• Stuff We Like: The Dave Laptop Stand on Lifehacker: "The Dave (oh Ikea, you and your names!) features adjustable height and angle, and can double as a TV tray or simple end table when you're not computing. If you've been looking for a better way to surf the internet from the comfort of your couch, the $25 Dave might be just the ticket."
• Optimizing File Sharing on Your Home Wi-Fi Network on Web Worker Daily: "A lot of people who have successfully put in a Wi-Fi network neglect to optimize the way files are shared between computers in a home or workgroup. You can choose ways to organize shared files, and ensure that files are shared securely or not visible to other users on your Wi-Fi network very easily...." Good instructions on how to do this whether you have Windows or Macs
• StrechCordz Short Resistance Training Belt on Cool Tools: "The StrechCordz resistance training belt makes expensive, complex, "endless" pools obsolete. At one end of a 4-foot, black rubber tube is a nylon belt with a simple plastic snap-clip that slips around my waist. On the other end is a loop I attach to the deep-end ladder of our modest home pool. That's it... just tether up and start swimming. Swim as hard and fast as you like yet stay in place."
• Cycling Photography Tips: Shooting Head On on Spare Cycles: "Shooting head on is both difficult and easy: difficult in that the rider is moving at you very fast so your margin for error is very little, but easy in that you don't have to move your camera very much at all."
• Easter's early this year. Deal with it. on God Plays Dice: "...the cycle of Easter dates repeat themselves every 5,700,000 years. The cycle of epacts (which encode the date of the full moon) in the Julian calendar repeat every nineteen years. There are two corrections made to the epact, each of which depend only on the century; one repeats (modulo 30, which is what matters) every 120 centuries, the other every 375 centuries, so the air of them repeat every 300,000 years. The days of the week are on a 400-year cycle, which doesn't matter because that's a factor of 300,000. So the Easter cycle has length the least common multiple of 19 and 300,000, which is 5,700,000." [ via Slashdot ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Mac Automation: listen to a text document on TUAW: "Don't have time to read that Word, Pages, or TextEdit document at your desk? Why not listen to it on your iPod instead? In this Automator how-to, I am going to show you how to create an audio file using text that you have in an open document, then sync that using iTunes to your iPod or iPhone." This is similar to a how-to published in Macworld last month.
• Reliance Digital to Open 60 iStores Across India on Tech2.com: "Reliance Digital... plans to open 150 digital stores and 60 iStores or Apple stores across {India}. While {typical Reliance Digital} stores offer a wide range of consumer durables, iStores are exclusively for Apple's products for professional and consumer segments."
• Time Machine Now Works with Airport Extreme USB Drives on MacRumors.com: "After the release of today's Time Machine and Airport update, several readers report that Time Machine now supports backups to USB drives connected to your Airport Extreme basestation. This configuration essentially reproduces the functionality of Apple's Time Capsule product."
• Shimano buys clothing company Pearl Izumi from Nautilus on VeloNews: "Bringing premium sports apparel and footwear to its offering of industry-leading cycling and fishing products, Shimano has completed its purchase of DashAmerica, Inc. (dba Pearl Izumi USA, Inc.) from Nautilus, Inc." This actually happened a month ago, but I just noticed it.
• The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Protect your heart this season on VeloNews: This is a great article which focuses on eating the right kind of fats and other smart food choices as part of an athletic lifestyle.
• When to Stay With Windows in Mossberg's Mailbox on AllThingsD: Walt Mossberg talks about when it's OK to stay with Windows when upgrading home computers. A couple in their 70s asked if they should upgrade to a Mac although no family members have Macs, so family support wouldn't be available to them. He points out that it's OK to stay with Windows now, but the question will need to be re-evaluated sometime this sommer, when Microsoft stops selling Windows XP to OEMs for installation on new machines.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Amgen Tour of California began on Sunday with a Prologue time trial in Palo Alto.

One of the more intriguing developments is the return of veteran sprinter Mario Cipollini to the ranks of active professional cyclists after a three year retirement. Cipollini retired on May 7, 2005 after a ceremonial 1.1km time trial at the Giro d'Italia. He has now joined the upstart U.S. team called Rock Racing.

BikeRadar.com reports that Cipo's bike is not standard team issue and speculates on its componentry. They have a number of good photos of the bike. When I have covered pro cycling races in the past for Operation Gadget, I've always gone looking for the most unusual bikes, and this one certainly is.

