test ride

I'll bet you can guess what I was lucky enough to demo ride, definitely cool.

The verdict... smooth, and light.

In more detail, the handling seemed to improve with increased speed as it felt a bit clumsy getting started as if it was trying to figure out in which direction to take off. This might have just been me getting settled or the nature of the position, but once at speed though it tracked straight and easy. It was very light so it accelerated very quickly. At high speed there was no hint of wobble. Drawbacks in my opinion are the tucked away rear break caliper and the fact that it came with aluminum wheels. I just wonder how it would perform with some deep carbon hoops.

omaha car show

Yesterday afternoon, my Dad and I took my nephew to the car show downtown. My Dad and I used to go to this annual show just about every year when I was a kid.

Won't be anytime soon that he'll be able to actually drive one, but it was a great opportunity to let my 6 year old nephew get a chance to jump behind the wheel of pretty much every model/make car you see on the road. He was most interested in trying to turn the steering wheels, and playing with the stereo buttons.

The car show even had a face painting booth which my nephew quickly found and opted for "the Joker".

car show continued

Action shot, the car show had families well taken care of in addition to the face painting, even providing inflated trampolines and slides. Here my nephew demonstrates considerable tumbling skills.

The most creative family activity at the show was the race car mechanic "wheel change" set up that the National Guardsmen had together.


Kids could take their turn unfastening and refastening bolts on a race car tire. My nephew really enjoyed this.

A look back at a restored Studebaker, must have a well hidden set of air bags, and seat belts... hah.

Fuji Test Team is now the name of the team I'll be racing with this season, and though this won’t change much about my racing I would like to share with you a little about my experience the bikes.

The first bike from them that I was on was the Race model which I thought was a worthy, all around bike. The second bike I was on was their Super Light 1, their top of the line climbing specialty rig. The SL1 was very light with a comfortable geometry that felt fast all day long, and simply the idea that I was able to race such a light and well handling bike over the cobblestones of Belgium for most of the season without any problems is testament to the bike's versatility and value.

The SL1 is the best mannered race bike I've ridden to date. The SST that I'm currently riding is built to have more aggressiveness though it is not much heavier than that the SL1. What it adds in weight it more than makes up in stiffness. Under any sort of effort on the SST you know all of your energy is going into the pedals. Built for speed, the SST is snappier and always feels alert which is a nice attribute in longer, more tiring rides or races. That and it still goes up hill very well, especially in accelerations.

Though the previous Fuji frames I’ve ridden were nice bikes, the 2010 version of the SST looks incredible. I’m really impressed with the pace of improvement Fuji has shown. http://www.fujibikes.com/Explore/SST-1-0.aspx is a good link to give some description of the bike’s improvements.

The new frame upgrades to the tapered head tube as more and higher end bikes are, increasing steering stiffness and precision. I’m expecting this to be more noticeable during sprints or steep up-hills.

The tubing of the frame has a reinforced I-beam running throughout, increasing stiffness without adding weight. I’m not sure how this engineering will better the handling of the bike, but it will be interesting to find out and I’m sure it will help.

The seat post is integrated much like several top race bikes have had in the last several years. Here it is important to be sure of your seat height, and then you are able to cut the seat tube down to fit. I’m very interested to see how this improves the feel and the performance, making the manners of the bike more direct.

The bottom bracket will now be Pres-In Integrated, which is jut a fancy way of saying that the bottom bracket has been pared down to just the bearings meaning the frame will now take care of holding the bearing rings instead of using a separate cup system. I’m not sure how much the added stiffness will be noticeable in the pedal stroke but anything improvement here is worth it when your efforts last for hundreds of kilometers.

All in all, it looks like a fine bike. I’ll be sure to give you a personal report once I’ve put some time on one.

This is an eerie shot of heavy frost through the fog that’s been typical here in eastern Nebraska for the past several days.

At last, more ride photos

Observe, what (12.2 megapixels)+(200 watts)x(6 hours) equals...

Crusty Snow, frosty trees, lingering fog, and four fietsters.

Riders approaching the border of nowhere.

More photos.

Wint in Nebraska...

Riders in the fog...

What corn fields look like in January.

Quick word out there for all in Lincoln, NE, group [road] ride tomorrow morning, Saturday 1/16/10 leaving from the 27^th street bench at 10:30 am, 3-5 hours moderate pace.

Also, mark your calendar tentatively for 3/18/10, a Thursday, when Bike Pedalers on West Pine Lake will be hosting what I would call a “classics night”. Belgian beer will be served along with Frites [French fries], while we chat about our favorite Spring Classic’s races and watch some racing. I’d encourage anyone to come. 

