Rollingstone.com just posted a behind-the-scenes article about how Travis Barker prepped for his Grammy’s performance last night.
Part of that prep involved going for a bike ride with his kids aboard his SE Big Ripper!
His kids are also budding BMXers…if you squint you can see a PK Ripper and Bronco in the background.
Word on the street is that Travis used to race BMX (back in the day) and has always had a soft spot for the PK Ripper.
Throwing the bikes in the car — whether it’s in the trunk, backseat or on the bike rack — and hitting the road is just one of those summertime essentials like beers and barbecues.
Getting out of Dodge and seeing what the next city, state or (if you’re really ambitious) country, has to offer is usually just the thing to shake things up, give you some fresh perspective and open the door to some good times.
Love this pic. (Cribbed from the Skyway Facebook page.)
On my agenda this weekend is racing a provincial/state race (today) and then on Sunday (I’m not making this up…) checking out the Sunday team at a bike shop demo in a nearby city. Good times all around.
Hope you’ve got some plans to check out some new places this weekend too.
Summers go by too fast these days.
Gotta make the most of these summer weekends.
While not made with cycling in mind, I have been noticing that a lot of riders have been singing the praises of Mechanix gloves on different forums and websites.
So I decided to put them to the test.
Mechanix gloves, if you’re not familar with them, are an all-round glove made for mechanics. They’re designed to be durable but still thin enough to afford mechanics the ability to work on machinery, small parts, etc. without taking their gloves off.
But do they work for BMX?
I took them to a Thursday night race at the local track to find out.
How did they compare to the regular name-brand gloves that I usually wear?
Very well.
The gloves were very comfortable. They didn’t feel hot (despite the record temps that day) and were thin enough to give a great feel for the grip and lever.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to test their ability to withstand a crash (because I kept it rubber side down that night) but I really got the sense it would take a lot to tear these gloves…they looked like they could stand up to a lot of abuse.
In the looks department you can’t really go wrong either…the ones I tried kinda reminded me of old school Oakley gloves…and they’re available in just about any color or color combo you can think of. Matching them to your current gear definitely shouldn’t be a problem.
Would I recommend them? Heck yeah.
They stack up easily with any of the big-name gloves out there right now. And you can get them at most auto/hardware type stores at considerably lower price then you would pay for “riding-specific” gloves.
If you’re in the market for gloves, Mechanix gloves are definitely worth checking out.
Coca-Cola made a bit of a splash recently with their sponsorship of Olympic contender, Sam Willoughby.
Of course, Sam’s been getting a lot of hype recently as he is one of the favorites to not only podium but possibly get the gold in the games.
Coke’s been using Sam’s image in a lot of advertising lately so you would think they would be hip to the nuances of the whole BMX thing by now.
That’s why I was a bit surprised to see this poster in my neighborhood convenience store.
“Go for the Gold” it says, along with a prominent Olympic logo and the image of a BMXer either riding street (or dirt I suppose) on a bike with pegs!
Is the marketing department over at Coke unaware that there are different types of BMX riding?
Sure, there were rumors a while back that freestyle might make it into the Olympics but that hasn’t panned out. Now here we are a couple weeks out for the Olympics and we have a Coke ad with a street rider “Going for the Gold”.
Part of me thinks I should just let this slide and just be happy that BMX is getting some play from a major company. On the flip-side, however, I’m little ticked off that they could get it so wrong with this ad.
Maybe this will all change if Sam does get the Gold medal this summer.
Somehow I doubt it.
This has got to be one of the most spectacular race finishes I have ever seen.
At the Kingston BMX Provincial Qualifier this past weekend, Michael Morris crashed hard over the last jump (watching it from the sidelines it looked like he would be down for the count) but in a split second he bounced back up, grabbed his bike (that is now spinning in front of him) and ran across the finish line…for the win!
As you can imagine the place went bananas!
Check it out.
Kudos to Debbie Meighen Albrough for the great camera work!
Who would’ve thunk it…the humble Slurpee might just be the edge you need if you find yourself racing this summer on an especially hot day.
In a study that was reported on first in the New York Times, researchers found:
young male recreational athletes who drank a syrup-flavored ice slurry [like a slurpee] just before running on a treadmill in hot room could keep going for an average of 50 minutes before they had to stop. When they drank only syrup-flavored cold water, they could run for an average of 40 minutes.
The senior investigator, Paul Laursen, said the effect is short-lived. According to Laursen:
It would not even begin to last long enough to run a marathon or do a century (100-mile) bike ride, for example. But it would be perfect for a sport like tennis or for a 5- or 10-kilometer race.
Could it be effective then for a BMX racing then?
I think it might.