I think the return of athletes like Mario Cipollini bodes well for the sport of pro cycling. It certainly needs some good news and some developments that take the focus away from the controversies surrounding testing for performance-enhancing drugs.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Top 7 Web Applications for Sending Large Files on Geekpreneur: "If you’ve ever had to send a large file to someone, you know the hardships that arise. Email services keep strict limits on attachment sizes. What’s more is that it’s often hard to send more than one attachment at a time. This kind of disservice has made email quite unpopular for sharing files- and thus, we have entered the age of hybrid email. The premise is simple: cut out the bulk, and just give us an easy way to send files over the internet!"

• Torvalds: Leopard file system "utter crap" on MacNN: "Linux creator Linus Torvalds recently blasted Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for having a file system that is 'complete and utter crap' at a Linux conference in Melbourne."

  The Leopard file system, technically known as HFS+, has been around in some form since the last time I was a Mac developer-- 1992. Of course Apple would like to move to something more robust. They've been building up to switch to ZFS, or some other sophisticated file system, for some time now.



• Turn Your Nokia Phone into a Wi-Fi Hotspot with JoikuSpot on Lifehacker: Who needs tethering when you can make your Series 60 phone into an ad hoc WiFi base station for your laptop? Wow.


• How to record a kickass podcast between two macs — and cheap! on A Whole Lotta Nothing: "A lot of people ask me how I do the MetaFilter Podcast.... I know they ... mean... 'what software and hardware does it take to make a decent sounding podcast?' After almost a year of regular podcasts and trying out different software and equipment, I’ve gotten the workflow down cold and I wanted to share the my way of making a good sounding podcast on the cheap. This works perfectly well for me being in Oregon and talking to my friend Jessamyn in Vermont over Skype, recording at both ends, then tossing it all into Garageband to complete the podcast." [ via 43Folders ]


• Nike SPARQ Parachute Makes You Run Faster, Eventually on Gizmodo: "The Nike SPARQ Parachute is designed to create drag 'to force athletes to push themselves harder to achieve speed' and look like a moron in Central Park." Can I use this thing on the ice sometime?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I never met Sheldon Brown, but I learned a great deal from him.

Sheldon developed a website, SheldonBrown.com, that had an incredible amount of technical information about bicycles and cycling. If I Googled for some information about one of my bikes, I often ended up consulting his site.

Sheldon passed away on Sunday, February 3, 2008, reportedly of a massive heart attack. May he rest in peace. [ via spare cycles and BikeRadar.com ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• RPI Plays Princeton tonight in the 31st Annual Big Red Freakout. RPI needs the win. In other news, the White beat the Red in the Alumni Game 9-8.
• Kipkay's Video Tips & Tricks on Instructables: "Here are 5 easy and cheap tricks for anyone who uses a camcorder. Total cost for all 5 is under $10!" [ via Lifehacker ]
• New Devices and Applications on the Wi-Fi Front on Web Worker Daily: "While many Mac-based users already have next-generation, draft 802.11n Wi-Fi technology in their homes (because they use Apple’s Airport Extreme routers) lots of other folks still use slower 802.11g Wi-Fi. This year is when official certification of 802.11n Wi-Fi is supposed to arrive, and the month of January brought some product announcements that point to what the widespread arrival of 802.11n technology might mean...."
• Review of the Nike Amp+ iPod Control Watch: "... the Amp+ isn't designed to be an all-around running or fitness watch. It's specifically designed for runners who already have the Nike + iPod kit. Similar to the Timex iControl we recently reviewed, the Nike Amp+ is a remote control for your iPod Nano, however unlike the Timex, the Nike Amp+ uses the existing Nike + iPod gadget that plugs into your iPod, so you're actually adding the iPod remote control to the Nike iPod system." [ via TUAW ]
• Crazy Apple Rumors on Hiatus on TUAW: CrazyAppleRumors.com is a site I just found out about recently. It's articles are what you might read in The Onion if they covered Apple more aggressively. Sorry to see it go dark.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sunday's New York Times had a terrific article about fighting a weight loss battle while working a full time job which resonates with me. What was most interesting was the fact that two of the three people profiled work at very athletically-oriented companies.

• Steve Madden, the editor of Bicycling and Mountain Bike magazines is 44 years old, 5-feet 10-inches tall, and weighs 198 pounds. In other words he's almost exactly my size.

  The shocker in this story is that Madden rode his bike 4,451 miles in 2007. No question that he could have journaled it all using a heart rate monitor like the one I use. How can you ride 85 miles per week, year round and not lose weight? I know. You eat what you want and never commit to a serious eating plan.

  There's no question that Madden is both fit and overweight, as I am at the moment. He demonstrates how far you can take this lifestyle as an amateur athlete.




• Marcello Aller, National Athletics Account Manager at Polar USA is 34 years old, 5-feet 8-inches tall, and weighs 218 pounds. He says:

  My colleagues think I look fine, but it’s become more of a challenge to become lean.... I’m not an endurance athlete, like a small cyclist or a runner. I have a typical, square football-player build. Sometimes it’s more difficult to regain a hard body; my metabolism has changed with age.

