July 2009 Archives

Bikes from Redline, Raleigh, Kona, Giant, Ridley are all available at the Northwest Cyclocross Expo tomorrow at South SeaTac Park.

This is not only a celebration of everything cyclocross, it's an opportunity for riders to look at equipment, talk to manufacturers, and meet racers.

Our Cyclocross coverage will start in September with the first races and full coverage on the Hub. See our Cyclocross Tips page and tags for more. We're back racing Single Speed in 10 and staying the course!

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

I'm a huge fan of SRAM. That's likely seeming like an odd way to start a review of Shimano's electronic Di2 shift system, but I think it's a rather important contextual point. In the last fifteen years of riding bikes I'd always had Shimano guts doing the heavy work, be it mountain bike groups (like the first XTR, which I still have) or on the road (where I've ridden everything from Tiagra to Dura-Ace) I started as a hard-core Shimano rider.

When SRAM's Force group came along I was smitten. While Shimano parts had always been top-notch, there was something about SRAM's Force that really spoke to me. The Double-Tap shifting system fit my riding style and there was a crispness to the shifting that I felt was more agile than the then-standard 7800 series Dura Ace.

By the time that 7900 came along I was already riding with SRAM Red on my bike, and participating in an unprecedented campaign to lighten my ride thanks to the lower gram count of the grouppo. I was (except when testing bikes) perfectly content to ride SRAM into the sunset.

The good folks at Swobo made me spit out my high-end sports nutrition supplement today with a posting about an ad for Optigen that features not only Team Astana's powerful formation, but the, uh, powerful formation of one of the race fans. Click through for the decidedly NSFW image. (Well, I guess it's safe for work if you work at a nudist colony or porn theater.)

Thanks to @danielberlinger for bringing this to my attention. (Heh, that's a pun.)

I had a dream last night and when I woke up, this was all I could think of.

KarlOnSea tweeted a photo of a Byron Bike with a Bike Hugger Buddy Flap -- don't know why that bike says Lord Byron on it, but like it ALOT.

Bonus for the buddy flaps!

As a big fan of Hutchinson Tubeless Tires, I'm thrilled to see the continued march toward standardization as more and more companies adopt the 2-way clincher/tubeless rim system.

Current we're riding a set of Hutch tubeless on a pair of super-smooth Fulcrum wheels (a full review coming soon) but these Campy Eurus (as in "they cost a ton of Euros") will come in the 2-way flavor, and weigh in at about 1500 grams. That's not the lightest set in the tubeless mix, but it does certainly have more Campy graphics than any other wheelset.

The band "Bicycle" rode from New York to Seattle in 1995. They did? We need a where are they now for these guys.

Uploaded by Adventure Cycling Association | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

With the temperatures getting into the hundreds here in Seattle, we're following up on our post from yesterday on what to wear in the heat. This post will focus on hot weather riding tips. Last night, we raced at the local Tuesday Night Worlds and I had the "hot, go hard heaves" issue. Fully hydrated, rested, and ate right -- it was just like 120 degrees on the track and I was near puking. Hugga was Hella Hot and just stayed on the wheels. Post ride I drank water, ate well, and chilled.

You may not race your bike in this heat, but just the same you can get yourself into trouble.

Hydration, Heatstroke, Bonk

We'll avoid the pedantic local-news-type tips on the need to drink water, you know that. For cycling, your urine should be clear before the ride and if you stop sweating or get the chills during, it's likely you've overheated. Best thing to do is stop, get into the shade, and drink water. We avoid sugary drinks in the heat. Drink one a few hours before or after, but during can get you stomach cramps right quick. We also eat light on the hottest days.

If you're not riding more than 2 hours, you'll have plenty of calories in your system.

You'll hear Phil and Paul say this during le Tour, about how the stomach reacts to the heat especially when you drink super cold water or a lot of it. We just sip and frequently.

If you bonk (no more energy) get yourself to 7-11 for a Coke.There's a reason the pros do that in le Tour and it has saved us several times. Don't know chemically why it works so well, probably just all the sugar, but Coca-Cola has magical bonk recovery powers.

An Oliver Twist delivery service.

Uploaded by fixedgear | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

A chopper from Fire Bikes. Also see Hot Bikes.

Uploaded by sdzn | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

As the post title would suggest, no we're not working on a calendar of the world's-sexiest bike commuters (hey maybe!), but instead answering questions about riding to work in the summer and trying to stay cool.

Working hard on our Hugga Comfort line of gear, we've been thinking a lot about bike clothing. Last year, during an unusually hot day in the Pacific Northwest Pam and I were caught up in a Commuter Challenge on Seattle's Alaskan Way when we heard the rattling sound of an old Schwinn Varsity approaching. As the rider's breathing increased followed by the rush of the pass and his final push ahead of us, I noticed the commuter was dressed in jeans and a cotton tee. A few minutes later we passed the commuter and he was tearing his shirt off, obviously overheating.

We've told this story many times to our contacts in the bike industry and hope someday we'll end up with a greater variety of smart yet attractive technical apparel for commuters. We want gear we can wear on the bike and then wear right into the office--until then commuters are going to have to choose between "dorky" bike gear or sweating through their cotton street clothes.

Been working on snappy captions for this photo and got:

• Ladies keep your faces out of drivetains!
• Scene from the Director's Cut of Planet Terror (available only on DVD).
• Team mechanics adjust drivetrains during the Tour de Feminine.

That's the Sprockettes demonstrating their trick, daredevil riding skills in Madison, WI.

Uploaded by Olive Talique | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Thanks to a deluge of press releases we already knew that when Phil and Paul said that Alberto Contador was "dancing on the pedals," they didn't mention how special the pedals were.

Alberto was rocking the new Look Kéo 2 Max in super-champion yellow, and they're lust-worthy. Look pedals have always been among our favorite, and we're looking forward to taking a look at these new stompers.

The pedals have a 12-percent greater surface area (compared to the previous Kéo), oversized axle, carbon injected body and they weigh in at 120 grams. It's unlikely we'll see Alberto's pedals in the local bike shop, but their black counterparts will be available.

Having ridden in China, we can say, "good!" for news that China's workers are growing weary of the traffic and choosing E-bikes. Sure a visitor wants to see the progress in China; all those shiny-new buildings and apartments displacing old hutongs, but then damn that traffic. We wondered if the Chinese were enamored with their cars so much they just ignored it or if some thought, "modern society is traffic? Bikes were better." Well, 22 million electric two wheels sold last year. Since 07, the e-bike market has been growing here in the States (note those numbers are for bikes and scooters).

The bicycle was a vivid symbol of China in more doctrinaire communist times, when virtually no one owned a car. Even now, nearly two decades after the country began its great leap into capitalism, it still has 430 million bicycles by government count, outnumbering electric bikes and scooters 7-1. But production of electric two-wheelers has soared from fewer than 200,000 eight years ago to 22 million last year, mostly for the domestic market. The industry estimates about 65 million are on Chinese roads.

More E-bikes Please

We hope that market demand continues to grow and the prices drop accordingly. More importantly, the part spec and quality should improve along with the weight. Urban, commuter, city bikes need to weigh less and perform better. Consider what could happen if the innovation that goes into a racing bike was applied en masse to commuters and e-bikes? You'd have a contraption like this

turned into this

and not just for the gadget-crazy Japanese.

With the Team RadioShack announcement, we decided to visit a store, see what was going on, and ask the employees what they thought of the new team.

The employees noted that RadioShack ran big-budget Howie Long and Terri Hatcher commercials previously and no they do not have a international presence. RadioShack also ran ads for their Color Computer 3 in the 80s and 8-tracks before that.

Readers tipped us to a story from Asheville North Carolina where a city firefighter has been charged with attempted first-degree murder after he fired a handgun at a bicyclist.

