Thursday, July 31, 2008

Chris Hoy Sends Track Bikes to Bolivia

Last summer, Chris Hoy travelled to La Paz, Bolivia, in an attempt to break the world kilometre record at the Alto Irpavi velodrome, the highest velodrome in the world. Hoy smashed the 500m record, but missed out on the kilo record by the infinitesimal margin of five thousands of a second. While there, Hoy noticed the disparity between the equipment and opportunities available to young Bolivian cyclists in comparison to cyclists in more privileged parts of the world. When he got back to Britain, Hoy set about trying to help the aspiring track cyclists of Bolivia. He talked to his sponsors, particularly Terry Dolan of Dolan Cycles, about getting to some top quality track equipment sent to Bolivia, to replace the old and worn equipment that the track cyclists of La Paz were forced to train on. Dolan, a long time supporter of Hoy, immediately donated 22 complete track bikes. Halfords agreed to supply helmets, kit, tools, tyres and spares, Cane Creek donated a set of their best wheels, DHL agreed to ship it all, and the UCI promised to help the Bolivian cycling association secure a development grant. All in all, Hoy managed to secure the equipment and support necessary to allow Bolivian cyclists train and compete at the Alto Irpavi velodrome on the best track equipment available. What a sound bloke. Now, I wish he'd send some stuff to Venezuela. I need a bike, Chris!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Fast Friday DVD

The Fast Friday DVD is out! You can get it here. But, I hear the best way to watch it is on the big screen, and if you're in Chicago you can watch Fast Friday at the Bicycle Film Festival on Saturday, August 9th, 4th program, 3:00pm. So, watch it at the BFF and then buy the DVD. See what I did there?

Roller Races

There are some roller races happening in New Orleans this weekend. I'm basically mentioning this as an excuse to post these pics of me beating BenVC at IROSprints in Chicago a couple of years ago.

Ben on the left (struggling) me on the right (cruising). Photo by Matt Sipple, more here.

The best man wins, clearly. Poor Ben, he still hasn't recovered. I forget who took this photo, drop me a line if you know.

So, if you feel like humiliating your friends and crushing their dreams, and you live in New Orleans, head over to the NOSprints at the Whirling Dervish on Saturday night, 7pm. Details here.

Neon!

Artist Benedict Radcliffe has worked with (I refuse to say "collabo" or put a little "x" between the names) the FixedGearLondon crew to produce a range of insanely bright neon bikes. My eyes hurt!


More pics over on the FixedGearLondon flickr page. Originally seen on MilanoFixed.

Chicago Fixed Shirt



Very limited edition Chicago Fixed shirt produced, printed and packaged in Chicago by smeeze. I love the bartape on the bullhorns. Email athong23@gmail.com if you want one, but make it snappy.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Cinelli Track Tandem

Wow. Found by the guys at KeirinBerlin. They also unearthed a bunch of other vintage track frames. Unearthed from where?? Who has stuff like this lying around, just waiting to be found?

Go to KeirinBerlin for more pics and details.

Miss'n'Out

National Sports Center Velodrome, Blaine MN. Photo by lutherpike.

Lord of the Cog

Lord of the Cog - Sept. 20th & 21st - Milan, Italy. Details here.

Monday, July 28, 2008

The Knife

Regular Monday night ride in Chicago, 8pm.

[edit] It's called The Knife because it's on two semi-parallel streets that come to a point. It was a stage in the Tour de Chicago a few years back. Check the route here.

Also 100% Badass

Chris Padfield of Team Pegasus won the cat4 Chicago Criterium and the Downer Ave Criterium this weekend. He won Downer on Saturday and Chicago on Sunday, and he is offically 100% badass, plus one of the nicest blokes you'll ever meet. This is him on the Downer Ave podium (photo by Katy Steudel) wearing what is supposed to be the track-only pink skinsuit... but I'll allow it. Also, Andrew Yeoman of Team Pegasus came 2nd in the Chicago Criterium (cat5). All in all, a pretty decent weekend for the team.