  Aller is an inch shorter than I am and weighs over 20 pounds more than I do. I weighed this much when I worked on Wall Street. He needs to realize that he'll have to both change his diet and work out in order to achieve the results he wants.

  I think a warning sign in his behavior is that he thinks his metabolism has changed at age 34. This may be the case to a small extent, but he'll do a lot better if he admits that the quantity and type of food he eats is a substantial part of the problem.

These two men work at athletic lifestyle companies where it should be easy for people to lose weight, keep the weight off, and stay in shape. Yet, it's obvious that doing the right things is not as easy as it should be. Most overweight people cannot lose weight by exercise alone. They have to watch what they eat and control the size of their meals and snacks. That's the key to achieving significant fitness and appearance goals.

I can completely relate to their situations. I can be an even better athlete if I have an eating plan. I made the commitment to plan what I eat again a couple of weeks ago. It's a struggle, but I hope to see the benefits by the end of the hockey season.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MacRumors reports that Garmin released a new beta version of their Bobcat GPS management tool for MacOS X. This beta of version 2.0 of the software includes the following features:

• transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes between a Mac and Garmin GPS device,
• manage maps and DRM keys for transfer to a Garmin GPS, and
• search for points of interest on the Mac and transfer the locations to your Garmin GPS.

It wasn't too long ago that Mac users would have to keep a PC around the house or spin up a PC emulator or virtual machine to take advantage of Garmin software. Bobcat looks like a serious product that can help you get the most out of your GPS or heart-rate monitor.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Gmail IMAP Change in 1.13 - Apple Phone Show on Apple Phone Show Blog: "The 1.13 upgrade to the iPhone automatically changes POP configured Gmail to IMAP...." I saw the change in folder arrangement on my iPhone after I updated the firmware, but I didn't realize the implications of it until I read about the switch to IMAP online.
• The new Favicons: Making Webclip icons for iPhone on SixApart ProNet: The professional developer website for Movable Type and TypePad posted the first explanation of how to make a custom icon for a website that will appear on the home screen of an iPhone or an iPod Touch. I already made a Webclip icon for RinkAtlas, a site whose logo lends itself to doing so.

• Forty years since Masterton's death on the Globe on Hockey Blog: "Masterton, 29 at the time, was checked by Larry Cahan and Ron Harris of the Oakland Seals, and hit his head on the ice after falling backwards. The game took place Jan. 13, 1968, in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Masterton died in hospital two days later due to a brain injury."

  "His death led to the lobbying of more widespread use of helmets, and a mandatory helmet rule was passed in the summer of 1979." Anyone playing ice hockey should pause for a moment and remember Bill Masterton. His unfortunate death began a series of rule changes and other protective measures that have made our sport much safer.



• Mini-Review: Amazon Kindle vs. Sony Reader on 37signals Signal vs Noise: "There are plenty of comprehensive reviews of the Kindle floating around so I don’t think we need another one. Instead, I’ll focus on comparing it with the Sony Reader."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Nike Amp+ Sport Remote Control has finally made it to the market, and iLounge has done a comprehensive review of it. Jeremy Horowitz writes:

It would be an understatement to call Nike’s Amp+ iPod nano Remote ($79) the coolest and most misunderstood iPod accessory introduced in the past year. The bracelet, which is sold in four colors—blue, green with orange, black with red, or black with graphite—is a watch, an iPod remote control, and a fashion statement. Give it a quick glance from a distance and you’d think it’s just an extra-wide Lance Armstrong LiveStrong wristband, but get up close and you begin to realize that Nike has crafted an understated and underpromoted work of design genius....

I think the Amp+ looks incredible. It's the kind of watch that I could see wearing once or twice a week, the same way I tend to wear my Polar S625x to work on days when I'm officiating hockey. I'd like to see the reaction from people in my office when they saw this watch on my wrist.

I wish that Apple and Nike would expand the availability of the Nike+ product stack to iPods other than the nano. How hard could it be to make that happen?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My father-in-law George Kuykendall pointed out an interesting article in The New York Times called The Bicycling Paradox: Fit Doesn’t Have to Mean Thin. It talks about the types of cyclists that go on European cycling trips that follow the route of The Tour de France and how older and/or heavier riders often turn out to be more successful than most people might expect. The article says:

... cycling is a lot more forgiving of body type and age than running. The best cyclists going up hills are those with the best weight-to-strength ratio, which generally means being thin and strong. But heavier cyclists go faster downhill. And being light does not help much on flat roads.

