Tag: bike

Strava, Specialized Challenge Your Climb

Are you ready for spring training? Is climbing on your training circuit? If so, you might consider signing up for the Classic Climbing Challenge set up by Strava and Specialized. The two companies took the climbing feet from five of the most grueling mountain rides from a few Classics tours, then multiplied that by three to challenge riders to climb a grand total of 105,312 feet. The time period? This must be done between March 15 and April 30.

The Classics courses include:

  • Milan-San Remo – 6,260 feet
  • Tour of Flanders – 5,709 feet
  • Paris-Roubaix – 3,259 feet
  • Liège–Bastogne–Liège – 10,883 feet
  • Amstel Gold – 8,993 feet

Continue reading Strava, Specialized Challenge Your Climb

ParkStart: A Program to Design Bike Parks

Skate parks get all the attention, and funding. That’s according to Alpine Bike Parks, a company that just launched ParkStart, a design tool package for planning and building bike parks. The program helps park planners come up with a plan and budget to take to City Hall, or other authority, for approval.

Continue reading ParkStart: A Program to Design Bike Parks

Made in America: Lynskey Performance Products

2012 Lynskey Pro29VF - Painted Flat Black (optional)

Even though the company Lynskey Performance Products has only been around since 2006, the Lynskey name has been involved with the bicycle industry much longer. Back in 1986, David Lynskey merged his knowledge of exotic metals, gained through the years of experience that has family had in the metals industry, with his desire to build a lighter bike frame for competition. The result was the beginning of the titanium bicycle frame company, Litespeed. For the next 13 years, David Lynskey, along with other family members, were the faces behind the name ‘Litespeed’ until they sold the company to the American Bicycle Group in 1999. A few years went by and the non-compete agreements expired, but the desire to build titanium bicycle frames never did die. In 2005, with the encouragement of their mother, the Lynskey family decided to jump back into the bicycle business and Lynskey Performance Products was born on January 1, 2006. Video after the jump

CES 2012: iBike Trains for iBike POWERHOUSE Release

With a handful of apps, the iPhone doubles as a cycling computer, but a new app and companion case from iBike will offer custom readings depending on the user’s goals. One such app-plus-case is the iBike Cycling Computer. The iBike POWERHOUSE is what the company is calling an “intelligent cycling computer” that automatically adjusts to exercise goals.

Those exercise goals offered by iBike POWERHOUSE include “iSlim,” “Express Fitness,” “Brazilian Butt,” “Kid Fit,” “Weekend Warrior,” “Zero to 50 miles in 3 weeks,” and “Healthy Heart.” The program guides you through a series of 45 to 90-minute bike rides. During each ride, the user is coached to pedal at specific levels of effort. Continue reading CES 2012: iBike Trains for iBike POWERHOUSE Release

Pull Into the Bike Parking Garage

Click image for more detail

Biking to work is a challenge. You want a secure place to lock your bike, and sometimes you need a shower before going to the office or meeting. The city of Santa Monica in California is addressing the issue with a full-service bike parking center on the 3rd Street Promenade. The bike center is located in a storefront of a new mall in the area.

The Santa Monica Bike Center takes up 5,300 square feet. It has slots for bikes to be locked, showers, lockers and a self-service repair center. The center will also have attended valet parking for those shopping in the mall that want a little extra service. It’s reported the ground-level garage cost $2 million.

Cyclists will need to become members of the facility in order to use the amenities. Membership terms include daily, weekly and monthly rates.

Santa Monica Bike Center Official Website
[via Transportation Nation: PICS: Santa Monica, Calif. Opens Nation’s Largest Bike Parking Center]

Dave Zabriskie, the New Voice of Navigation

httpv://youtu.be/7AfwI_g-IFc

The headline may be a bit of an overstatement, but Dave Zabriskie recently had a recording session with Garmin Cervelo team sponsor Garmin to lend his voice to the downloadable Team Garmin bundle for Garmin Nuvi devices.

