httpv://youtu.be/0CofKpGRdb0
We thought that we would pass along a little bit of humor for your weekend. Make sure to start watching past the first minute to see the 2011 Tour de France 2nd and 3rd place finishers, Fränk & Andy Schleck, get squeamish on the couch as they are interviewed for Japanese TV.
Ushi Hirosaki of Tokyo Broadcasting, is a Japanese interviewer. Together with her partner Hiromi Tojo she travels around the world to surprise international stars with her shameless questions.
With so many products now made of carbon fiber and plastics there is the concern on how these materials will eventually be recycled. Products should be made to last, but that doesn’t have to be last forever in a landfill. Fortunately, there are still items that are made to last from natural materials. These items allow you to think about which grandchild might be inheriting them instead of how will they be disposed. The people at Iverson Shoenows believe in making a product that will last – not one season or even a few seasons, but a lifetime. Since 1954, Iverson has been crafting some of the finest quality snowshoes and they are still making them in America.
Based in Shingleton, Michigan for over 50 years, Iverson has been making their snowshoes from premium Michigan White Ash, full grain rawhides and pure copper hardware. The consumer side of the business was started by Clarence Iverson after word got out about his design and construction of snowshoes for the State of Michigan. His design solution was simple – create a snowshoe to walk on top of the snow instead of through it, there by reducing the energy expended and provide maximum weight distribution for optimum flotation. All while making a product that would withstand the brutal backcountry of the Upper Peninsula. Continue reading Made in America: Iverson Snowshoes
As the days get shorter and the temperatures drop, cyclists and runners who still want to get outside to ride or run are always looking for ways to keep warm. Shorts have given way to tights to keep the legs warm, but there might be a base layer that you are missing – embrocation. If you are not familiar with this product, embrocation is a cream that is rubbed onto skin, particularly the legs, before going outside for a sports activity. This cream has a warming sensation that promotes the blood circulation to the extremities, which in turn keeps you feeling warmer and helps stave off the mental toll on your workout due to the cold temperatures.
There are quite a few companies making embrocation, but they all come in a cream form that needs to be applied using your hands and fingers. This is not a big deal until you rub your eyes without washing your hands or having worn gloves, just like rubbing your eyes after cutting a hot pepper, they will burn.
The Joshua Tree Skin Care of Pinckney, Michigan has announced the release of a new line of embrocation in a stick form. Similar to a deodorant stick, this new line of organic embrocation should be easier and safer to apply. This new line of embrocation has three levels of ’heat’, referring to how hot your skin will feel – similar to the feeling of being in the sun for an extended period of time.
“There’s nothing cool about being cold.” I’m probably not alone in saying that I’m not the only one that couldn’t agree more with that tag line. As with many riders I like to get out throughout the winter, but no matter how much I bundle up, I often feel a chill in the fingers. This is because when your gloves become saturated with sweat or water, it can be very difficult to keep your hands warm. British-based BreezeBlockers has a novel solution for this all too common problem – block your hands from being in the wind.
The entire line of BreezeBlockers products are designed to keep your hands out of the wind while cycling, and use your natural body heat to create a warm air pocket inside the BreezeBlockers. Keeping this warm air pocket outside of the glove should reduce the amount of sweat that could potentially build up inside your gloves. Along with keeping the sweat from building within your gloves, they are also designed to keep water out. The BreezeBlockers are constructed of ABS or polypropylene plastic (depending on the model) which will help shield your hands from outside water from coming in contact with your gloves.
Anyone who knows me is aware of my bike obsession. Riding and building them with an occasional race in mind is what I like to do. As the seasons change and fall arrives, I begin my yearly bike audit. This includes assessing the bikes that I have, and then determining what major service needs to be performed on them, as well as which bike I would like to replace. This year is no different, or so it seemed. With plans in the works to build a new tandem for my wife and me, along with the consideration of a full-suspension cross country bike, the possibility of building a snow bike and the desire to replace my 26-inch wheeled single speed mountain bike with a 29er version, all of these bikes have left me considering quite a few options with regards to components. Additionally, when I assemble a new bike it is often from the frame up. Rarely do I ever buy a complete bike. While I have nothing against complete bikes, I am pretty particular about the components.
Thus, fall is also a good time for me to start gathering parts since this is also the time that others are shedding parts. I should add that it has been years since I have worked in a bike shop, which afforded me the privilege of deep discounts. As I’ve found sometimes buying outside of a retailer can be necessary if the budget is limited and deals are needed to complete a project. The VeloSwap and other bike shows are full of goodies, as is the online world that includes eBay and Craiglist. However, a recent post on Full Speed Ahead’s (FSA) website might make me rethink my plans. The company isn’t cracking down on sale of used products, but instead is addressing a far more ominous menace.
It appears that an issue once thought to only plague large corporations including Apple, Oakley and Nike is now making its way to smaller brands as well – counterfeits. If you have bought anything through online auctions such as eBay, you are aware of how difficult it is to determine if a seller is legitimate. Along with the anxiety of waiting to see if a part for your bike even shows up, you might now have to worry if the item that you purchased is even authentic. Once an item is purchased from a non-retail sellers (meaning auctions, forums or even discount sites), there often is no warranty from the manufacturer. This is usually not an issue due to the substantial savings off of the suggested retail price; but if it is not even authentic, that can be a bigger issue – especially for your own safety. If a fake pair of Oakley glasses or Nike shoes fail, a major injury is not likely to occur; but if a fake FSA stem breaks while riding a downhill run at 30 miles per hour, death is possible. This is certainly not good.
