As is always the case in times like these, I pulled out my thermometers to test what was missing in my life. I keep a box of these meters to tell me where my levels of apathy, cynicism, angst, etc, sit. Everything was looking astonishingly normal until I pulled out my Bicycle Culture Related Themes Thermometer. At which point everything became clear. I was dangerously low on bicycle culture, not just riding but the culture that goes along with it. I got to checking and we haven’t opened the lounge since St. Patty’s Day, and we haven’t had an Alley Cat Related Cycling Event since the end of March as well. That leaves us sitting somewhere like two whole months without an MCA event.

So I put on my thinking cap and got down to planning the next installment in what has become known as a quick trip to the liquor store via bike and got the next Alley Cat all Facebook official and stuff.

As always the course is super secret so all I can tell you is that we will be meeting at the Main Street Garage at 8 pm. Bring your bike, something to cover your birthday suit and a smile. Oh, and plan on not riding to the liquor store.

Up to date details can be found here.

When you have been off of the bike for some time (I’ve only ridden three times so far this month, this does equate to me being off the bike and being accused of selling out to a lucrative career of sport climbing) and then you jump back on and hit the road, it’s like bumping into an old friend at the super market. And by friend, I don’t mean an acquaintance or someone that you used to hang out with.

In my lexicon, the word friend can only apply to someone that has been in your life long enough that you can consider them family. Someone that you have spent more time with than most of your family. It is certainly not something that you advertise on Facebook and count on the sidebar of your screen. It’s something that cannot be proven by clicking on a web link.

Friends are like bikes. You enjoy the hell out of ‘em when they are around and when you don’t have time or are busy in other areas, they are cool to chill until you bump into them again at the super market and realize how much you enjoy the hell out of ‘em…

Riding to work yesterday was like pulling an old friend out of my shed. The crazy blue bike wasn’t mad that she hadn’t been ridden in a few months. She was overjoyed at the prospect of having her tires pumped up and some torque applied to her cranks and I was ecstatic to oblige. And like all commuter bikes, she was up and ready to go in less than three minutes. Like bumping into an old friend at the super market.

Yup, those were the thoughts occupying my mind on the way to work.

There was definitely no thoughts of how much torque was being applied or how that equated into power. There was no contemplation on how I could keep all my friends in the shed organized digitally.

You see I have Facebook to keep track of all my human “friends” in one, easily accessible digital depository. When I am concerned about someone, I can jump on my computer screen and check their status to know they are in deed still alive, at least digitally. I can jump on their info page and see that they are now single and no longer work at the corner 7-11. And they got fat.

So I was ecstatic when I ran across the Bike Quiver app that was reviewed in the latest Dirt Rag.

As you can see, it allows you to keep track of your “bike” friends in a digital manner. “Record gearing information, tire pressure, brake pad type, seat post height, mileage and much more to plan upgrades or remember what size tubes to buy at the bike shop.”

As Billy Sedan, a user that gave the app a five star review, put it, “Very handy way to keep up with my bikes. Thanks!”

I can see this being useful in the sense that it is a central location to record your serial numbers. God knows I don’t have mine written down, anywhere. But I don’t see how this allows you to “keep up” with your bikes. The phrasal verb to keep up, when used in a relational context tends to mean that you are interacting in a way to share information and know what the other half is been up to (another phrasal verb). Unless your bikes are inputting the info, I don’t see how you are “keeping up” with them. Maybe he means the app makes him faster so when he is chasing the bike down the street  he can “keep up.” Or maybe he just meant to keep track.

Anyway, thanks to the new Bike FacebookQuiver you can keep up with all your bike friends and ensure that you buy them the right brake pads for their birthday. All though I didn’t see a place to enter their birthdays so you will have to put that on your calendar manually.

As I mentioned, the other thing that wasn’t on my mind was how much torque I was applying to the cranks. Luckily during my morning trip into Rumorland, I found another device that will keep track of this for me so I don’t have to think about it.

Finally, a power meter crank with revolutionary oval chainrings. Maybe if Shimano had teamed up with SRM back in the day, we would still have Biopace.

This $2499 crankset will record your power info and send it to any Ant+ device. The Ant+ device, of course, will then record the information. So while you might not be thinking about your power output while you are riding, you can review said data later. Also, the BCD is the same as XX cranks so you can run normal round rings too. You know, if you want to not have the awesomeness of oval chainrings.

