Incredible New Bike GPS/Power Meter/Cyclometer - Open Source

Jay tipped me off to this amazing, at least from a geek point of view new bike bit. A new company, Quark, has applied open source, and open standards to bike equipment, specifically power meters, GPS, heart rate monitors, and cyclometers. Quark has a crank spider that can replace the spider on many cranksets, including FSA, TruVativ, Cannondale, Rotor, and they're working on others. In the spider is a all the bits for power measurement, as well as a temperature range compensation mechanism to help deal with adjustments in measurement (I'm presuming for other things, unless that affects power measurement). It also has the new Ant +Four transmitter system. As they describe in the above video, this is "like bluetooth for bicycles." It's a new standard from Garmin, and is intended to be just like Bluetooth to transmit data between heart rate monitors, GPS, power meters, cyclometers, and so on. Very cool. Now, going further, they have a head unit, aka the cyclometer/computer part, that is pretty sick. It can be mounted portrait/veritcal or landscape/horizontal, has a nice big color screen, and does everything: GPS, power meter, usual cyclometer stuff, etc. But, the even crazier catch? It's Linux based, and completely open source! Ok, this is getting into the geeky part for sure, but what is so great about this is that it means anyone who wants can hack on it. They said there is an XML file that controls the layout of the display and what info is there, and more. Presumably given it's Linux and open source, you could go really wild with this, and completely modify the software. My hat is off to them, as this is really a big step forward in this part of the industry. So, even though most people wouldn't be hacking on it themselves, what you may find is that a whole cottage industry of mods will be available, allowing you to just download some new software or a new file, etc. and it will change the appearance or functionality of your unit. Good stuff.

In Case of Emergency...

Ever been in an emergency on the trail/slopes/water? I had an extremely bad bike crash in 1992 in Moab that had me ATV'ed and later helicoptered to a hospital. But, this story over on the Crooked Cog site, while not a life threatening injury, brings to light again what you can do in emergencies. In their case, they were lucky they had cell phone reception and could call 911, and even more lucky one of them had an iPhone with GPS enabled. When I lived in Northern California, cell phone reception in most of the places I rode and skied was pretty common, but here in Oregon it's incredibly rare to have cell phone reception. That combined with some past experiences, etc., recently prompted me to buy a SPOT Satellite Messenger. The SPOT is an inexpensive ($150) unit that ties into GPS and satellite communication. I've just started using it, and would like to get a few more rides under my belt before doing a review. Look for a review soon enough. And, while I'm at it, a special thanks to all the emergency and SAR people out there. It is amazing how often you're hearing about rescues, lost people, deaths, and other such scary or tragic situations these days. If it weren't for all the great folks helping, we'd be hearing a lot more bad news, so thanks to all those that help!

If I could run any retail business…

Matt told me about Mojo this evening, as we discussed my new espresso machine setup. ??One of my dreams for a while now, has been to open a combo high end bike shop and high end espresso cafe. ??Both would be done top notch - it wouldn't just be another bike shop that happened to have an espresso machine inside with untrained, or poorly trained baristas (aka the bike shop folks who've been told quickly to slap some coffee in the portafilter, and press a button, etc.). ??Anyway, this Mojo shop in San Francisco looks pretty close to what I'd want to do. ??Now I just have to make a zillion bucks first, so I can bankroll the shop, and know that I likely wouldn't actually make money running such a shop (Mojo might make it in a place like SF where there's a crapload of money, and good taste in coffee, but many other places it'd be tough). ??

Hut-to-Hut Mountain Bike System Opening for Mt. Hood

Back in 1995 I did the trip from Telluride to Moab. It is one of the best bike trips, vacations, and things I've done in my life. So, I was excited to see that there is a now.http://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Human Flying Squirrels

A friend sent this to me - video of what amounts to human flying squirrels. It's some guys in "wing suits" flying through the mountains. It's awesome, amazing, and pretty sick. You've got to wonder what the first time is like, as I'm guessing there is just no way to ease into this "sport"!

