February 2012
2 posts
8 tags
Minus Fourteen Lake Loop
After yesterday’s ride up to Magglingen showed that singletrails were in no condition to be easily ridden uphill, I opted to ride a loop I almost never do - riding around Lake Biel. The lake has nothing interesting to offer for a mountain bike and on a road bike the loop is about as exciting as riding a home trainer. So in the past, this has never been a ride I ever considered...
5 tags
January 2012
6 posts
7 tags
Adding Speedy Weaponry
As January ended with lots of bad weather, time was better spent working on the bikes rather than riding them. The cyclocrosser had suffered the past few months and the last couple of rides in the wet and in the snow ultimately killed the last bit of shifting smoothness. As a singlespeeder, I have forgotten how shifter cables don’t like mud and water. The cyclocrosser painfully...
8 tags
Doing The Ebay Thing
Stem:Silver Thomson Elite, 1 1/8”, 5 deg. 120mm, 25.4mmFork:Pace RC31 C-Type, 420mm AC, 7 3/4” steerer, 1” dia.
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FiveFinger Run
After having spent the last three days on the saddle, twice on the cyclocross bike and once on the singlespeed, Sunday was a day to take it down a notch, do some laundry, vacuum and let my MacBook Pro process the video I stitched together with Saturday’s footage of the mountain bike ride to the top of the Chasseral. The laundry machine spit out the clothes in no time, the vacuum choked...
7 tags
DIY Replay XD1080 Camera Mount
Back in December 2010 I started looking around for an handy action cam mount. I found some rubber velcro mounts that are sold as flashlight holder for bikes. They work great to attach the Replay XD cam to a bike’s handlebar and seat tube. Velcro is the right thing as I want to be able to quickly change the cam on the trail without needing tools, but those simple mounts weren’t quite...
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California Trip 2011
A couple of vacation photos taken mostly by Geo.
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First Ride Of The Year
Christmas and New Year was spent in Sonoma County, a region I called home for a period of 10 years, to visit friends, shop and eat out a lot, go wine tasting, hang out and simply take a break from work together with my wife. It also happened to be a short break from cycling and this blog. Not entirely though, as I decided to rent a road bike for the last weekend and head out to revisit an old...
December 2011
2 posts
7 tags
Velcro Camera Mounts
When I bought a ReplayXD1080 action cam, I got a few high-quality mounts from Replay as well. While extremely well made, these mounts weren’t versatile enough to easily mount the cam to various locations on the bike nor to do it quickly out on the trail. Thanks to the Replay’s cylindrical shape - a form factor superior to any other cam on the market - suitable mounts were easy to...
7 tags
Shaky Shots
If I’d ride another brand’s cyclocross bike, I could have titled these pictures Shakin’ Stevens, but the four photos should be testament enough that my Focus Mares treats its rider to just as a shaky ride. These photos were the result of my ReplayXD1080 action cam accidentally being set to shoot photos instead of filming. First a bit upset about that silly mistake, it...
November 2011
10 posts
6 tags
fancyBox Update
Updated fancyBox to the latest, completely rewritten version 2. Integrated, extendable, responsive. With new transitions and pretty rounded corners and shadows thanks to CSS3. One heck of a fancyApp!
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US Road Fatalities 2001-2009
By UK based transport information specialists ITO World.
7 tags
One Man's Trash Is The Same Man's Goldmine
A few months ago, I converted my old Litespeed Ultimate to a singlespeed road bike to be used as commuter to work. Having only one gear, it added more fun to the daily commute through the city. The Shimano gruppo went on Ebay and some light and inexpensive Cane-Creek brake levers went on the handlebar. Converting my Fulcrum Racing 1 rear wheel was not as simple as slamming a King cog on it....
7 tags
Weekend Ride Report
Taking advantage of the fantastic fall weather currently coddling Switzerland, the past weekend turned out to be a busy cycling weekend where I managed to spend over 180 kilometers in the saddle.
Friday afternoon, I took all my gear to work to take off on a night ride right from the office. I climbed the paved road up to the Montagne de Romont for the first time as it was getting dark, then...
8 tags
Black & White Fulcrum Racing Zero Wheels
One item where Focus saved to keep the price of the Ultegra equipped Mares CX 2.0 low, are the inexpensive Fulcrum Racing 7 CX wheels. These wheels are sturdy, reliable wheels but at 1850 grams awfully weighty. When I bought the bike I knew that these would have to be replaced with a wheel set of the caliper of this racy cross bike. Initially, the idea was to ride the Racing 7 wheels...
5 tags
Yahoo Pipe For Strava
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I never used to keep track of my riding because it was too much work and essentially wasted time for no real value. That changed however when I discovered Strava. With my one-button GPS tracker, recording rides just requires a push of button at the start of a ride and switching it back off at the end of the ride. At home, I hook the little thingy up to my trusty MacBook Pro, transfer the...
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TwentyNiner.CH Jersey Submission #2
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Version #2 with a friendly message to the folks on baby-wheels.
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TwentyNiner.CH Jersey Design Contest
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Lazy day. Ironed clothes, went grocery shopping, then designed a bike jersey for the TwentyNiner Jersey Design Contest while listening to Blue Stahli.
