Category Archives: Cycling Tips.

A Boxing Cycle.

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MIAMI, FL – FEBRUARY 25,1964: Sonny Liston (L) throws a left hook to Muhammad Ali during the bout the Convention Hall in Miami Beach ,Florida. Muhammad Ali won the World Heavyweight Title. It was the 1964 Fight of the Year – Ring Magazine. (Photo by: The Ring Magazine/Getty Images)

Injury helped me discover another indoor-training motivational tool.  Muhammad Ali fights make perfect interval workouts with three minute intervals, an announcer and clock riding through each round gets your adrenaline flowing.  Ali was the greatest!  In 1980 I was working as a sports cameraman.  I was lucky enough to film an interview with Mr. Ali.  Fascinating Humility In This Man!  I kept thinking.  He would have given Lance a run for his money.

Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe 1980 Wimbledon Final with Borg winning 18 to 16 games in a five-set masterpiece.  Back then no tie-breaker in the fifth set.  Here’s a highlight clip of artists playing tennis.  A kind of slow motion boxing match.

A Bird VS  a Magician; Celtic’s Lakers, all classic’s.  Bringing the best out of each other and their teammates in every game Larry and Magic were simply flawless under pressure.  The dominance of their collective talents defined the NBA with shear greatness.  After sharing a Bird highlight film my son asked with complete sincerity, as the young do Dad does Larry Bird have eye’s in the back of his head?

Any Celtics-Lakers playoff game from the 80’s also great content.  Larry Bird was the greatest from the neck up and the wrist up.  Larry and Magic Johnson all but saved the NBA after the 1979 NCAA final when Larry and Magic’s monumental skills rejuvenated the NBA hard-wood a struggling league who’s only star attraction seemed to be Dr. J a basketball genius ahead of his time who defined The Art Of The-Dunk.

You’ll find entire Celtics Lakers Playoff games from the NBA’s greatest era on YouTube.   Ali, Bird, Magic, Borg, McEnroe these guys will push your competitive buttons.  The cheering crowd doesn’t hurt either.  I’m riding along thinking, I wonder how McEnroe would have held up against Ali in a fifteen rounder? 

I leave you with this a great film for any ride.

Training In Europe From Home.

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The KINETIC Road Machine Really Rolls.

A crash which I was lucky to walk away from seriously lucky directed me to this Kinetic Trainer. It is perfectly designed and built to last. A brilliant surgeon repaired my clavicle with astounding precision. Still can’t believe he installed hardware in me, I felt no pain. My surgeons expertise got me on this trainer the day after having plates and screws added to my rig.

Combining this Kinetic trainer with The Indoor Cycling Channel on YouTube you can ride to recovery throughout Europe in 4K resolution. Ride to their music or Crank-Up yours. A quality speaker in the room won’t slow you down either you can play it at 11. Music is meant to be heard and felt. Amazing how transporting these videos are as I’m roll along at home just, Going Down The Road Feeling Better. Oui.

Ride The Planet From Home.

Installing and uninstalling your bike on the Kinetic Road Machine is simple with a brilliantly designed hub-locking system fitting over your skewers in place. Easy on easy off for rainy sunny day transitions. Prior to owning this trainer I rarely cycled in the rain.

The Circular Debate Revolving Around Wider Tires.

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Schwalbe Big Apple 29 x 2,35. Reliable, Stable, Fast and Long-Lasting.

First stability adding confidence. Second cornering with these Schwalbe Big Apples you can layout sweepingly low relaxing turns. I visualize Birds Of Prey, Beaver Creek the Master, Bode Miller’s dominating career especially on Beaver Creeks Birds Of Prey would harness and unleash the skis energy effortlessly calmly devouring some of the planets most life-threatening terrain with his authoritative ski-racing career on the edge.

Relaxation is key too all effort.
Birds Of A Feather. Notice the eye’s and hands in both photos.

