The Bike Geek

So you are riding your bike to work, all of the sudden a spoke breaks, but you keep riding, next thing you know, the whole rim gives up on you. You try calling your friends/significant other but no luck. Our Friend Henry Hsieh sent us a link of a website that its sort of like a ‘AAA service for your bike’.

For 40 bucks per year you get:

Nationwide emergency roadside assistance. Service for you and your bicycle up to 30 miles annually with a maximum of two service calls per covered member, per year.

Click here for more information.

Golf Course full of ice!

Man it was freezing Sunday morning. Regardless, RL, Tim and myself headed to the Fullerton Loop.

I was anxious to ride my new steed, the Cobia 29er. (Click here to read my first impression on www.mtnbikeriders.com).

After a couple of miles, we couldn’t feel our toes, fingers and ears. We decided to ride the short 6.5 loop instead of the 12 miles. We rode to the BMX park to have some fun with the banks and the jumps.

Join us next time. We’ll be posting the days and times that we are going to be hitting the trails.

Our friend Henry Hsieh from KHS Bicycles shared with us pictures and a post from his Santa Barbara weekend getaway. Henry and his girlfriend ride KHS F20-T2 folding bikes.

Check out his post and pictures by clicking here.

My 6 yr old daughter still needs to grow a few inches to reach the Tandem’s pedals. I went online and found a solution: A child stokers kit.

Photo courtesy of Sheldon Brown.

When I found out how much the kits were, man, I couldn’t believe it! Over 200 bucks! Luckily I found a basic stoker’s kit at Chuck’s Bikes for 85 bucks.

I started to put the kit together. I installed the Bottom Bracket on the BB shell:

Then the crank arms,

OK, the easy stuff is done.

Now, how the heck do I install the other ring on the tandem? Turns out, I need a new crank for the Tandem as well. The darn thing is riveted so I can’t add the secondary ring. I will be on the hunt for a cheap crank so I can install the kit. I hope to be done by next week so my daughter and I can ride to the beach.

I’m thinning my road bike inventory and beefing up my off-road bike selection. Sure, the biggest reason is because of www.mtnbikeriders.com, but also, it will be a nice change of pace.

The first bike that I got is a nice Gary Fisher Cobia 29er:

The 29er revolution is coming. A lot of manufacturers are adding 29er bikes to their line ups. I will get to ride and test one.

The other bike that I got is a Cannondale Jeckyll 800:

This bike is not an ordinary bike, it has a Lefty Max Fork:

Yep, it’s missing the other leg!!!

I’m still commuting with the Diamondback Transporter and the Raleigh One Way. Updates all on these bikes coming soon!

RL invited me to go mountain biking last friday night. I’ve never ridden off-road in total darkness, it was a totally new experience for me. I mounted my cygolite Rover and my Princetontec Corona light on my bar. For starters, it was really cold (Southern Cali Standards), I layered up pretty good. RL was poking fun at my attire, but I wasn’t the one that was cold during the ride.

We know the trail pretty good, we are sort of able to anticipate the turns and dips, but still, riding in the dark is a different thrill. The biggest advantage of riding this trail in the night is that we had the whole trail for ourselves, no hikers, no horses, no other riders.

We are thinking of making this a Friday night habit, it sure beats waking up at 5 in the morning to go ride at 6!!!

My buddies and I headed to Seal Beach for a 30 mile ride. I rode the KHS F20-R, that bike just doesn’t disappoint. The ride is so smooth (thanks to the rear shock) and it brings a lot attention to itself. As we turned back, we hit some head wind, I just tucked in and took advantage of the F20-r’s aero profile. We cruised down to the beach at about 19mph, I had no problem keeping up with my buddies riding 700cc bikes. I also tried sprinting with the bike, I had no issues getting it up to speed.

I need to lose about 12lbs and get in shape to fully take advantage of this bike.

Randy from www.mtnbikeriders.com created a Messenger bag from scratch. Click here to see how he did it.

Last year was quite a “ride”. The highlight of the year was riding the LiveStrong Challenge Century. I was able to meet the fundraising goal thanks to all of my LiveStrong Sponsors. The ride was quite emotional since my brother-in-law lost his battle with cancer, and truth being, I was not as prepared to ride 100 miles as I should have been. My goal was to finish it, and I accomplished my goal.

2006 was also the year that gasoline hit over $3 per gallon, making my commute just more satisfying. I was also featured on the front page of The Whittier Daily News on bike to work week, I got to ride the KHS Urban X, KHS Urban Xtreme, Raleigh One Way and the Diamond Back Transporter. All these bikes are excellent commuting/utilitarian bikes. I can’t say I had a favorite, but I really enjoyed riding Urban X a lot.

Being an Floyd Landis fan, I was terribly disappointed on the news after the race. I was happy he won the Tour de France, but the doping allegations cast a huge shadow of uncertainty and doubt. I guess we’ll find out the outcome soon, but my guess is that he will get screwed.

Pro Elite racing came to California this year. I couldn’t miss the first Tour of California. My buddy and I headed down to check out the last stage of the race, a circuit race with lots of action. We are going again for sure this year.

Lastly, the end of 2006 also saw our sudden dismissal of CommuteByBike.Com. I really enjoyed testing all the products, reading from our other writers and readers and doing research about riding to work. Since every wrong has its right; RL, Randy, Priscilla and I started a new blog about Mountain Biking. We have full control of the site and the relationships that we had we bike companies remained the same.

Overall, 2006 was a good year. I hope that 2007 will be the same or better.

The UCI track championships are back in the Los Angeles area. Last year I tried to go but I was not able. I’m hoping to go this year to check out all the action. Now that I’ve tried riding a fixed gear bike, my respect for these riders has increased. For more information go to http://www.lavelodrome.org/