Recently in Cycling Category

She rides from michele Lugaresi on Vimeo.

Michele Lugaresi utilized a tilt-shift effect to create a video that resonates with melancholy, longing, and a pleasantly odd phantom nostalgia. The video evokes a barrage of half-remembered, half-imagined ideas. It is a beautiful bit of work.

The video is based on an idea by Christina Onofri and is set to Peter Bjorn and John's song "Amsterdam."

I've been watching Michele's video for a couple of years now, and it continues to work for me on several levels.

PROFESSIONal from VITA BREVIS FILMS on Vimeo.

One of the guys over at Velocipedesalon pointed me at this video, for which I'm grateful. Both the content and the qualia of the piece resonate with me, from repetition and principal's hand work to the quality of image and cut of the film.

Tour of Utah - Queen Stage - Wacky Food Hand Ups from Roots Culture Connect on Vimeo.

Hat tip to Blair Murdock for the link dink.

Earlier this year, Justin asked whether I'd be interested in popping over to Denver to ride wingman on his first century. I was giddy to take my recently assembled travel bike on a trip and agreed. This particular ride has an excess of riders and plenty of climbing from the start — and interesting combination for the first twenty or so miles. The descents struck me as piddly until late in the ride when we hit a long, fast section of road headed back towards Castle Rock. It was a sufficiently fun ride that I imagine that we'll do it again next year.

One thing that struck me odd was the copyright details for purchased photos. I'm prone to buying digital copies of photos that don't emphasize my mid-life paunch for use in my digital scrapbook here and over at flickr. Given the default copyright, should I purchase a digital copy from the professional photographer's e-commerce site, I wasn't allowed to use it for much of anything — certainly not here. After a couple rounds of emails, I got in touch with Hunter Mooneyham and explained my intended uses. He willingly extended my rights to the digital photo, which was trés cool from my perspective.

Much cooler would have been an e-commerce/copyright infrastructure that acknowledges the twenty-first century, blogs, photo sharing, social media, jet cars, etc. I doubt that any of this is Mr. Mooneyham's fault — he was very accommodating via email. It was, however, an email conversation that wouldn't have been necessary if the folks writing the small print spent any time considering how their customers would likely use a digital image, here, in the future, where we live now, rather than, y'know, copying and pasting Olan Mills circa 1932 boilerplate into their web forms.

I ride my bicycle a bit — this isn't news for anyone who knows me. I'm working to make it my primary means of transportation. When I bought my TCR a few years ago, I sampled a number of saddles looking for something that wouldn't aggravate or numb my primary bicycle interface. My search ended when a buddy recommended the Specialized Toupe. The Toupe addressed all of my comfort issues save one — longer rides and/or consecutive commute days yielded chafing on my left inner thigh and saddle sores. I addressed the irritation with Chamois Butt'r, cortisone shots, and gritted teeth.

A short while back, I stopped in at my shop and asked Brady whether a narrower version of the Toupe might correct my issue. Brady strongly recommended a technical fit rather than a saddle that would "cut me in half." The pricing for the fitting was on par with the price of a new saddle. After considering my options overnight, I made an appointment.

A technical fitting is an intensive, one-on-one process with Taylor that can run as long as three hours. The fitting covers a range of data points from riding position and style to body flexibility and irregularities (different leg lengths, for instance) to the particulars of pedal stroke, all of which play into the specifics of adjusting the bicycle for something very close to optimal rider fit and alignment.

After my first session with Taylor, I took the TCR out for a longer weekend ride. My hope was to correct the irritation at the primary interface. Forty miles later, the primary interface was ready for more. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that pedaling was different — easier, more efficient, more like I was skimming along water like Dash from "The Incredibles." And, my tendency to shrug my shoulders while riding, which led to cramping and discomfort even on shorter rides, all but disappeared. Specialized advertises that one will "Ride faster, longer, and in greater comfort." I agree. Completely.

Taylor sent me home with a copy of the measurements of various relationships on the TCR. That sheet allows me to adjust a bicycle's components in very close to where they need to be. Of course, frame geometry is a factor, but a visit to the shop for fine tuning becomes short work and much less expensive. After all, I'm paying for much less of Taylor's time. The heavy lifting of the initial fit is done. So far, I've been in to have my commuter and travel bikes adjusted. When I get the drops installed on my Xtracycle, I'll have that fitted as well.

