In September 2009, Bike Brake introduced their new bicycle parking brake for use on bicycles not equipped with kickstands. Designed with a low profile to remain on the grip, it is durable, lightweight, and un-obstructive. Bike Brake features two grab tabs to easily lift and extend around the brake lever to keep the front wheel from spinning, greatly stabilizing the bicycle when stood upright. Now available in nine colors Bike Brake fits both road and mountain bikes.

“Bicycles are very expensive and there is always the potential for them to fall when temporarily parked. This can scratch the bike or often the car it rests against,” said Kendall Kelsen, President of Bike Brake. “It takes less time to apply the Bike Brake than to attempt a good bike balance. You can be confident your bike will stay in place.”

Bike Brake can be used when preparing for a ride, taking a break, performing maintenance, or storing the bicycle. There is also a theft deterrent factor when the bicycle is unattended. Bike Brake is distributed through Paceline Products and can also be purchased online at www.bikebrake.com.

Newport Beach, CA – Transcend Sports, a partnership between Colorado Premier Training and RAHA Sports Management, has registered a UCI Continental team that will compete in the NRC series and international races. The Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team is currently in negotiation with three Pro Tour riders who will add great depth, experience and leadership to a new program. The roster will also include top-level domestic and international riders.

The Bahati Foundation is a non-profit organization that inspires and empowers underprivileged youth to rise above their circumstances. Statistically, those at greatest risk for poverty today are inner city families and single parent families. The problem of persistent poverty is a complex one that includes communities and individuals, who through no fault of their own, find themselves unable to make ends meet in this globalizing information-intensive world. In many families today, children cannot say they expect to be better off than their parents. This is perhaps the greatest challenge now facing our society. Our goal is to work with our partners in helping today’s underprivileged youth overcome poverty. We provide the resources, support and inspiration to help young people succeed in life.

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Featured Review: Hutchinson Fusion 2
by JJsKHS

Price Paid: $25.00 at chainlove.com
Review Date: October 20, 2009
Used product for: 6 months
Overall Rating: 5 of 5
Value Rating: 5 of 5

Bike Setup:
Giant TCR C1, Ultegra, Ksyriums

Summary:
I ordered a pair of these this past spring after reading positive reviews and finding a deal online. Little did I know what kind of value I was getting.

I have ridden 2,000+ miles on these tires and raced on them about 10 times. I won’t attempt a superficial ride quality quantification other than to say “they ride swell”. They have never slid out in fast crit corners or crazy descents, even in wet conditions (taking proper precaution of course).

They have also not flatted once. In fact, the only time I have had to pull them off the rim is when my crappy tubes have ruptured at the valve stems. By the way, the ease in which you can pull these tires on and off the rim can’t be overstated. I hardly needed to use levers even when they were brand new.

My pair are starting to show their wear and I’ll be replacing them soon. They have all sorts of miniscule cuts in the center tread from a season of abuse and the sidewalls are starting to fade (still, never a flat from the road). And I am 100% positive I will replace them with an identical pair of Fusion 2’s.

These tires may or may not stand toe to toe with your $60-$70 boutique tires, but for what it’s worth, they’ve more than proven themselves to me. All season long, through rainy races and over patches of gravel on my most ridden routes, every time I’ve looked down I’ve been reminded of the stubborn quality of these Hutchinsons. The name is ingrained in my mind as I have praised these tires to my riding buddies all season.

Not to mention that they also look really sharp.

Strengths:

• durability
• a child could put them on a wheel without using levers
• solid cornering grip in both wet and dry conditions
• looks

Weaknesses:

• Hutchinson is a weird sounding name (seriously, that’s it)

Similar Products Used:
Michelin Pro2Race

By Eric Kenney

I get this question often this time of yr. “how do you NOT train?” Especially for the competitive cyclist or triathlete who has been racing all summer, sometimes every weekend, not training hard and racing all the time can feel very strange.

The Off Season:
First off I want to stress the word “OFF” in off season. Off means Off! The first and most important aspect of your next season is being totally fresh and completely motivated for next season. Now is the time to start that process.

