Random Thoughts

A listing of random thoughts for you today.............

Armstrong Returning To Top Level Racing: Of course, this is the buzz in the cycling world now and is even getting play on national news. My take? Disappointment. Look, I get why he wants it. It's tough for any elite athlete that has spent all of his waking hours for years training for one purpose to give it up and find something else to do. He is wired for what he has spent most of his life doing. The thing is, a lot of these top level athletes do this "retirement/un-retirement schtick and it's always a disappointment in the end. Many times the athlete in question makes a mockery of themselves and is an embarrassment to their sport.

Time will tell if Armstrong falls into the majority or if he is one of the lucky ones in the minority that makes good on their return. I would have preferred he stayed retired, but that's not going to be the case apparently. The odds of his success are greater than his chances of putting together his run of seven Tour wins, I'd say.

Every City Should Do This: I got a link to a video about closing the streets in NYC for Saturdays so that folks could use them for recreating. Cycling was a big part of this, but not the only part. The video is "work friendly" and goes about 7 or so minutes. It's an encouraging video that makes you feel good about being a cyclist. Check it out here.

I don't know why every larger city wouldn't consider this. It seems to be a very positive, low cost, low maintenance way to enrich the lives of citizens.

Drop Bars On Mountain Bikes- A Recipe For Freaking Out: I have web statistics and I know where you live! ha ha! No.....really, I have these web stats that show me what you freaks out there are using as search criteria that eventually lands you on this tiny little digital island called Guitar Ted Productions. One of the most consistently used search words is "drop bar" in conjunction with various other words, but almost all having to do with drop bars for off road usage.

I've written a plenty on this subject here, so I suppose the search engines dredge it up for folks to check out. And of course, the Salsa Cycles new Fargo model is just more fuel for the fire. It'll be interesting to see all the new inquiries into drop bars for off roading. Too bad the originators of the modern concept of this didn't have the inter-web-o-sphere to plunk down their thoughts in 1985. Then their sites could get slammed with search traffic! ha ha!

So anyway, got a question about drop bars on a mountain bike? Shot me a comment or e-mail (on upper right side, there is an e-mail link) I'll do my best to answer you.