Is leather saddle really that good as some people said in the review?
Workers in a bicycle shop must have got a fright when a stocky man wearing a ski mask and dark glasses walked in the front door.Luckily, the man in question was Robbie Williams and he simply wanted to buy a swish new racing bike.
The reclusive singer donned his rather obvious disguise during a day out in Swindon from the £7 million country pile he is rumoured to have bought near the village of Compton Bassett.
The former Take That, 34, stunned locals outside the Red Planet Bikes store in Swindon when he arrived for an impromptu shopping trip accompanied by his bouncers.
The retail excursion marked his first public appearance since he returned to Britain this week after spending the past five years living in Los Angeles.
As Robbie perused the bikes inside the store, one of his security guards popped his head out of the door and asked the dozens of fans outside: 'Any chance you could not hassle him so he could have his first day back in peace?'
Despite the ensuing frenzy outside the store, the shy singer briefly said 'Hello everybody' as he left and signed a few autographs before hurrying into his blacked out people carrier.
One of his aides left carrying his new purchase, a £5,500 Bianchi racing bike.
Red Planet Bikes manager Freddie Platt said: 'He was a very nice man and a pleasant customer.
'I don't think he particularly wanted too much attention. He just turned up out of the blue. I looked out the window and saw a horde of people.'
Source: Mail Online
Extract from Ken Kifer's Bike Pages....
Skilled cyclists use the front brake alone probably 95% of the time, but there are instances when the rear brake is preferred:
When I first began cycling, I felt nervous about cornering on descents and so felt of myself as a ‘bad descender’. However, over time, you imperceptibly pick up on how to corner, learning to understand how you can corner faster without risking falling off.1. Practise on Hills You know well.
On hills that you use regularly, try each time to apply the brakes a little less. This is the best way of gaining more confidence to descend quicker. Gradually, you realise a reasonable speed for descending corners.
2. Braking before a tight turn.
It can be dangerous applying brakes in the middle of a tight turn, you can easily lose balance. It is better to begin braking before the turn and then accelerate out of the turn.
3. Use Both Brakes.
Braking lightly with both brakes is more effective than pressing hard on front or rear brakes. It is good to also try and use the on off technique. This prevents brakes overheating, useful for long descents.
4. Lean the Bike.
This takes a bit of practice but, if you lean the bike into a corner, you will be surprised at how much you can corner without the need to brake. Leaning the bike is much better than just leaning the body.
5. Ride With Experienced Riders.
If you ride with quick descenders you will gain an idea of how to descend. You could try following their ‘race line’; not necessarily at their speed, but you will get confidence from following their descent.
6. Push Down on the Tyres.
If cornering in the rain it is good to push down on the tyres to provide a better grip.
7. Use Body to Slow Down.
If you sit upright the air resistance provides a natural braking mechanism. This can be better than using brakes, especially on corners. As you sit up, also press down on the brakes.
8. Best Line.
It is important to understand the best line to take on a descent. This involves anticipating corners and moving into position to reduce the curve of the bend. To get the best line it is necessary that the road behind is clear, to enable you to move out into the middle of the road before cutting back in.
9. Avoid Taking Unnecessary Risks.
Even in a race, I would rather lose the odd second than end up in casualty with a broken leg. If it is wet, I take hills much slower. The potential gains of going quick are much less than the potential cost of taking that extra risk. If I was a professional cyclist I would probably have a different attitude.
If you press the inside knee on the top tube, it creates greater stability when you corner. Instinctively people often push out the knee, like a motorcycle race, but this actually creates greater instability.
11. Practice with disc Wheels.
If you are a time trialist and race with disc wheels, you will notice it is more difficult to handle with a disc wheel and time trial bars. This is why it is important to get used to riding a time trial bike in training.
In my opinion, most of the best style & technique of cornering can be seen in MotoGP race except that the inside knee should be pressed to the top tube (as per #10) instead of push it out like the motorcycle racer always do. But be extra careful when you are carrying panniers. In normal case, when you are on descent, with the extra load, you might be going very fast. Therefore, the best option is always to sit upright & slow down by hitting both front & rear brakes when you are approaching the tight corner. Better be save than sorry! - mattouring.
