Hugger Industries posted a photo:

Ryan took an early lead at North Seatac and held it to win. He's racing a Conquest Team -- same bike we're on this year.

Photo: Redline.

After racing Kruger’s Kermesse last weekend, Cross season started in Seattle at North Seatac with a good turnout. Cyclocross is like the United Nations, or the Justice League, of cycling with roadies, mountain bikers, urban, and track all intermingling and racing each other. We see faces we haven’t seen before, families, and tailgate parties. They all come out to participate in the event for fun or race it seriously.

Concentrate

The women’s field all looked very determined on this short, steep, descent section. I told Sandrine McFadden she caught the men with her compression socks.

Race Face

Mahan was there to transition from road to Cross and went into his zone at the starting line.

Skills

Jeff Elston won the 45+ field for Cycling Northwest, a club Bike Hugger sponsors.

Fun

Pam loves Cross. She really does.

Really? Yes. As I wrote last week, you dispense with the roadie head games and just ride the course at your own pace and skill level. For most racers, it’s a technical dirt TT with no lap of shame for those that get dropped. In the beginner categories, racers stop before the barriers or runups, get off and walk, then back on. Some even rest a bit each lap. No deal to the racers around them because they’re doing it as well.

The community isn’t going to question your fitness post race if you get lapped, dropped, or just suck. They’re just glad you’re out there having a good time with them.

Running and Barriers

There is too much emphasis on the runups and barriers. Sure for the elite categories and those who take the sport more serious, that’s where races are won. For the lower-level categories and beginners, that’s all part of the fun. The only way to get good at the technical aspects of the sport is to race and think of it like braking in a crit or knowing how to drop into a trail on your mountain bike.

Skills that likely terrified you at one time will come with practice. Watch Cyclocross DVDs or the World Cup on Universal Sports and notice how the Pros focus on speed. They’ll cowboy, tilt the bike, and run with it. You won’t start out that fast, but it’ll come. Think about it, do they have crit cornering clinics? Nope. You just go race and figure it out.

More Cross

I took this weekend off and will race again at Cycle U Kick-off Cross. Our coverage will extend to the Elite races, Masters, and Single Speed.

For more Cross, see

• The Vault of Cross Knowledge
• 2010 Photos
• Posts

Planning a cross-country bike tour? Considering self-contained with panniers, doing it credit card style at hotels, or this!

Photo: AP via Daylife, from Caravan Salon fair in Duesseldorf, Germany.

So it’s attached to a electric assist comfort bike and you could cover the top of the camper with solar panels to generate electricty. It’s a Digital Bike Nomad’s hotel at SXSW or a Cargonista’s dream vacation. Even a place to stay warm at a cross race.

Likely influenced by the Kevin Cyr concept from last year.

Red crank, egg beaters, and ready to race.

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

Hugger Industries posted a photo:

Seattle Cyclocross season opener at North Seatac Park -- morning races

In our 5th year, we’re remixing the Mobile Social Interbike with:

• Ignite Bikes — inspired bike talks
• Mobile Social — ride the Strip

and, of course, our blog-focused event coverage.

Ignite Bikes takes places after the Ready to Ride Fashion Show at 4:30 in the Urban Lounge on Thursday September 23rd. Then Meet outside the Sands Convention Center — the Bike Valet entrance — for the Mobile Social. Ride the Strip with us at 6:30.

Post ride we’ve got choices of Gold Sprints at Las Palmas, Here Comes the Corn at the Peppermill, and an after Fashion Show party with Kickstand Mag.

Details

• Event: Interbike 2010
• When: September 23, 2010
• Where: Las Vegas, Nevada
• Who: Attendees, Industry, Bike Huggers
• What time: 4:30 for Ignite Bikes and 6:30 for Mobile Social.

RSVP

We’d like to know if you’re coming to both events on Facebook, RSVP:

• Ignite Bikes
• Mobile Social

Not on Facebook? RSVP on Upcoming: Ignite Bikes and the Mobile Social.

Partners

Our events are brought to you by partners like REI, Dahon, Puma Bikes, Metafilter, Mac Create, Textura Design. The Mobile Social is hosted this year by Kickstand Mag.