Hard Ride That Shouldn't Have Been

I sit here thrashed. Blown. Recovering. This, from a just shy of 2 hour road ride, 30 miles, 2000' of climbing. A route I've done many times. It was chilly, but I was dressed ok for it. Weather otherwise good. Bike in good order. Roads basically dry. Hadn't ridden for four days. Stomach/food situation, not so good I think. I hadn't realized that I left quite so "late" (11am). I hadn't eaten since breakfast, which was almost nil on protein to boot (which usually means it doesn't last me very well). I sucked a Clif Mojo bar down about 45 minutes in, and that helped. But, I probably should've had more in me I think. Kept a solid pace throughout the ride, especially after I realized how late I left and that I wasn't going to be even close to being home around noon-ish to have lunch with my wife and son. Regardless, it was a good ride, just feeling way more knackered than I would have expected. Of course, I tend to revel in that as well, so other than feeling a bit lazy at the moment, all in all, things are good.

Hans and Peaty’s Pub Crawl

Here's a great story and pictrues from Hans Rey and Steve Peat who did a "pub crawl" in Ireland, and threw in a bit of incredible riding. Check it out. The riding looks absolutely amazing (at least for those of us who love technical, rocky stuff - although the cliff stuff was pretty sketch). I'd love to do this trip.

Great, Hillarious Rock Climbing Report

A friend sent me a link to his freiends' trip report from a climb of the Fisher Towers. The report is pretty hillarious, featuring beer, bats(!), and some pictures. Enjoy.

Great, Cold Road Ride

Yesterday I did a great road ride, that was also very cold (which was mostly my fault). I headed out in the morning for a 40 miler. It was about 45 degrees when I left. I was dressed reasonably, except when doing long descents at 35-40mph! I had mapped out a route using Google Maps, but one roughly 4 mile chunk of my ride turned out to be a non-existant road! I should have used the Hybrid view in Google Maps to determine if the roads existed as looking at that I'm sure I would have second guessed it (the road does not show connecting, etc.). It didn't matter though, as the road I was on that I thought it forked off, continued to the same eventual point anyway. But, this particular road, is a 4 mile descent, and a good one at that, with sustained speeds of 35mph+ (I think I hit in the low 40mph's during the descent and I wasn't pedaling much, because I was freezing).I say the cold was my fault, because I didn't take a jacket. Dumb, but I thought I was set sufficiently, based on the ride I'd done the day before that was just about as cold, and where I was dressed a bit too warm. Yet this ride, I was wearing fleece-lined tights (day before had just knee warmers), Pearli Amfib shoe covers (day before none), and then a wind proof and fleece-lined vest (no vest day before). But, that long descent just froze me to the core. The temps were a bit lower than the day before, but still. It took me a good 20+ minutes to get relatively warm again, and for the rest of the ride I relished the climbs. But, it was an overall great riding day, and the ache the cold and decent mileage (for me) put in to my legs felt great. It has motivated me to do a 50 miler tomorrow (Saturday). I've made sure to check the roads with the Hybrid view in Google maps this time. Still some potential for bad, but these roads look more "major" (as far as country roads go :) Oh, and they aren't called "Foot Path", which I think was truly a foot path, and not a road.With the slight route deviation, the ride wound up being 38.3 miles, 3550' of climbing, and took about 2 hours 38 minutes. The most interesting bit from my cyclometer had to be the max percent grade that occurred during the ride: 18%! Wowzers. I know there are some steep sections along the way, but I think that is bogus. I've climbed up Blanton the steep way, and that seems to max out at about 16-17%, and I don't recall anything on yesterday's ride being as steep, but who knows. It's not exact either of course.

Great 29er Shirt

I am pretty tempted to order this shirt: 29 Inches and Rigid.

Tags: bike, 29er, clothing