Speed, cornering, stability and confidence negotiating pot-holes, curbs and rail-road tracks will keep you rolling with confidence maintaining velocity all the while.

SCHWALBE G-ONE Speed 29″ x 2,35 OneStar EVO LiteSkin

Having ridden theses SCHWALBE G-ONE Speed 29″ x 2,35 it felt like floating as I seemed to have traction on air, gliding along barely touching earth. Add a good tail-wind and the rest is history on these tires. Seriously fast, ultra-light weight.

Are Flat Pedals The Way To Roll?

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Let’s start with the obvious cost variance and flat-pedals work with most any shoes you have on foot. Then there’s walking around on cleat-ed shoes. I don’t ride a traditional road bike, never road a Tour-Of Anywhere and only race myself, I’d put flat-pedals on my Pinarello, I find them more stable and the freedom to move your feet adds versatility to your riding skills.

Shimano Deore-XT Pedals. Exceptionally Stable Platform, Superlative Grip.

Flat-Pedals allow for slight foot adjustments, analogous with a minuet gear changes. Never found any clip-in shoes very comfortable, my feet would go numb trapped in one spot. The limited reaction time sums it up for me, when I want to move my feet, I want too move my feet, instantly. Flat-pedals embellish confidence and your over all freedom of movement on the bike. The idea of feet clipped-in seems oxymoronic to the overall vibe of cycling. What’s next seat-belts and helmets?

The Jet-Boil Camp Stove. Perfect design, easy use. French-Press Coffee As Well.

I survived with a Jet-Boil living in a tent, it’s value was never underappreciated. It boils water rapidly, heats soup, excellent for oatmeal, cleans-up fast, it’s light and packs away easily. Also a French-Press Coffee fitting purchased separately. Jet-Boil makes a few different models and sizes with a wide range of functionality throughout various models so have a look to find your best fit. Jet-Boil is the Go-Pro of camp stoves. A brilliantly designed product, cutting edge, reliable and priced righteously.

Bar-Ends On Your Mountain-Bike.

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Bar-ends add control, power, confidence and comfort.

I ride a Mountain-Bike on the roads now, with this handle-bars set-up. Comfortable and empowering providing more climbing power, more control cornering and more confidence with sketchy terrain especially crossing rail-road tracks. Acceleration and power increased as the bar end are in vertical alignment with your femurs, quads and hamstrings. It’s like having an extra gear or two instantly at your disposal.

Specialized makes a few lengths and curved bar-ends. Other manufactures make a number of varied shapes.

Cane Creek bar-ends are a bit more ergonomic and lower profile.

If you try this set-up I bet you’ll like it especially off road although once I took this bike on the smooth roads I haven’t gone back on the trail since. The speed was too alluring for me. This set-up is very fast and stable on the roads concrete bike trails and in the forest.

Try this set-up too add speed, stability and confidence.

I run these Schwalbe Big Apples size 29 x 2.35. Fast, durable, amazing cornering, haven’t had a flat in four years.

Stretching Yields Effortless, Pain-Free Cycling.

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I listen to this Mark Twain short story while stretching, it’s wonderful. You can find many rare cycling audio-books on YouTube all excellent for stretching. If you are not stretching thoroughly you are short changing your training efforts and risking injury.

Jack LaLanne pumps iron in the gym in his home in Hollywood, Calif.

Jack LaLanne who inspired television viewers to trim down and pump iron for decades before exercise became a national obsession. Mr. LaLanne, the original Fitness Guru once told me the best exercise equipment to use is the one you use. Same applies to stretching. You don’t have to be a Yoga Pro just stretch. The more you stretch the faster, farther, stronger and healthier you ride.

“The cyclist is a man half made of flesh and half of steel that only our century of science and iron could have spawned.”
19th-century author Louis Baudry de Saunier

The Need For Speed.