Source: Cycling Info / photo from britishcycling.org.uk
When it comes time to purchase Bicycle Mirrors there are things you should know. There are also some mistakes typically made when purchasing Bicycle Mirrors that if you are aware of you could avoid making. Let us take a look at what mistakes are typically made when making a purchase of Bicycle Mirrors.The first and most common mistake made in Purchasing Bicycle Mirrors would have to be not knowing what particular pair of bicycle mirrors you want. Some people also call this costly mistake impulse buying. However, this is not truly impulse buying. It is just not doing the research that is required so that you know what your options are. If you go into a bike shop and simply grab any pair of Bicycle Mirrors then it may be a case of both not being aware of what you need and also impulse buying but they are not the same thing by a long shot.
The second most common mistake made is not doing a price comparison of the different Bicycle Mirrors or of the different brands and models that are available. With not taking the time to compare prices you could end up paying a lot more for a pair of Bicycle Mirrors than you have to. Why would you not take the time to compare a few different locations so you ensure yourself that you are getting a good deal on your Bicycle Mirrors?
The third and most silly of the mistakes that are made would be buying a pair of Bicycle Mirrors that attach to the helmet and not to your glasses. The types of Bicycle Mirrors that attach to helmets are not as smart of a buy as Bicycle Mirrors that attach to your glasses because they are not as sturdy or scratch resistant. Bicycle Mirrors that attach to your helmet are more likely to break or get scratched in an accident. The ones that adhere to your helmet also tend to fall off during an accident and then they are completely useless.
In conclusion, if you avoid the three mistakes mentioned above, you can get a pair of Bicycle Mirrors that are at a good price and will do the job you want them.
Source: Ezine Articles / by Marky Malsky
If you are a "fair weather" cyclist, you don't need fenders, but if you are a serious cyclist, and don't live in a desert climate, you really should have at least one bicycle with fenders.
Stand Over the FrameFor most riders, the first step in getting the right size bike is to stand over the frame with both feet flat on the ground. A properly-sized road bike frame will give an inch or two clearance between the top tube of the frame and your crotch. Not too much, not too little. A mountain bike should have more space - maybe the width of your hand across your fingers.
On women's bikes that don't have the high top tube going between the seat and the handlebars, you can skip this step.
Notice on how this rider's leg is almost fully extended at the bottom of his stroke, with just a slight bend to the knee. You want your seat set to the height that allows your leg the same extension.You want to have the bicycle seat set to a height that allows your leg to extend until it is almost completely straight when you are sitting on the seat. There should be only a slight bend to the knee when your foot is on the pedal in the bottom position. This will maximize power and minimize fatigue.
A common mistake is for people to think that they should be able to sit on their seat and still plant their feet firmly on the ground. Riders should come off their saddles and straddle the bar when stopping the bike. If you can sit on the seat and touch your feet to the ground other than on tippy-toes, your seat is too low.
For maximum comfort and pedaling effeciency, you want your seat to be pretty much level, so that you can sit on it and pedal without having to consciously monitor where you are on the seat. Too much forward tilt, and you'll feel like you're sliding forward. Too much backward angle, and you won't be able to get any power and you'll have the sensation that you're slipping off the back. Both of these situations are distracting and uncomfortable.When on a bike seat, your weight should be borne by the same spots on your rear that you feel underneath you when you sit upright on a hard firm surface. In addition to adjusting the tilt angle, you can also move the seat forward and backward in relation to the seat post. This will help make sure you're comfortably centering your weight in the right places.
Notice the handlebar height on this woman's bike, set slightly above the level of her seat. The higher setting allows her to sit in a comfortable upright position.Generally, the following guides may be used for different types of bikes:
Remember, when setting the height of your handlebars, personal preference and variations in physique will have an important effect. You should feel free to make adjustments until you find the position that allows you to ride comfortably for extended periods of time. In general, the higher the handlebar is set, the more upright you will sit.