While not part of the study, the nature of BMX racing with it’s need for short-bursts of energy, recovery and then some more short-bursts of energy seems to make it a good fit for the kind of sport where the type of cooling provided by a Slurpee might pay off in increased performance.
Laursen found ice slurries were beneficial because it lowered brain temperature more effectively than cold water. He also reasoned that:
slurries might also effectively cool the body before exercise. The advantage… is that they are even colder than ice — 30 degrees Fahrenheit — an effect that occurs when sugary water is swirled with crushed ice.
Very interesting!
I’d love to test this out…if only there was a 7-11 close to my local track! Maybe I’ll throw a Freezie or two in the cooler and see if it has a similar effect.
Anybody racing this weekend with a 7-11 nearby?
I would love to hear whether or not it had an effect on your performance. And if anybody gives you a hard time for gulping a Slurpee…tell ’em you’re doing it for science!
Gunslinger Bicycles doesn’t get the same level of hype as some of the other big race frame companies but what they lack in hype is certainly made up for in some innovative ideas in frame design.
For instance, their 3-position adjustable rear dropouts.
A quick adjustment on the dropouts and you can make a significant change to how your bike handles.
According to the Gunslinger website, each frame
feature[s] 3 position adjustable rear dropouts, that allow you to tune the frame head angle and bottom bracket height to match your riding style.
Making a change to how your bike handles takes essentially no time at all. This simple adjustment in the dropout alters both the bottom bracket height and head angle.
Want a slower head angle for more stability in the turns? No problem. Want a more responsive ride? Just raise the bottom bracket slightly.
Definitely some innovative thinking on Gunslinger’s part and something well worth checking out if you take racing seriously.
You can find out more by checking out the Gunslinger Bicycles site or MyBikeStand.com (the latter has a great review on their site…and it’s where I borrowed this picture from).
In the lead up to the 2012 Olympics, racers, along with the companies and countries they represent, are pulling out all the stops to give themselves the edge going into the big event.
Whether that’s a carbon fiber frame, a 20mm axle set up or top-secret training technique, no stone is going unturned.
To what length are racers going to give themselves an advantage?
Would you believe cloak of invisibility technology?
Cruiser Revolution has uncovered some top-secret spy photos of a racer (nationality unknown) using the cloak of invisibility.
Check out this photo taken at a top-secret training facility in remote area somewhere in Nevada. The red bike is clearly being piloted by an invisible man!
Rumors have been circulating in the smoke-filled backrooms of the BMX industry about how long this technology has been in the works.
No one knows for sure.
But this undated photo clearly shows the unnamed rider piloting an early-90s model Haro. It also highlights how far the technology has come–in the present day — as the cloak of invisibility, in this iteration, clearly can’t quite cover the rider’s 100% cotton riding attire.
Where will we “see” the invisible rider next?
Again, no one knows for sure.
But it may be sooner than we think.
Check out this photo that ABC News confirms was taken from their special doppler radar satellite orbiting Chula Vista, California this weekend. Satellite coordinates indicate it was taken just outside the Olympic Training Center.
Is the race community’s love affair with the carbon fiber fork coming to an end?
It’s beginning to look that way.
Heck, when you have a big name like Olympic contender Mike Day saying things like, “always good to have a chromoly fork…and not have a road bike fork on your 20 inch” (when he’s being interviewed about GT’s 2012 lineup) then you know things are starting to shift.
On the Bodogs Race Report, in a post called Chromoly is the new carbon fiber, the writer talks about his own experiences with the different types of forks that are currently available:
Speaking only from experience I have personally witnessed no less than half a dozen cases where carbon fiber has failed, two cases where aluminum has failed (Both at the welds) and no cases where chromoly has failed.
He also sees a move back to chromoly in response to what he’s observed out at the track:
The new trend has returned to the beginning. Parts companies are building affordable chromoly forks that are stiffer and lighter than the most expensive carbon fiber forks on the market.
These same companies are also starting to play up the benefits of chromoly in their marketing. In a recent ad in Pull Magazine, CLIQ/Haro compared the chromoly Cliq fork to the Sinz carbon fiber fork. At half the price, no rider weight limit and (as an added blow) a lighter weight overall it’s hard to argue that carbon fiber is a better choice. The ad finishes with the tagline,“Does any of this make sense to you, cause we’re still confused.”
Clever. With more and more people getting the sense that they’ve been sold a bill of goods with carbon fiber forks, I think we’ll continue to see people voting with their wallets and going with the tried and true benefits of lightweight chromoly forks.
4130…It’s good to see you back at the race track, my old friend.
Nort and Wayne…loving life, loving what they do and loving each other.
Each of us should be so lucky.
(Don’t forget to get your sweetheart something for Valentine’s Day today.)
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