Track Bike Cool

TOUCH THE SKY

TOUCH THE SKY from tim hahne on Vimeo.
A STEREOSCREEN PRODUCTION

Alex Zanardi's story is part of our feature film ADRENALIN - out November 2014.
https://www.facebook.com/adrenalin.thefilm

This is a short, but very intimate portrait of Alex Zanardi, the former Formula 1 driver and winner of the American Champ Car Series. Alex was already a star, when he had his almost fatal accident at the Lausitzring in Germany. He lost his legs, but not his attitude. Alex Zanardi came back and did the impossible: He won races in the World Touring Car Championship, two gold medals at the Paralympics in London 2012 and just recently added two more hand bike world titles!

It was a unique experience to spend a day with a true hero at his house in Padua, talking about his life and joining him for a training session with his hand bike. His last words in our film describe him best. But see for yourself...

AGENCY // STEREOSCREEN
DIRECTOR // TIM HAHNE
EDIT & GRADING // JULIUS JACOBY
DoP // THOMAS NÖSNER
MUSIC // TONY ANDERSON
PRODUCER BMW // MARC THIESBUERGER
PRODUCTION // STEREOSCREEN

Dukes of Hazzard

Red and Blue Lines

Bike 'Til You BARF

Yummy Goodness

Add caption

The Chronicles of the Green Machine - A Farewell to Peter Sagan

Cold Weather Wear, Bib Tights / Knickers

Saturday I rode up GMR to Mount Baldy and the temperature read 42 degrees on the US Bank electronic sign in La Verne.  Damn it was cold!  I was marginally prepared.  I had my trusted wool socks, full finger GORE Windstopper gloves, a skull cap, long sleeve baselayer and long sleeve jersey.  I was prepared enough, yet the 42 degrees and headwind in the shadows kept me cold, alert and a bit more uncomfortable than I like to be.

As I headed to the base of Glendora Mountain Road many things crossed my mind, “It’s cold, I am cold, and why am I doing this?” was the main theme of my thoughts. Last year, during this time, I pondered the notion of getting tights.  I remember this well because I spent countless visits to my LBS checking them out.

I live in Southern California and more often than not, the weather is amazing!  However, I do ride early, typically on the road by 6 am.  It’s cold at 6 am, and the older I get, my tolerance level to cold weather gets less and less.  

Back to tights. Last year I pondered the idea of buying tights.  I have regular shorts and leg warmers and this combo has worked for many years of riding.  The pros are, I can shed the leg warmers as the temperature rises.  They are also a low cost solution as tights can reach the $200 to $500 range (Think Rapha and Assos). The cons are, I rarely take my leg warmers off while riding, storing them sucks because I have only so many pockets and leg warmers have a tendency to droop.  Also, if you are traveling to a meet up point, they are another item you need to pack or “forget” to pack.

Today (11/30/14), I bought a bunch of Christmas gifts online and while surfing I headed to PerformanceBike.com.  “What can I buy for me?!!”  My cold Saturday ride to Mount Baldy was still fresh in my mind and I found myself looking at tights.  Performance Bike has great deals in general and I decided upon, Castelli Ergo Bib Knickers for 109.99 less 25% off.  Castelli makes great cycling apparel but I wasn’t sure.  These technically aren’t tights but rather ¾ bibs.  The Castelli Egro Bib Tights were the same price and both ended up in my “cart”. Decisions, decisions, which to keep and which to remove from my cart.

Before hitting “Proceed to Checkout” I opened up two additional tabs, one for Rapha and another for the Competitive Cyclist.

We all know Rapha, and their awesome, stylish and pricey apparel.  I found Rapha’s Classic Winter Tights for $260.00.  They were everything I wanted. A chic brand name that will get me copious amounts of EBO (Maslow's esteemed by others) on my group rides, they were stylish and I’m sure at $260.00 the fit would be second to none. After all the reasons WHY I should buy them, I decided against it.  Bottom line, too much money and truthfully my bicycle friends wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate them since I spend most of my time picking up the rear and hanging on to the group for dear life!

Since Rapha was out of the question, I headed over to Competitive Cyclist and found Assos LL.Uno Bib Tight for $248.99.  Assos is a Switzerland brand clothing company whose apparel is extremely expensive.  With the hefty price tag you get, well you get to be the best dressed award among the your friends.  Unfortunately, if you’re going to rock Assos, you also need to have the bike, car, bike accessories, hot girlfriend and/or wife and job to back it up.  You should also be able to ride at the front of the pack as well but bike, car girlfriend/wife and job will make up for it.  

With all that said I didn’t buy the Castelli, Rapha or Assos.  At the last minute, I emptied my shopping cart and decided, if I was going to spend that type of dough, I should head down to my LBS.  Besides it’s Small Business Weekend, and supporting my LBS Incycle was a great alternative to all the online shopping I already did today.