"Charles Alexander Diez, 42, apparently fired at the Asheville man after arguing with him about riding his bike on the busy road with his 3-year-old child in a bike seat behind him," Asheville Police Capt. Tim Splain said.

Predictably, the cyclist deserved it comments will get posted to the article. There isn't a story the media runs in Seattle where the Bike Hater Club doesn't show up and say that, even when a death occurs. This story brings out the gun advocates and is reminiscent of the face-smashing Colorado incident with a cop.

In the 3 years we've been publishing this blog and all the riding we do, I don't understand the hate or violence. It's rooted in American's tendency to judge everyone else and what they're doing, car-based economy, drivers don't expect us on the road, and what? I just shake my head sometimes.

Updates

• Quickrelease.tv posts about the helmet and the bullet.
• The title was edited changing "shot" to "shot at"

Hat tip: wingbatwu and torndorff.

This past weekend was the Capitol Hill Block Party, a small scale music festival in the heart of the hill's club neighborhood. The Gossip, The Thermals, and Sonic Youth played last night. This morning my iPhone's digital camera was a visual catalog of bad ideas involving alcohol, but apparently I took some shots of bicycles. It's a no name steel road bike in Pepto pink. What's remarkable about it is old school WTB Dirt Drop bars. Designed in the 1980s by Charlie Cunningham for offroad riding, the Dirt Drop was manufactured by Nitto of Japan. Long since out of production, these things fetch serious coin of eBay nowadays.

Such is the demand for wide, flared drop bars for offroad riding, that there is a growing list of companies offering such fare, and WTB has introduced a new design.

Jose Hernando has died from injuries sustained in an accident with a van on Lake Washington Blvd in Seattle last week. Hernando was a member of Team Cucina Fresca and raced in the master men's division. He was 44 and leaves behind his wife, Chanel, and two children.

"Jose was on a training ride on his bike Friday early evening when he was struck by a van on Lake Washington Blvd near Seward Park. He was taken to Harborview with critical injuries and underwent many hours of surgery on his spine and other injuries very early Saturday morning."

Hernando's family is writing about the accident, his death, and the memorial over the weekend on the Caring Bridge website.

Biking Bis and the Rainier Valley Post have posted about the accident and death as well. Details are not clear, but the accident may have been a "left hook."

Kevin Black was killed in an accident in Ballard with a van earlier this year.

Condolences to the family from the staff here at Bike Hugger.

Lance is riding the Damien Hirst bike into Paris. Nicknamed the Butterfly Bike, the specially-decaled Madone is part of the Stages series of bikes. Lance has ridden Art Bikes from Stages all year and will auction them with the proceeds benefiting Livestrong.

Photo uploaded by bikes.trek. More Stages bikes on Flickr.

We posted on the Butterfly earlier in le Tour. This Art Bike is proving controversial with animal rights activists complaining about the dead butterflies used on the bike.

In the past, Damien Hirst has suspended a shark in formaldehyde.

"Hirst bred the butterflies, which were then killed and their wings glued to the hi-tech bike. -- London Evening Standard

We're happy for another US-based squad, another sponsor in our often marginalized sport. Bonus that they've partnered with Livestrong and expect a strong roster.

The reaction to Team RadioShack has ranged from "awesome" to some snark and jokes on Twitter. Some are already wondering what their kits will look like and speculation who is on the squad, including George Hincapie. Quoted in the NYTimes, George said:

"I think Lance's team is definitely good for cycling in America because Lance brings a lot to the sport and so much more interest to the sport," said Hincapie, a popular American rider because of his longevity in the sport. "But I'm not going there. I guess, never say never, but I'm pretty happy with where I am right now. Nope, not going."

Twitter Reactions

@jenfairfax Kits? Black and Yellow for Livestrong or Red and White for Radio Shack?

@eduvauchelle I hope the team radioshack jerseys look better than that holding web page.

@taylorphinney I love it.

@ARTCRANK I won 7 Tours de France, and all I got was this lousy sponsorship..

What do you think?

I like an old steel race bike. This old Gios came in for some work, and the sticker on the down tube was in Dutch. We stood around wondering if the bike was from Belgium or the Netherlands. I took a look at the chainrings on the Nuovo Record cranks: a 53 tooth big ring backed up by a 48 tooth little. No doubt this bike was from the low lands...it's gotta be Nederland.

AkihabraNews.com, which covers all things related to the Japanese electronics district of Akihabra has information about a bike that we think would be a game-changer here in the states.

Photo: Akihabaranews.com

Carbon fiber and an electric assist motor, the Sanyo bike is under the Eneloop brand (someone should really give a translation-hand to Japanese companies) the bike, according to the article, is two-wheel drive. I'm not sure that's accurate--I don't see how that front hub could provide the torque to do what the rear chain drive is doing, but it does seem that the front hub provides things like traction control through a (very small) motor. There are several different riding modes all managed through a backlit LCD controller.

The lithium-ion power source and drive system looks much smaller than things we're used to seeing, and the fact that they decided to pack this into a carbon bike is astounding.

A second bike from the company lacks the carbon construction and front wheel drive, but has the benefit of being foldable.

No word on pricing and whether the bike will be coming to the states, but this is the kind of thing that could change a lot of commutes.

Hat tip to Abio Bikes.

Back in the days when I didn't work in a bike shop, when I was simply the guy on the team with the most tools at home, I had an $8 chain tool. Sure, you could buy nicer ones that could handle heavy daily use, but you didn't really need anything more to take care of your bike. I miss those days.

Updating our post from yesterday with Byrne's Bicycle Diaries Book Tour dates. BikeJuJu noted he's stopping in Seattle on September 28th before the Portland event.

From earlier this year, a profile of Portland's Earl Blumenauer whose mission is to create a sustainable society and do so with bicycles.

"We have been flogging this bicycle thing for 20 years . . . All of a sudden it's hot."

Cycling is hot and David Byrne will talk about "seeing the world from the seat of a bike" at a release party for his new book, the Bicycle Diaries, on September 30th.

Bike Portland has for the details.

Arm's ride spotted in MrBoBeep's photostream.

Uploaded by MrBoBeep | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Reuters reports that a Berlin Brothel is offering cyclists a discount

"Customers who arrive on bicycle get a 5-euro ($7) discount from the usual 70-euro ($100) fee for 45 minute sessions."

No word on helmets or where they park their bikes.

Fast Boy Cycles is a one-man shop run out of NY and the owner, Ezra, has done some really interesting things with bikes. When he was undergoing treatment for cancer and was told he couldn't put pressure on his nether-region he built himself a bike with no seat tube.

Fast Boy just posted this shot of a disc brake bash guard he made for a bike polo bicycle. The guard is removable so the bike can be used for commuting. That's pretty slick.

Uploaded by fast boy | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Another Lance Art Bike, designed by Yoshitomo Nara and tweeted by Lance at le Tour. See all the Art Bikes at Stages and another post about them.

Various captions come to mind, like, "we're putting the band back together" or Tour de Fat, but don't let the girth of these old guys fool you. They'll drop the hammer when you least suspect it, do everything they can to catch back onto the group, and roar down the descents. Ride any charity ride and you'll meet them. They wait for you. Sure they don't climb like the used to, but the fire still burns.

Photo: Getty Images via Daylife.

Actually that's Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen (left) and Bremen Senator Ulrich Maeurer (right) riding to Paris for le Tour finale and to raise funds for cancer.

In a few days, we'll hear from the Isle of Manhood again at le Tour, with Cavs awakening from his mountain quiet to contest the sprint in Paris. He'll want to add another notch to his bike, along with the pinup girl decal.

Photo: Getty Images via Daylife.

Seen on TrickTrack.