Less is better here. Catch up on work, family, and drop off the bike at the shop for a tune up. Have them check it over for cracks in the frame along with full safety check. Racing is very hard on your equipment. The key with this faze is to make sure you are 110% ready to start training come the start of your program. The under trained, over motivated athlete will beat the perfectly training under motivated athlete every time! Come the beginning of “base training” you should be itching to train. It should be all you think about, so when its 20 degrees and freezing rain, your pumped up and ready to put in a solid training effort! This is also the best time to sit down with your coach and/or teammates to discus what your goals will be for next year. How did you perform this year? What was good? What was bad? What will have to be different with your preparation for 20, etc

Here are five easy steps for an effective off season.

1. Off time:
Take an extended time of ZERO training. This will be deferent for every one. 2 weeks for some, 2 months for others. How ever much time you need to be totally rested and motivated to train again.

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Featured Review: Brooks Swift Titanium
by Iasonas

Price Paid: $280.00
Review Date: October 26, 2009
Used product for: 2 years
Overall Rating: 5 of 5
Value Rating: 4 of 5

Bike Setup:
Raleigh Supercourse (1973)/ Raleigh Interntionl (1972) / Medici Pro (1990s)/ All campy Record 10 speed system.

Summary:
This may be an unorthodox way to start, but very few would be the alternatives on what I would put on a classic 1970’s Raleigh. Those were coming with Brooks B17 actually but still, this saddle suits them much better. I think that it is either the most beautiful or at least one of the handful of those saddles that really look beautiful. When it comes to looks I was also considering the San Marco Royale, but the idea of riding on leather to me was not exactly that of having a plastic layer underneath. Once heavy thick leather breaks in, it is a different situation. The surface level softness is not really my aim when it comes to a saddle. The Swift takes way too long to break in. You need to work on it a lot and use lots of that proofide (not a lot at once, but a thin layer at a time). I also used a fair amount of leather wax in the beginning (wax based shoe polish also), which did not do as good a job as proofide. A B17 breaks in within a month or so. The swift may take at least 1000 miles and a number of proofide applications for you to sense the initial change. In the meantime you get used to the harder ride and you appreciate how well it is contoured. I can feel the bounce of the titanium rails more than that of the leather!

This saddle is not for everyone. It is for those of us that have the patience and the will to break it in and form it, and in the meantime for us to adjust to it as well. It is the saddle to use if you want to have those sudden bursts of acceleration and be able to slide on it. In the beginning I needed good padding. Now, I can easily ride it without any padding. The swift will likely never become very soft. It is not meant to be. It is a classic performance saddle. For randoneuring it may be slightly hard even after break-in. Like a thoroughbred horse, its elegance and grace are unmatched, but it will not do for just any type of riding and it takes patience and work to get it there.

Strengths:

• Beautiful just to look at.
• Once it breaks in it is comfy.
• Titanium rails have great elasticity.

Weaknesses:

• Takes patience and time to break in.
• Expensive.

Similar Products Used:
Brooks B17

Four events on the 2009/2010 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Racing Calendar were held last weekend: the Blue Sky Velo Cup and Beacon Cross on October 31 and the Boulder Cup and HPCX on November 1.

Katie Compton (Colorado Springs, Colo./Planet Bike) and Timothy Johnson (Middleton, Mass./ Cyclocrossworld.com/Cannondale) picked up the elite wins at the Blue Sky Velo Cup in Longmont, Colo. on Oct. 1. The pair then repeated their victories a day later at the Boulder Cup in Boulder, Colo. Click here for complete results from the Boulder Cup.

On the east coast, Mary McConneloug (Chilmark, Mass./Seven) and Nicholas Weighall (Milcreek, Mich.) won the elite contests at Beacon Cross in Bridgeton, N.J. Valentin Scherz (Pro Cycles-Scott-Newwork) and Maureen Bruno-Roy (Arlington, Mass./MM Racing p/b Seven Cycles) then won the elite races at the HPCX in Jamesburg, N.J. Click here for complete HPCX results.

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The BMC Racing Team today announced the signing of current World Professional Road
Champion Cadel Evans to a three year contract. This partnership will create mutually beneficial
opportunities for both the current World Champion as well as the BMC Racing Team.

