Velochallenge

Hills, the number one issue effecting cyclist.

Here is more information on this lift: http://www.trampe.no/english/

The new Garmin Edge 705 has an array of add-ons that further assist the obsessed dedicated rider to suss out his or her performance levels, including a heart rate monitor and a speed / cadence sensor. Edge 705 also works with third-party ANT + Sport-enabled power meters (compatible devices: tbd) to display your power output in watts as you ride. This valuable data shows you how hard you’re working, regardless of conditions affecting your ride, so you can train smarter. Get a competitive advantage by viewing power output along with Edge data all on the same display and storing this information to analyze your workout.

With Edge 705 you can share your courses, workouts and saved rides wirelessly with other Edge 705 users. Now you can prove that 20-mile uphill climb with a 2000-foot elevation gain. Better yet, send it to your buddy to ride. Sharing data is easy. Just select “Transfer Data” to send your information to other Edge 705 units within a 3-meter range.

I came across a handy little tool for those cyclist who own a Garmin Edge computer. BikeRouteToaster.com is a course creation application primarily aimed at Garmin Edge/Forerunner owners in finding and planning rides. The courses are created using Google maps and then allows the user to download from the server. Click the “Continue Reading” to see the method to upload to your edge computer.

For those of use without the fancy Garmin Edge, might I suggest taking a look at GMAPS Pedometer. A handy little tool, which allows you to plot a course, calculate mileage, and view elevation. Basically, just point and click along desired path and it maps it right along. Even displays the mile markers along the path. Nice little tool for us Non-Techies. (just make sure you bring a print out.)

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new company “QUARQ” who is introducing a new player into the power meter arsenal at this years Interbike show. I’ve always been interested in any add-on gadget that can assist me with my training be it with power, GPS, cadence or heart rate. Through my searching I have been unable to locate a geeky gadget out there to do all of them for me. This unit, however, is like having a Powertap 2.4, SRM and Garmin Edge 305 all in one unit. It also appears to even display the realtime power related info like TSS. And for the real geeks out there it’s open source and runs linux.

I will be waiting to see the reviews on this one. As for me, the iBike is just a little bit suspicous with the way it calculates power output, SRM is just way too expensive, power tap leaves you stuck with only one wheel you can use plus unless you go for carbon, its heavy, and the Garmin Edge 305 has both heartbeat, cadence, and GPS but you have no power.

Disovered on Ray’s Racing Adventures

A new bike vending machine could make bike rentals all the rage and it appears to be happening here in the U.S. I know the sharing/rental bikes is not a new concept. Here in Portland, they tried a free bike program but they were stolen at a very high rate. I found a few other countries providing rental bikes:

• Netherlands, free bikes are provided by the government.
• France is already renting bikes and is soon to be trialled in London soon.
• Vienna’s Bike system

It’s not bad at all, and I can’t imagine places such as New York city being a hill issue since the entire city is more or less flat, so leaving bikes at the “bottom of a hill” would be much more difficult than in, oh, say… San Francisco.