Up until recently I've been dismissive about riding a fixed gear without a front brake, but I've relented after seeing what trick riders have been doing with bar spin tricks. However, this bike routes a brake cable through the steerer tube down to the mechanical disc brake caliper. Voi la! Effective braking and bar spins.

Curiously, the fork also appears to have cantilever mounts for 700C and 26" in addition to the disc mount. Not that you'd use multiple brakes, of course.

You don't see too many bicycles with a front wheel smaller than the rear. In the hundred plus years since the modern chain-driven bicycle came to fruition, the default design configuration has been to have two equally sized wheels. But for a time starting around 1984 till about 1996, a number of manufacturers large and small were making bikes with smaller front wheels for racing against the clock. The US Olympic team very prominently used them to unprecedented success at the 1984 Olympics in Las Angeles, and soon the moniker "funny bike" was applied to them since those bikes exuded speed in the same way that "funny car" dragsters did.

Myballard posts on cyclists being hit by blow darts in Ballard:

"I was riding on the east side bike lane, heading north. I heard a little "pop" sound then felt a sting. My first reaction was that it was a rock that had been run over and shot out at me."

"I was also hit with a dart in Ballard," says "Mksprout" in the forum"

Photo: Myballard

We've heard of cyclist having things thrown at them, being shot at, brushed and harrased, but blowdarts is new.

Hat tip to Monica Guzman.

Update

King 5 ran the story tonight with video online.

We here at Bike Hugger are big fans of Fat Cyclist. Elden, or "Fatty" as he's known to his legion of readers, runs a remarkably funny blog about cycling. But for the past few years Fatty has let this community in on his wife's struggle with cancer, and his struggles with struggling with that.

Susan is not doing well right now. She's or a morphine pump, she's not terribly lucid, and Fatty is having a hard time.

This would be a good time to head over to his blog and show him some support.

Fatty - you have our admiration. It's not easy to stay witty and positive during times like these, and you seem to be doing just that. Your love for Susan is inspirational, we hope for the best.

We are, right after le Tour. We'll flip the Hub to Cross going into the Fall.

Uploaded by Coda2 | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

We're Live Chatting the Tour over at the Hub, jump on over and interact with other Huggers on this second massive hill day. Five mountain passes makes for an epic day. The Tour could be decided today folks.

LOOKING TO SEE IF I CAN CONVERT A BIKE FRAME TO DISC BRAKES IS THERE ADAPTER- DARYL

Well, Daryl, the one that seems to be the best is made by Therapy Components. The Brake Therapy adapter connects to the frame at the left cantilever brake boss and at the hub between the left dropout and the hub flange. The hub will require a modification at the axle to allow the adapter to fit, and so not all hubs will work. Therapy has a nicely illustrated site explaining how it works.

photo from Bike Magazine

If that seems too inelegant for you, maybe you'd rather consider modifying the frame to directly mount a disc brake caliper, which means some serious mods. Ready? Let's begin...

I've watched Jens Voigt's crash on TdF stage 16 no less than 30 times, and while it's tempting to want to cry J'accuse! before those manufacturers of ultralight carbon components, I really can't see any equipment failure.

If you watch the clip, you can see the rider in front of Voigt bounces on a change in the pavement. At almost the same instant, Voigt initiates a change in grip of his left hand, moving from the hood to the drop, probably in anticiapation of the curve ahead. Most pros feel more secure in the drops than on the hoods, but he hits the bump a millisecond later while his left hand is not securely on the bar. He hits the bump hard enough for his rear wheel to lose contact (you can see from the gap between his tire and its shadow), and he totally loses grip with his left hand. His weighted right hand ends up pushing his handlebar to the left, cocking the front tire patch slightly sideways into the white line. The front wheel contact goes unstable, and the front of the bike washes out underneath Voigt. With his center of gravity pitched forward from the bump, he goes down face first into a 40mph belt sander.

The crash was not initiated by equipment failure. Even after the crash, the wheel, fork, crank, chain, and handlebar seem to be intact. Watching the clip, it's clear that his feet are secure in the pedals at least to a point well beyond no return, so cleat failure is ruled out. Voigt just didn't see it coming and had no chance to recover. Freaky, but it happens.

On the other hand, bikes do break and when they do it can bring down a lot of bad press to the companies who make them. Team boss Bjarne Riis was quick to point out that equipment failure had nothing to do with the crash; he has a responsibility to his equipment sponsors to represent them well. Yet teams and riders are always looking for an edge, and occasionally they choose components that aren't suited to the task. Manufacturers are pushing the limits of design and materials; occasionally they cut the margins too thin.

For the last few months I've been telling just about anyone who'll listen that Lance's return to the Tour was designed not to win the race, but to help launch his yet unannounced domestic racing squad. My mailman and the guy who mows my lawn are getting really sick of hearing me talk about this.

Today we moved closer to me getting to officially say that I've been right all along with the news that Johan Bruyneel will be leaving Team Astana after 2009. Citing Vino's dope-fueled return to the team, and the sponsor's lack of payments Bruyneel is taking a walk.

No surprises there.

As BikeRumor.com pointed out, Lance's most recent tweet indicates that there's a big announcement about a new American team coming on Thursday. (The article also has the funniest fake translation of a press conference I've ever seen, well worth the read.)

BikeRumor says that the team will be funded by Oracle (I was betting on Nike Livestrong, so I'm not completely perfect in my predictions) and we'll know more on Thursday

Last week I saw this in the U-District. It's a Raleigh Twenty, I think late 1960s. After the success of Alex Moulton's small-wheeled Moulton Standard, Raleigh decided to jump on the trend for small wheels and non-traditional frame configurations. However the Raleigh Twenty lacked the Moulton's remarkable suspension system, and in using large volume, low pressure tires to compensate for ride comfort, the Twenty was considerably less spry. It was however cheaper.

This Twenty is a folder, though I believe some Twenties were not.

Best part was the original USA Cycling sticker on the downtube (not shown).

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

PresleyJesus shot the BMX Worlds and uploaded to Flickr.

Below is a Cooliris 3-D Wall of Slides version of my Twittering Your Business presentation @ Web Design World Seattle 09. It pulls photos from a Flickr photoset.

I'll discuss how Bike Hugger uses Twitter during the presentation and demo the Hub. This presentation will eventually find it's way into a video for New Riders.

• Full version
• How it was built.
• Wall of Slides Demo

Yesterday morning I decided I needed naan bread for lunch, so I stopped by Trader Joe's in the U-District for a bag of curry-flavoured naan. I've been riding my dropbar mtb a lot lately, and wherever I park it , my bike is usually the strangest ride on the rack. But not this time...no, not by a long shot.

A guy named Chris rides this motorized bicycle to work at Trader Joe's. It's got a single cyclinder engine with an "official" displacement of 48cc and will cruise at 25mph for 150mpg. Kinda cool.

Link Light rail opened this weekend. JJTweets is riding the rails for us to report on how bike friendly the trains and stations are.

Uploaded by Seattle Transit Blog | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Rich Hincapie responded to today's stage and George's loss in an email to us:

"I'm super disappointed at Today's stage. At the end of the day the world knows what happened no matter what was said. Its sad to see that after all the years people don't give George the respect he deserves. There aren't many people like George in this world and even less athletes with his character. In the days of 'me me me' George is rare. He will come out ahead, maybe not in this tour but ultimately in life."

Rich also spoke to Juliet Macur for a NYT article and wrote about the disappointment on his blog. Earlier today on the Hub, we posted that "Twitter lit up like nothing we've seen before" when George was denied the win. We've also never see so much, "wasn't me" after a race. Everyone is blaming everyone else with Garmin insisting, "We weren't out to ruin anyone else's day in yellow. We came here to win the Tour de France."

The Astana camp also went on the defensive right after the end of the stage, with Lance turning to Twitter to undo the negative press earned when George slammed Astana during the post-ride interview on Versus.