Media

Follow us here on the blog for select posts and

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Flickr
• YouTube

Ride the Strip, Really?

We get asked this every year: do you really ride the strip? Yes we do, with cyclists like this … she’s not going to allow no crazy cabbie to bust up into our lane. She looks at them like this while riding a Globe.

It’s a good time with your colleagues.

Design student Christian Breig wrote to tell us about Adiubik

Biking with clipless pedals increases your effective power up to 40%. No Wonder that bikers like to use this system on their daily rides. But the use of clipless shoes and pedals isn´t comfortable in everyday life. Our lifestyles changes daily we won´t be limited to one pair of shoes with a stiff sole. My Design allows to use every clipless systems with nearly all kind of shoes. The product has been awarded with the eurobike award 2010.

and we’re interested, as users of both clipless pedals and old-school PowerGrips.

Images: Christian Breig

Rather than take two sets of pedals with me when I travel on business with a bike, I use the Time Z Downhill because I can clip in and also wear it with regular shoes. With Breig’s design, I could take one set of ATACs and clip this into it for the regular shoes. While appreciating Christian’s design, do wonder about how quick you can get your feet out of his adaptor or clip out and step down on the street in a hurry.

It’ll take a Tommy Bahamas to sell an safety-vest orange, upright cruiser with discs and electric assist. Queue Lee Iacocca in a Hawaiian Shirt.

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

Hugger Industries posted a photo:

This was a lap before the flat and rim tweak. Waiting for someone to make a move.

Our Bro Wes just got a 4th at Masters Track Nationals in the Mens 35 - 39 category on this 47 tooth chainring. His coach Jennie Reed loaned the ring to him. She previously used it to win bronze at the World Championships.

Wes also sent us this photo of his 60 MPH warmup, roller speed with that chainring.

How is that possible? A 97.6” drivetrain, spinning over 200 rpm. The sprints in Wes’ race were topping out at 41 MPH, on a 45 degree banked track with 2-3 Gs pushing you down. No wonder the athletes that win at this level are pushing 200 pounds.

Freight trains.

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

A look like this only comes after lots of hard work.

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

Hugger Industries posted a photo:

A look like this only comes after lots of hard work. We hope he didn't shower for a day just to sport that into work on Monday.

The sky was a swirl of fluffy clouds and blue when I opened my eyes. People were talking to me, their silhouettes blocking the light and I was laying in the dirt and I felt awful. I sat up, and immediately regretted it, as the feeling of nausea swept above the pain like storm surge flooding a levee. I was in a farm field, but other than that, the only thing I was sure about was that I wasn’t in Florida….well, pretty sure I wasn’t in Florida. Clattering past my bed of dust and gravel were lycra-clad cyclists and in the distance too. I thought those are bike people…I’m bike people…I think I’m here for the same reason that they are…what was that reason? The silhouettes kept a steady interrogation, and I realized that they were asking me if I was all right. After a while I was beginning to think that they might know something that I didn’t, but I told them I was ok. Still they kept asking…asking if I was sure. And I thought well, you got me there.

The clouded sky still seemed obscenely bright…probably because my prized Rudy Project Tayo glasses were broken…and my LAS helmet nearly split in two. Okay, I’ve seen this sort of thing before. This is a bike race; I do these sorts of things. My clothes are ripped, I’m covered in dirt, I’m bleeding, my head’s in a state…I’m pretty sure I crashed, and I think I’m not racing anymore today.

There was a repeated suggestion of a ride to the hospital, and I could only think,”No thank you, I’m poor!” I understood the scenario: I better not say anything freaky, or I’m gonna end up in an ambulance whether I want to or not. Any moment now they are gonna start asking questions, and I better have some answers…..quick!…what day is it?…shit!…I have no idea…I’m not working today…is it Thursday?

Concerned faces were asking me how I got here, and I had to stretch a little to come up with an answer. A snatch of memory leapt to the surface…. a car ride involving frantic GPS usage to get to the race…iPhones and Volvos and bikes on the roof…

“I came with Byron…”

“Byron who?”

