Getting back into the cycling game takes patience, perseverance and a will to control your own destiny. I was in the market for some cycling kit, so after a combination of asking around and doing my own research, I decided on Castelli clothing. They were the company that were going to help me re-establish myself as a premier ham-and-egger/poseur deluxe-I mean, inspire me to ride.
Castelli has an excellent reputation, second only to Assos in terms of quality but less expensive depending on where you make the purchase. The best prices that I've found were at Merlin Cycles in Great Britain. Added to their already low prices was the exclusion of the VAT (value added tax) that we Americans do not have to pay. That 20% savings, plus free shipping over a certain dollar amount purchased, adds up to more clothing and more savings. For anyone looking for a great deal, you can look these cats up on the internet.
Here is a list of all the stuff I bought during the winter-
1) Castelli Prologo V short-sleeve jersey (6)
2) Castelli Prologo V long-sleeve jersey (3)
3) Castelli Fondo jersey (1)
4) Castelli Puro jersey (1)
5) Castelli Mortirolo 4 jacket (2)
6) Castelli Endurance X2 bib shorts (2)
7) Castelli Free Aero Race bib shorts (2)
8) Castelli Omloop thermal bibshorts (2)
9) Castelli Thermoflex arm/leg/knee warmers (1 of each)
10) LAS helmet (white)
11) Sidi Genius 7 (white)
Castelli arm, leg, knee warmers and gloves-
Castelli bag and LAS helmet-
Castelli base layers-
Castelli bibshorts-
Sidi Genius 7 Cycling Shoes-
If you're going to get back into the game, do it in style and have your kit organized. No jersey from one company and bib shorts from another. Also, don't let the hoi polloi shame you out of purchasing high quality clothing from another company-that's right, Rapha. Their videos are corny and sometimes a bore to watch, but again catch them when they put stuff on sale and you'll do alright. Though I must say Castelli has the most comprehensive list of cycling apparel, so there really is no reason to go anywhere else.
The last part of this series will focus on the completed bike. Stay tuned.
Let's take a look at some gadgets that every 21st. century rider needs to look like a complete poseur-I mean, dedicated cyclist.
First off, a cell phone is crucial to get the various cycling gadgets up and running and coordinated with one another. The Samsung Galaxy J7 Refine is inexpensive and does exactly what I need it to do.
The Wahoo Elemnt cycling computer and GPS is arguably a better product than anything Garmin has put out, and it communicates well with the Favero Assioma power meter pedals. Then you have the Wahoo Tickrx heart rate monitor that will send the info it collects right to the Wahoo Elemnt so you can monitor yourself as you blow the fuck up and are left for dead by the rest of the riders in your respective group.
The Wahoo Elemnt quarter turn mount adapter makes the computer/GPS compatible with the Garmin Edge stem mount that goes with the 3T Integra stem. It is necessary to mount the Wahoo on this particular stem, which is what the stem was made for.
Ray Long has published the most comprehensive set of yoga books currently on the market. The drawings are anatomically correct and meticulously done. It is also a step-by-step manual into the ways particular sets of muscles are stretched depending on pose. You're not going to find anything better than this series of books for yoga.
Here are various gadgets to aid in your yoga/stretch/recovery sessions. The black box contains an ice pack from a company that makes excellent products-
This is where we get even more creative. In the photo below we have the Garmin Vivoactive 3 watch, which tells you everything you need to know, and it's great for tracking heart rate and total steps taken during the course of a particular activity or for the whole day.
Next we have the Perfect Ab Carver Pro which comes with detachable handles, and a portable back massager (the contraption with the blue balls) when your muscles get tight from riding in an aerodynamic position. The rest are various rollers for different parts of the body.
For more intense recovery, you could get the TimTam percussion massager ($199),the Hyperice Hypervolt (($349.99), the RXGun ($399.99) or the Theragun ($600),which is nothing but a Workx 20v jigsaw with 5 attachments. The other three are nothing but bootleg copies of the Workx, which retails for $69.99. You can get the attachments that are pictured on Ebay without having to retrofit any of the parts. Then you have the Ryobi car buffer, which can be used for deep tissue massage. The youtube videos will explain in detail why you should purchase these power tools to aid in recovery-
This video shows the Ryobi car buffer in action. Also shown is a Ryobi jigsaw retrofitted for use as a deep tissue massager.
A better idea is to get the Workx jigsaw and get the attachemnts from Ebay that require absolutely no retrofitting. Just pop the attachment in question in and you're good to go.
If all this is not enough, the next two contraptions are for the seriously dedicated/hardcore athlete-
1) Compex Wireless 2.0 Muscle Stimulator Kit w/TENS. This is both a muscle simulator and a muscle recovery tool. The eight individual pods are wireless, and believe me that makes a huge difference in terms of convenience. It has other features that makes this the best in it's class. Catch it when Compex has them on sale and you will not regret it.