"Sounds like there's quite a bit of confusion over this one... Noone [sic], and I mean noone[sic], wanted George in yellow more than me," Armstrong commented on his feed. "Our team rode a moderate tempo to put him in the jersey by at least 2 mins. Ag2r said they would not defend then they started to ride."

Garmin, Astana, Ag2R..., if it's all seems a bit complicated, there's a good posting at the Village Voice's blogs that covers not only the controversy but also provides a look at the Twitter explosion this has caused.

Photo: Getty Images via Daylife

We'll discuss this more, at length, during the live chat on the Hub tomorrow.

Disclosure: we have a business relationship with Hincapie Sports and sell Hincapie branded goods in our store.

Wow, what a day in the Tour. A massive break, the possibility of a race-fan-fave taking the yellow, and then another team comes and craps all over it.

We don't really want to spoil it if you haven't watched the Tour today, and if you weren't planning to watch today's stage--go do so. It replays every few hours on Versus. It's possibly one of the most bittersweet and aggravating things to happen to professional cycling.

There's also a good VeloNews article talking to the players involved in today's controversy, which puts things in perspective.

*Reminder: We'll be doing a Live Chat tomorrow at hub.bikehugger.com tomorrow and the rest of the remaining days of the tour (aside from the rest day) and we'll definitely be chatting about this. Come visit tomorrow and let us know your thoughts. *

And now for a quick semi-spoiler, skip the click-through to the rest if you'd like to avoid it.

It's free bike day in France with Velobleu, another bike-share program in France.

Photo: Getty

Related Posts:

• Velib: A-Holes #$%^ing it Up
• Velib Success
• Velib Birthday

"There is nothing so beautiful as a properly amassed bike pile." --GeoCycle

Seen at Bike Works.

Our Neo Retro jerseys are now shipping from Amazon.com for $79.00. Available in Club Cut and womens sizes and Hugga style.

After the no-change-to-overall-classification-days of the flat sprinter's stages, the Tour heads to the mountains and we head back to Live Chat. Join us tomorrow at 8:30AM EDT, and then each of the stages after that except the rest day on the 20th, and the flat stage on the 24th. (We think the peloton is going to take it easy on the day before Ventoux.)

Keith Haring disc wheels, an old-school Art Bike.

Uploaded by ryotaraw | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Andrew Heining tipped us to a post he wrote for the CS Monitor blog about a Bike Sharing Energy concept designed by Chiyu Chen, a design student at the Royal College of Art.

Users check out specially designed bikes from a locking station using an ID card. Inside the bikes is a system that stores kinetic energy generated from braking. Riders go where they need to, and when they're finished, bring the bike back to the locking station. Locking up the bike transfers the energy generated by the trip into the city grid - or, as Chen envisions, into a hybrid bus system.

Cool.

Also noticed on

• Inhabit
• Yanko Design
• Endgadget

The community has been discussing the Mtn bike crash during the Redmond Derby Days last weekened in our Flickr photostream and on Facebook. Amara from Wheels in Focus shot this photo.

Photo: Amara Boursaw, Wheels in Focus

and thehead uploaded video

Cat 4 Field Crash

At Redmond Derby Days crit in the Cat 4 field, a racer started on a Huffy MTB. He was dropped and lapped. Part of the field formed a "v'" around him. When they came back together, there was a large crash.

Chris Boyles was seriously injured in the crash with 3 broken ribs and a punctured lung.

We shot this photo of a bike that was involved in the crash. The wheels were destroyed and the frame was cracked.

As we commented on Flickr

we've got a racer in hospital and I expect people worrying and talking about this incident behind the scenes. We're a small community. Our take is the newsworthiness of the story; we saw it happen, and relayed what we heard at the time.

We wish Chris a speedy recovery and hope an incident like this never happens again.

Here's a race report.

A Ride with George Hincapie is a feature-length film that provides an unprecedented look at the man behind the athlete. Ride along with George as he shares his joys and inspirations, his fears and frustrations, his anger (or lack thereof), his hopes and dreams, his strengths and weaknesses, and his plans for the future as he gives us a unique peek into his private world.

Trailer

Spanning his early years as a junior to the disappointment of 2009 Roubaix, this unadorned everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-guy portrait puts a microscope on the silent man of cycling, George Hincapie.

DVD Deal

Order the DVD now via PayPal for $29.99 and get a free pair of Bike Hugger socks ($9.99 value) with your order.

As I wheeled the white-glossy finished Electra Townie Sport 105 out of the bike shop, each employee in turn stopped to comment on the looks of the bike. The strikingly casual frame coupled with a great point job and orange-rimmed wheels is a knockout.

Known for their beach-cruisers and errand bikes, the Townie Sport is a slightly different beast outfitted with Shimano's road-worthy 105 group (with Rapidfire shifters), FSA Mega Exo cranks and a mix of other more "upscale" parts than most Townies, the Sport 105 is designed to attract a different kind of user. Or, more correctly, it's designed to attract a similar kind of user that sees itself as being a different kind of user.

To explain though, let me step back a bit.

Drop-Bar Nexus

The Modal is a Bike Hugger travel bike concept that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes. Our latest mode is internally geared with a drop-bar Nexus setup. 

This wheel was built by Hed for us with Nexus 8 Speed Premium "Red Band" attached to an Ardenne. The Nexus connects to a Jtek bar-end shifter.

The initial ride report is smooth and what we'd expect from the setup. Mark geared it to cruise along the flats and climb Seattle's steep hills with a 39 x 21. Note that the drivetrain works like a bar-end shifter connected to a Rapid Rise MTB derailer: moving the levers has the opposite effect. It's reversed.

The shifting is responsive, tight, and feels like Ultregra. You can palm the shifter for quick shifting and I got used to the reverse setup within a few shifts. Other internally-geared hubs require you to stop pedaling to shift. The Nexus Red Band does not. I ran through the gears up and down and J-tek's indexing is audible enought to hear the shift: not vague and sounds solid.

Mechanics have always hacked various drivetrains bits, including various drop-bar setups. While this is technically a hack, it doesn't shift like one at all. The Nexus of course adds weight, but nothing that noticeable. It doesn't feel like there's a boat anchor attached to the back of a reasonably light road bike.

We'll spend much more time on this bike going into the late Summer and Fall. The next challenge is to travel with it.

More Drop-Bar Nexus Setups

• Dynamic's Alfine Road Bike: The Synergy
• Ecovelo: Alfine equipped Casseroll
• Hubstripping
• Bikeforums
• Hiawatha Cyclery
• Flickr Photos
• Modal Tag

If you've been a mechanic for a long while, you'll have come across some odd things. Take this Campagnolo Record bottom bracket. We pulled it out of a Seven titanium road frame that had been owned in Florida. Titanium is well-known for its corrosion-resistance, but that doesn't mean the parts will survive. I don't know how much exposure to a saltwater environment is necessary to create this much galvanic corrosion of the aluminium cups, but one of the cups came out of the frame in powdery-white, misshapen fragments. I'm from Florida, and I haven't seen this happen before.

Though one time while living in Florida I was overhauling a English 3sp bike, and the BB turned out to be a spider's nest. No sir, I did not care for that.

Another Lance Art Bike, by Damien Hirst, has been spotted by fashion and media sites. We hope to see these bikes at Mellow Johnnys when we return to SXSW next year for another Mobile Social.

The Art Bikes are part of STAGES, "a global art exhibition to raise funds and awareness for the fight against cancer." Lance is racing on the Shepard Fairey Bike at le Tour.

Photo: Getty Images

More Art Bikes

• Shepard Fairey Bike!
• Marc Newsom Bike
• Pressure Drop

As seen in Denver Craigslist recently:

Need a fixed gear...trade for tattoos (Denver)

Date: 2009-07-13, 5:47PM MDT

I am desperate need for a fixed gear bike, but cash is running low....willing to give you some free work, if you can be willing to trade a good bike for tattoo's.

