There’s things going on here on my blog. Spanking new adres, it’s www.bikeblog.nl from now on. The name ‘Sunday Jen’ will disappear I’m affraid. And there’s the new look ofcourse! For the techies among you: it’s a customized css style for the WordPress theme K2 RC3, based on AdAdvantage. There’s still some tweaking done behind the scene’s, hopefully won’t bother you. And I’ll be adding general bike news in the sidebar in the future. Hope you’ll like my new place!
All posts in recent
Brilliance always comes late
Yesterday I finally got around to visit the Filthy Trails, and I brought the Bright.nl/crashcourse crew with me. Host Linda Hakeboom took a crash course freeriding. This wednesday you’ll see the result of her first even mountainbike experience. Big kudo’s ofcourse for that being freeride! In the clip I’ll show Linda some skills and I try to vent some intelligent speak on the subject freeriding. On my way home ofcourse I thought of the smart and funny things to say. Here’s a pic taken by Filthy Trails-builer Styles: the cameraguy ducks away, in an atempt to get some action footage. By the way, the Filthy Trails are awesome trails, wonderfully constructed. Three lines so far, each with some nice jumps, berms or northshore bits to entertain yourself with.
The renewal of Pinkbike.com
Did you guys have the chance to take a good look at the new Pinkbike.com? It’s kinda awesome! Apart from a better organized homepage, they’ve now embraced the community-thought. It’s possible to add users as a friend. Allowing you to follow their photo or video-stream. Yeah, you read that correctly, you can upload video’s to Pinkbike.com. We now have both the Photo-of-the-day (POD) and Video-of-the-day (VOD). I’m glad you still get the chance to comment and rate comments. Badly rated comments now are hidden behind a link. Saves you the annoyance of reading kids shouting their ignorant heads off.
I miss a way to find highest rated photo’s and video’s, also I don’t like it that the pre-select pictures uploaded on today. Usually that means I have to click on “all pictures of this month”. They could have pre-selected showing pictures uploaded since my last visit… huh!
But very good news: we can embed video’s on our websites now, Pinkbike’s gone youTube!
apparently I’m not a man…
Back home after a short trip to Liége, Belgium. Tomorrow Red Bull is hosting another cool urban event; called Stairway to Hell. It’s a slopestyle event om what’s maybe the longest stairs of Europe. They invited about 36 riders and I’m one of those… starting to think I didn’t belong there in the first place. *grin* I mean, I could have come down safely I think… but in the midst of backflips, tailwhips, cancans and superman-seatgrabs… I know I had nothing to bring there. Now in what flick does Nathan Rennie say: “where boys got separated from the man… and apparently I’m not a man!” Auch my poor ego…
METAchallenge.nl
Yesterday there was a 12 hour spinning (indoor-cycling) marathon held in Apeldoorn. The goal was to raise money and awareness for the research of energy metabolism-diseases (I hope I’ve translated that one properly). Outside the venue we had Cannondale, Specialized, BMC and Rocky Mountain set-up with newest bikes to test. Unfortunately the weather didn’t coorporate and we got a mere few visitors. I decided to check out the marathon inside and it took me 2 minutes to regret not entering the marathon myself.
It’s teamefforts trying to cycle the full 12 hour and I don’t think there was one that did the full 12 hours. Would have been somewhat mad! A couple of them did 6-hour challenges. Anyway, I raced home, got into my spandex and raced back to put in my two hours of sweat for the good course.
Seems like work-frustration is the best epo around, because I had so much energy… I could have done a few extra hours I think. The second hour I didn’t sit down at all, had to push up the hills, hauling ass. It’s an awesome good feeling joining in for the greater course and working your ass of (and cleaning your head in the process).
Anyway, it looks like they raised 12.275 euro’s yesterday and they’re planning another marathon next year. Anyone want to team up with me to go for a 6 hour bashin’?
Flatline at Interbike 2007
It’s Interbike in Las Vegas right now, wished I could be there, but I’ve pulled all Flatline pictures and impressions of the big websites for you. I’ll keep adding them as I find them. NSMB.com will be testing one very soon!
Redbull Stairway to hell
Sunday october 21st Redbull hosts a downhill/slopestyle contest in Liege (Belgium), with 32 selected riders, including me! Around 11hrs the training and qualifiers start, 14hrs the races, 16hrs the final and 17hrs the award ceremony. It’ll all take place on the longest stairs in Europe. I’m stoked.
» check redbullstairwaytohell.be
Review Formula Bianco on Sicklines
Sicklines recently posted a review on the Formula Bianco brakes, the types that I also run. It’s a nice review, and I mostly agree with them. Quote of their conclussion
If you’re looking for a stellar lightweight brake and price is no object, the Bianco’s should be at the top of your list. These brakes are Downhill capable and All Mountain ready. The Bianco’s teamed with the sintered pads offer great power in a lightweight package. Comparatively speaking, the Bianco’s will save you about 140g over Juicy 7’s.
These Formula’s have a lot of small features that you normally wouldn’t think about as benefits, but in the field they prove themselves well. They’re a bit pricey in comparison to a lot of other brakes out there but you get what you pay for with the Bianco’s. The one finger lever blade feels great and the brake never showed signs of fading or pumping up.
They’re holding the price as a downpoint and I guess that’s fair, but all good things don’t come free, right? On another page they have a few suggestions on improvements:
- Better Bushings – The bushings in the lever blade could be tighter as the lever did have some slop to it.
- Caliper Banjo Bolt – The banjo bolt on the Bianco is in a vulnerable position on the absolute outside of the caliper. It’d be nice if it had some protection from crashes and other trail hazards.
- Lever protection – The pivot that the lever rotates on sticks out and as such is vulnerable in a crash. It’d be nice if the pivot were behind a section of the body to protect the pivot a bit more.
- Better lever clearance – The Bianco lever main body can cause some fitting issues with shifters, although with the newer style SRAM/Shimano offerings, this is becoming less of an issue.
- Bolts – The Bianco’s need a lot of different tools (varying allen’s and torx) in order to install and maintain the brake system as there are a lot of different bolt heads. It’d be nice to have fewer of these variations.
The bolts issue is the deal with every brake available and the lever clearance never bothered me one bit. The bushings of the lever blade however do tend to develop ‘slop’ and could indeed be improved upon.
I run 200 mm frontrotors and 180 mm rearrotors and I would have liked to have 200 mm rearrotors aswell. In the Alpes the 180 mm tend to get really hot and burn a bit if you keep at it for too long. Partly my braking skills I guess, partly the size of the rotor.
Besides all that, these brakes are indeed light, they’re awesome stoppers and lookers: people sure do notice them ;-)
Recent comments