The article goes on to say that Dr. James Hagberg, a kinesiology professor at the University of Maryland, thinks that cycling is not as physically demanding as running. Anyone who uses a heart-rate monitor in their training can easily see this. There is a significant difference in average heart rate and estimated calories burned between running and cycling for 30 minutes.

This is a popular article in my office, where the all of the cyclists can more easily identify with Thor Hushovd than they can Michael Rasmussen, at least in terms of BMI .

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Delta Design Botticelli 4-Bike Rack
Price:

I'm three weeks into a new full time job. In order to get to work on-time, I need to leave the house by 7:45am. My son (who is about to celebrate his first birthday) goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:00pm, so the best time for me to exercise is before work.

I started running on weekdays beginning at 6:15am. I managed to get out on five days of each of the first two weeks, but I'm afraid of injury if I keep up this frequency.

I vastly prefer biking on a daily basis. The problem was that I had been keeping my Trek 1500 in the basement of my house, and my wife was dead set against me moving my bike in and out of the house before 7:00am.

The solution was for me to get a multi-bike stand for my garage. I chose the Delta Design Boticelli, a sturdy, free-standing rack with room for four bikes on it. The Boticelli was delivered by UPS yesterday, I assembled it in my garage last night, and I was out riding at 6:00am this morning.

This rack is seven feet (2.1 meters) tall when fully assembled. The stand has a two by three foot base (23 x 29" or 58 x 73 cm to be exact), which leads me to believe that it will never tip over, even though the stand will only normally hold three bikes when it's in our garage.

I think that the build quality of the Boticelli stand is very good. The stand came unassembled, but the installation instructions were very clear. Assembly was simple. All I had to do was put the powder coated pipes together and screw them together with eight hex screws. The package included the hex key that I needed, so assembly was an Ikea-like experience, although the instructions were clearer.

The Delta Boticelli is very compelling combination of space efficiency and clean design. It looks great in my garage. I'll probably bring it into my basement during the hockey season when we don't do much riding. The great thing about this rack is that it would also look fine in the living room of an apartment, if you were inclined to keep it there to show off your bikes.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My sister Julie Howson pointed out that Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James purchased a minority stake in bike manufacturer Cannondale, according to a report in The Cleveland Plain Dealer. James reportedly said, "Cannondale is one of the premier cycling companies in the industry.... Biking is an extremely important part of my training routine, and I like to invest in what I know."

LeBron James hosts King for Kids Bike-a-thon each year in Akron, a small city near Cleveland. Last year he rode a custom-made Cannondale in this event, and now uses that bike in his off-season training.

A photo gallery of the 2006 King for Kids Bike-a-thon is on the Cleveland Cavaliers' website. Most of the bikes ridden by NBA stars appear to be city bikes and hybrids rather than road bikes.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you live in an upper middle class or an even more exclusive area, you probably have neighbors who have a Toyota Prius or other types of hybrid automobiles. Most people know that these vehicles can run entirely on battery power under certain conditions, and in that situation, are extremely quiet.

An article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal entitled Blind Pedestrians Say Quiet Hybrids Pose Safety Threat got me thinking about my own safety when riding my road bike in this area. How am I supposed to know that a hybrid isn't overtaking me on a two-lane road if it's running on battery?

According to the article in The Wall Street Journal, the noise level of a Toyota Prius when accelerating under electric power is 53 decibels, while a conversation at home is about 50, and an operating vacuum cleaner is 70. If there's a cross or a head wind while I'm riding, it often limits my ability to hear vehicles behind me anyway. Think of the difficulty of hearing a hybrid approaching from behind you in those conditions.

Since people without subscriptions to the Journal will have difficulty reading this story, I'll quote the real-life scenario that begins the article, so you can see the real threat that is posed to blind people:

... Michael Osborn, a blind marketing consultant from Laguna Beach, Calif., and his guide dog, Hastings, were in the middle of an intersection one morning last April when the yellow Lab stopped short. Mr. Osborn took the cue and halted -- just in time to feel the breeze from a car passing right in front of them.

"Half an inch and it would have hit us ... it wasn't making any noise," says Mr. Osborn, 50, who has been blind for 12 years. Witnesses say the car was a Toyota Prius, a hybrid vehicle....

My conclusion after reading this article and thinking about the implications for cyclists, runners and in-line skaters wearing their iPods, and for children playing near residential streets, is that the auto manufacturing and insurance industries and public safety agencies need to study the points made by the advocacy organizations representing blind people. I think they are on to something that will be a bigger concern to the general public in the future.