100% Badass Redux

Team CSC take a victory lap on the Champs Élysées, after Carlos Sastre won the yellow jersey, Andy Schleck won the white jersey (best placed young rider), and the team won the best team classification at the Tour de France. Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Chicago Fixed Gear Senja-huda























Print it out and stick it on your bikes, Chicago. Thanks, Tomity!

[update] Here's a explanation of the kanji from Tomity.
Click to enlarge.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Refreshing Wave of Keirin - Part 4.

I was over on itsalwayssunnyintoldeo when I saw this Japanese keirin game. Go to the main page here, and once the aural and visual assault is over, click on Line Master. Then click Enter, then click on a few random boxes of Japanese text, pick a racer, and Robert's your father's brother. Tap the space bar to pedal, steer with the cursor keys.

Somewhere in Japan, a Commodore 64 is hooked up to the internet...

The derny is already out of sight. Great.

Me (red jersey, number 3) sitting in behind number 7.

Er... I got dropped.

Hanging my head in shame, post-race. Much like in real life.

It's definitely the best 1980's-looking Japanese keirin racing game that you can play over the internet. Guaranteed minutes of entertainment! Go here to play.

Team Pegasus is Going to Track Nationals!

Michelle Dykstra's incredible debut season on the track continues, with the Cat4 Team Pegasus rider qualifying for the sprint events at Track Nationals by coming second in the combined Pro/1/2/3/4 keirin at the Illinois State Nationals Qualifiers at Northbrook Velodrome last night!! Here's a video of her amazing performance. She's the one on the hot pink and neon yellow Watanabe.



Also qualifying for Track Nationals was the always awesome Val Brostrom of Team GetAGrip. Well done to both Val and Michelle, I'm sure you'll do Chicago proud at Nationals.

True V 42mm Deep Rims




Saw these Ultra Deep Tzoo rims over on Southsea Fixed Gear Fight Club. They're available outside of Japan for the first time at Brick Lane Bikes. I used to live just down the road from Brick Lane Bikes. True story.

LeMond 1989

Since the last mountain stage, it has looked increasingly likely that this year's Tour de France would be decided in the final time-trial, which makes the release of this new Gage & DeSoto t-shirt particularly well timed.

In 1989, Greg LeMond, down 50 seconds to Laurent Fignon, won the closest Tour in history by gaining 58 seconds on his rival in the final time-trial, winning the overall race by just 8 seconds. The shirt is a nod to LeMond's amazing ride, and to his mental sunglasses. Check it and the other Gage&DeSoto t-shirts out here.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

I've Been Tagged

Fat Cyclist made a chain-letter questionnaire, and "tagged" some other bike bloggers, with the instructions that after answering the questions they should then forward the questionnaire to three other bike bloggers, and so on. Fat Cyclist tagged BikeSnob. Bike Snob tagged Trackosaurus Rex and CyclingWMD. Cycling WMD tagged me. Unlike Kyle, I'm not too cool to answer (joke!) so here you go:

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?


That is a difficult question, but I think I’d have to say some kind of rare, vintage track bike, preferably Merckx’s actual Hour bike… with risers.

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?

No, and no, because I’m too busy lying on the beach, writing this blog, flogging cycling caps and ripping off Trackosaurus Rex (not a joke, we all know this last part is true.)

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?

The Lake Front Path in Chicago. I get a little annoyed when the plebs on their rusty old mountain bikes clog it up, but whatever, it’s still a good ride.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to do for the rest of her / his life?

One of the twisted freaks from BFSSFG?

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrow-minded?

Mountain bikes? I’ll ride a mountain bike the day I see someone in a Trackstar shirt riding a mountain bike, and not before.

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.

Recumbents? I’ll ride a recumbent the day I see someone… actually, they do look pretty comfortable.

Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss?

