A roundup of bike-related blogs with recent updates:

From BikeRadar:
"According to the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), a proposed National Park Service (NPS) regulation change will benefit Americans by improving mountain biking experiences in national parks. The new policy would empower park superintendents to manage trails for bicycles, without sacrificing environmental review or public comment opportunities."

BikeSnob is on vacation.

Recumbent Conspiracy Theorist reports on the Clear Fork Loop ride.

Fat Cyclist has a humorous take on carbon fiber. Read it even if you think you know more about carbon than your high school chemistry teacher.

Just the Messenger at Rules of the Amateur UnPro Cyclist reflects on mountain bikers tendency to crash really expensive bikes into trees.

Yesterday, I rode hard on my 1980s Lotus road bike. Climbed some hills. Only about twenty miles (computer bonked mid-ride) but they were the toughest hills around here. (If you've ever ridden the back roads in the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, area, which you probably haven't, you know what I'm talking about: it's all ridges, up and down and up again.) Felt good about it all.

None of which is of any particular interest to anyone but me; therefore, in my continuing efforts to actually post things that are worth posting on the web, I offer this image. Think of her as your own personal podium girl. She even does real kisses, unlike the fake cheek-touch kisses the TDF guys have to make do with.

Al and Andy, Sigh

I also posted these comments on Bike Snob's comments section, but since they're so (un)brilliant, I decided to post them here as well in order to avoid preserving them for the ages:

Okay, here's my final (and only) word(s) on the now-infamous chain-drop incident. I know when Alberto talks he sounds like Mike Tyson would if someone were brave enough to squeeze his pant-yabbies, plus many of us can't understand a word he says anyway, whereas Andy has the looks that makes little girls (and other people) have NSFW fantasies, plus his accent is so cute you just want to hug it, and you understand everything he says. HOWEVER, the as-promised words are TEAM SPORT and COMPETITION. Racing is a team sport, so either Andy screwed up by dropping his chain with unskillful shifting, in which case he deserved to lose time for being worse at his sport than Alberto; or Andy's mechanic, who is also part of the "team" in "team sport," screwed up by giving him an improperly adjusted drivetrain to work with. Either way, it's not as if Alberto actually pulled the chain off the ring. It's a competition, not a group ride.

If you can cite examples of winners who exhibited fantastic sportsmanship, well, good for them. But if they had lost after waiting for the competition to catch up, they might have looked foolish, not magnanimous. Plus, does anyone ever ask the riders who get dropped again, even after being waited for during their difficulties? Do they feel grateful, or do they feel as if insult has been added to injury? Waiting for a rider who has self-dropped is like saying, "I know I can kick your ass either way, so I'll just take a break while you work out your little issues." It's like the tortoise and the hare, except the hare actually does win. So, Andy, even though you're so cute it makes us all want to wet our knickers, quit whining and race. It's not an amateur Saturday group ride.

Today, I Did Not Get Rained On: A Post That Strives Not Only To Catalog the Meaningless Minutiae of My Day But To Do So in an Amusing Manner

Random questions of the day, apropos of nothing:

Why does a fish need a bicycle? To ride in the Tour De France, where the chain will malfunction (or the fish's shifting skill will malfunction) and the fish will be dropped by Alberto Contador; the fish will stop just short of accusing Contador of cheating.

Why are there no black cyclists in the TDF? Are there any black pro cyclists? None come to my admittedly very limited mind at the moment. And why so few, if any?

The last time I got rained on while out riding, the forecast was for a twenty percent chance of rain. Today, the chance was thirty percent, which spiked briefly to one hundred percent while I was having morning coffee. So I thought I'd do something else today. But when you want to ride, nothing else will do. And besides, the rain had stopped. I went to ride, and, back home after twenty-three miles down, still no more rain.

Tim Krabbe, in The Rider, has this to say of rain (and other challenges that beset riders): "After the finish all the suffering turns to memories of pleasure, and the greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. . . . Velvet pillows, safari parks,
sunglasses: people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. . . . Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas" (1978, p. 113).

