Vacation

I'm going in vacation in Southern Europe until August 5th. Keep posted. Follow me on my trip at: www.jeanthibca.blogspot.com

Gaming Friday: Snake

One legged bike

Cannondale brought to us the Lefty, proving that symetry isn't needed to make a bike. Is it possible to also get rid of one chainstay? This prototype might be the answer. Benefit: the bike easily fold around the pivot for travel .

236 kph bike

Not a motorcycle, a hydrogen peroxyde rocket powered bicycle. Look at the video:
http://www.dailymotion.com/blog/video/273905?key=dplsx2l3q67dcwnljab5naxuaja7k2ct6ptlaw3n&play=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vmqca.qc.ca%2Fgroupedediscussion%2Fmessages%2F52953.html

Logo design

A good post about logo design from design observer: http://www.designobserver.com/archives/013873.html

Gaming Friday: Clownoid

Tour de Beauce results

This year winner is Valeriy KOBZARENKO from Navigator Insurance, the team that also won overall. Congradulations to all.

Cervelo R3 team

A week ago, I reviewed Cervelo's Soloist on June 12 nd saying that it wasn't the most confortable bike around, mostly because of its oval seatpost. Those wanting exceptionnal lightness and comfort should look at the R3. This bike have unbelivable thin seatstays that are designed to easily bend to give a comfortable ride. Don't be fooled, this bike is plenty stiff, thanks of massive squared downtube and chainstays. The manufacturer says that this is the best shape to resist lateral bending, compared to a round tube which is better to resist twisting. In their website, Cervelo criticized round tube as they are flexy laterally. This prove than only stupid persons don't change their mind since in their beginning, Cervelo promoted heavily round chainstays as they were stiffer than verticaly ovalized one. This isn't the most aerodynamic bike around, but I think that comfort is important for most of us, or for winning the bumpy Paris-Roubaix, as Castarella did this year on a R3.

Conference bike

17juin2006 004, originally uploaded by jeanthibca.

Seats 6 people face to face. Perfect for business meeting. I saw one in Amsterdam that the center of the bike was a beer tap!

Tour de Beauce

What a shame that I didn't provide coverage of the Tour de Beauce, which is held mainly in my hometown. The hilly Tour de Beauce is the second largest road bike race in America after the Tour de Georgia, although I think it's still the highest UCI ranked. They are now in stage 4 (out of 6) and I will provide uptodate coverage since now. Check the website: http://www.tourdebeauce.com/
Leader:

• 1st stage: KOBZARENKO,Valeriy
• 2nd stage: PARINUSSA, Stefan
  
• 3rd stage: PARINUSSA, Stefan
• 4th stage: coming when the race will finish!

Tour de Beauce

What a shame that I didn't provide coverage of the Tour de Beauce, which is held mainly in my hometown. The hilly Tour de Beauce is the second largest road bike race in America after the Tour de Georgia, although I think it's still the highest UCI ranked. They are now in stage 4 (out of 6) and I will provide uptodate coverage since now. Check the website: http://www.tourdebeauce.com/
Leader:

• 1st stage: KOBZARENKO,Valeriy
• 2nd stage: PARINUSSA, Stefan
  
• 3rd stage: PARINUSSA, Stefan
• 4th stage: coming when the race will finish!

Suspension simulation

Those who were impressed by my last post about a Java based bicycle CAD applet will have their mind completely blown by this suspension simulator. You can pick a template or draw from scratch your own full suspension design and then test it for things like bump compliance, chain feedback, brake squat... You can download the whole thing or working within your browser with a install. Amazing
http://fs-kinematics.igorion.com/index.jsp

Gaming Friday: Asteroids

Esay bike CAD

For those interested in bike designing, you should head to BikeCAD, a java applet enabling you to easily draw your own bike blueprint. Nice and easy. http://www.bikeforest.com/CAD/bikeCAD.html

New: ClusterMaps

This service analyses the IP address of those who visit this site and then add a dot on the map depending of where they are. You can now know where are the people interested by this blog. Enjoy!

Last Call

Knowing that I'm a racer, you can guess that I'm not the chopper style. This might change since I saw the Miele Last Call, made in my hometown by Procycle, Canada. While most chopper display a baroque like complexity, this one have just smooth, attractive curves. The website says that it was inspired by Italian design. www.procycle.com

Esay rider

This a clever system for the less physical and environementally friendly of us. Installing a two strokes engine now involve just changing a front wheel and swapping for water bottle for a gasoline filled one. It is said that it's less loud that it look, weight 12 pounds, add 1Hp and makes about 200 mpg. Althought I admire the design, 2 strokes engines no burned gases pollute so much that I would never recommend such device. Why not heading for an electric one?
photo: manufacurer website https://www.revopower.com/

Cervelo' Solosit Carbon

Admit it Cervelos are the lighest, stiffest, hottest bikes around. Not to mention having won the 2006 Giro and Paris-Roubaix! The soloist is one of the most amazing piece of rolling carbon I ever saw. All tubes are extensively aero-shaped, while still being so light than some setup oblige the racer to use heavier deep rimed aero wheels. The bottom bracket area is simply huge, as you can appreciate on the frame Ivan Basso is holding. This is the only consession the a full aero design that Cervelo maked. However, the company said that it don't distrurbe the air flow much, because it is already very disturbed by the crankset and the front wheel. This frame is so stiff and aerodynamical that some CSC racers use it for time-trial. (Which is quite surprising since these racers have a dedicated P3 TT machine!). At 5000$, frame-only, it is not for everyone. Those who don't want to spend as much for a bike than for a car so look at the Aluminium Soloist. Slightly heavier, but still very aero, it can become the ultimate TT or triathlon machine by reversing the oval shaped seatpost. It cost 1500$, but it's a real deal, since you get 2 top performing bikes for the price one! However, I heard that the oval seatpost don't give much, so it is the most confortable ride around.

Biomega's Brooklyn

Any cyclist interested in design would rush to Biomega's website. Their bikes are so innovative, it is breathtaking. They may have found THE solution for sand and snow cycling. Instead of using studded or very large 26'' tires (more about this later), they used sort of ATV tires with a BMX frame. The result is a very bad-ass looking bike, that would surely find a place in my garage. I live in Canada so this kind of bike may give me a new perspective of cycling in the snow. Picutres: Biomega's website

Twisted bike

The work of a twisted mind!

Gaming Friday: Space Invaders

Bicycle furniture

I was in Paris last weekend and I was pleased by the decoration of the hotel bar (Ibis Bercy). Much of the furniture were made of bicycle parts, not to mention that the staff wore jerseys. The bar name is ''Les six jours'' refering to the 6 days track race that was held at the beginning of the 20th century.

I think that local frame builder could build that kind of things, to reach prospects with artistic and low priced stuff. It would be a very credible offer since custom bicycles are also works of art and creativity. A foot in the door to sell them a brand new frame!

Gaming Friday: PacMan