Quick Release... Seat?

   Talk about a hard post to do research on. A standard Google search for "quick release seats" returns a lot of results like this:

Seat post clamp

   But we're after something different... a quick release seat. A little backstory...

   Using a quick release seat post in the city is a dangerous prospect. Seats are easy to steal, apparently easy to re-sell and your bike ends up like this, and you have the prospect of an uncomfortable ride home:

eeyikes

   In the interest of apparently complicating your bike, Red Dot has come out with a seat that comes off of the seat post. This would be safer since the seat is usually what thieves are after and the post is just collateral. Here's a couple shots of it their seat post:

Side shot

   You can see the quick release lever bar on the back of the seat post:

Close up

   I'm not sure that this makes things much easier. Seat position adjustment would be a hassle to reset every time you put your seat back on. Is carrying around this:

So much easier than this:

   At the risk of ending up like this:

   I think that the value in this lies in confusing would be thieves - they may think someone already stole your seat and move to the next bike.

Winter park Race #2 Report

   Saturday was the second race of the Epic Single Track series in Winter Park. This was the first actual race, not a dumb 'ol hillclimb. This was a shorter race at 18 miles, and not any terribly prolonged climbs. Here's what the course looked like:

Confusing.

   The race took a weird route that had us on the same trail twice near the beginning / end. It does't say much about me that I had didn't recognize a trail I was on an hour earlier. I only noticed it after looking at the map.

   This race I tried something new by using a GPS watch to track my distance. I used Natalie's Garmin Forerunner. It's great because you can customize what it shows you. I chose tome of day, elapsed time and distance:

Garmin

    I took the race profile form the WP site and figured out where the points of interest were:

Race profile

   Armed with this information, I was able to figure out where I wanted to push it and where to rest. I wrote these distances down on a piece of tape and stuck it to my bike like so:

Important distances

   The was helpful because I knew how long I had been riding and how far to go and all that. It could be distracting if you were too neurotic about checking, but it helped a lot with my limited amount of energy. And it seems to have helped:

Definitely not last place

   I am super stoked on this finish. The last race was pretty discouraging, and I came into this one determined to push myself harder and battle harder for position. That was easier on this course which featured some technical climbs, some fast descents and even a hairy water crossing. Looking forward to the next race a lot!

Friday WTF: You Want Reflectors? I Got Reflectors

   You're not going to miss this bike at night!

Reflected!

Big Cassettes and 1x10

   A popular build for mountain bikes recently has been to exchange the multiple chainrings for a single chainring, combined with a wide ratio rear cassette.

1x11 Drivetrain

    This reduces weight and complexity, and simplifies shifting. Initial reports are that this 1x11 system is great. It's simple, efficient, and reliable. It is even starting to show up stock on some 2015 models. All you need is to yank off your derailleur, get a chainring you like and put on a wide ratio cassette. The thing is, the new cassettes can be quite pricey!

Sram XX1 - $400

   SRAM is rumored to have a cheaper cassette coming out soon, but in the meantime, several companies have come out with alternatives to a whole new cassette. 

   First up is the Twenty6 cog. This cog comes in 40 and 42 tooth configurations and is the most common type of adaptor - remove one of your cogs from the middle of the cassette and slap this bad boy on the top. Usually it's the 14t or 16t that are removed. Retail: $95. 

Twenty6 40/42t cog

   The Ari cog is the same thing, $5 cheaper. You can see that both come with some machined ramps to help with the chain get from from the previous large cog onto this new monster cog.

Ari 40/42 cog

   Next is the OneUp Components. This one comes with a 16t cog to help smooth out the jump made by removing the 14 or 15 or whatever. It's also $90, and comes with another cog, so it seems like a good deal.

OneUp Components Cog and 16 Tooth spacer

   Finally, here's the Leonardi General Lee. This replaces the last three cogs on your cassette. It comes in at $160, which is approaching the cost of a whole new cassette. Some cassettes come with the last few cogs attached together, so this is meant to replace that whole set, all while smoothing out the jump to the largest cog.

Leonardi General Lee Cog

  All in all, these are great options for the economically minded, it will be great once some performance reviews start coming out. look out 1x11, here we all come!

Cool Bike Racks + Locking Tips

   Who want to lock their bike up to a boring old bike rack? Not me, no sir.  I only lock my bike to the finest and most creative of racks. Here are some of the finer racks around:

Guitar rack

'Bike' bike rack

Another 'bike' bike rack

Ladies rack

Potato masher rack

   Seems like a lot of civil designers are getting some freedom to be creative with their bike racks. I love it, who knows what we'll be locking to in 5 years.
   Regardless of the rack, it means nothing if you're doing a crap lock job. What is a good lock job? Three things:

1. Secure front wheel
2. Secure frame
3. Secure rear wheel

   Bonus thing:

1. Seat

   What this all means is that any part of your bike that comes off needs to be locked up. Here's a great way to use a U lock to keep the rear wheel and frame safe (the frame can't be removed over the wheel like this)

Rear wheel and frame secured

   This is a classic way to use a cable lock and a U lock together. The cable has the front wheel, and the U lock takes care of the rest. 

Hard to steal!

  Last but not least,  write down or take a picture of your bike's serial number. This is found under the bottom bracket, and is the best chance you have of getting your bike back if it's stolen.

Serial number location

Victor Bike

   This is a concept bicycle from Canadian designer Christophe Robillard. This bike has a craaaaazy set of tubes:

Single seat stay

Opposite chain stay

   This bike has a crazy cool design - there is a right (drive side) seat stay, and a left chain stay, and no seat tube!

8 Tubes

5 Tubes

   You want an animated GIF? Here you go!

Disco fever

   I do like that without a seat tube, you can jam that rear wheel right above the bottom bracket. The article here says that it requires less material - but as the commenters point out, you have to compensate elsewhere for the lack of support. Also, I think that that argument falls somewhat flat. There certainly isn't a movement for fewer bicycles due to a steel shortage. 

Winter Park Race #1 Race Report

   This season I'm racing the Epic Single Track series in Winter Park. This season I'm going to give a little race report after each race. The series kicked off last Saturday with the Excel Hill Climb.  We climbed from the base of Winter park to the top of Mary Jane.

   This is also my first race in the expert class. Here is my shiny new expert number plate:

404 seems lucky enough

   Around the start everyone was riding around warming up. The starting hill was a bit steeper than the rest of the course and everyone was eager to get over this part and into the meat of the climb

Warming up

   Here is a shot of the profile from Strava, pretty straightforward. Not a lot of places to rest in there.

Race profile

   ... as well as the map. The switchbacks were the steeper parts. There was one flat-ish spot about 4 miles in that was a good place to recover.

The route

   Last season this race went well and I took 4/11.  This season that was not the case.

It's going to be a long season.

   I rode about 30 seconds per mile slower this year compared to last. On the way up seeing my class ride away form me I found myself bargaining, "Hill climbs aren't my thing." "I didn't have enough time to warm up." "I'll regroup and catch them in a bit." things like that. The truth is that I should have grabbed the wheel of the last person to pass me and hung on until I bonked. Could I have ridden 5 minutes faster? Probably not, but I wasn't tired enough afterwards to feel good about this race.

   In any case, the foundation of my plan to lull the rest of the class into a false sense of security is well laid.

EDIT:
   Nothing like a bad finish Saturday to get you motivated to ride hard Monday: