By brian | April 27, 2007 - 11:20 pm - Posted in News in a nutshell

I know he’s pretty busy, but I was told that I would be able to get an interview out of him. It’s been several months now, and I don’t think it’s going to happen. But here’s some food for thought:

I’m not ready to take sides on the first item. While I fully support mandatory helmet laws for children, I think this may be going a bit too far. In Canada, an 11 year old boy ran his bike into the side of a truck. He sustained injuries described as “non-life threatening”, and was taken to the hospital.

While he should count himself lucky, his parents now face a fine of up to $80 for letting him ride without a helmet. But is this really fair? If he just got pulled over and was given a ticket for mum and pop to pay, I would have no argument. But at this point, the fine seems rather harsh, living giving someone a no-seatbelt ticket after they’ve gone through the windscreen. The’ve all (hopefully) learned a lesson for more costly and painful than an $80 fine.

Fishiest story of the week award goes to the one about the guy that got shot while trying to sell a bike. We read way too much about gun violence, and violence against cyclists is disturbing, but something just doesn’t ring right here. A 45-year-old man and his wife were out walking at 11PM, and trying to sell a bike. He discussed the sale with 2 men, also on bicycles, before he was fatally shot in the chest.

Now, the story didn’t state if one of the other cyclists was the shooter, but it seems implied. Either way, who’s out at 11PM, trying to sell a bike? And if one of the other cyclists was the shooter, what are they doing out that late, and packing? Truly a fishy story. I so wish I could be posting a Chris King interview instead.

I’ll close with breasts. And Hooters girls. But this is a serious post. A Hooters manager and cook are doing a 95 mile bike ride to raise money for breast cancer research. The inspiration for this event was former Hooters Calendar Cover Girl, Kelly Jo Dowd, who is currently battling breast cancer. Jeff Spraker, the manager, commented on the fact that 1 in 7 of the women working there are at risk of developing this terrible disease. Statistically, that means that 2,100 of their 15,000 female employees are at risk.

Some might say that Hooters is merely looking after it’s own best interests. But Hooters has contributed over $8 million to non-profits, including $2 million for cancer research. And they’re currently doing a 4 month fundraiser, with each store having a goal of raising $1,000, which will go to Kelly Jo and cancer research. So go have some chicken wings, or a burger and a beer. But be sure to support this fundraising effort. It’s for a good cause.

By brian | April 26, 2007 - 6:39 pm - Posted in Random acts of typing
There were 50 messages in the queue, and they all seemed to be spam. So I did a bulk delete.
By brian | April 24, 2007 - 9:16 pm - Posted in Reviews

I received this in the mail not too long ago, and finally got around to testing it out.

It’s a handy little unit, with a plastic silver finish accented by a hard rubber black gripping surface and a red rubber go button. The green lighted display was easy to read, and gives you the option of PSI, (0 to 150) BAR, and KPA. You just press the button to turn it on, and wait for it to zero. At this point, a few extra pushes gets you the different unit of measurement options. From there, whack it on the valve, make sure the air you sweated to get in there isn’t leaking out, and take a reading. Nothing to it. I tried it on threaded valves as well as the ultra lightweight ones from Torelli that have no threads or retaining nut. Same results.

Before I go further, I have to provide a little background. Since we built our tandem, I found out just how critical proper tire pressure can be. With two riders on board, we subject our rubber to some pretty extreme loads. So before we would head out, I used to give the tires a good squeeze. Very un-scientific. On the way to the trailhead, the first corner we hit made the tires squeal a bit like Starsky and Hutch during a chase. Er, their car, not them. So I would have to stop and add air, then continue.

Once in the bush, I would drop the pressure. And of course, air up for the ride home again. Yeah, I need an air compressor, not a tire gauge, but stay with me. I have a Park pump and a Silca in the bike shed, and a little Sigma strapped to the boom tube. 3 pumps, each with its own gauge. Go look up what Benjamin Franklin said about a man with two watches.

So, back to my review. I tried it on a few different tires, and compared it to the gauges on the pumps, which are all within a PSI or two of each other. It’s readings were consistent with what the pumps showed, so rather than get all scientific, I’ll just say that it’s accurate enough for me. Of course, this was in chilly Utah weather, your results may vary.

All in all, I’m happy with the performance. It’s supposed to measure tire pressure, and that’s what it does. Looks kinda cool too. But I had to make sure I wasn’t missing any critical testing criteria in my high tech front yard testing lab. So I checked online reviews of similar items, to see what complaints people had. Since it’s presta only, forget about using it on a shock. I don’t know why people even bothered. I’ve never owned a shock pump that didn’t have a hose and a reliable gauge, along with a pressure release button. The only complaint that I could find that seems to apply to all the other digital gauges is that there’s no quick reset. The Slime unit’s instructions state that you can take another reading, even if your last reading is still displayed. Chalk one up for Slime.

So is it worth the MSRP of $11.99? If you want to reliably and accurately measure tire pressure, it’s a good investment.

But let’s go one better. I’ve got another, still in the package, to give away. Yes, FREE! I just haven’t figured out how to determine who it should go to. All I ask in return is that you provide your own unbiased feedback once you get it. Maybe even pay it forward to someone else after a while. So let’s hear some suggestions.

By brian | April 22, 2007 - 11:06 pm - Posted in News in a nutshell

At the end of my drama and trauma-filled weekend, I’m back at the computer and ready to bring you some interesting tidbits.

In Houston, they recently installed 21 new bike racks on the city’s hybrid diesel-electric buses. While that number itself is not particularly impressive, they do plan to have them on 800 buses by the end of the year. It’s like a little glimmer of hope.

Far outweighing the good, there are plenty of unpleasantries to report over the last few days. For instance, a drunk driver struck and killed a cyclist in Missoula, Montana. While this in itself is bad, it is far more disturbing that a witness claims the motorist appeared to intentionally swerve and hit the cyclist. In the opposite hemisphere, two boys, one 15 and the other 16, were out riding their bikes at 4 A.M. (?) in Brisbane, Australia when they were accosted by 4 teenagers roughly the same age, who gave one of them a bashing before making off with the 16 year-old’s bike. It’s very distressing that merely riding a bike can make someone a target for violence.

Somewhat less distressing is the Google Alerts that I get regarding bicycles in India. I still cannot make sense of whatever it is that gets reported.

In closing, I take the risk of offending my friends at Trek, but I have to bring this up. While I certainly mean no disrespect to them, I was reading an article that stated they were the world’s top bicycle maker, and have to question that assertion. Certainly Giant produces more bicycles than Trek, either with their own label on them, or for other companies. I will have to look into this, and see if I can get a better definition for the word “Top”.

ROCKFORD OF THE WEST II

WHEN: Saturday Only - May 12th

WHERE: Oak Creek BMX in Roseville, CA. During the ABA NorCal Nationals

WHO: All Vintage BMX collectors are invited!

WHAT & WHY: Bring your bikes to display, meet other collectors, swap & sell parts, and vote for “Best Bikes of Show” in multiple categories, or just take a stroll thru memory lane.

Last year, we had over 125 bikes from all over the West Coast. It was a such a success, we were forced to make it an annual tradition. Later that night (at 7:00pm) PATRIOT BIKE SHOP – the unofficial home of the first ABA BMX Museum, will host the Awards Banquet – with Golden FLIGHT Cranks handed out to the winners; as voted on throughout the day by spectators and fellow collectors. Oh… and pizza to chow down on. Custom GOLDEN FLIGHT Awards brought to you by Redline.