Fixed Freestyling Rolling on Dubs

Image and info via Prolly.

See more images on Cycroc's flickr.

Welcome to the future of fixed freestyling, a 20" fixed. I'm going to be honest and say ride a damn BMX if you want to trick. I see the duality in tricking a 700c frame (but don't endorse it) but once you get smaller in the 26" frame size there's absolutely no reason to not get a BMX. There are 3 instances this wouldn't look ridiculous. 1 - you're a girl. 2 - you're a clown. 3- you want your bros to check out your sick bar spins.

OAKLEY Cycle Culture Magazine

Image and info via Hypebeast.

From pro cyclists to bike couriers and beasts OAKLEY has been protecting your eyes for decades. It's about time OAKLEY did a magazine about cycling culture. Details on Hypebeast.

ZOMG TOUR NEWS OVERLOADZ

Image from here.

With the Tour only 4 days away all the cycling sites I frequent are bombarded with Tour related news. Allow me to help you cipher through the madness.

Cycling News - About to Explode

Cycling News - Can Contador Deliver Another Tour Win?

PezCycling News - TDF:2010 Week #1, Week #2, Week #3

VeloNews - LANCE ARMSTRONG: "THIS WILL BE MY FINAL TOUR"

VeloNews - Provisional Start List: 2010 Tour de France

VeloNews - Basso's Back, but Picks Contador for Tour

Cycling Tips - Le Grand Depart!

TOLA - Brent Humphrey's Le Tour Exhibit

ON AND POPPIN THIS JULY! Mostly excited for Brent Humphrey's Le Tour Exhibit on July 17th.

Look 695

Image and more info here.

What caught me wasn't that the frameset is one of the lightest on the market save for the Scott Addict R1 but the introduction of yet another bottom bracket standard, the BB65. Look uses a hugely oversized bottom bracket on the 695 model dubbed BB65 which is only compatible with a proprietary crankset. Recently, the industry has been marketing the BB30 standard. The BB30 was first introduced by Cannondale and is now widely accepted by bike manufacturers like Specialized. All this new tech being tossed around. I honestly think its all marketing. DO YOU really think you'll be able to feel the difference between the bottom brackets now and the BB65? I would put money the average cyclist won't. Unless you're a beast, then its pay to play.

Cycling Tips Does MTBing

Images and more here.

Cycling Tips always comes through with beautiful photos. CT is currently in Europe living it up before the Tour starts. He had the opportunity to go MTBing in the countryside. Enjoy the photos.

I dabbled in the MTB scene when I was younger. My first real bike was a MTB. A Trek Antelope 800 to be exact. I took it out in PV a few times, but it was hard to take it trails when I really couldn't drive to places being only 12.

Rapha Tourmalet Jersey

Images from here.

Rapha killing it. I mean I wouldn't expect anything less then the best. I wish I had money to blow, because that jersey would be robocopped. See what I did thar?

"LEMME GET DAT BIKE"

Via Tracko via Prolly.

CHURCH!! CHEA!!

Cinelli Fixed Tandem

Image from LAfixed's Bike Pr0n Thread

Talk about vintage heat.

Mont Ventoux Fixed

Image from and more photos here.

I caught this from our friends over at Team Lope (Powdered Donut) Tyre Clubbe's blog. The blogger from ifeellikealittlekid climbed up the fabled Mont Ventoux fixed. This climb is definitely not for babies. I share the same sediments with Team Lope when it comes to traveling with your bike to discover new places. That was one of my main reasons for doing ALC. To see California in a way not many people get to experience.

BTW, no one does it better than Lance.

Fast Forward

DVS//CADNC ROAD TO FAST FRIDAY from AMBUSHE on Vimeo.

DVS and Cadence presented Fast Forward this past weekend. On June 26th the event jumped off at 4 different velodromes; LA, Houston, Auckland, and Denver. The LA edition of Fast Forward was at the Encino Velodrome. My favorite part of the vid were the people tricking in the middle of the velo. To be fair, there was a trick competition where the winner won a Volume Thrasher frame.

Photos from the event via Ace Carretero's flickr.

26th Philadelphia International Cycling Championship

Philly-Bike-Race-05, originally uploaded by adrianjm.

On June 6, Team Hype rider Adrian had the opportunity to hit up the race and snap some nice photos. Check more photos on his flickr.

"The TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship is a 156-mile men’s professional road race that typically draws some 300,000 spectators around a 14-mile circuit that links Philadelphia’s majestic Benjamin Franklin Parkway with the hillside neighborhood of Manayunk where fans congregate on the challenging, steep-pitched Manayunk Wall. "

Words from here.

Tornado Down

Image from here.

Cavendish's bid to win the green jersey at this year's Tour just got a little better. Tom "Tornado" Boonen took himself out of the Tour due to knee injury. He sustained the injury at the Tour of California and made it worse at the Tour de Suisse by falling on it. Read more here. On the upside, I'm hoping Cavendish does some obscene salute every time he wins a stage.

Image from here.

Stay classy Cav.