9 tags
Black "Hogger" Down
We’re back into the time of the year where one has to mount bright, powerful light beams in order to enjoy a few hours on the saddle after office hours. Other than weekends, daylight will be something I’ll only see through my office window during the next couple of months. Time on the bike will be greatly reduced, but with a decent hill in my backyard (like every Swiss has to have)...
October 2011
6 posts
6 tags
GeoManGear Batteries Delivered
Back in 2009 I bought a Magicshine Racer’s Special from GeoManGear. The Racer’s Special came with a light, two batteries and a helmet mount. Early this year, a recall notice for the batteries landed in my mailbox. It said that my Magicshine batteries were a possible fire hazard and had instructions where to dispose of them. If I got a form signed by the recycling company that took...
8 tags
Feeds API, Nivo Gallery and Youtube Mashup
While web development had been my daily work at my previous job, the daily business at my current job rarely leaves any room to manage or even keep up to date the corporate website. While sales numbers are nowhere near what they were a few years ago, it seems nature of business to be so thinly staffed that there aren’t enough hours in a work day to spend time actually improving business,...
7 tags
Maiden Ride On The Focus Mares CX 2.0
On Tuesday I picked up a box with SRAM Red parts at the post office. As my local bike shop was just a few blocks down the street, I walked to the shop to see if they had news about the cyclocross bike I had ordered. Well, as I walked into the shop, my Focus Mares CX 2.0 was already standing fully assembled in the shop. Those Focus guys were fast. I gave the shop the SRAM Red parts that were...
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October's First Chilly Road Ride
As far as cycling goes, October has gone off a rather slow start. The days have now gotten too short to ride after work without a decent light and at the moment I have none. My Magicshine batteries had been recalled in the spring and I thought I’d have the replacements by fall. Well, we’re mid October and Geomangear has not been able to send me two new batteries yet. I ordered a full...
5 tags
“We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to...”
– From We Are The 99 Percent and the folks who Occupy Wall Street.
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September 2011
9 posts
6 tags
Rough Go Friday
The last day of a very busy cycling month needed to be worthily celebrated. And there was no better way than to climb a peak that I have not visited in more than a month, the Mont Sujet. Today’s ride was pretty special as it marks the first time I climbed this mountain on a road bike. I’m pretty sure that the mountain has not been visited by many skinny tires. It’s just more...
9 tags
Don't Crash Tuesday
Start:Place Centrale (1288m)Finish:Orvin (669m)Time:9 minutesBike:Neilpryde AlizeCamera:Replay XD1080Cast:Collideous, Fiona (cow #1), Tamara (cow #2)
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Les Gorges Du Pichoux
Today’s ride took me onto uncharted territory. In the morning I browsed maps online while drinking a cup of coffee. No, in fact it probably took me two cups until I figured out where I was going to ride. When I decide where to go, I have no idea how many kilometers such a ride is going to be nor how much climbing is going to be involved. If someone would ask me before the ride, the best...
8 tags
The Friday Fifty
Leaving the office an hour early on Fridays, leaves an hour more to ride. Now that the days are quickly getting shorter, it’s a valuable hour during which a few more miles can be ridden at daylight. Having recently received a package from Newbury Park, California containing a small Replay XD1080 action camera, I wanted to test that little gizmo out on the road. With it’s cylindrical...
6 tags
42nd Birthday Loop
It’s an office tradition to have the afternoon off on one’s birthday. My wife had to be out of town for work, but had placed an order for a birthday gift she knew I’d love - a sunny afternoon. Still a bit sore from the long run on Sunday, I grabbed the Alize for a ride through the Jura. I wanted to climb the Jeanbrenin pass, which I have not done recently, then cross the Mont...
7 tags
Garbage Bin Vs. Shopping List
This week’s ride stats came in a little short:
DayDateDistanceTotal ClimbMonday09/12/2011DNFn/aWednesday09/14/201144.7 km1’426 mFriday09/16/2011DNFn/a The two DNF required an online shop visit:
ItemTrash BinShopping CartVredestein Fortezza Tricomp22Road Tube 700x18-23c Presta2pack of 10 May next week be more fortunate.
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Monday Evening Out And Back
Back out on the same ride as last Friday. It was a lot chillier with a headwind during the whole climb. I beat my previous KOM by 5 minutes despite the wind thanks to the cooler temperatures. We’re heading into the season where knee and arm warmers will need to be stuffed into a jersey pocket, especially when riding after sunset. Love it! My engine runs much smoother at lower outside...
8 tags
Friday Evening Out And Back
Finished a long week at work and started a weekend on two wheels with an evening road climb up to Les Près d’Orvin and La Place Centrale where all pavement ends. A quick stop to instagram the above pic and return back to town the very same way. The Alize felt fast the way up and the way down - thanks to two madly spinning legs.
Distance:33.0km (20.5 miles)Elevation:1’672m...
