Scott Breakaway

Confusing title. Ritchey makes the Breakaway cyclocross bike with the seat clamp cluster coming apart, allowing you to pack the bike into a small box and get it on an airplane. People seem to like them and one woman I met recently said that she toured across Scandanavia on one. So, I'm sure they're durable.

Scott is apparently trying to compete:

From http://www.scottusa.com/us_en/product/8294/45036/addict_cx_rc:

"The Addict CX RC and Addict CX framesets feature an integrated seat tube to shave approximately 100 grams off the complete bike. These are the kinds of details that produce the lightest cyclocross frame on the market."

Also, the first all carbon frame with carbon seat-mast cyclocross bike that will dissasemble itself when you re-mount it, allowing you to pack the remining carbon shards into a little tiny box and send it back to Scott on an airplane.

Carbon flesh core tool

If you learn one thing from reading this blog, let it be this: choose the right tool for the job. For example, choose an alloy seat post with a robust clamp for mountain biking and cyclocross racing. When you choose a carbon seat post and it snaps on your remount, and you're left hovering tubing shards that threaten to eviscerate you, you'll need something good to get it out of your frame. For example, here is a fellow using a cable cutter to yank the remnants of a poor component decision out of an otherwise nice bike: (sorry about he crappy focus)

The rider who owns the bike snapped the post on his first remount of a race and twisted the now useless top section off like the stem of an apple, throwing it to the ground. He then ran to his team pit where one guy went at it hammer and tongs to get the old post out and swap an alloy post from another guy's bike. Meanwhile, his teamates and buddies taunted him with cries of "must have gone to 6 newton-meters man!" (referring to the 5 N-m torque limit on most carbon clamping bolts).

This rider now knows not to use a part that fails catastrophically in planned use. Specialized, for all the cyclocross riders they sponsor, still doesn't get it. They're still selling the Tricross with a carbon seat post that has a big gaping hole right in the middle of it filled with a gummy bear known as a 'Zertz' vibration dampening insert.

Earthday Warning - You will get hit by a bat

I got this handy pamphlet today.  It was a how-to guide meant to get people to take more trips by bicycle.

I'm afraid that this picture probably isn't helping the cause:

Of all the hazards I've faced while commuting by bike, baseball bat wielding sociopaths has not yet been one of them.  How about some detail on the hazards of cell phone texting while riding?  Now that I see all the time.

Zoolander's Helmet

Would a successful male model be caught dead letting this thing ruin his perfect coif?

photo from http://www.bellbikehelmets.com/timeline.asp

Hell no.  He'd be wearing this:

Photo from http://www.yakkay.com/

What you're looking at there is the Yakkay Tokyo in striped denim.  The base helmet is basically a black BMX helmet with rope (instead of webbing) ear loops.  There are four covers to meet your fashion needs: 

• The Luzern (furry)
  
• The Dublin (canvas toque)
• The Paris (ball cap)
• The Tokyo (bucket hat)

The underlying helmet is rather unsophisticated.  It apparently has adhesive foam segments for customizing fit (no twist-lock here).  You could wear it alone in the summer since it's vented, then add a fabric cover for the winter (or when you are cycling in a fashionable European city) for warmth. I'm not going to buy one until they come out with a busby cover.

In the everything old is new again department, I recently found this picture of the 1986 Coors Classic:

From BIKEMONKEY Magazine

These guys are mostly wearing hairnets and have covered them with cycling caps.  For the one guy in the middle with the wraparound sunglasses (Bernard Hinault?), it's sort of ridiculously tight.  As long as there have been helmets, people have tried to cover them up with hilarious results.

Boulder Velodrome Revisited

Got an comment on the blog over the weekend from the people behind the blog, 303Cycling.  Thanks for reading!  They gave us some insight on the new Boulder velodrome.  It looks like the velodrome builder is putting up a half height wall between the apron and the infield, and the aforementioned pole of doom is part of that wall.  The pole does not stick out the apron as they have it built.

Check out the picture and blog here.