I work as a professional in Denver, at a Professional tattoo parlor....

Just let me know thank you

Billi Bierling is a journalist on assignment to chronicle Himalayan mountaineering expeditions and does so by bike. Spiegel Online profiles her work: "Every day Bierling cycles along the narrow streets of the Nepalese capital through a whirl of dust, honking cars, rikshaws and street vendors to talk to climbers before and after they have embarked on their expeditions."

Photo: billibierling

The Bicycle Music Festival is in Seattle on Saturday August 22, 2009 and bringing a 2000 watt pedal-powered PA system with them. Besides all the music, expect an outrageous Critical Mass-style bicycle party caravans and zero use of cars or trucks.

Uploaded by dustinj | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Klunkerz is the award-winning documentary on off-road cycling, focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and 1970s. The film features interviews with Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Mike Sinyard, Tom Ritchey and Charlie Kelly. The film also contains archival footage and photos.

Yvon Le Caer writes to tell us about his Ocean Cycling World. Back in the day, Yvon set a world record on his AquaCycle.

The AquaCycle prototype which I rode across the Western English Channel in 1985, was the product of a unique development effort in a most unconventional field. Although the idea had been in the back of my mind for decades, it's finally in June of 1978, after winning two gold medals at the Florida Cycling Masters Championships, that I decided [with the help of American experts on the subject(s)] to go ahead with the design and construction of such an innovative watercraft which, in essence, would merge bicycle & marine-related technologies.

We'll be Live Chatting starting at 8:30 am on the Hub Tuesday the 14th as the riders head back to the flats and show off their stuff after the rest day. This might not be a stage for the record books, but it'll be one of two days where race radios are banned. Tune in to see if the tour goes ape as riders scramble around looking for some direction.

Versus is hyping the Astana Team Drama with Lance v. Contador. Here at Hugga HQ and from what we're hearing, this Tour is about Lance battling himself. As Tim Jackson said

he's fighting to be "Lance" and fighting to be "not like Lance."

The Lance brand had evolved to fighting cancer and returns in France to winning le Tour. Brands are usually one thing or the other and not complex dualities. He was riding to raise Livestrong awareness around the globe, a domestique at the Giro, and now fighting within his team for leadership.

Photo: Getty Images.

Return of the King

This distracted, less-focused and picking-his-words carefully Lance is not the one were used to watching race or think we've seen before at le Tour.

A Shakespearan drama playing out on the roads of France certainly makes for intense, water-cooler debates and good TV:

The King (Lance) has been out on his hero's journey to fight cancer, while the Prince (Contador) fights the good battles in the Grand Tours. The King returns and usurps the fabled Prince leaving the Prince unsettled, disrespected, in no mans land.

Battles like this usually end with some poison and everyone dying in a sword fight. Or like TDF Blog observed, "with Odysseus killing everybody for about 5 counties around when he returns."

Tour History books will remember this race and write about it like Lemond v. Hinault. If Lance does win, so much the better for the entire industry and cycling. That's from the racer to the commuter to the errand bike or fixed, trick riders.

If he doesn't win this Tour, expect him not to stop until he does. We don't think he'll retire again soon.

With Vs. providing mostly outstanding TV, there are a few things we'd like to see. Like this Cracker Chopper from the caravan and

• Live from the feed zone -- what's in a musette bag?
• Team bus -- we heard they just loop pr0n and binge on diet soda in there. Can you confirm?
• Schwag bag -- collect a mass of schwag from the village and show us

Anything else?

Uploaded by elyob | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

"For the last two years cyclists have gathered in Brooklyn for weekly “peel sessions,” pushing the limits of the emerging sport of fixed-gear freestyle."

Expect to see burlier parts from BMX on fixed gears. These freestylers at the peel and elsewhere break frames and parts like roadies go through tires. See more freestyle from Quickrelease.tv.

Photo: Raymond McCrea Jones NYT.

Juliet Macur is tweeting le Tour for NYT and uploading photos like this chicken and a guy in a red wig.

Any particular message behind chicken/red wig? Probably not, just cycling-crazed fans. And it'll go down like this

Chicken runs along racers, Red Wig flails arms wildly. Chicken overheats in about 15 steps. Red Wig hands up water. Repeat until peloton has passed.

Seattle to Portland is on, with thousands riding now. It's been 30 years and the Seattle Times interviews Jerry Baker about the ride.

The only year Jerry Baker missed riding his bicycle in the 202-mile Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic was 1980. That year Mount St. Helens erupted, covering the roads in volcanic ash and forcing organizers to cancel the event.

David, our blogger, photog, and Hub Host, rode it last year and looked like this:

Photo: rocklandbike

Related Links

• STP on Twitter
• STP tag
• Surviving A One-Day STP

A note to plan accordingly. No point in getting stuck waiting for a barge to cross as you try to get the start line. From Washington DOT:

Attention cyclists and Seattle to Portland participants:

• The I-90 bike and pedestrian path on the floating bridge will close after 9 p.m. Friday, July 10 to all bicycle and pedestrian traffic and scheduled to reopen by 6 a.m. Saturday, July 11, to allow crews to set the expansion joint. Make backup plans for crossing Lake Washington.

• The SR 520 bridge will be temporarily closed to traffic sometime between 3-6 a.m. Saturday, July 11, to allow a construction barge to pass. The closure will last at least 30 minutes. Those driving to the Seattle-To-Portland start line Saturday morning should allow extra time for this closure or take I-90 to UW.

Nothing better than a trip to the farmer's market on an Xtracycle.

Uploaded by davidjschloss | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

BikePortland finds a reason to post on the Tour and it's because local Comcast broke away to commercial at the finish of today's stage. Understandably that enraged Portlanders and that brought us to the question of how well Versus is doing and in HD? This afternoon Levi asked

For all you North American fans, how's the coverage of the #tdf on Versus, online, etc? Curious.

We think it's been good so far. The crew has found their stride, that drafting infographic is awesome, and the camera work outstanding (yes, it's just a feed they get). HD camera work is stunning, like their Roubaix coverage. The HD graphics are also well done.

Their website streaming is just strange. Would recommend they not charge you and just run more ads.

Our biggest criticism is with the commercials, of course. If you have Vs on in the background, it's one loud, brash, annoying channel. Maybe they do that on purpose, not sure, but when I am watching I mute every commercial break

Earlier this year, Vs asked us to give them some input and we did. So did you.

We don't know exactly what they heard and didn't, but have noticed they did not bring out the intern again, are doing more interesting backstories, and being more engaging.

They also have not cut to rodeo.

What do you think? We'll share this feedback with them again.

We'll be doing more of our Live Chats for Stage 7 and 8 of the Tour de France. Join us at hub.bikehugger.com each morning to chat with Huggers, check out stats, read tweets and more. Check the schedules, each day starts at a different time, as the tour hits the mountains.

I don't care what you have to say about Lance. I don't care if you think he doped. I don't care if you think he's got an attitude. I don't even care if you think he's a god, or that he's changed cycling forever.

I care what he's doing right now, and today that was riding for the late Margaret Creek and her husband Todd. Todd wrote to Livestrong to tell of his wife's battle with Leukemia, and how she died after they struggled against the disease, and that's who Lance had in his thoughts on Day 6.

And when I get on my bike in a little while for my daily ride, I'm going to be thinking of Margaret and Todd too.

With the arrival of the Neo Retro jersey, our Classic Style jerseys are on sale for 50% off while supplies last. Order directly from Amazon.com and get the Classic Style jerseys for $40.00!