If you are a cyclist, are you concerned about hybrid vehicles passing you when you are riding alone? How are you protecting yourself? Does this concern affect group rides as well? [ Subscription usually required to read articles in The Wall Street Journal ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

One of the more interesting articles I read this week was about The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team's use of custom orthotics with all of its riders. They are using custom fit technologies from eSoles Custom Footbeds, a technology that has existed previously and has been used by a few elite pro cyclists. Discovery is apparently the first ProTour team to employ this technology for all of its riders.

eSoles uses laser digitization as part of their orthotics fit process. As a result, the company can reproduce orthotics multiple times. This is a major advantage over other orthotics production techniques such as plaster casting. eSoles also maintains a database of shoe patterns, so that they can build orthotics for multiple shoe types from one fitting.

It's hard to say exactly why DCPCT management elected to fit all of its riders with eSoles orthotics. The article claims that custom orthotics improve biomechanical efficiency and reduce fatigue. What we don't know from this article is whether all of the team members also have custom-made cycling shoes.

Hockey players have benefitted from custom-made skates for a long time. I had custom-made skates at RPI and those skates were significantly more comfortable and less fatiguing than the off-the-rack skates that I have worn in recent years. Do elite cyclists get the same performance boost from custom-made shoes as hockey players do? If the Discovery riders are all wearing custom-made shoes, what percentage of the enhanced efficiency and comfort come from the shoes, and what percentage would come from custom orthotics?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Giro Atmos Livestrong Special Edition Racing Bike (Black/Yellow, Medium)
Price:

I just found out that Giro is planning to produce an authorized Livestrong Special Edition Atmos Cycling Helmet again for its 2007 model year. I love my Rudy Project Ayron Helmet, but the Livestrong Special Edition Atmos Helmet is one I'd wear in its place.

Giro will donate 5 percent of its proceeds from sale of these helmets to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

I already added this to my Wishlist at Amazon.com, so many people in my family will see it even if they don't buy it for me. The Giro ® Atmos Livestrong Edition Helmet is also available at the Discovery Channel Store and all sizes are in stock at this writing.

Technorati Tags: Livestrong, Giro Atmos, bike gear, Christmas gifts, Hanukkah gifts

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wii
Price:

The Wall Street Journal reports that quite a few Nintendo Wii owners are developing aches and pains as a result of playing Wii Sports (included with the Wii console), Rayman Raving Rabbids and other games that require a bit of physical exertion.

One of the more interesting aspects of the article is a link that the author posted to the Wii Experience Page, a collection of videos that show how volunteers reacted when confronted with playing Wii games for the first time.

I'd love to give some of these games a try, if only to see what a relatively well-conditioned person would experience after playing some of the movement-oriented games for a couple of hours. The big problem of course is, how do you get a Wii console for anything close to the list price?

I think the Wii is going to be a hit and will change the video game business because it's going to force competitors to include more movement in game play. Every movement-oriented game I've ever tried in arcades has been interesting. A few have been a real blast to play. I hope that we see more of these games in the future.

Technorati Tags: Wii, Nintendo Wii, Christmas gifts, Hanukkah gifts

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Step2Play is a game controller for the Sony PlayStation
that requires a young gamer to exercise while playing.
[ Photo: Oceana Trading ]

The BBC reported over the weekend that a British company called Oceana Trading has released a line of video game accessories that can be used to require exercise from kids who want to play video games. The Step2Play is an accessory for the Sony PlayStation that replaces a standard game controlller with a combination stepper and game controller.

The Step2Play is designed for people who weigh less than 150 pounds (68 kg), so it's clearly aimed at the kid segment of the gaming market. It appears to be sturdily designed. The unit itself weighs 19.5 pounds (8.9 kg).

I did a quick search around the Internet today to see if I could locate a retailer who is selling the Step2Play in America. So far I haven't found one. The company (that uses the tradename GymKids for this product line) appears to be marketing Step2Play and other exercise-oriented video game controllers direct to customers in the UK via the Internet. I'm not certain whether they will ship these products to the USA or not.

I've seen comments around the Internet about the Step2Play to the effect that products like it are a regrettable reflection on the sedentary nature of our society. I think video game accessories that require a level of physical activity are a fine idea, particularly if kids are not participating in organized athletics or spending a lot of time outdoors.

On the other hand, if you are a parent and haven't found an athletic activity that your child likes, you should keep looking and trying new things. Don't use gadgets like the Step2Play as a crutch.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Wall Street Journal reported today that prices of high end bicycles were likely to increase in cost from 5% to 25% this Fall as a result of increases in the price of aircraft-grade alumnium, titanium, and carbon fiber. The pressure is coming from increased demand for these materials in the aerospace and defense industries.

According to the article, some manufacturers are trying to hold the cost of these materials down to their largest customers, while passing a disproportionately large part of the increased costs on to sporting goods manufacturers. Bicycle manufacturers are being hit hard, as are golf club, hockey, and lacrosse stick manufacturers, and recreational boat builders.