2) The Air Relax compression system. If you're a cyclist you've seen these before. Or maybe you haven't. There are more expensive brands out there, but this one is the most inexpensive in relation to what you get. For less than a grand, you have the air compression unit, a pair of white foot massagers, right and left leg sleeves that have four chambers from feet to the upper thighs, and shorts that deliver dynamic compression covering the quads, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, lower back and abductors. The arm sleeve is self-explanatory. It's for the arms. You only get one because it's not a good idea to do both at the same time, though there will always be some fucking idiot out there who will purposely not follow the instructions and then sue the company if something goes wrong.
If you're in the market for an air compression system, this one is impossible to beat in terms of both price and quality. Don't think that if you spend more money you'll get a much better product. That is simply not true. You could always pay $3545 for the Normatec Pulse Pro 2.0 if you got it like that, but if you don't the Air Relax system is the move you need to make.
(I forgot to mention two invaluable peaces of equipment-a good, solid massage table and the Teeter FitSpine Inversion table. Spine decompression relieves back pain, especially for cyclists who spend the majority of their riding time hunched over the handlebars. Photos to follow.)
Part III will feature the type of clothing you'll need to avoid looking like a right wanker. If you are the one constantly getting dropped like an anchor as soon as the road tilts that slightest bit upwards, might as well get dropped in style.
I've been off the bike for quite a number of years and felt the time was right to join the ranks of the deluded pack jelly motherfuckers who think they're Chris Froome just because they can beat you up a hill.. When the weather was nice, I thought of those long mountain passages of the Tour de France and the snow-covered peaks of the Giro D'Italia. Every time the weather was cloudy and cool, I thought of the Ardennes Classics with their short, sharp and steeps climbs. I thought of the racers, who are insanely fit. I thought of the cutting edge equipment they use and how much I enjoyed researching the newest technology. Slowly but surely I began the process of re-joining the peloton. Here is the journey.
The heads of state, 1993 Tour de France-
I decided to purchase another road frame. Realistically I didn't need one. I just I said "Fuck It" and did so. I've found something to like about all of the frame materials (never rode steel), but there were limitations to consider. Today's carbon frames today are cost prohibitive. As for aluminum, I've always been annoyed at how North American frame builders don't bother to sand the welds. Those thick, industrial welds told me that the frame builder either couldn't be bothered or he figured no one cares so why go the extra mile. And they look absolutely hideous.
I have ridden titanium in the past, and felt if I could make a few changes to the geometry I would be happy. Aesthetically, no one did titanium road frames like Litespeed back in the day. They shaped all the tubes of the frame to the point where it looked like you were riding a rocket ship. Alas, the company split into two different entities (Litespeed and Lynskey) and Litespeed no longer offers custom frames. So I decided on a custom Lynskey R480.
With Lynskey, there were details like tube shaping, bottom bracket size and internal cable routing that were not possible. That was fine with me because those types of changes were superfluous to the quality of the frame. Why would I go through all this and not get exactly what I want? Well, no other titanium manufacturer come close in terms of quality and price. The bottom line is the price for the Lynskey was absolutely mind-blowing for what I was getting. So the trigger was pulled and the process started.
The infamous 1-2-3 finish of the Gewiss team at La Fleche Wallone, 1994-
As for the geometry, here are the basic specs-
1) 54cm seat tube, 55cm top tube.
2) 72.5 degree seat tube angle, 73 degree head tube angle.
3) 4.3 mm fork rake.
4) Seatstay length 41.5cm.
One can accuse me of being a retro grouch, as I firmly believe that the 1990's was the best time for cycling; both the racing and the technology. I do not like sloping top tubes, off the rack geometry or disc brakes. And the fragility of carbon doesn't interest me. One crack in the wrong place and you have to dismantle the frame, send it somewhere for repair, have it shipped back and build it back up. Not what I want to deal with unless I had another frame ready to go and would not miss any quality riding time. Even then it all sounds like a monumental pain in the ass. I'll do a carbon frame some other time.
I didn't care about the weight of the frame and never asked about it. It certainly wasn't going to compete with carbon, nor was it ever meant to be. I wanted a frame that fit my needs and was impervious to the latest fads; a frame that would not go out of style in three months. I looked into another aluminum frame from Cyfac, but alas communication issues rendered that moot.
The bare frame is pictured below. It is currently at Horse Cycles Paint Shop in Brooklyn, NY and will be back very soon if everything goes as planned. The only items missing is the seat and the handlebars. I took the measurements wrong and was sent a pair that were too big. Funny thing-I went to UPS, as they were the original shipper. The cost was $374 and loads of paperwork that I did not know tI had to fill out. I went to my local USPS and they charged me a little over $38 dollars. It may take a few weeks to get to Italy, but at least I didn't have to pay that much money (relatively speaking) to send it back.
