I absolutely get that. Not a grasshopper, though. A praying mantis. And since you devour your opponents it seems appropriate...

Hmm. Now I think about it, I don't want to take that analogy too far.

I have been on the phone literally all day. And two more interviews to do.

On the bright side: I've talked to some interesting people today for sure. One girl is a competitive pole dancer in her spare time (not what you are thinking, more like a Cirque du Soleil type of thing). And one races cyclocross in Scotland where she is going to school. Of course I already emailed her pics of the bikes. :)

Have her email you pictures of her suffer face.

The pole dancer or the cyclist?

Pole dancer...but the entire pic. Then post her and we will critique.:D

Another program that I watched this week while I was sick was:

In Defense of Food

It's two hours and streaming for free on PBS for a limited time. Really reinforced some things that I believed and made me think about things I didn't know.

Are you a motorsports fan too? I don't have too many 1/43 scale diecast models but I have one of that car in the Le Mans long tail configuration. Of course, the color scheme, which strangely made a resurgence on bicycles, started with the John Wyer Ford GT40 team and their major underdog win at Le Mans in 1969.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=498624
I like BUMPs





p.s. Cleave, Michael Pollan is one of my favorite author's.

No, Mr. H is the motorsports fan.

A few years ago for Christmas, I got him tickets for the Monterey Motorsports Reunion, which is a weekend of racing classic cars, part of the Monterey car week. Its halfway between a car show and a race. I got us a campsite at Laguna Seca, so we were there for the whole thing, full immersion. I thought I was just going with him to be nice but it was a great event, I really enjoyed it. We even crashed the Maserati owners private party (pro tip: just waltz in like you own the place). ;)

Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion - Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

I decided that if I were to come into serious money, I would become a collector of race cars of the 1950s and early 60s. Stuff like this:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/x...75DB916B1B.jpg

And this:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/x...1CF01E03D8.jpg

Euskatel was great if you needed orange. Vastly underutilized color in the peleton.

50s through mid 80s was a fabulous era for both racing cars and motorcycles as long as you weren't the person racing them. Pretty much heroin addicted serial killer supermodels. But oh so pretty.

@Heathpack, what model is that Trek of yours, and how do you rate it? I'm considering buying a WSD bike as a birthday present and am starting to shop around.

Hey chasm... Bikes are an awkward present. If the person is really a cyclist they want to pick their own bike. If they are not, it's a guilt trip. If the bike doesn't fit it's a burden.

A gift certificate and offer to shop together might be better.

I'm speaking as the recipient, long ago, of a too big mountain bike.

Yes, I understand. I know the size pretty exactly, the worst that could happen there is a few mm on or off the stem. And this would be a substantial step up from her current ride, so I'm not afraid of her looking at it and thinking "but I really wanted a Venge" or something like that.

So while I might give exactly the same advice as you have, all things considered I feel pretty safe in risking it. But thanks, I appreciate the sentiment.

Such a grand and deadly era.

Cool sounds like you know what you are doing.

Mine is not a WSD. The frame is a 2013 Trek Madone 4 series. I bought it used from a kid who works in the LBS that I use for all my BMC-related stuff. LBS employees can take Trek courses to learn the product better and then buy frames etc at deeply discounted prices. So he got the frame and collected decent parts and put himself together a race bike, which he always intended to sell and get enough $ to roll into his next bike. Young kid, has no money, but he's smart and is leveraging what he's got into something more. I was happy because I got a nice bike for a really nice price.

I love this Madone. Its very different from the BMC, which is meant to be an endurance bike. I thought that was all marketing hype but the two bikes really do ride very differently. The BMC is very smooth and swoopy and comfortable. The Madone is a quick, light little thing, very nimble and responsive. Its perfect for riding with other people and responding to what's happening around you. Not as comfortable though for 50-60+ mile rides. I tend to do most of my interval workouts on the Madone, and short group rides. But the epic climbing rides or just really long days in the saddle, I always want to be on the BMC.

I rate each of my bikes 10/10. I really do love them all and each one does it's thing exactly as intended.

:)

Thanks HP. I'm pretty sure I want something more relaxing than that. The birthday in question isn't until June, but there are a lot of 2015 models being heavily discounted at present so I'm working my way through a lot of them.

The endurance/racer stuff isn't all hype, but it is often exaggerated, imo. My TCR is, of course "racing" geometry and it is certainly a quick-handling bike. But I''ve ridden many a century on it in decent comfort. And my custom steel was built with the slightly higher headtube typical of the endurance models. It's certainly superbly comfortable, but it handles so well (my centre of gravity is ever-so-slightly further forward than on the TCR) that I reckon I'd be at least as quick on it in a crit.