No, but my brother did the Escape from Alcatraz. In your face, haters.

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?

I would give up bikes. I mean, seriously, I give this fixed-gear shit about another 6 months. Then, we’re moving on to biathlon. Fuck yeah! Biathlon! The next big hipster thing. You read it here first.

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.

Is BikeSnob funny? 25% of the time… maybe… dude tries too hard, know what I mean?

You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do?

Strangle it with my ReLoad hip-pouch? Force it to choke on rainbow hex wrenches? Distract it with a brightly coloured cycling cap? Brick it? Log onto chivolvo from my iphone to ask for help?

Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.

Dispatch 101
The Tour de Chris
Cycle Jerks

Woah...























I just saw this over on Mike Martin's blog. Is the Unicanitor coming back??

Bob Pfarr Classic - Washington Park Velodrome

Check out more of Ed White's excellent photos of the Bob Pfarr Classic on his flickr here.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Bicycle Film Festival 2008 Chicago

The Bicycle Film Festival is going to hit Chicago on August 6th till August 10th, and it is going to be amazing.


Just a quick glance at the schedule confirms that the films are going to be great. I want to see every single one. There are films about Paris-Roubaix, 6Day Events, Fausto Coppi, Keirin racing, Fast Friday, Craig MacLean, a film about a blind mountain biker (what?!?) and lots, lots more. Basically, there's something for everyone. Click here for the schedule. Plus, there's a huge citywide bike scavenger and tons of parties and events planned for the weekend. Check out the schedule of events:


The block party (Aug. 10th) in particular is going to be a blast. Head-to-head roller races, a mechanics build-off, tricks and skids comps, bike polo, BMX demos, kids bike parade, food, drink... it's going to be nuts! If you ride a bike and you like anywhere near Chicago, then you have to go to the BFF. Plus, if you're lucky, you might win an exclusive Hipster Nascar cycling cap. So, go to the offical site HERE to check out the schedules of films and events and buy your tickets early, because this thing is going to be packed.

European Cycle Messenger Championships

This bike could be yours. All you have to do get to Eindhoven, Holland on July 25th and win the European Cycle Messenger Championships. Easy. To register and get more details on the ECMC go here, and for more info on TrackBikeShop, the people who put the bike together, go here.

David R. Munson Takes a Mean Photograph

More great photos on Dave's flickr, here.

Casco Attacked!

A while ago, I put up a post about the Casco Attack, the helmet Theo Bos wears while breaking records and winning races. Well, when Ed White of Half Acre Cycling and Jeff Perkins of the Chicago Cuttin' Crew were involved in a horrific crash at Kenosha velodrome last week, Ed was wearing his Casco Attack, and he reckons it saved his life.

What the Casco Attack should look like.

What the Casco Attack looks like after a high-speed crash on a concrete velodrome.

Thankfully, and amazingly, neither Jeff nor Ed had any serious injuries, and after a few hours in the emergency room they were allowed to go home. Read Jeff's account of the crash here, and check out more of Ed's photos of the aftermath here. Glad you two are okay!

Races & Events

SkateBike - Denver, CO - July 26th - Details here.

Mid-Summer Triple Threat - Atlanta, GA - July & August - Details at NoBrakes.

Crazy 8s - Pensacola, FL - August 8th - Details here.

Shoreditch Bike Polo Invitational - London - 17th August - Details here.

London's Calling - London - August 22nd - 24th - Details here.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Rouleur Website

Rapha's brilliant quarterly cycling journal, Rouleur, now has its own website.

If you can get it to load, it's great.

[edit] And, the Rapha Condor Leggera Team is now available for regular punters like yourself.


Details over on BikeRadar.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Feed Cycling Project








These are so, so dope. I want the 75s poster especially. Get more details on the Feed Cycling Project, a Taiwanese street art and bike advocacy campaign, at nabiis.net, and check out more images from the project, including more posters, on their flickr here.