New Gloves

With my commuting time increasing and summer temps rapidly approaching, its time for new gloves. I generally like gloves with some minimal padding, gel or extra layers of fabric material. I was using a pair of Pearl Izumi Aerator, or something like that. These gloves were light but the padding was terrible. There was a HUGE gel strip at the base of your palm that was too thick as well as a large gel pad at the base of the fingers, also to thick. The gel pad never really shrunk down over time and if the gloves were just a bit off and not fitted properly the gel pads were more of a nuisance than a benefit. However the space between the thumb and pointer finger did not wear out from riding on the hoods too much, an added bonus. A down fall of two other brands of gloves (Addidas and Sette) These full finger gloves were good for cooler days and warmer days. I wear full finger gloves becuase if you wipe out, picking gravel and sand out of your scrapes is not an enjoyable experience. Just a matter of personnal preference.

So this leads me to my latest acquisition. AXO - Kicker Full gloves. They retail on PricePoint for 9.95 right now. Price subject to change depending on what day you look at the website. These gloves are simple. The have a very light palm fabric that is thin, filled with breathable holes. There is ZERO padding....so you feel the bars and all the road vibrations 100% of the time. These gloves don't have a velco strap but rather they are the new slip-on-cuff style. I like that feature. Also each finger tip has PLENTY of silicon gripper material so your fingers stick to the levers easily. The two down sides i see to this glove are that you get what you pay for. A glove that will breath really well but not last that long. The palm material is thin and not reinforced on the high-contact areas and more importantly, where do i wipe by running nose? The Pearl Izumi's had a nice terry cloth section for booger collection, the AXO only have a synthetic leather peice that could be quit abrassive later on. However we will see how they stand up to the commute and weather. They are plain and easy on the eyes. Graphics and logos are not obtrusive. Maybe i'll get techinally advanced and take a picture and post it. Off for the weekend......

The daily Commute

Since i got two young chaos machines at home....the time to train let alone race is non-existant. My commute begins at 6:15am and i'm in the office by 7am...back out the door at 4:15 and home by 5/5:15 depending on traffic. Then its family time which is currently more important than training. I want to say that in a few years i'll get back into it when the chaos machines are older and off playing soccer and more independant. I do miss the racing, the preperation of the day before, the start line nerves, but I see the bigger picture and few years off maybe with some limited handfull of events will only make it that much better later on down the road

So the long of the short is...pedals. Right now I'm commuting on the Redline and or the Giant. Both of which have Crank Brother Candy SL pedals. The Cross bike and Road bike also share Crank Brother products. The Road pedals, Quattro SLs have been pretty awsome and smooth, no problems, however it is the Candy's that are crap. I have broken three pedals in less than 12 months. The tines just open up to much and won't accept the cleat. The spring slides out of place. Luckily crank brothers has decent customer service and will repair them for free ( i just pay shipping). I think there is problem with the design on the longevity of these pedals. I might have to save up and switch all bikes back over to Shimano XT pedals. I liked the platform of the pedal but the constant un-reliability of the product is wearing thin.

Hopefully i'll get my commute photo's up and you can enjoy those artistic masterpieces.

yupp...thats a bike and me riding it

*note the broken computer....not tight

daily rant

I'm just gonna rant today becuase i have nothing of cycling value to add, that, and i just looked at what was left of my 401K.
No accountability is what the bail-out amends to. Seriously, everyone from CEO all the way down to greedy mortgage broker and even the buyer should be held accountable. If you didn't make enough to pay for the mortgage in the first place, how did you think that some crafty mortgage plan was going to change that, for that, you are an idiot. For every step of my work I am held accountable, if I don't meet my obligations I am held accountable and these people need to be as well. They should never be allowed to work in the banking/mortgage industry again...hello Walmart, make them work for minimum wage.

I will never support any plan that just empties the general coffers, while bathing the top 5% of Americans in absurd wealth. Rewarding the wealthy for ruining the foundations of the economy, sounds great, for the wealthy. If I mess-up on my mortgage, I get no bailout, I loose my home; if the wealthy mess-up, they cry that is not their fault...BS
If the average taxpayer has to bail out dishonest Wall Street executives, they should pay us back when things are strong underfoot. Not a promise of future stability & jobs, actual pay back...results keep this country moving forward, promises are empty.
The avarice and greed of America's wealthy is single-handedly selling out this economy, our country, and their fellow citizens. Empty heros, selfish zeros. Wall Street must learn pride, respect, and faith, & remember who you have exploited to aquire your riches.
I won't even pursue this pearl of wisdom that has been added to the Bail-out "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." NO COURT OVERSIGHT....BS....In short, the so-called "mother of all bailouts," which will transfer $700 billion taxpayer dollars to purchase the distressed assets of several failed financial institutions, will be conducted in a manner unchallengeable by courts and ungovernable by the People's duly sworn representatives (The Huffingtonpost.com)...
Did you know that $700B could buy 2.3M houses at $300K per house? (I read this somewhere so it could be crap but it sounds good at the moment) At last count there were 310,000 houses in foreclosure in the US. Why not just buy them all? It would be a lot cheaper. Then buy all the new construction that's not selling. Still cheaper. Bulldoze half of them and the housing problem is solved.
The net result is we've bailed out people and builders, not Wall St

oh yeah...Bedford race this sunday....can't afford to make it up to VT..staying local..more time for sleeping in...NICE

oh and this is a nice visit http://www.buymyshitpile.com/

Two things that can make even a rainy day a good day. Good thing you can't read the cyclocomputer becuase it didn't register anything in the double digits...ahahah. Finally a shot of my favorite establishment...most have heard of ice cream rides, but those are for beginners...

Riding home the other day, I hit up the ballfields for a quick few laps to get some practice in, and before I knew it there was about 10 of us riding from goal post to goal post, running, carrying, it was a pretty impromptu. I realized that there are a few things i'm good at and a few that need improvement. After only 10 minutes of continous effort I know I have to work on running, dismounting, braking, pedaling, conditioning, you might say thats about everything, however there were a few positives....cursing, being slow, and going home to open a beer before the bike had even stopped rolling, i was really exceling in those areas of training. Amesbury....hmm....conditioning says no, but the stupid in me says yes. Maybe I'll take home the coveted and highly sought after DFL award. Which way to run Tufo Elite LPS's as a front tire, tread pattern backwards or forwards, i really don't have a clue...

ESC not riding excuse 124: The air was "chilly" so I didn't ride in

I give that one a 6 out of 10....

Last weekend I rode the squeeky pig (MTB) for a little bit and while most people go on ice cream rides, i went on a fried clam ride. Thats right, had to stop off at Yorks Best Roast Beef and Seafood on Rte 1. Their whole belly clams are perfect...however the ride home was pretty damn slow....which i then turned into an ice cream ride. hahaaha.

The Jamis has been renamed to "creamsicle." The Creamsicle made the ride to work today nice and smooth. THe ritchey wheels aren't too bad at soaking up the bumps. Pretty soon got to switch over to the mavics with the michelins jetts, just to help get around the plethora of slow roller bladers, joggers and other pathletes.