• Product Detail Page — Standard sizes ON SALE
  
  
• Product Detail Page — Club Cut Sizes ON SALE
  
  

The Tour de France is racing in Spain today, through Girona, and arriving in Barcelona. In 2006, we rode Girona on roads like this. It wasn't raining for us.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

First off, next year will be 2010. Now, when you read that, did you say Two Thousand Ten? Get with the program, it's read as Twenty Ten. That's right, it's been ten years now, no one's gonna party like it's 1999 anymore. Soon saying Two Thousand Ten will sound as antiquated as saying "gramophone", "jitterbug", or "music television". And I don't have time for extra syllables. It's onward to Twenty Ten, to the future!!

Thank you.

Now back to the 2010 Raleigh Record Ace, which for a bike of the near future looks a lot like a bike of the somewhat distant past. Lugged steel frame and fork. One nice feature of the bike is the 1-1/8" steerer. Just because you like the aesthetics and ride of a good steel road bike doesn't mean you should be shackled to dead equipment standards.

Our newest new jerseys just arrived and we're prepping them for sale on our Amazon store. The jersey are made for us by Hincapie Sports from the same technical material as the 08 version.

By request we've got women's sizes and made these in the roomier Club Cut.

Illustrated Front

Illustrated Back

The price is $79.00 USD. We have limited quantities. More photos are available in the Jersey photoset on Flickr.

I stopped into uBRDO in Kirkland to kill some time before my son's swim lessons and came across this little gem. A Traitor road bike built with the new Shimano Ultegra 6700. The stuff looks like a soft-brushed version of the Dura Ace. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the finish, but it shifted and felt otherwise like DA. The shifter levers are also Carbon. I'm not sure where the price point will fall for the new kit, but if it's the typical value that Ultegra offers - it'll be very popular.

Recently I sampled some of these Kind bars from Peaceworks. Fruit and nut bars that taste extra yummy. Frankly, I don't like stuff that's too sweet or chocolaty, and these Kind bars strike a good balance. I especially liked the Sesame & Peanut flavour; tasty without a huge list of ingredients. Well, it does have some palm kernel oil, but what are ya gonna do? These snacks seem to be marketed more along the lines of all-natural rather than low-carb/low-fat.

About $1.80 each. There are nine other varieties of Kind bar available, and bike shops can order them from QBP.

Our Twitter followers ask us questions about gear, bikes, and sometimes their personal lives. We poll a team of experts and respond.

le Tour

We're getting asked this a lot and le Tour has never been more watchable. Back in the day, we either watched grainy, foreign-language VCR tapes from some dude with a drug habit that had a satellite or worse ABC's 20 minutes of ridiculous coverage.

Now we've got Vs. in HD with web streaming online.

You can also find streams on Cycling.TV. Also check cyclingfans.com and steephill.tv.

Streams come and go and Twitter is a good resource to check where people are watching it. Often times, some race fan in Europe will stream the race until his connection craps out or he gets a cease and desist letter.

We're live blogging and chatting the tour on The Hub.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation is offering a pilot program this week for fourth- through sixth-grade students in Pemberton Township. NJ Bike School

is a free, comprehensive bicycle safety program that educates children about sharing the road safely with motor vehicles and pedestrians," DOT Commissioner Stephen Dilts said. "This program could improve bicycle safety, pediatric health and the environment."

We'd like to see that extended to adults as well, like the ones that don't know about holding their line around the corner where Spokane meets Alaskan Way.

A few months ago I was sent a sample bottle of El-Duke degreaser to try out on my bikes, and after working on getting bikes super-dirty in the meantime, I'm in love. It took me a few months to really get a chain super-narsty to give this stuff a really fair shot. But after the monsoon-like weather we've had recently it was easy to get a chain to the point where it was so dirty that it was grinding grit into the rings.

Using my Park chain cleaner I went after my hyper-messy chain using El-Duke and it really cleaned the heck out of that chain. In fact, I ended up ruining the chain due to cleaning. I'd intended to lube the chain after cleaning it, but I got distracted packing my bike gear for a weekend cycling trip.

Fast forward to the next day and my super-clean bike chain is mounted to my car's rack for the seven-hour drive to my destination and watch as the clouds roll in. About three cumulative hours of rain fell on my bike.

The next morning my chain was rusted nearly solid. I'd pulled off so much of the grease that when I forgot to lube it again it was left utterly bare. That's good cleaning.

The solution is non-toxic, bio-degradable and doesn't smell like chemical or oranges. It's sold by a small company which limits the distribution of the solution, there are no more than a dozen places that stock it. If you can find it, pick up a few containers as it'll quickly become a staple in your workroom.

I have this one fantasy where I am fabulously wealthy, live in an architecturally elegant yet not too big house, and have a live-in housekeeper who motorpaces me on the weekends. She'd wear a French maid outfit even while driving the scooter and she'd have the French accent too. Well, Herriott Performance Sports doesn't have the more fantastical elements, but they do have the motorscooter tricked out with a Kreitler roller. The roller is a safety device in case the front wheel of your bike should get too close to the scooter. Why would you want to motorpace, as in ride in the draft of a motorized vehicle? Because a bike handles far differently at 30mph than 20mph, and to really be competitive at the upper levels of cyclesport, you need to be able to handle a bike properly at that speed. Plus the effort of turning a big gear at high speed can't quite be replicated at a slower speed. To become skilled and strong at speed, one needs to ride at that speed.

Professional cyclists spend much of the season racing at these speeds, but most cyclists rarely spend enough time training that fast because they don't have enough opportunities to ride in fast groups. But a motorscooter never gets tired of leading out a drafting rider, and it's much easier to find a road big enough for a scooter and a cyclist or two, compared to a group of cyclists big enough to sustain those high speeds. I think Herriott does motorpacing at the velodrome in Redmond, though.

If one is serious about racing at the top levels of amateur or professional cycling, then motorpacing can be a valuable tool.

Reader, fan, and broham Steve Gluckman, with family, sent us this photo from the Tour de Pez: Montpellier People gallery.

Those shirts are worldwide, including Flanders.

Lance and Johan are bluffing. But before I explain what I mean I just want to mention that because of the excellent ending of Stage 4 of the 2009 Tour de France, we'll be live chatting Stage 5 on Wednesday at hub.bikehugger.com. After that we'll take a day off and then cover Stage 7, the first mountain stage--which is where Astana says the race leader will be decided.

Now back to the subterfuge.

When Lance said he was coming back to the Tour, he said he was going for the win. Then he said that they had to figure out who the team leader was. Then he said that they'd know by the first stage who the leader would be. Then he said that they'd know by the mountains.

I'm calling bullshit. After watching Johan avoiding answering direct questions about who the team leader is, I think they're repeating the gambit they played in 2001 when Lance pretended to be in distress and then came back to crush the opposition. Writing for the Guardian, William Fortheringham wrote:

"A little grimace on Armstrong's usually expressionless face, a little shake in his shoulders in the blue jersey, the fact that he was not riding right at the front: it all indicated that the man who had won the Tour for the previous two years by flying up the mountains was struggling."

I think that's what's going on now, and I think that's what we caught a glimpse of today. Lance's playing the slightly aging guy who might not make it. And hey, if it turns out that Lance isn't the strongest, then they've already laid the groundwork for someone else to come to the front and win it for the team.

Why is Brunyeel willing to do this? Because he's going to join the Nike-sponsored team that hasn't yet been announced, but will absorb the riders of Astana next year when Vino comes back.

*Editor's note: My wife just pointed out that if the other teams read this, they'll figure out the Astana strategy and I'll have ruined the tour. Please don't tell anyone else about this. Thank you.*

I love Clif. I think it's very important right off the bat to say that, so you know that I'm not some Hammer-gel-loving-Clif-bar-hating extremest here. To paraphrase Office Space, "I celebrate their entire catalog." That is up until now.