NOTE: All handlebars have a minimum insertion mark. Make sure you don't raise your handlebars into a fixed position so high that you pull this mark up out of the frame. Below this point, it means that there is less than two inches of the handlebar stem remaining inside the frame, and the handlebars are susceptible to breaking which will cause a mean crash.
| Mountain Bikes - Finding the Right Size | |||
| Your Height | Your Inseam Length | Bike Frame Size | |
| 4'11" - 5'3" | 25” - 27” | 13 - 15 inches | |
| 5'3" - 5'7" | 27" - 29" | 15 to 17 inches | |
| 5'7" - 5'11" | 29" - 31" | 17 to 19 inches | |
| 5'11" - 6'2" | 31" - 33" | 19 to 21 inches | |
| 6'2" - 6'4" | 33" - 35" | 21 to 23 inches | |
| 6'4" and up | 35" and up | 23 inches and up | |
| Determining Your Road Bike Frame Size | |||
| Height | Inseam Length | Bike Frame Size | |
| 4'10" - 5'1" | 25.5” - 27” | 46 - 48 cm | |
| 5'0" - 5'3" | 26.5" - 28" | 48 - 50 cm | |
| 5'2" - 5'5" | 27.5" - 29" | 50 - 52 cm | |
| 5'4" - 5'7" | 28.5" - 30" | 52 - 54 cm | |
| 5'6" - 5'9" | 29.5" - 31" | 54 - 56 cm | |
| 5'8" - 5'11" | 30.5" - 32" | 56 - 58 cm | |
| 5'10" - 6'1" | 31.5" - 33" | 58 - 60 cm | |
| 6'0" - 6'3" | 32.5" - 34" | 60 - 62 cm | |
| 6'2" - 6'5" | 34.5" - 36" | 62 - 64 cm | |
Jimmy Carter's bicycle was stolen earlier this month from the Carter Center in Atlanta, a newspaper says.The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the thief/thieves also made off with a bicycle owned by former first lady Rosalynn Carter.
No one has been arrested. WAGA-TV says the Secret Service and local police are working the case.
“They’ve probably been sold for a $10 rock of crack,” Peter Wicker, the bike shop owner who donated the $1,000 bikes in 2007, tells the Journal-Constitution.
(File photo of Carter on an older bicycle taken Sept. 28, 2002, by H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY.)
Source : USA Today
WHEN fire breaks out, what do you try to save first?For one office worker, it was his bicycle. Which was fine, except that he was fleeing from the 30th storey of a downtown building.
While hundreds of his fellow office workers were evacuating the building after a fire alarm went off at 11.40am yesterday, the man slowed them down by carrying his bicycle in the fire escape stairway.
There was a fire in the basement at 6 Battery Road, and lawyer Stefanie Yuen Thio was upset by this man's inconsiderate actions.
Mrs Thio, 38, the corporate and joint managing director of TSMP Law Corporation, said: 'Lives were at stake, and yet he was willing to risk them for a bicycle.
'We were lucky that it was a small fire, or it could have been so dangerous. By carrying such a bulky item, he made the jam in the stairway even worse,' she added.
'Every few steps, we would have to turn, so people had to give him a very wide berth. There were old people and a heavily pregnant lady walking behind him.
'If he didn't want to wait until everyone walked down, he could at least have let them pass,' said Mrs Thio who took a picture of the man and his bicycle when they reached the ground floor.
The pregnant woman, who wanted to be known only as Ms Teo, said the man may have entered the fire escape around the 30th storey.
Worried
The lawyer, who's in her 30s, said: 'I was concerned, because if there was a stampede, the bike would have been an obstacle, and people might have tripped over it.
'I was also worried about his safety, because people may have shoved him aside if they started to panic. Thankfully, it was not chaotic, although I didn't know whether it would have been safer walking in front of or behind him.'
Mrs Thio said she told the man, who looked to be in his late 20s, that it was not right for him to carry a bicycle with him.
But he replied that he could walk faster than anyone else despite carrying his bicycle.