Snow here for the first time this winter. Rest day with cooking intervals. Mung bean and mushroom curry, I think...

@chasm54, I was relatively late to the carbon game and bought my first one in 2003. All of my road racing bikes have been carbon since 2006. I built up my 1990 Stowe Triad (full Columbus SL) a couple of years ago with newer (10-speed) components. I only rode steel road race bikes -- no touring bikes -- and I was always comfortable on them. After riding the Stowe a few times, I couldn't believe how harsh it was compared to any road bike that I'm using now. Had no desire to ride the Stowe again. Stripped it to build a road bike for my wife and sold the frame (finally) just before Christmas.

Moral of my story: Most any reputable carbon road race frame will ride more comfortably than any "classic" steel road race frame. (Not sure what that means for your purchasing decision but the thread title is shooting the...) :D

Haven't heard any of the newbies in my club complain about a harsh riding carbon frame like I used to hear in the steel bike era.

To me, fit and front end geometry are probably the most important factors in selecting a bike for someone. Have fun shopping.

Well, I agree with the last statement. And I'll almost certainly be buying her a carbon bike unless there's some killer deal on high-end alloy with carbon forks. But fwiw, I don't agree about the relationship between comfort and frame material. The nicest-riding bikes I've owned have been steel (one of them with carbon forks, admittedly) and the steel tourer I've just bought is another superbly comfortable machine. I don't conclude, however, that steel is "more comfortable" than carbon. All those steel bikes were set up for comfort, two being tourers and the road frame being custom built to specs discussed between me and the framebuilder. It would be disappointing if it weren't comfortable, and I'm quite sure a carbon frame with similar geometry would feel just as good. My carbon race bike is also a very comfortable ride, it's just more aggressive and so less relaxing.

In my experience the frame material matters least, after fit/geometry, forks, tyres, maybe even seatpost. But in this instance I'm buying for a regular bicycle commuter who's a latecomer to road bikes. It's looking like a slightly better than entry level woman-specific road bike like a 105-equipped Trek Silque or Giant Avail Advanced or similar. Nice carbon bikes. Not much steel available in that category, even if I wanted to go retro!

Incidentally, I see Giant have rebranded their women's bikes as "Liv". I think we'll see more of this marketing segmentation to distinguish their higher-end products too, like Toyota and Lexus and all that.

quoted for truth. An oil pan failure on a high rpm small block Chevy can be quite expensive in itself. When the battery is the only item of the now trashed vehicle that makes it through the speed traps even more so.

I've put this up before, but with all the discussion about cars, I thought I'd share that I like them, too. In fast, we had a "Fast n Loud" marathon at work yesterday. It's fun hanging with the boys and listening to them talk about cars!

Richard is a nice man. Yes, he had his arm around me. :p

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/...psef050a9d.jpg

I enjoy that guy.

Many don't know that he held the record for the NY to LA run, or the Cannonball Run, as some know it. It was recently broken, but it's still pretty cool.

Love that pic @sarals!

Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution by Richard Moore. Interesting book and has excellent insight into British racing, lottery funding, Brailsford and of course Chris Hoy. There is overlap with Hoy's autobiography.

Any big takeaways?

The Brits are very serious about their cycling as evidenced by having a full time psychiatrist on the management team.

The drug discussion was interesting as it related to...can a clean athlete win at the highest levels of competition?

Details and technology matter.

Also a very good read about training efforts and sports psychology, it's one of the book I recommend to all my athletes.

-Training should be as hard or harder than racing.

-If you spend time and effort developing an equipment and training plan for an event, you don't start changing things based on what you see others doing at that event. Stick with your plan and what you know works for you. Don't listen if your monkey says to change something because rider X is doing X. Post race is the time to asses and implement changes.

-No one is unbeatable.

I read this book upon your recommendation. Here's what I got out of it:

1. Everybody, even the mightiest cyclist, is insecure to some extent. You can gain a lot by realizing that and managing your own insecurities. (And strategically that means its pretty doable to get into someone else's head too.)
2. There are dozens of factors that contribute to success on the bike. Really successful cyclists are open to optimizing all of those factors.
3. Strong competition is a positive, it brings out good performances. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a nemesis to chase down.
4. Being smart and studying cycling is not "overthinking" it.
5. Always ride on Christmas Day. My only complaint about my training schedule is that two Christmases in a row now- no ride. I feel a little cheated. ;)