SRAM Omnium Crank Video Review

SRAM OMUNIUM CRANK from chariandconyc on Vimeo.

via Prolly.

There's a huge following for SRAM gruppos, and the track crank set is as much beasted over as RED. Personally, I'm a Shimano fanboy. DA4LIFE. Cop here online from Chari & Co.

MASSAN for Leader Bikes

Massan for Leader Bikes from Brandon Finks Video/Animation on Vimeo.

via Prolly.

TED SHRED!!!

HTC-Columbia Roster for Le Tour

Image from here.

It's no surprise that Mark Cavendish was selected for the tour team to win the green jersey. After his crash in the Tour de Suisse, I'm just surprised he's recovering so fast.

The general classification (GC) contenders for HTC-Columbia are Michael Rogers and Tony Martin. Rogers is the lead GC, but Martin is coming off a very successful Tour de Suisse. He held the yellow jersey in the beginning of the race and beat Fabian Cancellara in the final stage time trial. No one has beaten Cancellara at a time trial in 3 years until Martin did.

HTC-Columbia has a very strong team. Look for Cavendish to win the green jersey, and a top 10 finish from the GC hopefuls.

More info here.

LE TOUR LE TOUR!

2010 Tour de France route illustration by I Love Dust.

Here's the official route from the officialness.

Top 12 Tour Contenders

Image from here.

You can't have a list of Tour de France (TDF) contenders without mentioning Alberto Contador. Even though Contador is still on Team Astana, Astana isn't the same team. With the majority of the riders jumping ship to Team Radioshack, Contador is left with a team he's only ridden with for 1 season. The TDF is a team sport. You need your teammates to defend the lead, set pacelines, bring you water, etc... You can't win the maillot jaune by your self. It'll be interesting to see if Contador can rally the troops to defend his title.

Image from here.

I'm not going to lie. I hope Armstrong wins it all. To show all the haters that he is legit. But, I have to be realistic. He's more likely to place in the top 10 then podium. This year's TDF is stacked with very strong riders on well built teams. Team Radioshack is no exception. Having pulled 8 riders from the 2009 Astana team, the Lance train will be a force to be reckon with.

The 10 other riders to look out for, compiled by Cyclingnews.com are:

Andy Schleck - Saxo Bank

Bradley Wiggins - Sky

Frank Schleck - Saxo Bank

Christian Vande Velde - Garmin-Transitions

Roman Kreuziger - Liquigas

Ivan Basso - Liquigas

Cadel Evans - BMC

Michael Rogers - HTC-Columbia

Denis Menchov - Rabobank

Carlos Sastre - Cervelo Test Team

Read more here.

Jens: Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb

Image from here.

I'm sure everyone knows about the Chuck Norris style facts and jokes, and the more recent Dos Equis' The Most Interesting Man. Now meet Jens Voigt. Team Saxo Bank rider and all around bad ass.

Jens' big ring is 56. His rear cassette is 11-11-11-11-11-11-11-11-11-12.

Jens once challenged Lance Armstrong to see who had more testicles. Jens won by 5.

More true facts here and here.

PV Loop with LAFixed Photos

DSC_0041, originally uploaded by shogunsage.

LAFIxed rider John's photos from yesterday's ride. See more on his flickr. REPPIN THAT TEAM HYPE!

2010 Tour de Suisse - Frank Schleck Wins!

The final stage, stage 9, of the Tour de Suisse was a 26.9km TT. World TT champ Cancellara set the set the time to beat at 32:38. But that wasn't enough to win the stage. HTC-Columbia's Tony Martin beat Cancellara by 17 seconds. Frank Schleck finished 13th on stage 9 and it was enough to beat Rabobank's Robert Gesink for the overall.

Other notables, Armstrong finished 2nd and Leipheimer came in 10th overall. This is the last tour for most riders before the Tour de France. With only weeks away the TDF is shaping up to a good one. So many strong riders this year that there is no clear favorite.

Image and results from here.

Summer Fix

Summer Fix is jumping off July 16th - 18th. It's a 3 day bike event in LA with parties, trick competitions, rides, and parties. The highlight to me is the primiere of "To Live and Ride in LA". It's about damn time.

PV Loop with LAFixed

Back on the saddle again. Felt good to get out and ride after a week off. I'm not using my fixie for a minute so I was on my roadie. There were 6 of us, with LAFixed rider's John and Mok on fixies and the rest of us on roadies.

I parked in Redondo on Ave C, and rode up to Malaga Cove to meet up everyone else. After having a week off my legs were fresh and I was actually excited to climb. My Achilles Tendon not so much. Straight out the gate we start climbing. It was a nice steady incline of 5-8%. The best part was bombing down Hawthorne after we crested. OH HOW I MISSED BEING ABLE TO COAST. So so SO NECESSARY.

We hit a few rollers to the next climb which was switch backs to radio tower. I'm a stronger climber now than I used to be. I had gears left when I made it to the radio tower. Climbing fixed definitely makes you a stronger rider overall. It teaches you to ride at a steady tempo, and not to rely on your gears. Too many times I'm riding with people and all I hear is click click click. As my uncle would ask, "We riding? Or shifting?" DID I MENTION HOW NICE IT IS TO COAST.