Jumping into the sport beverage market Clif has released the Quench line of sports drink, an 88% organic (and 12% petrochemical? Kryptonian? poison?) drink that's just unfortunate to taste.

The beverage begins with a fake-fruity taste with a top note of salt and a lingering mouth feel of Elmer's glue. It is, quite a bit, like drinking runny mucus. After the initial shock, the mouth is left with a sort of sour-milk cloyingness.

I'm sure there are people who love the taste of this drink, but clearly I'm not alone, as my local shop declined to charge me after asking me what I thought of it. When they saw my face, they said "yeah, that's what I thought."

Clif, I implore you, beg you, plead with you, go back to the drawing board with this. Find out what's so great about your Clif Shots (they taste like a snack, not like a pile of sugar and salt) and why people love Glaceau's Vita Water (it doesn't taste like someone spit in my mouth) and give us something that lives up to your other fine, fine products.

New riff of the Summer, that'll loop in your head next bike ride, is from Das Racist -- Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell. Skip Starbucks and meet up Pizza Hut and Taco Bell for a group ride.

They do it in Shanghai . . .

Photo: Alfred Molon. Hat tip to Anil.

Of all the cyclists and bikes in pop culture and commercials, Timmy the Albino Lifeguard is the strangest.

Current Ads

• Zyrtex allergy bike
• Pink bike in a square for Ally
• CSX cargo bikes
• Green bikes for Centenary bank
• Flowmax boys on bikes
• Credit Report band riding a tandem

Ads that we know ran, but can't remember the product

• Group of cyclists going like 4 MPH with the guy wobbling
• Investment bank had a "teamwork" one with racers in a paceline
• Annoying one with a guy that had to commute with a bike instead of drive

Readers? What ads do you remember, there's a lot of them. Bicycle ads, of course, have existed as long as bikes have. Like the one for Daws Bicycles. Some bike ads we won't see here in the States, like Duffy riding a fixie through the grocery store, drinking a Diet Coke. Duffy gots some good bike handling skills, who knew?

Daws photo uploaded by laura@popdesign | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Like many, I get more jaded each year in the sport of cycling. The doping, controversies, fallen heroes, racing locally in parking lots, and so on. However, a stage like today's Team Time Trial brings me and the crew right back to being in love with le Tour. Before that it was Cancellara rocketing to a win and Cavendish turning on the afterburners with his ego antics full on.

It's Vive le Tour time here at Hugga HQ. Frank, a contributor and TDF blogger, noted

When the wheels start to turn, I can't look away

Even Cap'n the Pug was watching today.

Love it or hate it, if you ride a bike you can't deny it. As I wrote on Twitter, "Guaranteed, there's a commuter heading to work now, that's going to rip it up, in their own Team Time Trial." Commuter Challenges are that much faster during le Tour and we see the Euros out on the bike paths, riders you never see, except in July. They're kitted up like their heroes, throwing down on a lunch ride, and fancying themselves a climber on the way home.

This weekend at Redmond Derby Days and Seattle to Portland expect a faster pace with someone making up the seconds between placings.

Are you fired up about the Tour as well? Join the convo about the Tour in the blog comments and our live chats. Really, did you imagine that Lance would have 0 seconds to yellow before the mountains or at all?

I can be surprisingly conservative with my choice of cycling equipment; take for instance brakes. For a long time I have resisted the disc brakes. While it's true that I have an mtb with mechanical discs, that configuration had more to do with searching for adequate braking for the road STI levers than a unwavering belief in discs. If cantilever brakes had been an option for the Rock Shox SID fork, I might not have walked down that path. But I did, and I have come to appreciate disc brakes. However, I really think that disc are best matched to hydraulic actuation systems.

As far as road bikes are concerned, how long must we wait for an integrated shift/brake lever that uses hydraulic fluid rather than a brake cable? The obvious instigator would have to be Shimano, since they're XTR M975 lever is so close in form to what a hydraulic roadbike STI would need to be. The difficulty in this is that racing drives component development, whether it be mtb or road. That means XTR gets a hydraulic integrated shifter and Dura Ace goes electric. A roadbike hydraulic STI would benefit the mid and high-end touring and roadbike commuter groups, and those groups aren't lucrative enough to chase with expensive product development.

Still, I'd think it would have to happen someday.

This is going to be a great day on the Tour, join us as we Live Chat the 2009 Tour de France Stage 4, we're chatting right now. If you're watching, comment on the stage as it happens. If you're stuck at work, follow along for stats and standings and info on what's happening.

We're live now over at hub.bikehugger.com

Wondering what the bike culture is like at a major cycling manufacturer like Specialized? Check out their new video talking about the company's lunchtime offerings--road rides, mountain bike rides, swim meets, loaner bikes and food. It's a pretty sweet way to live and to lunch.

Every year at le Tour, there's some fashion statement: skinsuits, shoes, or ridiculous helmets. We're just a few days into the 09, but I think Columbia-HTC's eyewear will stand out. I'm as Euro as the next roadie, but not really digging those . . .

Photo: Eric Gaillard/REUTERS

We're super-thrilled with the response to our Tour de France Live Chat. We knew the Hugger readers were great people, now we've gotten to spend some time talking with them and it's even more clear that there's a cool Hugger vibe out there.

We'll be Live Chatting tomorrow's Stage 4, the Team Time Trial event and then after that we're going to publish a schedule of which stages we'll be Live Chatting. Some of the days of the Tour are really fillers between the decisive stages, so we'll skip some of them, but we'll get a list of upcoming events so you can be sure to participate with us.

On a personal note- sorry about the miscommunication on Stage 3. I'd really planned to be up to Live Chat it with you all, but had a bit of a family crisis yesterday and couldn't make it. Will see you all on Stage 4!

As part of NYT's Home Economics series, author and blogger Toby Barlow writes about the potential for Detroit to become a new bicycle utopia.

"And lately, whether it's because of the economy or the price of gas or just because it's a nice thing to do, there are a lot more bikers out riding."

Detroit's bike culture is growing with the help of the Wheelhouse Detroit and the Hub of Detroit.

Last month, we wrote about New Urbanism and flipping car dealerships to bike shops. Also see a bank becoming a bike shop.

Maybe that Utopia fantasy will become a reality.

Shana models with an SE Bike

Uploaded by theFiXFiXFiX | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Shoes matching bike, always nice.

Uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness] | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

We're Live Chatting the Tour, stage 2 in the Hub. Visit us and chat at hub.bikehugger.com

They say that the proper number of bikes is always one more than you already have, and that's especially true when you have a done deal on a custom ti frame. Ah, but what form should that frame take? I don't need a custom road bike since I am quite happy with Bianchi's stock 49cm geometry. My Sycip travel bike is so spot on for so many purposes that the potential weight savings of a titanium construction don't quite justify replacing it.

One genre of bike about which I've been fascinated has been bikes with small-wheels or, as the Japanese have dubbed them, mini-velo bikes. Whenever I brought these up in conversation with Bill Davidson, he mentioned a now forgotten style of racing called Formula 1 BMX. Little information is available now, but it seems as that as BMX racing was waning in the late 1980s organizers tried to diversify by having street BMX races. Instead of berms and doubles, the races were held in parking lots with tons of cones marking the course. The bikes resembled mountainbikes with 20" wheels and a rear derailleur only. Ultimately the race series folded, as mountainbikes would dominate growth in cyclesport and the product market for the next few years.

When thinking about what to do with my next bike project, I remember how much fun a BMX can be. My one complaint is that the single-speed set-up with low gearing really hampered getting around town in a timely fashion. Then it struck me that a BMX with a rear derailleur would give the bike some wings.

So I finally got a chance to finish out the mods on my girlfriend's Kappa BMX bike. Last year I morphed the steel BMX racing frame into a pseudo Schwinn Stingray with ape-hanger handlebar and braze-ons for the banana seat and sissybar support; this time I stretched the rear triangle to fit a Sturmey-Archer 3sp internally geared hub with drum-brake.