“I came with Byron and his wife Pam…”

Apparently that answer was enough to allay their concerns. Later, I would contemplate the concept that a man’s entire identity can be summed up by his choice of spouse, and whether that was a good or bad thing, and for whom….but at the time I was thinking, whew…they bought it. Regardless, I would have had problems articulating other details like where the car was parked, phone numbers, blood type, etc.

As a woman walked me back to the first-aid tent, I began piecing the jigsaw puzzle together. This was Kruger’s Kermesse at Sauvie Island, just a little outside Portland. More or less, Kruger’s could be described as a cyclocross race without any need to dismount. I still believe I would have placed well, had I not crashed. I was picking riders off one by one, though I would have needed to be quite lucky to finish higher than 10th. Somehow I crashed pretty hard on the slight downhill, but I’m not sure how. Several people said I hit a divot in the gravel road, but I don’t think that would have been enough to put me down. After all, the course was full of patches, and I was feeling pretty comfortable with the roughness. Though my bike was mostly unscathed from the crash, my handlebars had rotated down quite a bit; still I cannot verify whether the rotation was cause or collateral to the crash.

The first-aid tent had perhaps a little too much empathy when they were cleaning the wounds…even in my hazed-out headspace, I knew that the hamburger on my legs needed to be scrubbed hard…it’s just I couldn’t really articulate it at the time.

Pam finished her race, and then we got some food while we waited for Byron to finish the single-speed race. It’s a pity that I crashed out, as I really was enjoying the race up until the point I don’t remember anything. There’s this crazy section where the racers hit a dirt road, kicking up a thick cloud of dust and you can barely see the riders’ helmets floating up ahead…bikes and road totally obscured. I had been remembering the fast lines on the course, conserving energy when possible and moving up when I could. But instead of finishing, people were asking me if I was “the one in the big crash”.”

The car ride back to Seattle was 3hrs of discomfort….which I luckily don’t remember too well. With the imploring of many voices to go to the hospital still ringing in my ears, I called an ex-girlfriend to inform her that she was babysitting me that night in case something bad happened. She asked how bad off I was; I said that I was a little hazy but I still remembered that she owed me 20 bucks.

Immediately after putting my bike into my apartment, I walked to the grocery store around the corner…still clad in lycra, dirt, and blood…and bought some more sterile pads and rice wine. I started the shower, peeled clothing out of the wounds, and downed half the bottle. Then I spent 20min scrubbing every little bit of dirt out of the 7hr old wounds. It had been a long time since I had had that much roadrash, but I remembered how to bandage the damage. I got a text message from another girl asking how bad the injuries were. Rather than try to describe it, I simply sent her a phone photo of me in nothing but boxer shorts in a full-length mirror…gauze and tape all up my leg and my face.

She responded,”That’s a sexy picture!”

And I said,”Uh yeah….I feel real sexy right now.”

Later I fell asleep while my ex-girlfriend read Japanese manga translated into Mandarin online…periodically checking to make sure I was alive.

So as you can surmise, the start of my CX season was a little dodgy….

Elite athletes get tested in the off season so they and other elite athletes can become more elite. Russell is at a lab in Premanon

After the jet lag passed I’ve found the groove in this place. We eat at certain times as a group, all 25+ of us including staff. Each day thus far we have been tested in a lab about 14 miles away. So far it’s one of three tests; CO2 re-breathing (yes, CO2 like what comes out of a car’s tail pipe), VO2 max test, and a 30k Time Trail on a trainer that includes a wind gate test. So far none are super tough although I haven’t done the TT yet. We will do 6 VO tests and 8 TT’s so i’m sure we’l be well drilled soon. Just today some of us get our first of two muscle biopsy’s. I can hear the rumblings in the hall ways right now, not good. Some folks are in serous pain. Some not so much. I get mine tomorrow. Not stoked on that…

I’ve done two Vo2 max tests and both were the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The second one was worse because Nurse Ratchet delivered the test and started texting her nurse homies 1/2 way through it. She ignored my bulged eyes when I glared at her trying to indicate a bonk was imminent. Her attention snapped back to the task at hand, when my eyes rolled back in my head, Undertaker style, and I did my best Linda Blair-exorcist grimace. She finally turned the torturous Vo2 contraption off after I slapped at the phone in her hand. Never went back to that lab, but hope they’ve got new, “no texting while testing rules” in place after my experience.