Bike manufacturer Serotta Competition Bicycles has reportedly increased the price of its bikes by 12% in calendar year 2006, mainly due to increase in materials costs. [ Subscription required to read most articles in The Wall Street Journal ]

Technorati Tags: Serotta bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, fitness gadgets.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't know if this is true for you, but I always get more motivated to ride my bike during the Tour de France. I also worry a bit more about getting a flat or breaking my chain on the road because I don't have a team car following me.

BBC Sport published a nice review of basic bike maintenance that should be done on the compnents regularly. It's broken down into six categories:

• Cleaner (cleaning products to be used)
• Seat
• Handlebars
• Pedal
• Chain
• Wheel

I noticed that my rear wheel of my Trek 1500 was rubbing against the brake on my last ride, so I was worried that my wheel was getting out-of-true. This morning I checked it, found that the break assembly was pulled slightly to one side. This is easier to fix than it would be to true the wheel.

I gave my 1500 a long-overdue cleaning and lubed the chain, so I'm ready to ride today and over the weekend, if the opportunity presents itself. [ via LifeHacker ]

Technorati Tags: fitness gadgets, bike maintenance, Trek 1500.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Polar WearLink Coded Transmitter (Medium/XX-Large, Black)
Price: $54.95

As a fitness gadget maniac, I'm not supposed to admit this, but... I occasionally make mistakes when it comes to handling my gear. My latest mistake was damaging the battery cover on the Polar Wearlink Transmitter that I use with my Polar S-725 Heart Rate Monitor. This occurred for two reasons:

1. I failed to follow the care and maintenance instructions for the Wearlink Transmitter. In particular, I didn't "Wash and dry your transmitter after use," as directed by Polar. This resulted in a build up of crud around the battery cover which made opening the cover extremely difficult.
2. I attempted to force the battery cover to turn and stripped the threads that should allow the battery cover to turn like a screw.

If I had followed the first direction, I'm sure I wouldn't have stripped the threads.

There's no reason why I couldn't have gotten a second year out of the Wearlink Transmitter other than my laziness. The battery is easily serviceable, whether you do it yourself or send it back to Polar for them to perform the service. I wanted to do the service myself this time, since I sent my Polar S-710 and T-61 Transmitter back for Polar Service last time and wanted to see if doing the work myself resulted in a less satisfying experience. Doing the battery replacement myself on the Polar Wearlink Transmitter has certainly been less satisfying so far.

I think the key to not having this happen in the future is to make sure that the back of the transmitter is cleaned at least once a week. The battery cover is a good place to use an old toothbrush and some soapy water and do a little light scrubbing to keep that dried sweat from building up and making that cover impossible to turn.

Another thing I'd recommend to do it yourselfers is find a coin that fits the Wearlink Transmitter battery cover when the unit is new. I tried a U.S. quarter, a screw driver head, and several other implements in a fruitless attempt to open the cover. I think I needed something thicker and larger than a quarter. Maybe an old 50-cent piece or a Canadian One Dollar or Two Dollar Coin. Your milage may vary.

Technorati Tags: Polar S-725, Polar Wearlink, fitness gadgets.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Nike and Apple team up to create
a running computer that consists of
a pair of shoes, a motion sensor, and
an iPod nano.
[ Photo: Apple Computer, Inc. ]

On my son's birthday, Nike and Apple announced a collaboration that will initially allow a pair of Nike running shoes to talk wirelessly to an iPod nano. Over the long run they hope to expand the product line to include more products that bring fitness and entertainment together.

I would have loved to be there for this announcement because it was held in New York and because Lance Armstrong and elite marathoner Paula Radcliffe participated. I wondered how long it would take for Lance Armstrong's involvement in the New York Marathon to result in a marketing opportunity for one of his long-time sponsors. I guess this is the first.

What's cool about the Nike+iPod Sport Kit is that it will only cost $29. Nike and Apple both have other high margin products to sell you if you like the idea of using your iPod as a running computer.

Converting the nano into a running computer is a radical departure from the approach that Polar and Adidas are taking to equipment integration, and a lot of pretty serious runners could be swayed by it.

Technorati Tags: iPod nano, Nike iPod, running computer, fitness gadgets, Lance Armstrong.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Our friends at Cool Tools pointed out the Xtracycle FreeRadical rear wheel extender kit. This is a well-designed conversion for old, well built mountain bikes and hybrids that can help you haul lots of heavy and bulky gear with it.

The FreeRadical is available in 26-inch and 700cc versions, depending on the size of your bike's wheels.

