I haven’t posted here in awhile and, since I’ve got a spring cold and loopy on medication, I thought now would be a good time to put something down.

My wonderful bail notice came from Irvine PD a few days ago. Ever wonder how much a ticket costs for riding more than two abreast in the bike lane? $245.00. Yep, that’s right. My friend PJ kept telling me it’d be $400 and I didn’t believe him. I just kept thinking, yeah right, no way is it gonna cost that much. He was close. Damn him.

The battle continues though. At the start of Food Park on 4/18, two Irvine piggies, uh, I mean police officers, showed up at the start of the ride to talk to us all. Of course, someone had to start debating the officers and how the law is interpreted. Once this happens, it’s not even worth hanging around. Attention in the group gets lost and people just started rolling away. Interestingly enough, the cops didn’t follow us on that days ride but I think this battle is far from over. I fully expect to see them out again this coming Saturday. The police said that motorists were taking pictures of us and calling in complaints. So, it looks like we’re all gonna have to behave through Irvine for the foreseeable future. It should be interesting to see how far this whole thing goes.

Tags: cycling

Some of you may have noticed my lovely new flash homepage and tribute to the men in blue of the Irvine Police Department. Now, before I get hate mail, let me explain...

Last Saturday, I went out to do the Food Park group ride like I usually do. Recently, Irvine PD has been following our group rides, pulling them over, talking to us before the ride starts, etc. about our behavior on the ride. We’re taking up to much of the road. Or rather, some citizen complained and now they’re out in force to try and shut the rides down. Yes, that’s right, your tax dollars at work.

So, on our ride, there were two motorcycle cops and one in an SUV who set up their sting operation to try and catch us running a stop. We all did stop but once we made a right at a green light, the motocycle pulled out in front of us and made us all stop. Some kept rolling past him but the majority, me included, stopped.

He told us we were all riding more than two abreast and, he couldn’t write tickets to everyone, so he was just going to pick five of us at random and let everyone else go. I happened to be standing right next to him. Gee, I wonder if he’ll pick me.

Now, I will say that when you have 60-80 cyclists out for a group ride, you’re going to take up more than the bike lane. The majority of us are very experienced cyclists. We don’t want to get hit by a car. We also try to leave room, whenever possible, for cars to pass us. There are some who will roll red lights and think the road belongs to them. Believe me, we yell at these riders when they do dumb things like this.

Don’t the police have better things to do? These rides are not going to stop. A ticket is not going to make me stop doing them. So, Irvine PD...get behind these rides cause they’re not going away!

Tags: cycling

Well, first of all, I haven’t been posting daily blogs recently. I think I’ve found that Twitter has sort of replaced the daily website blog post. Don’t you agree? So, I think I might scale back posts to once a week or whenever there’s something I want to post that’s more than 140 words.

Now then, about the Tour of California. It starts tomorrow! Woo Hoo! Very excited about the race. I had a rep that got me tickets to the Velodrome who has disappeared for some reason. It’s a big bummer cause I typically got tickets to the final stage of the TOC and I’ve left her messages with no return call. I’ve been following the Twitter updates from those in the cycling world and I wish I was up there taking part in all the events. But, I’ll settle for the Twitter updates.

Valentine’s is tomorrow, I’m trying to shake a cold and it’s supposed to rain again this weekend. I really need to be on the bike.

Tags: cycling, tour of california

in Irvine. It’s been a couple of years since I last took a class and wasn’t sure what to expect from this location. I believe they just started offering spinning classes and I’ve seen them as they’re located in a strip center where one of my favorite places to eat is located.

So, I took a chance and went to the 7 o’clock session. What the heck...the first class is free! The facility is nice and clean. They took their shop and dedicated a portion of it to building a workout room. It’s a good sized room that fits 10 bikes. Kudos to them for taking the chance and seeing if this build-out is going to work for them. I got there and found that there were only two other people in the class. One thing I will say about spinning classes...the more people in the class, the better the energy and the better the class. I was a little disappointed to find only two others in the class. But, such is life.