Even without a disinterested nurse attending you, the test is uncomfortable because the air is dry and seers your lungs. To simulate the test on your commute next week, do this:

1. Ride as hard as you can on the bike path
2. Return home
3. Rush into the bathroom
4. Turn hair dryer on low
5. Put the nuzzle it in your mouth and breathe deep until you get dizzy.

You won’t get the numbers to determine how fit you are for the next big Bike to Work effort, but you will better understand that Pro athletes are genetically qualified to go fast. They also suffer far more. This is their day job.

Along with building up Cross bikes this week, Mark V took an inventory of the rain bike wheels that needed replacing and/or rebuilding. None looked as bad at this one, which by all accounts is legendary. Like how did it not explode and cause a bad crash. And yes disc brake fanbois, your wheels don’t need replacing. Check your pads though as I’ve seen you lose control when they wear.

Uploaded by Cycling Northwest | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Rob Anderson tipped us to Mark Ronson’s Bike Song — we’d loop that all day in a bike shop

along with Pee Wee at Sturgis.

This photo of a Joint Hedgerow Maneuver with Teammates Signaling the Achievement was found in an archive at a local library and depicts a technique we’ve had stashed in the Vault of Cross Knowledge, alongside Ocean Runups and Baryshnikov over the Barriers.

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now

You may have noticed the bussle of Cross posts, tweets, and statuses. We’re back racing this season after spending last Fall riding the Mobile Social Worldwide. We’re training now in our neighbors hedgerows, at local parks, and running up stadium steps.

Kruger’s Kermesse

Our Season started at Kruger’s Kermesse — a dirt crit in Portland that has no barriers or runups, but a huge turnout and fun, fast course.

Gift with Purchase

Mark V received this complimentary gift in his race. We’re not sure how it went down. What we know is I heard the Emcee call for “friends of Mark V” to the registration tent to tend to him. He got his bell rung, ticket punched, and learned about avoiding the potholes on a hardtail with 700c wheels.

He’s ok and back at it. Said some really funny things with a concussion too. Oddly his embrocation reeks of alchohol. Will inquire about that later.

Dirt Tan and Moondust Facial

Every Cross race I wonder if I’m in the wrong gear, if my tire is flat, if my brakes are rubbing. All three happened in the second lap at Krugers!

I reached back to flip the rear brake open and that was worth another 1/2 mph. With a flat tire, I could powerslide the corners and that seemed to please the crowd. Meanwhile Molly Cameron lapped me 3 times.

My first race back is why I enjoy Cross so much. It’s a muddy, dirt TT with guys yelling, “on your left.” A chaotic, fast, bewildering, leg-aching effort with no idea where you’re placed ‘till the end. You just go into a zone and leave behind the headgames of road racing. It’s you and your bike versus the course.

Hugga Goes Hard

A 20th something is where I finished with the flat and tweaked tire. I was good with that. My road season this year was plagued by an injury, bad luck, and getting sick. I tried too hard to make something happen and regrouped for this race. I was determined to finish and the flat just made me go harder.

Right at the point I was tripping balls out there, a woman who looked like Minnie Pearl got onto the course. Don’t know if she was at Kruger’s to pick up berries for a pie. Maybe she had stumbled onto the course en route to a squaredance or wanted to test her Dutch bike on the dirt? Whatever she was doing, she was in the way and I growled at her turning into the finishing stretch. Sorry about that Minnie, but hey test your bike between races and not during my big comeback.

Pam is Competitive

Pam tries to tell me she’s not competitive and was just gonna race Cross for fun. That’s not an expression of fun on her face. That’s, “got gapped by the girls a few bike lengths ahead of her through the blinding, moondust section.” She caught ‘em for 3rd.

Our Season

Our next race is Labor Day Cross and then 6 to 8 more races. Our season is truncated by another trip to Europe and I’ll talk about that in another post. We’re back in London and visiting Berlin for the first time this year.

Partners

This year we’re working with Redline and racing on Conquest Teams. Also on board with Cycling Northwest and will have our Gear at the races.

See you there. We’ve got more in the vault of knowledge and some Zeppelin on shuffle.

