A few weeks ago a freshman who has been on a few of our MICA Cycling rides approached me about using some of my photos from the past few Baltimore Critical Mass-s. I’m really excited about the video he used them for so here’s some background on it :
Since Halloween 2008, there have been a handful of the rides here. There was March 09, unconfirmed reports of a tiny one in May, and not again until September. Last month for the Halloween Critical Mass, we had a huge turnout, and that’s where a lot of the footage for Clayton’s video came from. The ride was big enough that it lasted for 90+ minutes, and covered a lot of ground.
There are spots in the video that drag on for me, but the message is what’s important and I think Clayton really got it across. There’s also a black friday critical mass here this week. I won’t be around for it but word on the street says : relaxed and friendly. Less macho-shit than at the Halloween ride. Anyway, nice work sir! I especially like this shot from Downtown :
(I don’t think HD embedding works for the vid so click to watch it in HD on Vimeo)
I think Mark Cavendish is a better athlete than he is a bike racer. I can’t make sense of that for you so let’s move on to what Mark Cavendish can teach us about ‘winterizing’ our bikes. Winterization is great because you give money to your LBS to do things that are not especially complicated, and a lot of people will end up spending more money than they plan to, and this will happen once a year around the same time. I like it when LBS’s promote winterizing bikes because it can save you money and time in the long run.
Here’s a still from some video on youtube about ” Mark Cavendish at home”, basically a short look into how much more fun his life is than yours. His dog greets him when he gets home from his awesome ride and his wife doesn’t get pissed at him for starting to eat his dinner before she even sits down (near the end of the video). But Cavendish can also teach you about how to winterize your bike.
Start with the fenders – the SKS race blades are supposedly pretty awesome (and they come in white). I’ll be picking up a set of them at my LBS end of the week so if they’re terrible I strike this section from the record. Saddle bags are also great in the winter. Throw your patch kit / tubes in there and then you can fit more food in your pockets.
Cavendish also has a sizeable mud flap on the end of his rear fender. This is a probably an extra consideration for those who might be riding behind him for extended periods of time. I’m not sure if that his house on the right.
A full frame pump is perfectly normal for cold weather riding. The added weight isn’t going to hurt your ride, and using CO2 sucks even more when your hands are already cold (or numb). No idea what he’s attached to his scott, but zefal is a pretty good standby if your local shop carries them. I would advise staying away from the blackburn frame pumps – they don’t hold well without Velcro on both ends of the top tube from my experience.
When you put in frequent 6 hour rides all winter long, you have euro license to make adjustments and additions to your bike that would be totally anti-euro and evens stupid any other time of the year.
This is going to be a TOME of a post. I have not hit up this blogzorz with such vigor as I am about to do now in a while. I’m going to get the images in here like crazy, so be ready for that to load also. (Videos not uploaded yet, check post later tonight) (more…)
As of today, there’s a brand new bike lane on the right side of St. Paul Street from University Parkway to East 30th Street. It’s about 4-5 feet wide (it seems to thin out near 32nd street). Pictures and video to come..