Maleah was our instructor and she did a good job with the class. I’d go to another class but I’m a little concerned that not many people are going to these classes. I asked Maleah after the class if any of the other classes were more full and she said the 5:30am class got pretty packed. 8-9 people she said. They do have a cool onlline reservation system where you can sign up and buy classes. A quick check of their site just now shows only one person signed up for the 5:30am class tomorrow.

My issue with this gym is that the classes aren’t at good times. The 7pm class last night was to late. I got home about 8:30 and it was almost 9 by the time I had dinner. I didn’t want to eat before the class and would rather had the class at 6pm or 6:30. A 5:30am class seems to early. How about 6am or 6:30am?

I think I’ll check around for other gyms and classes. I enjoyed spinning again and would like to continue it but not sure if this is the place for me.

Tags: spinning, cycling, fitness

). Behavior like this just doesn’t happen at cycling events. I’m not saying we’re all perfect. We’re far from it. Sure, the aggression gets high during the race and, I’ve been told that as we’re whizzing by during the race, spectators can hear us sometimes exchanging not so nice words from within the peleton. Racers are jockeying for postion, trying to grab a line...it happens. But an all out brawl after a race from a heckler is just crazy and wrong.

Hopefully we’ll all learn a little something from this and people who go to bike races will exhibit better behavior so our sport doesn’t sink to a new level. I mean, don’t we have enough problems from all the doping already?

Tags: cycling

I’ve found it interesting to see alot of cyclists using Twitter out there. Thought I’d throw up a little post with some of the more popular cyclists out there. If you’re using Twitter and want to check out what your favorite pro-cyclists or cycling personalities are up to, here you go! Know of any others...please share!

George Hincapie (@ghincapie)
Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong)
Dave Zabriskie (@dzabriskie)
Johan Bruyneel (@johanbruyneel)
Ivan Basso (@ivanbasso)
Taylor Phinney (@taylorphinney)

Some other cool cycling related Twitters to follow:

SoCalCycling (@SoCalCycling)
FredCast (@FredCast)
Rich Kelly (@Interbike)
Rock Racing (@RockRacing)
Slipstream (@TeamSlipstream)
Amgen Tour of California (AmgenTourofCali)
VeloNews (@Velonews)

Tags: cycling, twitter, social media

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Tags: cycling, winter, training

Floyd Landis made another appearance out at our weekly Saturday group ride, Food Park, today. It’s the second time I’ve seen him out and he was looking pretty fit this week. We hit a small climb on PCH and he shot out of the pack like we were all standing still. It definitely made the ride interesting. Anytime a pro is out, everyone tries to show off and it keeps the pace high for the whole ride.

Tags: cycling

It’s coming back! Project Single Speed is undergoing some changes and will be coming back. I know you’ve all missed it. Look for updates soon.

Tags: single speed, cycling

Courtesy of SoCalCycling, they posted this video of a recent Red Bull sponsored challenge in the dirt. This video is awesome! Makes me think twice when I complain about my ribs hurting from my recent crash.

Tags: cycling, Red Bull, mountain biking

. If you’ve ever done any wrenching, you know about the chain whip you need to remote cassette sprockets from the rear wheel. Sometimes it’s very easy, sometimes you leave some of your knuckle on that cassette.

Enter the Vise Whip. Why didn’t I think of this?? Oh that’s right...I’m not one of the founders of Pedro’s. I can’t wait to pick one of these tools up when it comes out!

Tags: cycling, tools, workshop

and you can buy their system for $795 plus shipping from their site.

Tags: Rollers, cycling

. I guess we’ll all just have to wait till 12 noon and see what’s the real deal!

Tags: Lance Armstrong, cycling

trade show in Las Vegas. It’s actually the last year the show will be held in Vegas and then will be heading back to Anaheim. I attended the first two years in Vegas and haven’t been able to make it out since. I’m looking forward to its return in Anaheim though...much closer to me!

Tags: interbike, trade shows, cycling

for details about the Las Vegas event. If you’re not racing but in the area, stop by and check it out!

Tags: cycling, mountain biking, Las Vegas