Hugger Industries posted a photo:

This photo of a "Joint Hedgerow Maneuver with Teammates Signaling the Achievement" was found in an archive at a local library and is a technique we've had stashed in the Vault of Cross Knowledge, alongside Ocean Runups and Baryshnikov over the Barriers.

When Light & Motion offered to send me a prototype of the VIS 360 "commuter" headlight, I didn't think I could possibly become so smitten with such an innocuous seeming bit of gear.

The $169 VIS 360 is a winner in almost every single way (save one, which I'll get to in a moment) and is now a permanent resident on my helmet as fall creeps ever closer.

The VIS 360 is a rechargeable system with an unbelievably bright front light, side "markers" (lights that don't flash) and a rear 4-lumen tail light.

My main headlight is a NightRider Pro 1400 LED, a dual-beam system that throws 1400 lumens at full power. The VIS 360 creates a beam that (thanks to the greater concentration of focus) appears brighter than the NightRider. While I wouldn't use it as a rgular light for riding without streetlights—something I do with the Nightrider (and for the record not something the VIS is designed to do) it's a superb light for the commuter, especially to fill in the dark patches and times when other lights fail.

As an example, I recently was doing an impromptu night ride when my NightRider, which I had been riding all week without recharging, gave up the ghost. I was able to ride home with the VIS 360 and felt comfortable the whole way. It's also a great light for grabbing the attention of drivers. When I have a brighter light on my helmet and I turn to look at an approaching car, I often run the risk of blinding the driver. The VIS is bright enough to catch their eye but not bright enough to put that eye out of commission.

The rear flashing light isn't the brightest light I own (that award goes to either the VIS 180, also by Light & Motion or the hellishly-bright Planet bike flashers I own) but it is more than sufficiently bright to be seen for great distances. Be aware that since the light is mounted to the helmet it shouldn't be the only rear light—look left or right and you'll turn the light away from cars behind you.

 

Of course nothing's perfect and in the case of the VIS 360 there's one little issue that irritates me. The light is designed to be charged over USB instead of with an accessory adapter (yay!) which means that it's possible to ride to work and plug the VIS in to one's desktop to juice up for the ride home. The charging jack is the less-common Micro USB cable, not the standard Mini-USB found so ubiquitously on so many products. When I asked the company about this they said that the Micro USB is more common "on 2010 cell phones." That might be the case, but anyone who uses an iPhone or an older phone won't have this cable and anyone with one of these phones will likely be using the cable to charge their phone.

It also means that anyone who loses the Micro USB cable or forgets it at home can't just grab one of the common Mini USB cables found on other phones, card readers, hubs, cameras, video cameras, hard drives and any of the other thousands of items with a Mini USB cable.

That aside the VIS 360 is a praise-worthy light that won't let you down and more than lives up to the company's claims.

 

 

 

America has a problem. Our citizens are overweight and lazy. Most of our trips, and more specifically most of our trips under five miles are made by auto.

For a variety of reasons it is either impractical or impossible to perform a number of tasks via bicycle. Some of this has to do with infrastructure, some with society and some with bicycles.

While countries like the Netherlands and Denmark have great cargo-carrying bikes, they largely have not hit our shores. Personally I think that Americans aren’t partial to the Amish-black color that these bikes come in.

Biomega and Puma’s long-term collaboration has resulted in a new approach to the U.S. cargo bike market. The new “fashionable” cargo bike reminds me a bit of the 1980’s mountain bike scene (right down to the Judy-yellow color on the fork) but it might just solve a problem—if you can get past the name..

The Mopion (sounds like a Volkswaggen moped) is an aluminum cargo bike that weighs in at a mere 50 pounds, and is available in more traditional colors like white and black as well as this eye-grabbing color scheme.

I’m looking forward to trying this bike out, as my current cargo-carrying solutions tend to feel a bit awkward and unsteady. I’ve ridden the fietbikes that these are based on in Amsterdam and the small front pivot wheel makes them a tad bit faster to navigate than what I ride currently.

This bike might not solve the urban cargo problem, but it’s a start, and it’s a much-needed one if we’re ever going to get our cities to look more like Copenhagen than like Newark.