The manufacturers feel that the FreeRadical can make a bicycle a viable alternative to a car for many errands around town. I think this would work for me if I was really focused on saving money. I work out of a home office and the town I live in-- Newtown, PA-- is very compact. There are two supermarkets, a Staples, a Bed Bath and Beyond, and an old-fashioned hardware store within a mile and a half.

I think 75 percent of our household errands could be accomplished on a bike with a FreeRadical attachment on it. It would be interesting to give this a try sometime. I could easily make the modifications to my trusty old Marin Bear Valley SE. It would give the bike a new purpose in its semi-retirement.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Brad Feld's Treadputer: Venture capitalist
Brad Feld added a 3.2-GHz IBM ThinkCentre
to his Vision Fitness T9450HRT Treadmill.
This lets him get his runs in while he's on
conference calls. [ Photo: Brad Feld ].

Brad Feld is a managing director at Mobius Venture Capital based in Boulder, Colorado. He challenges himself by running marathons, and has set a goal of running a marathon in every state in the nation within the next 10 years.

Around the beginning of the year he and his coworkers built a "treadputer", a fitness club-quality treadmill with a big, fast Windows PC, and three 19-inch LCD displays.

The amazing aspect of Brad's story is that he finds he can use his PC while walking and running on this treadmill. According to the article:

It turns out that the Treadputer is highly functional when I’m running, which enables me to do some of my longer runs during the day while I’m on a call rather than having to get up at 5am to get them in before the day starts....

When we first assembled the Treadputer, {a co-worker} was skeptical that I would be able to read the screen while walking and assumed that reading while running would be impossible. While the three monitor setup helps a lot, it was surprisingly easy to read while walking or running. We’re running all three monitors at their standard 1280x1024 resolution and haven’t juiced up the font sizes.

Brad's article includes more details about his treadputer's configuration, and what he's learned about typing and mouse / trackball use. I found it quite interesting.

At least one other person bent on improving his life has built a treadputer. Walking Guy has begun a blog discussing his experiences building and using his treadputer. He says he began this quest because he needed to take off at least 40 pounds but was stuck in front of a computer 80 to 100 hours a week. He has his treadputer setup and has already gotten himself mentioned in the Lifehacker Coolest Workspace Contest.

I wonder how many more treadputer setups already exist, and how many will be built now that these articles have appeared on the Internet? I'll have to start looking for "bikeputer" articles as well.

Technorati Tags: fitness gadgets, treadputer.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Delta Cezanne 4-Bike/Multi-Use Storage Rack
Price: $159.50

Ever since I got my Trek 1500 at Christmas, I've been looking for a bike rack that supports more than two bikes and can handle a lot of biking-related gear as well. Until then, Kathleen and I were a two-bike family: I rode a rock-solid Marin Bear Valley SE that probably had 25,000 miles on it, and she has a late model Trek mountain bike that was also a great investment.

We still have these bikes and all of the gear that goes with them. Now I'm adding appropriate road biking accessories, and there's a lot of gear spread out in the garage and the basement.

The bike rack I have my eye on is the Delta Cezanne Bike Gear Rack. It's a free-standing rack that can hold as many as six bikes, but more realistically would hold four. This would leave the center free for equipment stored in the baskets and jerseys and clothing hung from the center.

The reason I would strongly consider putting the Delta Cezanne Bike Gear Rack in the basement is because it could be used for clothes storage. I don't like to run my biking jerseys and shorts through the dryer. It would be easy for me to take them out of the washer and hang them on hangers from the center of the rack. This would also mean that I could store all of the bikes near the work bench in the basement, which is also the most logical place to locate my repair stand.

An arrangement like this would improve the organization of the garage and the basement, giving me more room to store other things and one less excuse to ask my wife, "Where did I leave my Polar Wearlink transmitter last night?"

Technorati Tags: fitness gadgets, Delta Cezanne Bike Rack, Trek 1500, Marin Bear Valley SE, Polar HRM.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Uniden BC92XLT Bearcat Handheld Scanner
Price: $99.99

Kevin Ward asked:

Do you have any ideas on listening to the "Radio Tour" Channel, 450.8875 MHz at the Ford Tour de Georgia? I am going to try a NASCAR type scanner from Radio Shack. The scanner I have will also decode the CTCSS quiet code so that I can listen in to the team chat when the peleton gets close. My only concern is that they may {use} digital and not analog.

Race radio is the frequency on which race officials broadcast the current race conditions, including leaders, injuries, accidents, and mechanical problems. The media listens to race radio in cars and at the media center near the finish line of each stage of the race. Web sites where you can read updated race status, such as the VeloNews Tour de Georgia Event Ticker, transcribe information from race radio.

Kevin is correct that the race organizers have chosen 450.8875 MHz for their race announcements.

