I’ve said it once before, but it bears repeating now: adherence to Rule #29 carries with it the ultimate mission of the aspiring Velominatus, which is to geek out endlessly over the minimum amount of gear which yields maximum security in the event of a mechanical incident while riding. The goal here is twofold. First, with no…
Month: August 2012
Does a bike have a soul? I can’t make that argument, I don’t think I do either, actually. But we do invest a lot of emotion, pride and dare I say love in our bikes. We form emotional bonds to inanimate objects all the time. My favorite old dead car had to sit in the driveway…
The name Laurence Ernest Gunderson is not one that the general public know too well, at least before the events of the past week. The US cyclist was relatively famous within the sport, but ask Joe Average who he was and you’d be met with a blank stare. But now, he’s back-page news on newspapers…
Erik Breukink, pictured here on the far right in the 1987 Giro, was on the upswing of what seemed to be very bright future. From a young age, he appeared to be a natural Grand Tour rider, so the Dutch teams he perpetually rode for did what Dutch teams do best, which is heap loads…
When it comes to weight and body dysmorphia, we cyclists can go toe-to-toe with any thirteen year old tween who has done their time flipping through the pages of Vogue and Sixteen. However fit and thin we might be, at some point it dawns on us that we’re not as light as we could be….
The modern cyclist, as they enter the sport, will find themselves purchasing a set of shoes which contain a cleat that clips into the pedals on their bike. It should come as no surprise, then, that the term we use for the action of engaging shoe to pedal is “clip in”. Obviously, this style of…
Bradley Wiggins; have we seen too much of him now? The answer to that would be yes, unless you are British. Thank god the British road race strategy blew up in their faces. Had Cav won the Olympic road race we really would all be in a spot of British bother. @blackpooltower has a theory…
You can’t be blamed for thinking it matters which way your wheels are pointed, or that you believe they both should be headed in more or less the same direction at any given moment. From when we first start riding a bike, we’re told this is the case; after all, you only have two wheels on…
@Harminator dreamed up the Sydney Cogal months ago and the report has just floated in. Bad weather, good attitudes, plenty of riding and malted recovery beverage, that’s how it is done. Chapeau. VLVV, Gianni Jellybean’s Take- So I woke up Sunday morning after a Saturday of fixing my #1 bike, bottle of red, and a…
The question tackled here is of carrying the bicycle, should it require carrying. The non-cyclist is perhaps more inclined to consider carrying their bicycle than is the Cyclist. Examples that come to mind include the navigation of a giant mud pit or a steep twisty narrow snowy descent, where the uninitiated may erroneously contemplate the likelihood of survival between…
I’m old as dirt. My first two race bikes employed toe clips and toe straps and that set-up was bad. For many reasons it was bad and any retro-hipster who thinks otherwise is wrong. When Lemond and Hinault started racing on the white Look clipless pedals, everyone but Sean Kelly quickly switched. Talk about a…
As children, none of us were given an allowance. Instead, we were taught from a young age that if we wanted to buy something, we had to earn the money in order to do so. To facilitate the model, and possibly to avoid child-labor law infringement, we were paid to do chores around the house…
This has been in the works for a while. I don’t want to take up too much time as you all have a lot of reading to do here. Rodger has an opening ramble then introduces us to the whole crew. Rob added his two cents worth and Xyxax wrote a perfect final report so…
Clad in skin-tight clothes and cleated shoes, we walk with all the grace of a chicken with a repetitive stress injury. Yet once astride our machines, hovering above the tarmac and enraptured by the sensation of flight, we are transformed into a picture of fluidly harmonic articulation which belies the power and skill that drives us…
The Olympic track racing fires off tomorrow and it’s time to remember an event discarded to the bin of noble sports. The Olympic roster of events is constantly evolving and devolving which is why we are now watching synchronized diving as an Olympic sport. What a world, what a world. Maybe it’s a sign of…