Friday 25 February 2011

Ice Bike brought back some painful memories.

I went to my second show in the cycle industry this week in sunny Milton Keynes.  It's is called IceBike which as a name is only half true as there was no ice to be seen but there were a shed load of bikes.  The Guys from BikeRadar have put a ton of pictures up here.

Whilst I was touring the show floor I met the guys from Kryptonite who make the worlds toughest bicycle locks, so tough in fact that on some they offer a £1000 guarantee that it wont be broken.  When my beloved DMR Drone was stripped to the frame at Hook train station, it was secured to the bike rack with one of their locks.  I left it there all night in the hope they would come back get the frame and then I could claim £1000 back.  The next morning I returned to see the frame still locked in place with a slightly singed Kryptonite lock they had gone at it with a hammer and chisel and a blowtorch for a whole night and still had no joy.

I guess the moral of the story is that someone needs to invent a lock that attaches to every single removable component on your bike.

I have to say thanks to Madison for giving me a shiny new bike too

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Should they just legalise cheating?

"The Cheat" has certainly become a factor in most modern professional sports.  All the way from the histrionics of most players on the football field below is my favourite dive;


 To ball tampering in Cricket matches;


(*insert obvious testicle related pun here)

The most controversial cheats however are the athletes who take performance enhancing drugs.  (This does not include the professional Scottish cricketer who tested positive for ecstacy click here if you don't believe.)  It does however include Athletes like Dwayne Campbell and Ben Johnson. Do they ruin it for everyone else?

Finally there are those athletes who have turned cheating into an art form, they are the undoubted masters of the lame excuse (you can see the best here).  Doping accusations are so common place in modern professional cycling that they may as well just legalise it and be done.  I for one would pay good money to see a Steve Austin style bionic cyclist whizz by at 100mph.

Do you agree?

Monday 21 February 2011

Do Unboxing Videos work in every market

I have always been interested in how different media techniques work across different market sectors.  Most of my experience is in the Games and Technology markets where the unboxing video is king.  As I now work in the cycle sector I decided to challenge one of the team to shoot a credible unboxing video on a camera phone and get it up on you  tube.  He chose the product O'Neal Airtech Full Face Helmet, the location and wrote the script.  The results can be seen below;


I have to say that for someone with little video experience he did a very good job although it's not quite ready to post on BikeRadar just yet.  What do you think though do unboxing videos work in every market?

Thursday 10 February 2011

What are the best MountainBikes for under 1000?

I am a bit of a flabby internet geek.  Having spent the last 7 years of my carreer in the video games media business (yes that is a real job) I have decided to try my hand at something new.  I am now a publisher of not one but two cycling websites.

Small issue though is that the last bike I owned looked like this:


I am now 34 years old and have been reliably informed (by many friends) that I am a little to old for the new wave punk, skater boy look that I hold dear.  Also that the music I think of as new wave; PennyWise, The Offspring, Terrorvision, Blink 182 and early Green Day is decidedly old wave and considered by some to be retro.

This means that I need to move on and buy a new bike and apparently I can't have this one either;


So how much should a grown man of a certain age now spend on a mountain bike?  According to my colleagues and friends the answer is up to £2,000!!!  I have since done a little independent research and found a few mountian bikes for both gents and ladies that are under £1,000.  Some of the best can be found here Best Mountain Bikes under £1000

That only begs the question now of where to buy my shining new steed.  I am as yet undecided to I go for price (buy online) or service my local bike dealership.  I will be sure to let you know as I continue my apprenticeship in cycling.

"Seriously though who spends £2000 on a push bike?"