She said: 'I could have shouted at him, but I chose to show him some respect and went up to him to tell him that he was holding everyone up. At one point, the bicycle almost hit my head too.
'If it had been me, I would have been humble enough to apologise and let everyone else pass.'
Mrs Thio said there had been several fire drills and people working in the building would have been aware of what they should or should not do in such emergencies.
'What's more, this was not a fire drill, this was the real thing!' she added.
When they reached the ground, a security guard told the man that he should not have brought his bicycle down.
Again, his response was that he could walk faster than anyone else, said Mrs Thio.
Exasperated by the man's attitude, Mrs Thio said she would write to the building management to make sure that all tenants will brief their staff about the right evacuation procedures.
By the time The New Paper arrived at the scene, the man was no longer there.
Other office workers said they smelled burning plastic on their way down, but everyone moved in an orderly manner. There was no pushing and no panic despite the jam on the stairs.
Human resources executive Taufik Taib, 29, said: 'Everyone knew what to do because we just had a fire drill three months ago.'
The building management had evacuated the occupants before the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived.
SCDF public affairs director LTC N Subhas said in a news release that it received a call at 11.41am yesterday about smoke coming out of the building.
Fire-fighters found that a store room in the basement three carpark was on fire and put it out within five minutes using an internal hose reel.
A woman, 44, was sent to Singapore General Hospital due to smoke inhalation. Occupants were allowed back into the building at around 1pm.
SCDF is investigating the cause of the fire.
A spokesman for CapitaCommercial Trust Management, which manages the building, said there was no physical damage to the building.
Smoke was visible from the 5th storey as the smoke from the basement was channelled there through the ventilation shaft.
Two Thumbs Up for Malaysia Airlines!
commuting. For years I worked at using the bus system for traveling to and from work, with limited success. Then two years ago I started thinking about bicycling as an alternative commuting method. I immediately found several reasons (excuses) not to be able to cycle, like "It's too dangerous" orAfter taking 6 months closely observing the various roads, steepness of different hills, directness of different routes, I finally took the plunge, pounded most of the rust off my bicycle chain, and tried to ride to work and home again. I loved it. My bike wasn't suited for commuting; being an old mountain bike weighing 35+ pounds, but it did have a granny gear, needed for me to get up one particular hill on the way to work. I am fortunate to have run into several enthusiastic, long-term (committed, in all senses of that word) cycling co-workers. They showed me a "bike locker room" at my work, where there was an unused locker to store my work clothes in and they showed me where the shower facilities were.
From October 1997 through to about March 1998 I rode on average 3 days per week. Then another cycle enthusiast friend lent me some toe clips. Instantly, I gained one gear in every situation. Two weeks later, after finally springing for some proper booties to cover my running shoes in the rain, I bought myself some used clipless pedals. Once I sourced and bought some shoes, I was set to relearn how to ride. I gained another gear on my almost daily commuter rides, getting up to a high of 13 workdays in a row of cycling. In my 3 years of commuter cycling here are some of my observations:
* Bicycle Butt:for the first 6 months my but shrunk (shrank?) down to a skeleton of its former self. Great encouragement to regain the hollow butt look from my (distant) youth. Then something diabolical happened.
* Junk Food Junkie: as a cost-cutting measure to help me afford the new cycling over-pants, the shoes, the booties, as well as the fact that I was hungry within an hour of getting to my desk, I started making my own lunch. A big lunch. Well, it actually added almost 8 pounds to my pack. I could eat all day while sitting at my desk, and still be hungry. The only problem here was that I could eat junk food as often as I wanted, and I wouldn't gain weight. Great! I love junk food, so the money I saved on lunch was being spent on the mid-afternoon chocolate bar and bag of chips. The only problem with this approach was the days I couldn't ride, for family reasons or other inconveniences. If they continued for more than one day, I gained all the weight I had taken a year to lose. Or so it seemed. Only recently have I learned to adjust my lunch based on whether I am riding or driving, and this has fixed the weight gain on non-cycling days. Whew! Besides, now I quickly feel the effects junk food really has on my body, and I no longer have the same cravings. I can eat anything I want, but I want to eat better.
