around with nothing to do. This is the result.

Each ink drawing has been placed into an off-white matte with an opening of 12" x 6" and overall dimensions of 13 3/4" x 8 1/4" and they cost $50.00 each.

EDIT: I just sold the top two.

Also check out 'How to Avoid the Bummer Life'.
Always a great read and this week featuring Mr Costner on page header.
Thanks Stevil.

Wales 48 - USA 15

On Saturday myself (the Welshman), Sarah (the American) and Molly (who is technically both) - went to Toyota Park, Chicago to watch the Welsh Rugby team play a friendly against the USA Eagles.

Technically at least half of the Welsh rugby team has other playing commitments so this was more like the Welsh C team - no offense to those playing. To be honest the only really great piece of rugby was in the 15th minute when Wales were able to play wide rugby and use the backs moving and passing at pace to score their first try- other wise Wales didn't play well and the USA are still learning.

Line Out.

Many are saying that when the kids of the US start playing rugby at a younger age and through school the US will soon become an international rugby force - but they also said that about soccer (not that the Welsh team are anything to brag about right now). Interesting crowd though, many many Welsh supporters either ex pats or travelling fans and the American fans I would say were mainly college guys. But 6000 fans in half of a 20'000 capacity stadium does not an atmosphere make.

Toyota Park doesn't seem to have a bad seat - we were really close to the action at the 10th row from the front and we had a pretty good day out all told, the rain even held off till we were on the way home.USA Score!

Emma Pooley shows her true British Cycling Background

Let's just say the answer lies in her answer to the question about her post cycling career.Anyone fortunate enough to have been on a good old British 'club run' will know exactly what I'm talking about. It takes 90 minutes to get to the obscure hidden away caff, 30 minutes to get the tea and cakes and then 60 minutes to get home. It's all an excuse for cake.

Many discussions take place about the best bike cafes, best routes to them and best cakes there. In my old stomping ground of Surrey they hold the cake ride every year in memory of pro racer John Ibbotson who would write pages about cake on his blog.

Best of all are the hidden, cyclist only cafes.
There was a great one on the outskirts of Ruthin in North Wales. It came either before the climb of the Gateway to Clwyd or just after it. Turn down another unmarked country lane and look for the pottery windmill outside a farm gate and bingo. The driveway would be filled with hundreds of bikes on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and they had converted an old barn into a cycling cafe, complete with artwork, huge mugs of coffee and bricks of cake for cheapo cyclist prices. Brilliant.

KALEIDOCYCLE - James Jean

A great illustrator out there by the name of James Jean created this KaleidocycleIt's taken from this sketch he did.See the original at the NYC Bicycle Film Fest this month.

Go to his site and browse his sketchbooks -they are wonderful.
So generous of him to share so much too.

http://www.jamesjean.com/

http://www.processrecess.com/index.php