(Video after the jump)
Resistance bands are a great way to build strength or aid on the road to recovery from an injury. These bands are typically made of rubber, similar to Latex, and can sometimes break during use causing additional injury. This is counter productive especially if they are being used for rehabilitation. Since the mid-1990’s, Stroops has been making a safer resistance band under the name Slastix Technology – designed and manufactured in America.
(Video after the jump)
Commuting on a bicycle can be a great way to start the day and for many people it is also the only time to get some exercise. Unfortunately, commuting can also be a sketchy proposition depending on the route that is used to get to work. When my wife and I lived in California I had a 50 mile round trip commute that took me over the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Francisco. Fortunately for me, there were very few incidents that occurred, but occasionally there was the run-in with an inattentive driver or bus operator. Since those days, I have always been alert to new ideas regarding commuting. Recently one in particular caught my eye – the Speed Vest, which was profiled recently in Make magazine.
(Video after the jump)
httpv://youtu.be/MUn3-rqsdcw
Coffee and smoke breaks – both of these are acceptable time periods during the day that employees take from an employer with no cost benefits in return. Frankly, the opposite is true. Hypertension, high blood pressure, cancer and death are all side-effects that drain our healthcare system and add increased costs to an employer’s balance sheet. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel just a little bit better after a stretch or walk around the block during the day and KEEN footwear thinks that getting away from your work area for just 10 minutes a day to do a little physical activity is worth making into a new ‘company’ policy.
Continue reading Are You ‘Keen’ on Recess?
On a bicycle built for two, either your partner and you work together or not at all. There really is no in-between on a tandem. It is a team effort, not only requiring both of you to pedal together to get over a mountain pass, but also work as ‘one’ negotiating turns and technical sections. Usually couples either ride on the road or on dirt trails, but seldom both due to limitations of the bike or rider comfort level. A road tandem, with its 700c wheels and larger gearing, is much faster on the road than a mountain bike tandem. A mountain bike tandem, with its 26-inch wheels and smaller gearing, is much stronger and is geared to make it easier to climb – especially while riding trails. My wife and I are in-between… we want the speed of a road tandem, but be able to ride some trails on a whim. Our 1998 Cannondale MT1000 mountain tandem has served us well for five Triple Bypass tours, but we both are looking for something that will roll faster on the road and yet still handle the trails. We just do not want to own two different tandems. Enter the 2012 Java from Co-Motion.
Whether you are jumping out of an airplane or drag racing, a chute is designed to slow you down; but in the case of the Speed Chute, it is designed to actually make you go faster. The Speed Chute, from MuscleDriver USA, is a chute that attaches to your waist and is to be used while running sprints. The concept behind the Speed Chute is that you are building strength through resistance – wind as opposed to weight resistance. Strap the waist band on, face the wind and sprint. It is a pretty simple concept, so we had to give it a try.
httpv://youtu.be/8EH-5Ss3R8g
Are you tired of having to grab a wrench each time you need to remove the wheels from your bike since it does not have quick release levers? Would you ride more often if only you could get your bike in the car to take to the park, but it is so inconvenient due to bolt-on wheels? Is your kid’s bike sitting in the garage with a flat tire due to you not being able to remove the wheel?
Coombs Cycling Technologies of Heber, Utah now offers a quick-release option for solid axle wheels: the Axle Release.
(More video after the jump)
Continue reading Lose Your Nuts
Named after Wyoming Highway 22, which travels over the 8,431-foot Teton Pass a favorite spot for backcountry skiers, TwentyTwo Designs is dedicated to producing some of the best telemark ski bindings in the world. Started in 2004 by two mechanical engineers, Chris Valiante and Collins Pringle, TwentyTwo Designs inherited the HammerHead binding design from Rainey Designs and continued to improve upon it along with creating their own bindings.
Continue reading Made in America: TwentyTwo Designs Telemark Ski Bindings
[UPDATE] Moots extended the order deadline on the Moots FrosTi Titanium Snow Bike Frame to November 1, 2011 to accommodate more orders.
While on the subject of snow bikes, it should be mentioned that Moots of Steamboat Springs, Colorado is producing a very limited production run of their own snow bike frame, the FrosTi.
The FrosTi is a titanium frame specifically designed for snow riding. The rear spacing is 170mm, the bottom bracket is 100mm, the cable guides are designed for the shifter cables to be fully enclosed and the frame is made to accommodate a 3.7-inch tire. The geometry of the frame is designed to handle a Salsa Enabler fork and even an 80mm travel 29er fork for use in the summer. Unlike other frames from Moots, the FrosTi has very few custom options. No slider dropouts, no YBB rear suspension and no couplers for traveling… just an additional water bottle mount, rack mounts and different color decals are available. But heck, with only 20 or less being produced how likely is it that you will ever see another FrosTi?
Continue reading [UPDATE] Moots FrosTi Titanium Snow Bike Frame