Yesterday I decided to wander off campus for lunch, and while choosing between Quizno's or Subway I decided to try the wrap place I had noticed in the Haymarket earlier, Maggie's Vegetarian Wrap's. The menu was balanced with entrees, wraps, sandwich's, soups and salads, most of which looked good and several looked interesting. I a black bean wrap, very good. Prices not too bad either, about in the middle range, but with the food being fresh it was worth it, thanks Good Fresh Local. Maggie’s also sold homemade hummus as well as other dressings. 

On an equipment note, sunglasses have come up in a few conversations I’ve had recently, and I've been surprised that some people were not aware of the fairly new glasses from Giro. http://www.giro.com/en-us/products/sunglasses/ I know that plenty of top pro’s have been riding these specs, but I thought I would take a closer look at them.

I’ve been riding the Havic 2’s for the past two seasons as Giro has been supplying my team, Cycling Center/Fuji Development, with them. I found no real faults with the frame, light weight and flexible, and foldable. The lenses I’ve used grey as well as clear, are interchangeable and plenty scratch resistant. I’ve dropped mine more than enough times and my lenses are still scratch free.

post update

You may remember a recent post about the canals of Brugge? I need to thank Tim, a reader and author of the blog "And the road becomes my bride," elebaut.blogspot.com, for his commented on the post. He gave me a further description of the stunted trees that are a customary to Flanders. He writes...

"If they don't top these trees, called knotwilgen, they grow up towards 90 feet. Farmers like to use them around their fields because they soak up enormous amounts of water. The tiny branches were used for basket weaving."

[I used google to roughly translate a description f that Tim included from Dutch to English. I apologize for any major errors.]

Knotwilg
The willow is a tree typical of our region. You can find them often in agriculture, river and polder landscapes, past meadows, both cropped (with pruned branches) and not cropped. The willow likes moist soil and grows pretty fast. The willow is usually truncated to 2 to 3 m height. If you do not then they will be 28 meters high. Really old willow contains hardly. Willow has soft wood, and it grows fast. Willow usually rots quickly after a few decades. Willow can continue to grow for centuries.

The twigs and branches that are afgesnoeid, cropped short, were formerly used for weaving baskets and strengthening the walls of mud timbered houses.

The leaves of the willow are narrow and elongated, between 6 and 10 cm long. They are dull green above and along the bottom blue and gray hairs. In May the tree flowers with silver-gray willow catkins. The willow spreads a sweet honey scent and thus is very popular with bees, hoverflies and butterflies. In the summer they provide for much airborne seed fluff.

The bark of mature willows is in the deeply incised length. Their stems are hollow and quickly accommodate different types of birds such as stone owls, as well as mice and bats. 

Chewing a piece of willow bark can relieve pain. This is because salicylic acid, the main ingredient of aspirin.

[Tim's original comment in Dutch below]

Knotwilg
De knotwilg is een typische boom uit onze streken. Je vindt hem vaak terug in landbouw-, rivier- en polderlandschappen, langs weiden, zowel geknot (met gesnoeide takken) als niet geknot. De knotwilg houdt van vochtige grond en groeit behoorlijk snel. De knotwilg wordt meestal afgeknot tot 2 tot 3 m hoogte. Knot je hem niet dan kan hij tot 28 m hoog worden. Echt oude wilgen vind je bijna niet. Wilgen hebben immers zacht, snel rottend hout en begeven het daardoor meestal na enkele tientallen jaren tot maximum een eeuw.

De twijgen en takken die worden afgesnoeid werden vroeger gebruikt voor het vlechten van manden en het versterken van de wanden van lemen vakwerkhuizen.

De bladeren van de wilg zijn smal en langwerpig, tussen 6 en 10 cm lang. Ze zijn van boven dofgroen en langs de onderkant grijsblauw en behaard. In mei bloeit de wilg met zilvergrijze katjes. De knotwilg verspreidt een zoete honinggeur en lokt daardoor heel geliefd bij bijen, zweefvliegen en vlinders. In de zomermaanden zorgen ze voor veel rondzwevende zaadpluizen.
De schors van oudere wilgen is in de lengte diep ingesneden. Hun stammen worden snel hol en herbergen verschillende soorten vogels zoals steenuilen, maar muizen en vleermuizen. Door op een stukje wilgenbast te kauwen, kun je pijn verlichten. Daarin zit namelijk salicylzuur, het hoofdbestanddeel van aspirine.