We’re down with Brandon Semenuk’s whole dark thing, but seriously, we also like watching him ride and in ACT.1 we kept looking for a flashlight to lighten that forest up a little. Watch it and you’ll understand.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Mountain
Anyone who saw the last UCI World Cup downhill at Fort William had the same question: what could have possibly caused five-time world overall champion Aaron Gwin to flip out over the bars and rag doll only 30 seconds into his run. Well, Ben Cathro knows and he’s got all the details. Watch here, or on pretty much every other website that even marginally follows cycling.
[Link via VitalMTB]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
You’d think with all the GU we’ve sucked down over the years we’d have some sort of insight into what to buy when it’s time to load up on energy gels. Nope. When faced with buying a new box we’re totally confused by GUs 29 flavor mix. What was that one we liked? Can’t remember? Now, with the flavor wheel it almost makes sense. Want fruit, chocolate, sour fruit, salty, bitter? It’s all there on the chart and easy to read.
What are we ordering this time? If you must know, it’s Salted Watermelon, Strawberry Banana, and some Campfire S’mores. The only way GU could make this better would be to have a caffeine circle so we could remember which ones have it and how much. . . maybe next time. To order your next supply of GU, please click the link.
[Link: GU]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
San Diego County, California’s summer grass-roots mountain bike race season kicks into gear on Thursday May 9, 2019 with the the opening round of the seven-event QnD Summer Series.
There are a couple fun changes for this year that will add even more excitement to the mix. . . The expert men category will have to contend wit the “dude, where’s my car” loop, which is certain impact the dynamic of the race, and we’ve also added a drop bar category to the schedule for all those that want to tackle our course on some skinny tires.
Races go down every Thursday night at the Lake Hodges Boat Ramp parking lot. Registration opens at 4 PM, kids race is at 5:15, and racers roll at 6 PM. Register ahead and you can show up at the last minute. We were just out on the “Dude, where’s my car” loop and it will offer some serious, single track climbing action. For all the official details, please click the link.
[Link: Quick ‘n Dirty MTB]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In the North San Diego County city of Carlsbad, California the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has declared war on mountain bikers by actively enforcing closures of open space that has been used by mountain bikers, horseback riders, and hikers for decades. The battleground is the Carlsbad Highlands Ecological Reserve, or as mountain bikers call it Calavera. Enter the Calavera Trail Coalition
The Calavera Trail Coalition . . . is dedicated to keeping the public informed on the process of getting the Carlsbad Highlands Ecological Reserve updated to allow Muti Use Recreation on approved trails while preserving sensitive habitat for all wildlife on the land. We encourage anyone who agrees with the mindset that public land should be properly managed and open to all to join us in the process. We want to provide all user groups a voice and give full transparency. The loud voice of a small fringe group should not dictate the will of the people.
Without going in to too much detail, we agree with the Calavera Trail Coalition. Land set aside as mitigation for huge developments should be managed, cared for, and above all open to the public to enjoy in a responsible way. Allowing developers to kill off large swaths of open space, and then closing off the mitigating open space is a double hit to those who enjoy spending time in nature especially those who live in and around the continually growing urban sprawl of Southern California. For more info on the situation and how you can help, please visit the Calavera Trail Coalition website by clicking the link.
[Link: Calavera Trail Coalition]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The news from Sea Otter 2019 has been storming in for hours, but here’s something we’ve been waiting for. Tasco today announced the release of their new Recon Ultralite gloves. Here’s what they’re saying about it.
Welcome to your new favorite Ultra minimalist performance love with all the features you need for your day in the saddle. When you want to wear a glove, yet fell like you aren’t — the Recon Ultralite glove is what you’ll reach for. These gloves are engineered to be the lightest glove on the market today without sacrificing the quality and fit that you have come to expect from Tasco.
The Recons feature durable nylon top of hand, conductive threads on index finger and thumb for working your phone without shedding your gloves, silicone grip on palm and fingers, a microfiber thumb patch, a seamless single layer “Tacti-cool” palm, and fitted “o-prene” cuff enclosure. All this for $38 a pair. Sounds just like our next pair of gloves. For all the official details on the Recon, please click the link.