There are a few Incycle Bike Shops in Southern California. My go to shop is in San Dimas.  Incycle recently relocated about 100 feet away from their original location.  Their new shop is beautiful, huge and packed with all types of eye candy. $10K bikes from S-Works, to Colnago to Pinarello and a wall of high end wheelsets.

This is the second time I’ve been in their new shop but everything is laid out well.  A quick scan and I was headed to the clothing section.  Their clothing section is small compared to all the bikes they have in the store.  An employee quickly asked if I needed help and I asked to see their tights.  He lead me to a rather meek selection of tights and I asked if he had anymore.  Unfortunately he said no and that their isn’t much demand.  I get it, it’s Southern California.

Lucky me, they had a limited assortment of brands like Sugoi, Pearl Izumi, and my personal favorite Specialized, and all of them were on sale!  I always have great luck with Specialized accessories and clothing so I decided on their ¾ Knickers.  They were $40.00, so I saved a ton from shopping online and I am supporting my favorite LBS.

I am very pleased with my purchase since I finally pulled the trigger on the tights/knickers I’ve been looking for since the fall/winter of 2013.  I hope my new knickers will add an additional layer of comfort on my cold morning rides.  I will give a ride report and review later.

BMX

Fixie, Black on Black

Axe Table

Parlee, Black and Yellow

Turnbull Canyon with Michael Y.

It's been a while since Michael and I have ridden together.  Michael is one of my favorite guys to ride with, not because our skill sets are equal (He'll smoke me up, down and all around the tarmac any day) but rather our station in life is similar.  He's married with kids, employed, and always pressed for time, just like me!!!

Because of that he makes a great ride buddy.  Michael is goal oriented and one who will brave the elements with me in the early morning.  Let's get out, ride and go home!  All business, mixed with great conversations about life the universe and anything.

Thursday morning we decided to get out and ride before the Thanksgiving festivities got underway.  We decided on Diamond Bar to Whittier to Turnbull Canyon and back.  I left the Garmin at home, but this ride is about 40 miles.  We didn't push the pace and it was a nice ride through a few different cities. 

Life is eating away at my ride and posting time, etc., etc., etc...

I guess it happens to the best of us.  Life's responsibilities take hold and chips away at our spare time.  For me it's been a gentle mix of family life; kids soccer, work, piano lessons, Jamie's Zumba classes, etc., the list goes on of responsibilities, that push my "ride" times deeper into the early mornings.

As you can see, my blog posts have dropped significantly because, although I love to blog, I'd rather spend my spare time riding.

Facebook, has also made the dissemination of information simpler and much more immediate than using Blogger.  You can always look me up on Facebook (Bicycle Friends) as it seems more and more content is located there.

It has been a great and quick year thus far. No new bike purchases since 2013 and I feel an urge to splurge on some new.   I can't decide on custom or not.  I've always been attracted to Specialized bikes and think I need a "gravel" bike (Thank you Marketeers!) or a even the BoB S-Works Roubaix.  The Roubaix is gravel light, correct?

A former co-worker came to my office the other day.  As we caught up on life he asked if I bought any new bikes.  I said no and that I was trying to trim down my collection.  He laughed and said last year when he came in I told him the same thing.  We joked about my aging car and how I can reconcile in my head the need for a new bike, however, my car is in need of much repair or replacement.  Funny how that happens.

Man on a bike

Fast Car

Happy Thanksgiving, No Turkey Just Coffee

Star Track

Danny Macaskill: The Ridge

9 Things Drivers Need to Stop Saying in the Bike vs. Car Debate

9 Things Drivers Need to Stop Saying in the Bike vs. Car Debate
wired.com
Adam Mann
2014-11-12
Link: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/9-things-drivers-need-stop-saying-bikes-vs-cars-debate/

"There are certain things guaranteed to set off an internet firestorm. Talk about climate change, mention Monsanto, or bring up the treatment of women in video games. And you can, especially in recent years, piss off a whole bunch of people simply by writing about bikes and cars. Nothing seems to bring out the angry caps lock and personal attacks faster than transportation issues.

A recent report showing more cyclists are dying on US streets prompted a remarkable number of stories about cyclist safety. And in the comments section of each, people rehashed the same tired arguments over and over.

So, before the next big wave of internet arguing, I propose we retire a few overused and underwhelming opinions in the bikes vs. cars debate. Though I drive and bike, my allegiances skew toward cyclists (feel free to scroll straight the comments and yell at me). But beyond my personal judgments lie a great many studies and data showing most of the pro-motorist arguments just don’t hold up. I know it’s hard to be wrong, especially on the internet, but here are a few sentences I hope we see less of in the future."

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