Kevin, I'm sure you'll be fine with the radio you are using. I've looked into this, and the radios recommended for this type of listening are scanners like the Uniden BC92XLT Bearcat Handheld Scanner. This scanner has 200-channel storage capacity, which would be ideal for NASCAR races where every team uses a different two-way radio channel and the Nextel Cup and Busch Series are racing in the same, confined location.

You will need a lot fewer channels to listen to the Tour de Georgia race radio and the chatter between riders and their team cars. Each team will probably choose a separate frequency for communication, so there will probably be less than 30 channels in use.

A couple of years ago, I mentioned that the U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team (now the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team) used Alinco DJ-C5T two-way radios at the Tour de France. These are credit-card-sized radios that have transmit and receive capability. You can be sure that the riders are using similar radios to the DJ-C5T in the Tour de Georgia (maybe the DJ-C6E), but they will be tuned to frequencies that are legal for two-way communication in the United States.

Technorati Tags: Tour de Georgia, pro cycling, race radio, NASCAR, Nextel Cup, Busch Series.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hincapie's Trek in Pieces: The bike was built up
from a Trek 5200, with carefully-selected
components designed to make riding
over cobblestones easier. [ Photo: AFP via
VeloNews ]

TDFblog.com has an excellent report on Sunday's Paris-Roubaix Cycling Race. This race, often referred to by the nickname "Hell of the North", was exactly that for Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team rider George Hincapie. He crashed twice during the race, including a spectacular crash when the handle bars on his bike broke away from the front fork.

Frank Steele of TDFblog did some good research. He found a CyclingNews.com interview with Scott Daubert of Trek that discussed the bike Hincapie used in Paris-Roubaix. The bike was built up from a Trek 5200 with a number of special components. The steerer that broke was an anodized alumnium Bontrager model similar to the steerer on my new Trek 1500. The fork was an OCLV carbon fork similar to those Trek uses on high-end commuter bikes, but with "dimensions that are appropriate for Roubaix".

Trek issued a statement through ThePaceline.com announcing that it would investigate Hincapie's two Paris-Roubaix crashes by "bringing the fork and the bike back to the United States where they will receive a thorough evaluation."

After seeing the second crash on OLN, I can't believe that Trek feels that they need to reassure the cycling community about the integrity of their products. In non-race conditions, anytime a bike hits the pavement, it should be completely inspected for hidden damage. The accident which ended George Hincapie's 2006 Paris-Roubaix was almost certainly the result of damage from his first crash that could have been identified if he had stopped and changed to a backup bike.

I can certainly understand that Hincapie wanted to stay with the leaders after his first crash, and couldn't have known that his bike was as damaged as it was prior to the second crash. It's unfortunate that Trek has to defend itself this strenuously when one of its bikes is pushed beyond its limits. [ Free registration required to read articles on ThePaceline.com ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Garmin Edge 305HR+ GPS Navigator and Bicycle Computer with Heart Rate Monitor and Cadence Sensor
Price: $249.99

For years I've been a big Polar heart rate monitor fan. My Polar S-725x rides on the handlebars of my Trek 1500 everyday. But, recently, I've been looking at the Garmin Edge 305HR+ and I really think that it has a lot of potential as an alternative to pure cycling computers like the Polar CS200cad.

The Garmin Edge 305 is a feature-packed device with a large display. It includes a high sensitivity GPS receiver that's supposed to be a huge improvement over the early Garmin Forerunner fitness gadgets, a chest strap-based heart rate monitor, and speed and cadence sensors that you mount on your bike frame.

Garmin Training Center Software, which is their training journal product continues to improve. It's looking more and more like Polar Precision Performance Software plus basic GPS routing. My Garmin fitness gadget is a Forerunner 201, so I didn't get this version of Garmin Training Center with it, but I think I'm going to upgrade so I can do a head-to-head comparison of it with PPP.

I prefer wrist-mountable fitness gadgets because I participate in duathlons and officiate a lot of hockey, but if I were a bike-only athlete, I'd absolutely compare the Garmin Edge products to the Polar CS cycling computers.

Product Options: The Edge 305 is also available in an HRM-only model, the Garmin Edge 305HR, and a speed and cadence-only model, the Garmin Edge 305CAD.

Technorati Tags: Garmin Edge 305, Polar CS200, Garmin Training Center, Polar Precision Performance, fitness gadgets, cycling computers

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Janus Sandsgaard of Machine Culture emailed me on Friday to point out that Polar Precision Performance Software has been updated to add the following new features:

• Double-clicking on day row opens the Diary to Daily details page.
• Week count extended to max. 20 (Calendar Properties – General – Number of Weeks)
• Entire day note text shown if there are no exercises for the day.
• Team name added to Qu