We got so excited this morning about the Tour, we decided to start Live Chatting a day early. Come join us at hub.bikehugger.com.

Just to clarify a bit of confusion. Le Tour is referring to the 15k Monaco start on July 4th as Tour 1, where most previous first day short stages are called prologues. I don't get why a 15k TT isn't a prologue but is the first stage.

That said, our Live Chat day will be what I'd have called Stage 1, but they're calling Stage 2, the first "full" day of riding on Sunday. Is that clear? Blame the French if it's not.

Do something good for your country, and your community on the 4th. Skip the driving slog to the various viewpoints for the big fireworks shows. Dig out those winter commuting lights and roll past the lines of traffic in the bike lane. If you're watching the Seattle Chase Family 4th show, the Burke-Gilman trail will get you on your way quickly. I heard from Gregg's that there is even organized bike parking for the Seattle show at Gasworks Park. Do something patriotic and safe yourself the hassle.

Trailer from A Ride with George Hincapie, a documentary DVD

Spanning his early years as a junior to the disappointment of 2009 Roubaix, this unadorned everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-guy portrait puts a microscope on the silent man of cycling, George Hincapie.

We've ridden with George and it was a pleasure. We'll ride with him again later this Summer during the USPro and Style in Motion weekend. Hincapie Sportswear partners with us on our Hugga Comfort gear, including jerseys, socks, and sunscreen.

During our Tour de France coverage we're giving away this DVD and also selling it soon on our Amazon Store.

George is racing his 14th tour this year with Team Columbia-HTC. Follow him on Twitter during the race.

The owner worked construction and found this bike in a basement. Aaron's Bicycle Repair fixed it up for him. According to Sheldon Brown, the Dunelt was a second-tier brand in the Golden Age of 3 Speeds.

I don't think that mattered to him at all.

They say that the Tour de France can be won by mere seconds, but that's only what Cadel Evans' friends tell him to cheer him up. No, the cold, cruel truth of the matter is that second place is just #1 loser. With that in mind, here are my predictions for 2nd places at the 2009 Tour:

Yellow Jersey (General Classification): Though Evans (Silence-Lotto) seems to have a stranglehold on the step on the podium one down from the top, I'm gonna have to tip my hat to Schleck (Saxo Bank) this year for 2nd place. Which Schleck brother, you ask? Well, um, Andy Schleck, I think...I don't know...all Luxembourgers look alike to me.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains): For the jersey that no one cares about, second place is less bitter if only because people don't keep asking how it felt to come so close to winning the climbers' award. On the other hand, you can probably get away with claiming you were second and then were later awarded the polka dot jersey when 1st place was busted for blood doping. Who's gonna really remember? My 2nd place climber pick is David Moncoutié or some other French dude.

Green Jersey (Sprinter): My pick for second is Tom Boonen. Even if he has discovered a renewed passion for finish lines before coke lines, Cavendish (Columbia) has taken the sprint crown for big bunch finishes.

Just a reminder, we're doing our first Live Chat in the Hub during the live Versus coverage of Stage 1 of the Tour de France on Sunday, from 8am EDT until the stage ends.

We're going to Live chat other stages as well, and we'll have some industry guests on to chat with us. This moderated chat will let us talk up the Tour, discuss the teams, bikes, tactics and more. I'm really looking forward to hearing from Bike Hugger readers during this stage.

We'll also play Paul and Phil bingo for prizes.

Enter your email address below and you'll be reminded when the Live Chat starts (as if you could forget when the Tour launches).

schwartzsheldon tweeted the caption for this photo.

Dude shoulda got out of the way of the Chalkbot!

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Isabelle visits Mrs. Rose at the Flower Shoppe from the Picture Book collection with bicycles.

Illustration: Sharon Watts.

Also see

• Armadillo
• Mom and Son
• bicycletta

Pitching this now as gate for the new Hugga HQ . . .

Found on the unique Garden Gates Squidoo.

With vampires being the new James Dean, we were wondering if Vampires ride bikes? You'd think there's a juncture between, fashion, pop culture, vampires, hollywood, and bikes. Bikes are in everything else. We found Count Chopula

but no sightings yet of a vampire on a bike. It's either fixed or steampunk or cargo maybe to carry a casket around. It would have fire wheels for sure.

Hollywood can have it's dreamy vampires, our favs are Count Chocula and Count von Count.

Spotted at a bike race in Oregon, a Raleigh Tourer. Updated over the years, but still the original owner. Now it runs with a flip-flop hub.

The Seattle Sports Blog picks up the Tyler Farrar story (local races in the Tour) with quotes from me on being a sprinter.

"They're like gunslingers -- they don't have any fear," Byron said. "They know what they need to do and they do it."

Links

• Tyler Multimedia Site
• Seattle Times: A year of ups and downs
• Bike Hugger Hub: Watching the Tour

My friend PJ got himself this sweet Sycip touring bike. The bike is 700C steel with disc brakes and front and rear racks. There are a lot of cool details that went into the construction, but Jeremy keeps it real and functional.

Stylish, handmade panniers from Queen Bee Creations in Portland, Oregon.

Uploaded by Queen Bee Creations | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

It's a common pastime amongst cycling fans to watch Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin create (and repeat) some of the most creative play-by-play vocabulary in sports history. So enjoyable is the past time that I've seen people play drinking games around their sayings.

Where else can a yellow-jersey wearer be referred to as "Little Tommy Voekler" or can you hear about someone digging into their "suitcase of courage." Years ago I found a site with an adaptation of the drinking game into a bingo board, and for this tour I thought we'd update it.

We're proud to present the Tour de France 2009 BikeHugger Bingo game. Download the PDF and play along at home. Pick a board, and each day the first person to complete bingo on a board (five across, down or diagonal) and post a picture of it to that days Hub page wins a bit of bike schwag. Each day you have to start over, you can't continue from the previous day's board. The person who wins the most Bingo games by the end of the tour wins a new George Hincapie DVD.

We'll be playing live during our live chat days, like the chat we're going to do on July 5th for the first full day of the Tour de France 2009.

Grab the PDF file below and play along for chances to win great prizes.

BikeHuggerTdFBingoGame.pdf

Blogs.com published a Top-Ten List for the Tour De France 2009 that we compiled for them. Note that the format of the list requires a blog to have an RSS feed. We can't deeplink into a site like Versus or Bicycling for Bobke's blog without it. The list isn't exhaustive, limited to ten, so we had to choose. Please add what blogs you follow in the comments. We can extend the list here.

We also hope Horner blogs about the race with notes on what he would've done on the hilly stages had he been there! We'll discuss the race at length on the Hub, as soon as it starts.

• Andy Schleck -- Andy is a Tour favorite and brother of Frank, another racer. He's aggressive on the road and writing about his experiences as a professional cyclist.
• Cycling Fans Anonymous -- A blog written by a critic of professional cycling, including the doping controversies.
• Cyclocosm -- An independent view of bike racing with in-depth commentary.
• Peloton Post -- Professional photos from the Tour de France, uploaded daily.
• Podium Cafe -- Bike racing blog with extensive coverage of the Tour.
• Road Diaries -- Rider diaries, tech talk, and more from SRAM, a bicycle components manufacturer.
• Tour De France Blog -- A fan-written blog about the Tour de France with lots of comments.
• Tour Tag on Flickr -- Fans and photographers upload photos from the race to Flickr.
• Tour de France Lantern Rouge -- A blog that celebrates the last- placed rider in the race.
• Tour de France on Twitter -- Follow #tourdefrance on Twitter for tweets from racers, teams, and fans.

Also see a collection of TDF-related gear on our Amazon Store and Wired published a list of why geeks should love the Tour.