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I love going as fast as possible. If you enjoy speed, as I do, a few thoughts here. I struggle with carrying tools, tubes, pumps, CO2 or anything I really don’t need when it comes to speed. Some days I just want to ride as light a bike as possible. Me the bike a water bottle. No baggy clothing, skin-tight equals speed. Check your seat height, there is speed there if too low.

Golden, Colorado is my kind of cycling town, blessed with miles of silky fast concrete trails, mountain-bike trails and clean bike-lanes.

Mountain Trail heads in town will lead you into the foothills and beyond. Bike-Packing trips are possible in all directions. Golden’s weather is Golden. Having lived in New England where cold, wet and windy is cold, wet and windy. Golden and Colorado has cycling weather dialed in I find it perfect year round.

“Cycling is possibly the greatest and most pleasurable form of transport ever invented. Its like walking only with one-tenth of the effort. Ride through a city and you can understand its geography in a way that no motorist, contained by one-way signs and traffic jams, will ever be able to. You can whiz from one side to the other in minutes. You can overtake £250,000 sports cars that are going nowhere fast. You can park pretty much anywhere. It truly is one of the greatest feelings of freedom once can have in a metropolitan environment. It’s amazing you can feel this free in a modern city.”
Daniel Pemberton, The Book of Idle Pleasures

New Zealand Adventure.

NEW ZEALAND KNOWS HOW TOO HAVE FUN WHILE MAKING THE MOST OF ADRENALIN.

Motivation, What’s Yours? Rabbits.

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I confess, yes I ride with music in my ears, always have always will. Music is a significant motivational tool for me. Music dilutes the terrain, helps pacing and dis-associates the reality of hills. Riding inside the tracks often between drums and bass, a guitar-solo. Every time I step on the pedal that free feeling you start to glide, physically and metaphysically to another space rolling through nature with all you senses fully engaged and relaxed.

Sunny days, irresistible. The snow is magical, distinctly at night with a big moon. Sunrise, the first weeks of a season, the smells, leaves. Full-moons are in a class by themselves and my theory is the magnetic-pull of the full-moon makes riding easier on a steel-frame bike. It’s just a theory. Visualization’s power will influence physical reality.

Glad I got out this time, this was wild, riding along a concrete trail, wide, flat, I see a rabbit running back and forth across the trail thirty yards out. I approach said rabbit continues this scampering, then jumps from the left flying up hitting my right hand and bouncing off. Holy Monty-Python, Flying Rabbits at this time of day.

“One of the most important days of my life, was when I learned to ride a bicycle.”
Michael Palin

Hydraulic-Brakes, A Worthy Upgrade.

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Hydraulic Brakes are worth the coin. Shimano-Decore XT Hydraulic-Brake system was revolutionary for me, the delicate control and smooth contact between disc and pads is exceedingly impressive, feels like mind controlled brakes. Lightest touch applied yields a silky-smooth controlled deceleration from the highest possible speeds increasing confidence and control. The clean ascetics of hydraulic systems are preferable to wired-cable systems. Shift levers are low profile, light weight, beautifully designed like all Shimano products. These brakes function to perfection flawlessly and look great. If you have the budget hydraulic-brakes won’t disappoint, they are a worthy upgrade.

Shimano-Decor XT Hydraulic-Brakes.

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. ~ H.G. Wells

Hybrid Mountain 29er.

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This Versatile Mountain-Bike Is Very Stable and Fast.

I found this bike for $100.00, tricked-out like a Schwinn Banana Peeler, sissy bar, streamers and all. Money and time got me here. Stable at high speeds, stable over rail-road tracks, stable carrying a load. Stripped down with Max-PSI this 29er is faster than it weighs. What’s it weight? No idea. Outfitted with TOPEAK’s MTX-Cargo Bag 22.6 Liters you can transport plenty of groceries, laundry, camping gear. It’s an excellent set-up. TOPEAK manufactures fascinating design and functionality into their products. https://www.topeak.com/us/en/

Fausto Coppi

I thought of that while riding my bicycle.

Albert Einstein, in reference to the Theory of Relativity.