If you cannot tell from this drivel, I am incredibly pleased with the results of my fittings. They have made a massive difference in my ride quality. My chafing, saddle sores, and shoulder shrugging are in my past. I liked riding before. These days, I love riding so much that I'd consider marrying it — if I were still in third grade and weren't already married.

If you're one of my three (ir)regular readers, or if you've stumbled onto this post via the magic of the intertubes and are interested in having Bountiful Bicycle fit your bicycle(s), mention that you read about my fitting on nomuse.com and they'll knock $50 off the price of the technical fitting. It really will be the best $150 you spend on your bicycle. If you go in for a fitting, be prepared for a fair amount of saddle time — cycling shoes and clothing are definitely needed. A significant portion of the fitting is spent pedaling on the trainer.

For what it's worth, in addition to Taylor being a great guy, he's completed both the BG F.I.T. and Masters BG F.I.T. courses at Specialized's training facility in Morgan Hill, California. You can reach Taylor for a fitting appointment at 801-295-6711. More information about the BG Fit program is available via Specialized's BG Fit segment of the intertubes.

The city of North Salt Lake recently ripped up a section of my daily commute route that was in dire need of repair. The road was closed for about six weeks during which time the macadam was stripped, the underlayment was reworked, and silky smooth asphalt right out of Disney's "Cars" was laid. The city finally finished striping the road and I was giddy to find a proper bike lane -- a lane that includes directional arrows for those salmon-like cyclists who can't seem to figure out on which side of the street they should ride. Good on ya, NSL!

As I am a masochist, I managed an expensive and last minute entry into the 2008 Lotoja Classic (beware of Flash). The race, or ride in my case, is a 206 mile course from Logan, Utah to Teton Village north of Jackson, Wyoming. I'm a little scared and a bit apprehensive.

Because life is busy, I extended my morning commute to include a 10 mile climb up Emigration Canyon to the peak of Small Mountain. The ride up the canyon is verdant, peaceful, and a high point in my day. The summit overlooks Little Dell Reservoir. The view begs me to roll down the far side and out towards East Canyon. I'm hoping to do an out-and-back from our home to the West Entrance of East Canyon State Park this coming weekend.

Interstate 84 to the north is under sufficient lane moving and rebuilding construction that bicycle traffic is unsafe to say the least. But, as soon as construction is completed in late September, I'm looking forward to riding a loop from home through Emigration Canyon, over Small and Big Mountains, around East Canyon Reservoir, past Morgan, down into and through Davis County to return home.

If I ever get on a bicycle again after September 6th.

photo: ©2008 Kevin Winzeler for Zazoosh.

The Cycle Salt Lake Century is one of the early supported rides of the year. I signed up in order to practice some group riding and to see what riding 100 miles was like. And, the ride was a blast!

I spend nearly all of my cycling time riding solo. Even so, I picked up the general idea of riding in a peloton quickly. I still have plenty of room to improve my micro-speed adjustment so as to reduce or eliminate the yo-yo effect as the speed of the pace line varies.

I wound up riding with segments of the group with whom I registered for the ride and with ad-hoc groups that seemed to be pacing more comfortably for me.

I experienced some minor mechanical difficulties with my front derailleur, but a quick tightening of the derailleur cable at one of the support stops returned full access to my chainrings.

I'm totally looking forward to riding this century again next year.

Nothing gets a day off to a proper start quite like running over a sharpened bit of steel and slashing the sidewall of a not inexpensive tire. The explosive and sudden decompression of the tire startled me to say the least. I stopped, evaluated the damage, and spent several moments searching the intersection for the shank. As I don't generally carry a spare tire in my kit, I was awfully glad that I connected with the makeshift caltrop a couple of blocks from our house.

I'd been tracking mileage on this pair of tires so that I could make a slightly less uniformed decision the next time I needed to buy a pair of tires. I ran down to Bountiful Bicycle and picked up a replacement -- before they opened for the day. (Brady, Taylor, and the rest of the crew always seem willing to do the bit extra to keep me pedaling. I cannot recommend the shop strongly enough.)

After replacing the tire, I returned to my regularly scheduled bicycle commute -- late, but thrilled to be rolling.

Photos