So what have we learned today? Well, while you may not be thinking about your bikes or your power there are plenty of devices that will help you make sure that you get the most out of your biking experience by recording this info for you. We also learned that bikes have their own version of Facebook. All this means that you can “keep up” with your bikes while anal-yzing your power data on your computer.

And most importantly Facebook sucks so you do need to go to the super market every once in a while to interact with something more than pixels.

P. L. and R.

Lifecycles has got nothing on this video.

Before

After

I go through waves.  This is no more evident than in my music listening choices. Many of you will remember that a few months back all I listened to was this,

And those of you who remember that have also probably realized that I now listen almost exclusively to this,

Obsessive? Absolutely, but when I find something I like I listen to it until I know every word, every drum pattern, every chord progression. I know there are many of you within the Alliance that can name a song, the artist and the album by the intro. So I know that I am not alone.

This boils over into many things in my life, including my hobbies. Just a few months ago the only riding I did was on the singlespeed going as fast as I could for as long as possible. Why? Because it seemed like riding TrueGrit would be fun and it was a challenge. Before that it was the Enduro on the Goose, didn’t touch the hardtail for months at a time. And going back even further….

I think you get the point.

I’ve been accused of not riding any more. Truth is, I haven’t. I’ve been pulling my way up rock faces and just thinking about getting back out to do it again brings a smile to my face. Many of the things I love about riding are amplified when I climb. I love bombing down a rock garden as fast as I can because my mind shuts down and my body reacts, complete concentration. The same thing happens as I go up a wall, my mind shuts off and my body goes to town.

I’ve often said that trails are like puzzles, you gotta figure ‘em out. I love finding a section of trail and sessioning it until I figure out how to get through it, one move at a time. Well, you guessed it, climbing is the same. It’s just one big puzzle that makes my brain move in different ways to figure out how to get my body to do what I want it to.

I haven’t been riding, big deal. I will be riding today if anyone wants to join me…

P. L. and R.

A fellow Mooseknuckler, Fixie Dave posted a link to this adapter a couple of days ago.

The link was posted with an astute question, “If BB30 is so awesome why are there so many kits to use old school BB’s?”

That is a good question, why are there so many adapters? Well, for starters when there are  more standards than one, there tends to arise the need to adapt other “standards.” Which brings us to the point that there isn’t really a standard, there’s what we are doing and what they are doing and the instructions on how to get the two together.

If we look at the BB30 “standard” and all the adapters a couple of things become obvious. First, frame companies love the big gaping hole in their frames. Why? They can claim that it’s lighter and stiffer. Remove the metal from the frame and have a hole there, yup that’s lighter. Not much you can argue with there. We all know that the motivating factor for almost all “advances” in frame technology are simply so they can say it’s lighter and stiffer.

Second, let’s look at the component manufactures that propagated this bastardized world we live in. FSA and SRAM love the standard and make the only cranks that are actually BB30. Yup, you read that right Shimano and Campagnolo do not make BB30 cranks. So the only companies making cranks for the gaping hole in your frame are the companies that are incapable of making a descent crank.

Hold on, stop throwing things at your screen you’re only going to ruin your computer.

Now that you are done throwing your tantrum let me explain. I don’t care if you are a SRAMite or happen to think FSA is God’s gift to the cycling industry, those are your opinions and your entitled to them. My opinion, after 17 years in the cycling industry, is that Shimano and Campagnolo are the only companies that make a descent crank. The reason they haven’t released a BB30 crank, because they don’t need a bigger spindle to make a stiff crank. And let’s be honest with each other, their cranks shift and roll the best and if you are flexing a Dura Ace crank you probably need to let up on the steroids.

So all those adapters we were talking about, yup they are all designed so you can do what? Take the “standard” made by the sub-standard crank folks and still use a good crank.

Questions answered.

And No, Virginia there isn’t a Santa Claus…

Out.

The above photo pretty much epitomizes what my life has been like for the past few days. The Ironman is in town and we have been “fixing” bikes all week. You would be surprised to see what a little sweat can do to metal. And if there are people that know about perspiration, I am convince these are Iron People. Maybe that is why it is an “Iron” man because of all the oxidization.

Any way, you have my apologies for the lack of posts, but you now know who to blame….

Out.