[Link: TASCO]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In a keynote address yesterday (March 25, 2019), Apple’s Tim Cook mentioned that the newly launched News+ app is like having an “entire newsstand on your iPhone” and for cyclists he’s not exactly wrong. The new subscription app which charges users $9.99 a month for unlimited magazine viewing from at least 300 different magazine titles does include four cycling magazines in the mix: Bicycling, Bike, Canadian Cycling, Cycling Plus, and Mountain Biking UK.
While maybe not our first choices in cycling magazines currently, when coupled with other titles that we might be interested in reading like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The Week, et al. this new subscription model might not be all that bad of a deal, assuming of course, that spending $120 a year for magazines that must be read on an iPhone, iPad, or Apple computer is something you’re into. For more info on Apple News+ please click the link.
[Link: News+]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
As the tradeshow business quickly contracts it’s been interesting to watch Emerald Expositions, one of the largest tradeshow operators in the world consolidating their business. Last year after buying the SIA Snow Show from Snow Industries of America, they slid the Snow Show into Outdoor Retailer, then they cancelled Interbike, and now, they’ve decided that including the bicycle industry in the OR Show is a great idea almost as if they’re bummed they didn’t think of before.
“We’re excited to bring outdoor and bike together at Outdoor Retailer as we launch the winter season,” said Marisa Nicholson, Outdoor Retailer vice president and show director. “It’s a natural fit for bike to be part of Outdoor Retailer. Our data indicates that we already see over 3,000 buyers attending our shows who purchase for bike, so incorporating the category makes the show even more valuable. Additionally, retailers, dealers, and buyers will have an opportunity to discover new brands and products, expand store offerings, and make new connections to support their businesses.”
Will be interesting to see how Emerald will spin adding their other shows like Surf Expo and/or the Swim Collection, into OR eventually to make only one show for their whole sports category. Sad times for trade shows. For the official spin from Emerald, please follow the jump.
[click to continue…]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
As is rather obvious by our hodge-podge of odd updates and seemingly random posts somewhat relating to cycling, we can’t figure out exactly what cyclists look for when it comes to online content, mostly because we don’t know what we, ourselves, want. We’re not down with the precious, condescending, fetishizations of Rapha podcast missives, nor do we much appreciate the other end of the spectrum at Bicycling Magazine. We’ll occasionally check out RKP for their road racing poetry, and sometimes read reviews on BikeRadar because they come up in our product searches.
Lately, we’ve been noticing the CyclingTips website coming up in our mix more and more and feel relatively positive about it. Can’t really say the same for PinkBike (it’s a blur of MTBing content that we’ve never been able to figure out), however, reading news that BikeExchange has offloaded CyclingTips to PinkBike makes us question a few things. Firstly, what is BikeExchange? Secondly, is consolidation in cycling media good? And finally, will this be good for us as mildly interested cycling media consumers? Obviously, PinkBike founder Radek Burkat believes it’s all good.
“We are excited to commit the talents and resources we have at Pinkbike and Trailforks to allow the CyclingTips team to grow and be the leader in road cycling,” said Burkat.
CyclingTips founder Wade Wallace is also happy about it, saying:
“We are thrilled that CyclingTips has come together with the Pinkbike family. We are confident that this partnership will result in a better product for our readers, members and industry partners.”
Guess we’ll have to wait and see. The entire staff of CyclingTips will reportedly stay with the brand. Thanks for allowing us to think out loud this morning. It likely won’t happen again for a while as we’re sure we’ll be too busy creating highly curated, stylized content for some other failing web property.
[Link: Bicycle Retailer]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Oakley may have underestimated 100% in the early going, but now they’re coming back hard on their SoCal eyewear competitor. Let’s take it back aways. Oakley had the Eyeshade, but they kind of dropped the ball moving instead toward the Jawbreaker® Cavendish. Then 100% launches the Sagan Speedcraft. 100% dropped the Glendale which was a bit of an Eyeshade bite, and now Oakley is biting the Glendale bite right back with the Oakley Sutro, you know for “urban cycling” whatever that is. For reference, below is the 100% Glendale. Bite, bite, bite.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