Here are a few pics of the Lynskey custom frame when it first arrived*- *click on photos to enlarge
Notice the buttery smoothness of the welds-
This is not the finished product. I am waiting for the painter to do his thing, and then all I need to do is have a mechanic build it up. Next up will be the gadgets one needs to recover after a long, hard ride.
I've said it a million times-street basketball is dead, and the AAU circuit has effectively killed it. There is no longer room for cats like the recently departed Rodney Parker (of "Heaven is a Playground" fame) to roam the parks of NYC in the summertime, looking for that diamond-in-the-rough kid who, with a bit of polishing and some creative accounting with the high school transcript, can get a scholarship to a junior college in the middle of nowhere and hopefully get some semblance of an education before inevitably failing out and coming back home more of a loser than when he left.
As it is now, the AAU circuit has undermined the street hustlers and flesh peddlers that thrived in the shadows. That whole world has been replaced by shoe company reps, over-eager parents, and AAU coaches who control access to the kids they wish to make their fame on. The money is huge, and the pressure to get a piece of that cake is an immense incentive to cheat. The fiasco at Louisville and ex-coach Rick Pitino was just one example of the sordidness that accompanies the pressure to secure that one program-changing basketball prodigy.
What this guy was thinking of doing with all this hardware I have no idea. Was he planning a school massacre? Was he looking to take on Negan and the Saviors from "The Waling Dead"? It's certainly clear that he and his younger cousin who was busted alongside him were riding hard on the Dylan Klebold tip. Recently his no-talent younger brother Ethan held a press conference that no one attended and announced that he ws forgoing his senior season at Bison Testicles State College to go to the NBA. He then retracted his statement when he realized there was NO interest.
Funny enough, Stephon Marbury has a brother who posted some youtube videos of his training sessions. He's another special-ed jackass thinking he has a shot at the league. He had the audacity to claim that he's better than Steph. After peeping the videos, it's fair to say that you don't have to be a talent scout to realize this guy needs to take a Boar's Head course in deli management and catering, because making sandwiches at some dusty bodega in Coney Island is going to be the height of his career trajectory.
Which begs the question-what the fuck is wrong with these retards? I remember Lincoln High Schools' then-athletic director Renan Ebeid telling the cameras for the reality show "City Hardwood", in reference to Sebastian's younger brother Ethan, that "it's tough being a Telfair, you know, when you come from money..." Money has nothing to do with how these particular people behave. The Telfairs and the Marburys come from a long line of underachieving on the basketball court and overachieving in self-destructive and typical ghetto-ass behavior. The money just made their collective dysfunction that much more glaring.
Here is the problem. The AAU circus has made flesh peddlers and pimps out of motherfuckers that should be coaching basketball at their respective levels. But because of the obscene amounts of money involved, these jackals forcibly become father figures and advisers to players who are easy prey if they come from broken homes where the father is nowhere to be found. They do this with one goal in mind-to get that money from sponsors by recruiting as many blue-chip prospects as possible to their AAU squads and selling them to whatever D-I school will have them. The competition is fierce, and this shit has trickled down to fucking middle school.
If you've seen some AAU tournaments on youtube, you'll see teams with names like "Future Phenoms" and "New World All-Stars". These teams have travel expenses and tournament fees paid by their sponsors, with the proviso that the spigot will be turned off if they don't win and if they don't feature top D-I potential talent. The games themselves are boring and pathetic, with the top players on each teasm hogging the limelight while everyone else watches. The coaches don't call plays, they just spend the whole game yelling at the refs and cursing at the players, and if the players aren't trying to dunk they are indiscriminately chucking three-pointers.
The players are bombarded with the type of attention usually reserved for professional athletes. It is not uncommon to see pro players in the stands checking out the latest gonna-be all-time great. And with the pros come the paparazzi and the hoochies. If a top-ranked player doesn't have a ready for youtube "mix tape", which consists of humiliating crossover dribbles where their opponent winds up on the floor, dunks, or any other type of flashy play, they are already late to the party. Let's watch former pro player Jason "White Chocolate" Williams' 10 year old son in a game with other kids his age while grown adults record the antics on their cellphones and ask for his autograph after the game. Real healthy for the kids' self-esteem.
People have a way of ruining EVERYTHING, and if this year's NCAA tournament is any indication, is that beneath all the flash of the AAU circuit, the product coming out the other end is absolute garbage. And young black males are getting fucked over. What happens when you don't make it and have to go out into the real world and find meaningful employment? They cannot go back for help from the assholes who exploited them, because they don't want to be associated with cats who didn't make it. They only find out their degrees (if they manage to graduate) are worth nothing when they are asked to fill out an employment application and the only thing they can put down that they did was play basketball.
Young black males are getting screwed over by a system where everyone gets paid except for the athletes. No one ever went to a basketball game to watch the coach, though I would say there was an exception made for Bobby Knight. He was definitely box office, but for all the wrong reasons.