Zabriskie’s voice will be available as part of the downloadable Team Garmin bundle from Garmin Garage later in November. The video lets you hear, and see, some of what’s included in the bundle. “I’ll turn this car around…”

Nuvi devices are for cars, motorcycles and trucks, and not bicycles, but we thought it was worthy when a pro-cyclist gets to provide his voice for GPS driving directions. Besides, who knows the road better than a cyclist?

Garmin Official Website
[via Garmin Blog: Road Trip with Zabriskie: Get Dave’s voice on your Garmin]

Thursday Reading List (11/10/2011)

Welcome to a weekly digest of web links I think are worth checking out. These items include articles, images, and video. Please comment on what you find interesting. If you have something to share, please submit links of interest to mike@kineticshift.com.

 

British TV Ad for Christmas

This week sees the Christmas installment of the British store Halfords ad ‘ That’s Helpful, That’s Halfords’ campaign, with a 30 second Bike TV commercial, designed to encourage parents to come to Halfords to buy bikes for their children’s Christmas presents. The young girl is shown riding and enjoying her new bike in all seasons and weather. So take a cue from her and get out and scream while you are at it.

Video after the jump

Louis Garneau Intros Carve Helmet

Each year helmets get lighter, but they also get stronger. Technology lends itself to a higher degree of protection using lighter-weight materials. However, even when you’re going to get down and dirty off road you’ll still want to look good doing so. For 2012 Louis Garneau will release the Carve helmet, which will offer that higher degree of protection without sacrificing style.  This new helmet promises to be lightweight, highly ventilated and totally geared toward mountain bikers.

Continue reading Louis Garneau Intros Carve Helmet

Hands on: Elite Pro Cycling Jacket by Showers Pass

Showers Pass Elite Pro Cycling Jacket Review

Elite Pro Jacket

The weather in Colorado can be unpredictable. Sunshine, hail, high winds, and snow can all happen within a few hours even on a summer day. With this kind of variability you learn to carry a jacket at all times while on the bike.

The Elite Pro jacket is made with a three layer proprietary fabric and is highly waterproof. The wind-blocking is exceptional. Beyond the basics, the jacket is loaded with features designed specifically for cycling. The Elite Pro is light, form fitting and doesn’t flap in the wind. At the waist, it is short in front and ultra-long in the back. This feels a bit awkward when you try on the jacket, but once on the bike, it is spot on. The sleeves have the same style. They feel freakishly long when standing and perfect when on the bike. I’ve learned to cinch the wrist up when off the bike, positioning the sleeves at the wrist to keep them from falling over my hands.

The jacket has tremendous ventilation. There are two core zipper vents that replace armpit zippers on previous models.
Continue reading Hands on: Elite Pro Cycling Jacket by Showers Pass

Toyota Prius X Parlee Concept Bike

httpv://youtu.be/lWzdWMapJ-c

I can honestly say, never thought I’d see the day that you could move something with just your mind. You can, and this isn’t just something out of Star Wars. Toyota and bicycle manufacturer Parlee have teamed up to create a concept bicycle that is as cutting edge and trend setting as the Prius. The video above shows how this could be a game changer for cyclists.  And in a related story the BBC takes its own look at mind control. Mind over matter indeed!

 

Quirky New Bike: Modus

In just 24-hours a new bike was created with the input of people on the internet. The “Quirky Moneyball Project” was a collaboration between crowd source invention company Quirky and Columbia Pictures in promotion of the new film Moneyball.

You might think that the promotion would be to build a better bat or baseball cleats. The challenge for Quirky however, was to develop and build a new bicycle in just 24 hours. The collaboration included input from the Quirky design team with the healp of Oakland A’s fans, film enthusiasts and the Quirky global community.

Video after the jump

Continue reading Quirky New Bike: Modus

ShirtShuttle Helps Commuters Tote a Clean Shirt

Biking to work sounds like such a brilliant idea. That is until you actually do it and show up to work with a damp, wrinkled shirt. The ShirtShuttle from Commuter Technologies, which is currently available exclusively at The Conran Shop in the U.K., is a weather-tight case fits a clean shirt and stores it in your backpack or messenger bag so it will arrive dry and crease-free. Continue reading ShirtShuttle Helps Commuters Tote a Clean Shirt