We hit rollers again going down PV Drive East, hang a Left on PV Drive North, another Left on Via Campesina, Left again on Vie La Cuesta to climb what the Beach City Dash crew (BCD, LAfixed Southbay crew) call "the dessert climb". This is hands down the steepest climb I have ever did. At points going up we were hitting 18-20% grades. Thank god it was a short climb and I was on my roadie. We reach the top and I was gasping for air. Mok climbed it on 48x15 and John was at 48x16 (not sure what John's ratio was). Props to both for doing it fixed. Straight beasted up.

Good ride made better with great company.

BACK TO BACK LAKESHOW!!!

Adam Morisson: 2, and Lebron James: 0. Congrats to the LA LAKERS! I'll see you all at the parade!!

Bike Anti Porn

Saggy chain? Bar angle? Snowflake lacing? You spot the last thing aerofail.

Roadie Bike Trials

Never seen bike trials on a road bike, yet alone on a carbon frame. Watch and get your mind blown.

Bike Anti Porn

Stay handsome.

New Wheel Day - Remi

Fuji SL1 04, originally uploaded by RFEEZY.

Well not really. It's been way too long since I've shown my roadie some love. It was kind of hard with all the training on my fixie for ALC9. I decided to "debadge" my Zipp 404s. 30 minutes later and some Goo Gone I saved a few grams (for those weight weenies) and murdered out my wheelset. Came out real nice.

2010 Tour de Suisse - Stage 4

Cav goes down hard! Hope he can recover for the Tour de France which is less than a month away.

ALC9 My Favorite Day

I like climbing, especially on my fixie, and Day 3 of ALC9 did not disappoint. Appropriately dubbed Quadbuster, there was steady climbing of about 1-3% grade out of camp. After rest stop 1, at about 8 miles, was the beast. A steady 4-6% grade out of the rest stop then at around mile 10 it jumped to 8% grade. Then all of the sudden the climb jumped to 12% grade and I had to get out of the saddle to power through it. At one point I thought I was crying, but it was just the sweat dripping. By the end of the climb it looked like I just took a shower. It was a great feeling passing all the roadies up the climb. But I got humbled real quick. I saw numerous roadies bomb down the climb to do repeats. Later on I was informed some people get donated more money for doing repeats. Those are the real champions.

The total mileage of the climb was about 1.3 miles (from the route slip) but it felt way longer. Good thing Quadbuster was at the beginning, because if it were at the end I might've yakked. Riding fixed you definitely loathe the descents, and it gets worse on multi-day tours. Your cadence is almost doubled when bombing down a hill, and can you imagine spinning your legs at 129 RPM for miles at a time? You'll be cradling your brake, your tris will be sore, and your legs will hate you in the morning. There's a reason the day was called Quadbuster.

Would I do it fixed again? Maybe. Would I do ALC again? In a heartbeat.

ALC9 Day 7 Home

Finished.

ALC9 Day 6 Camp

Chillin!

ALC9 Day 5 Rest Stop 2

Riding through wine country on day 5. Absolutely beautiful.

ALC9 Day 4 Camp

Chargathons. 4 sockets, 4 power strips, 20+ phones and 10+ devices being charged.

ALC9 Day 4 Rest Stop 2

The view from rest stop 2 on Hwy 1.

ALC9 Day 4 Taped Up

My achilles tendon started giving me some pain yesterday on the descents. Had it taped up this morning. For the those in the medical field pain threshold = 3/10.

ALC9 Day 3 Camp

We're in Paso Robles tonight. Our little shanty town. Budget rental trucks in the back haul our gear and tents daily from camp to camp.

ALC9 Day 2 Unofficial Reststop

Fried artichoke truck surrounded by fields of produce. Passed by a cilantro field earlier and wanted a burrito.

ALC9 Day 1 Lunch Stop

San Gregorio State Beach. Sucks that its overcast but the weather is really nice. Just handled lunch and taking off. Next rest stop is 20mi.

ALC Opening Ceremony

Cow Palace filling up for the opening ceremony. Ridiculously packed so far. This picture does the massiveness no justice.

ALC9 Orientation

Finally done. The epicness of the bike warehouse. Easily 2k+ bikes in there. Day 1 tomorrow.

Photos of the 2010 Giro d'Italia

A few of my favorites from the Cycling Tips post. More photos here.

Bike Anti Porn

Image from here via LAFixed.

ALL YOU HATERS SUCK MY BALLS. Thanks for the lulz.

ALC9 Packing

Packing and testing my email updates.

Armstrong Confirmed for 2010 Tour de Suisse

Image from here.

LANCE ARM(DOPE)STRONG. He's confirmed for the 2010 Tour de Suisse (Swiss). This is his first time back on this tour since winning it in 2001. This will be his last race until the Tour De France in July.

Other heavy weights joining the tour are Team Saxo Bank riders Fabian Cancellara and the Schleck brothers.