So now I'm sort of thinking I should wish I had gotten rained on.

On Chain Maintenance

Ask any dozen bicycle mechanics about chain maintenance, and you're likely to get at least thirteen different answers. I have, however, come up with a sure-fire method to be sure that your chain is still shiny and intact long after every other part of the bike has disintegrated into carbon dust or been recycled to make latex gloves and flip-flops:

STRANDED'S FIVE MAGICAL STEPS TO ETERNAL CHAIN LIFE
1. Remove the chain and soak it overnight in a mixture consisting of one part rubbing alcohol, one part Absolut vodka, one part single-malt Scotch (definitely NOT blended), and one part Missouri mule pee.
2. Blow dry on low heat.
3. Run the chain through a full cycle in the dishwasher.
4. Soak overnight in extra-virgin olive oil. Yes, it must be extra-virgin.
5. Dry with an entire box of q-tips, one end of the swab for each side of every link.
6. Reinstall the chain and have the bike blessed by a Himalayan monk or, failing that, any one of the NSFW girls to be found here:"http://behoimi.org/post/show/22183/ass-bicycle-bikini_top-bra-hamada_shoko-panties-sw" http://behoimi.org/data/54/1b/541b8e903392f2d5bfaafea70afc223e.jpg
7. Fill your bidon with the soaking mixture from step number one (the squeamish can use a coffee filter to remove grit and metal filings), and go for a ride. Wear a helmet.

I realize that's more than five steps, so feel free to skip any you like except the olive oil and the blessing. Those two are essential.

Headbutting--The Best Argument for Wearing a Helmet Yet

I am not exactly amazed when people still deny they're risking their lives by riding without helmets. More like mildly interested in yet another example of the human capacity to believe whatever we want in the face of obvious facts, evidence, and (un)common sense to the contrary. Now, I'm quite willing, even anxious, for those who wish to risk their lives in such a manner to go ahead (pun intended) and do so. The way I see it, they stand to improve the human gene pool by possibly removing themselves from it earlier than necessary. They should win a Darwin Award, if they have not already.

However, watching the now-infamous headbutting incident at the TDF yesterday--and yes, Canvendish's legs won that sprint, not Renshaw's head--my first thought was, Yet another reason to wear a helmet. Then I thought about the possibilities. Would Renshaw have butted Dean if he, Renshaw, had been helmetless? What would have been the outcome if the headbutt were committed sans helmet? The answers might be Yes, he would, and Much, Much Worse--especially for all the non-butters behind them.

On the whole, however, my main reaction to the scene is disappointment. Not that a TDFer would stoop to unethical tactics, nor that he was evicted from the race for them--both are to be expected. However, I am sorry I revealed the history of my busted helmet (below) before now. Think how much I could have gotten for it on Ebay if I had advertised it as a genuine replica of the result of a Renshaw-encounter.

(Big Red) Riding Shoes

The use of clip-in pedals and their accompanying special space-suit like footwear seems to be some sort of dividing line for cyclists, like having a bike you can't buy at a department store (read: Walmart) or getting your first case of road rash. There are advantages to clip-ins, of course--your foot stays put (even when you don't want it to, which, of course, is also a disadvantage--watchers of the TDF saw Lance barely get his foot out of the pedal in time to avoid going down), and the rider can actually pull the pedal up as well as pushing it down. This last has obvious advantages for racers.

However . . . there had to be a however, didn't there? For the rest of us, meaning those who don't race or don't see racing, whether against ourselves or other riders, as the be-all and end-all of cycling, the question arises as to what shoes are best for the flat, non-clip-in, no-straps-attached kind of pedals. My favorites have come to be the Chuck Taylors pictured here in all their big red glory. They have the advantage of being light, and the soft rubber soles grip the pedals sufficiently that the foot doesn't slide around, even when it's wet. They do this without giving the feel of riding barefoot. Best of all, perhaps, they come in colors, and no, the last time I checked, you can't buy them at Walmart. Which gives them some sort of distinction, I suppose.

So--favorite riding shoes, anyone?