The VO Grand Cruz is cruising toward the 43rd RAGBRAI tour of Iowa. They'll be stopping in Denver and Omaha to show off our products. Check out the official Grand Cruz blog for details.
Lot's of folks have have asked for high quality 27" rims. I wasn't really sure if there was enough demand, but you kept asking. So we ordered a production run of our very popular PBP rim in 27" size.
The Dajia Shallow Drop bar is now available in 46cm width.
Another shipment of Rustines products has arrived from France. Patch kits, #1 and #2 size, are back in stock. as are some of the rubber bar plugs, grips, and white colored bungy cords. We should get a second shipment in a few weeks with the other items we're out of. Rustines products, especially patch kits are selling faster than we predicted. With the lead times and the factory being closed for vacation during August, we probably won't catch up on stocking until fall.
Finally, the New York Times has an interesting article about: The Bicycle and the Ride to Modern America. Worth reading
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8 comments:
LOL, I honestly believe that most of the folks who ride with clipless pedals don't really NEED them. But there's a lot of pressure from bike shops to use them.
I rode clipless 20 years ago. But these days, when I ride 3000 miles/year for transportation, I ride on platform pedals, and I do just fine, TYVM. :) And I've never fallen over at a stop light because I couldn't get my foot off my platform pedal in time. :)
I'm really happy that people love their clipless pedals. But they may not be the boost that the average cyclist REALLY thinks they need.
Your Gran Cru Sabot pedals grip my shoe (and my Birkenstocks) so well that it feels like I'm using clips.
Interesting video. I've also seen other research verifying that no one really pulls their pedals up on the upstroke of their pedaling but in reality just exerts less downward pressure on their pedals during the upstroke.
Another advantage I have found of riding with flat pedals is at intersections, red lights, stop signs etc., is being able to jockey in place much longer without fear of falling over due to not being able to unclip. More often than not I'm able to keep my feet on the pedals and speed away while others waste time and energy unclipping and clipping back in.
The one disadvantage is in shifting to a higher gear your feet may slip around on the pedal however with experience this too can be minimized or eliminated.
Not sure that was scientifically sound, but I can't say I care. The luxury of wearing normal shoes when I commute to work, ride to the store or go out at night makes clipless pedals seem silly. I thought maybe there was an advantage with racing (and there may be) and off-road riding, but I won plenty of BMX races a hundred years aho wearing slip-on Vans. Clipless are not for me.
Those rims would have been nice 5 years ago before I converted to 700c as my main issue was the stock steel rims. However, having done so and completed that particular project I have no real regrets about doing so as it did lead to me doing a complete resto-mod of that bike and as I keep telling my better half "At least I'm not doing it with cars!".
The bugaboo of 'not being able to unclip' is imagined. Clipless or not, the main consideration of a transport cyclist should be if their shoes are suitable for whatever the destination is.
I feel like the clip v. no-clip debate is solved (at least in my house) with more bikes. For riding "around town" - commuting and grocery-getting - I have bikes with platforms. When riding for exercise / serious riding, I have clipless pedals (mountain, road and cross bike). I like not having to think about keeping my foot on the pedal in hairy technical mtb sections or long grinds on the road bike. Putting my foot down quickly on the commuter when stopping at a light and on black ice is important around town, and platforms make this easier.
We can pedal whatever we want, and I don't care much if people use flats/clipped/clipless/etc. pedals.
Most pedals will work well enough in most circumstances, let's just leave to folks individual preferences.
However I do care that GCN or whoever did the pedal video have an amazing ignorance of empirical testing and data interpretation. Every time they do a test I cringe.
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