* No More Public Transit: when I am late for work, which happens a lot lately, I now find myself driving to work to make up for that lost time. Before I became a commuter cyclist, I always took the bus, knowing that if I wasn't out of the house by 7:25, I would miss the 7:35 local bus, and I would be late. It takes me 20-25 minutes to drive to work. It takes me 30 minutes to ride my bike the 11 km to work, and another 20 minutes to shower and change. If I am too late to ride, I am most definitely too late to take the public transit, which only runs every ½ hour at the most frequent time, and takes 30 minutes of travel time, not counting the wait for the next bus. So I now have the potential of polluting more now than I was when I was only taking public transit. I have an extra incentive to prepare properly for cycling every day, and make the lunches the night before.
* Cost Savings: I am saving a bit of money over driving or taking transit too, but it isn't the total picture. In the past year I made 127 commuter trips by bike, totaling just under 2800 Km. This saved me $444 in either one-zone transit, or $381 in pay parking ($3.00 per day in S. Burnaby). It cost me $188 in parts (oil - $24, new chain - $12, new cables - $10, 3 tires - $110, 2 tubes - $8, patch kits - $4). BUT - I would pay extra for the joy I feel every time I hear the snap of my shoes clicking into my pedals. And I would have to pay for a fitness club to get the exercise I am getting 'for free'.
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts
Last October 2008, cycling buddies of mine- Steve, Ben & Azmar (in support car as photographer) embarked on a bicycle tour known as Tour de Ben (named after our friend 'Biriani' Ben). I did the 1st one back in Dec 2006 as a farewell tour for Ben who was returning to UK for good but this time it was specially arranged for him during his short visit to Malaysia by Steve. Unfortunately, I have to miss this one because it was done during the month of Ramadan (Fasting Month). And the tour was covering KL~Ipoh~Penang (approx. 400km++) riding through some beautiful and less busy roads of Perak.
steve & ben
ben trying to catch up with steve
lata kinjang waterfall near gua tempurung, perak
bridge at kuala kangsar, perak
ben, steve & azmar
LE Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), Malaysia's biggest race sees its shortest ever edition running from February 9 to 15 next year, driven into cost-cutting measures by the global economic meltdown.Nevertheless, the seven-stage hors categorie race offers and enticing affair as an improved, compact version of the race that covers 1,029 kilometres in total promises to pile the pressure on a bigger mix of riders in a 120-strong peloton made up of 20 teams.
Undulations in Stage One from Putrajaya to Senawang will see the mountains classification up for grabs right from the start, throwing a sense of wide-openness into the picture, with sprinters' teams not guaranteed a bunched sprint finish. Stage Two sees another categorised climb early in the 161.7 km stage, which can see the sprinters' teams really staking their claim, but that bunch sprint they will look for is not guaranteed.
Tricky categorised climbs are sprinkled throughout the six stages prior to the traditional final stage, the Kuala Lumpur Criterium on Feb 15. This time around, the all-rounders have more options throughout the race with undulating routes mixed in all but two stages. The sprinters' teams can have six stages to look for, but they will have to work harder than before.
The queen stage, the climb to the top of Genting Highlands makes a return this time around, after being replaced by Fraser's Hill in the 13th edition this year, but via a short 95.6km route on the fifth day from Petaling Jaya. This will undoubtedly be the decider, but damage control measures can be taken, given the form of the earlier stages, thus throwing into the picture an expectation of a non-pure climber like 2007 winner Anthony Charteau having the possibility to seize a lead in earlier stages and defend it up Genting, which will now have the possibility of producing an extremely exciting decider.
Source: ltdl.com
German Jan Ullrich re-stated that he won't make a comeback to racing despite the recent comeback of Lance Armstrong. The 1997 Tour de France champion, 35 years old today, is focused on family life.
Just completed my first tour on a folding bike...on a DaHon Speed P8, to be precised. 