August 2011
9 posts
5 tags
Old Road Bike Reborn
Purchased in 2000 and ridden many years on Sonoma County’s greatest roads, King Ridge, The Geysers, Sweetwater just to name a few. Later rolling across just as spectacular roads in the Swiss Jura, the Litespeed Ultimate has taken me on thousands of miles through beautiful places. Sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. This timeless piece of bike can proudly keep up with the latest...
4 tags
Alpine Hiking
Gym, riding, running, whatever. Nothing will prepare you for a hike in steep, difficult terrain. My legs are sore from hip to toe in places I didn’t know existed. Yesterday’s hike was a short excursions into a world I had not known. I’ve hiked and biked every local man- and animal-made trail, yet right in front of my door there’s a secret network of unofficial and...
6 tags
Le Sentier Des Falaises Et Des Echelles
It was a Sunday to be outside. Instead of hopping on a bike as usual, I grabbed a pair of grippy shoes as I don’t own a real pair of hiking shoes and left for an awesome hike not that far from home. I had a printed trail map, read a description of the trails and seen some photos on Hikr, so I had a bit of an idea of what I was up to. I left home and walked swiftly to the entrance of the...
9 tags
Test Driving Strava
Strava used to have limited ride uploads on their free accounts and they removed this limitation this week. All free accounts now have the ability to upload as many rides with no restrictions. I had taken a look at the site before, but didn’t sign up with the previous limitation in place. Seeing that the free accounts now have much more to offer, I decided to give it a whirl this week. I...
8 tags
Specialites TA Squale Chainring
Converting my old Litespeed Ultimate into a singlespeed road bike, it was time to retire my old FSA carbon cranks and ISIS bottom bracket and move on to an external BB and a more modern crankset. There was no question what cranks were going to be mounted - Rotor’s 3D+ cranks with a 30 mm aluminum spindle along with their BSA30 steel bottom bracket - beautiful Spanish CNC work. The...
7 tags
Friday After-Work Road Loop
The third ride this week and the second one on the road went up to the top of the Grenchenberg via Péry. It’s been hot, it’s been humid, it’s been wet from last night’s rain and it’s been good. Good until a wasp lodged itself between my open-finger glove and my left thumb, immediately stinging while I was going a good 60 kph downhill. What’s the...
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150 Google+ Invites
Not yet sure if I’ll be busy using yet another social media network as I think there’s too much of it already. But if anyone need’s an invite, here are a bunch. Feel free to grab yours.
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Short Vacation In Brazil
Flight with Lufthansa from Zürich to Frankfurt. A long wait to reach my gate for the Condor plane to Salvador, Bahia. It looked like half the airport wanted to board that same plane. Dropped into seat 34C only to switch to 40B so that a young couple could spend the next ten hours together. Spent the flight translating for the young French woman next to me. She didn’t speak a single German...
July 2011
5 posts
9 tags
Trip Preparations Interrupted
Today was spent with preparations for my upcoming trip to Bahia. I got my suitcases out and started packing T-shirts and shorts. I won’t be needing anything else. Bahia is in the winter. The forecast for next week is 23 degrees Celsius at night and 27 during the day. Temperatures at which I’d prefer to not even wear clothes. I managed to get everything into one suitcase which I dropped...
6 tags
Hopping Humps To The Doubs
There’s been a place I’ve been wanting to head to on a road bike and that’s Biaufond at the Doubs river between Switzerland and France. Today the weather was perfect for such long ride. It was sunny, the temperatures were mild and there was wind that got stronger with each hour passing. I had cereal with humongous Swiss blackberries for breakfast and ate a couple of Brazilian...
6 tags
Steel Is Real ...
… and lets you do a singlespeed wheel. The Fulcrum Racing 1 rear wheel on the good old Litespeed had an aluminum, 10 speed only freehub body with tall splines. Giving the Litespeed a new life as a singlespeed road bike, this freehub body was a problem. No singlespeed cog will fit onto the tall splines. Fortunately, Campagnolo makes a Hyperglide/SRAM compatible freehub body for the R1...
6 tags
Oops, I Did It Again
It should be common knowledge that all roads lead to the Chasseral. So it wasn’t an accident that I rode across this mountain pass again today. It was a sunny day and a cool breeze was keeping temperatures at a lovely level. I wanted to cover a couple of miles in unknown territory so before leaving home, I studied maps and decided to ride to Sonvillier. Out of Sonvillier I found a...
8 tags
Maiden Ride On The NeilPryde Alize
On Thursday evening, I took the Alize out for an out and back ride to the Place Centrale (1288m) just above Les Pres d’Orvin. All my road bikes up to now used to run Shimano shifters and pedals. The Alize is equipped with SRAM Red, Speedplay pedals, and Rotor Q-Rings. The handlebar position is higher, but with a seat post with setback and a slightly longer top tube I sit a bit more...
June 2011
13 posts
6 tags
A Few Observations About Building A NeilPryde...
As with almost every of my bikes, my NeilPryde Alize was built from ground up, first buying a frameset and then getting all the components along the way. I’ve done it the same way with the Niner One9 in 2006 and last year with the Air9 Carbon. The Alize built up nicely and it turned into a stunning road bike. Whenever you pick a bunch of components instead of buying a bike off the rack -...