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Misc. Ramblings and other such stuff.

• Pedaling.tv  Following all the work on Tour De Food (see below) spins off a little side project. Capo clothing, Blue Ribbon and Specialilzed Bikes what's not to love. Check out the latest episode for Bruce and his sweet custom Parlee.

• What's the Groundhog got against us anyway. The little rodent could give us a break this year. I myself feel like I'm casting a personal best as far as how much solar radiation I'm blocking out. Six more weeks of winter is surely not going to help at all. If you can't beat them...cook'em. At least we have six more weeks to burn his calories off.  GROUNDHOG AND SWEET POTATOES
  Submitted by: TrophyHunter
  
  1 Groundhog
  Cold water
  Salt
  Pepper
  Sweet potatoes or white potatoes
  Cornbread
  
  The animal should be dressed as soon as possible and well soaked for several hours in cold, salty water. All excess fat may be trimmed off after the meat is cold. Parboil to remove and remaining fat and drain well. Place in a moderate oven and pack sweet potatoes or even white
  potatoes all around. Salt and pepper the meat and bake unti brown. Be sure the potatoes are thoroughly cooked. Serve with cornbread and use the heavy gravy that forms during baking.

• An intersting article, shedding some light into the bike swaps going on at the top of the pro field.

  Alberto Contador: Man and Machine Part 1 from Benjamin L Edwards on Vimeo.

• Finally after much waiting the Giant Twist Express bike have arrived. After playing with the A2B we realized the potential of electric assisted bikes. While we loved the A2B as a fun play bike for zipping about town. The weight made transportation a big question and without the motor no real joy to pedal. Quite honestly it needed the motor and you used it wide open for all but the down hills. Moving on, the Giant Twist at 50 lbs, was about 40lbs. lighter. and with a computer controlled motor far easier than holding a twist throttle open for your journey.On the Twist the motor is controlled by a torque sensor, the harder you pedal the more that the motor will assist.  The feeling is like having a push on the slight and not so slight up-hills. You still have to pedal but you don't have to get out the saddle and really "honk" on the pedals to get over the top. Finally a bike that makes every journey feel like a walk in the park. Check out the Video <here> Download the Hybrid Brochure (pdf)

• From our friends at T.Edwards.

• The Tour De Food is moving along. They've got a brand new web site. BlueRibbonTourdeFood.com Watch the video, check out the pictures, you might recognize a few people and their bikes. You might also notice a link to our resident RAAM Rider as well. Who also just happened to grace the pages of a new book about the RAAM with this spectacular photo. Oh yeah, nothing like a long straight road to make 3000 miles go by. Only 50 miles to the next tree or is that a mirage?

  Tour de Food 2010 from Tour de Food on Vimeo. Perhaps you'll recognize some of those jerseys and that little mountain at the end.

   
• Di2 is Here. Since we're getting all electronic, how about batteries to help you shift rather than helping you pedal. I know all you "nay sayers" are rolling your eyes. Why electronic shifting? Yes a cable can and has moved a derailleur effectively for years. But what you can't do with a cable is program it. This is where the electronic shifting has surpassed the mechanical systems. The fact that the shifter and derailleur "know" what gear your in and perform their actions accordingly. It would be like taking someone that knows what they are doing and all you have to do is push a button to make them go. For most people this hits home when they see the Di2 front derailleur automatically trim over to avoid chain rub as they shift through the gears. Did I also mention that there are now no cables to get dirty, degrade or need to be replaced. Electronic automatically adjusts and stays where you put it time after time. Pretty cool.
• clothing, rocking the new year. Our good friend Gary V. over at  Upland Sports Group is receiving all sorts of good press about the Capo Clothing line.  Capo cold weather gear. <CyclingNews> Or a chance to win an entire team kit for you and your mates. More winter goodies reviewed at Pez as well.
• Lupine Lights are here. If you don't know anything about them, they are quite simply the best LED lighting systems out there. Watch and be amazed. Just FYI the new Wilma systems are 1100 lumens. 
• Blogs of Paradise. After spending a few minutes ranting to myself after someone sent me a link to this blog, I was happy to find the redeeming qualities of the web log. If you haven't seen it yet. Fat Cyclist decided that he needed a change of careers and sent off a resume' to Team Radioshack. Perhaps you've heard that a guy named Lance is going to riding for them. Anyway, Johan Bruyneel actually responds with an offer, a few actually. Fattie with the help of BikeSnobNYC and other bloggers spread the word. Well under the deadline the money poured in and the goal was reached. Because some guy sent a resume'. Read the whole story on Fatties Blog and the links to Bruyneel. 
• Get your copy today. Okay, order your copy today the cookbook isn't due out till April. The rough draft looked great. I also stumbled across a few of Bruce and Eric's Recipes at Food&Wine.
• More Pictures from France, courtesy of T.Edwards.
• Hopefully this doesn't offend anyone but it's something that we feel passionate about. Without getting to in depth it's all tied together, Bikes, sustainability, food, music, locally produced and healthy. You can check out out links page for more information on local food and businesses.