“Cadel brings a wealth of experience in the Grand Tours to the team.” BMC Racing Team President
Jim Ochowicz stated. “As I said earlier, our team will have multiple chances to measure ourselves
against the greatest teams in the world. We are pleased that we will have the opportunities to send out our most successful riders, now including Cadel Evans, to tackle these challenges,” Jim Ochowicz
added. Cadel Evans compliments the current team roster that consists of seasoned professionals and
young emerging talents.

Winning a Grand Tour
Cadel Evans took second place in both the 2007 and 2008 Tours de France. Now Cadel Evans wants
to win a Grand Tour. “Cadel Evans heard about how our team was expanding by signing big-name
riders like George Hincapie, Alessandro Ballan, Marcus Burghardt, Karsten Kroon and other strong
racers, and this news immediately fired him up with the idea of riding for such a flexible, engaged and
passionate team,” explained BMC Bicycles owner and BMC Racing Team co-owner Andy Rihs. The
thirty-two year old Australian cyclist who lives in Switzerland is looking forward to building a newly
fortified program with the BMC Racing Team. Cadel Evans believes the BMC Racing Team will help
him accomplish his goal of winning a Grand Tour.

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Lazer Helmets announced today that it will support Amy Dombroski with helmets for the balance of the 2009/2010 cyclocross season.

“We have worked with Amy previously as a member of the Webcor Builders Women’s Professional Team. She is a great rider, gets results and is a fantastic representative of the sport and our products,” stated Christopher Smith of Lazer Helmets. “We are really happy to be able to continue with Amy into 2010!”

“As a member of Webcor last season, we were lucky to ride Lazer Helmets, and that is when I realized that a helmet is more than just a brain cap,” stated Amy. “Other helmets were a chore to wear; looking like a mushroom, feeling like a brick with a chin strap, and giving me headaches because the fit was off! Lazer has revolutionized the helmet into one that feels like your favorite tuque. The best part, for luscious locks, is there is a cut-out on the back of the helmet for your ponytail. To add to that, it is wicked light and the Rollsys® retention system is the easiest to use and really fine-tunes the fit. I am stoked to be able to use a helmet I trust, and one that I enjoy to wear for the remainder of the cyclocross season!”

Amy’s racing results have been impressive. She is the current USA Espoir National Champion in every discipline of endurance cycling - Cyclocross, MTB, and road. Cyclocross results this year so far include a 2nd and 3rd place finish at the last stop of the USGP series in Louisville, KY and a 2nd place yesterday at the Boulder Cup.

Lazer Helmets wishes Amy good luck for a successful cyclocross racing season!

For more information on Amy Dombroski please visit her website:
http://www.amydombroski.net

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Featured Review: Bontrager Race X Lite AC Clincher Tire
by Minnesnowtan

Price Paid: $60.00 at Lutherville Bikes
Review Date: September 12, 2009
Used product for: 3 months
Overall Rating: 5 of 5
Value Rating: 5 of 5

Bike Setup:
Specialized Sequoia (alum w/CF Fork), Alex rims (oooh..), Sora 3×8 gearing (aaah….) Topeak rack & trunk bag.

Summary:
I was looking for Race X Lite Hard Case but somehow got the Race X Lite AC. The labeling mentioned flat protection and the sales guy played that up in a big way. In the store, I thought that the AC was “HC” for hard case. I had previously bought a set of Bontrager Race Lite Hard Case tires in 32mm for my hybrid, and they never went flat. So I liked the Hard Case label, and maybe I am a bit of a Hard Case too.

This was my first time ever installing a tire without a wire bead. It didn’t form a U channel in which to pour in some baby powder. It was weird, but I figured it out and got it on properly. That was at home on the couch, I don’t want to do it again on the street, but I could. I may not have to.

After a few hundred miles of riding, (some limestone trail [NCR] and lots of road) the tire looks almost like new. The is a scrape of some rubber, but it is minor. I do recall a time or two where something hard shot out from under my tire, and that abrasion is probably the result.

In contrast, my front tire (Specialized All Condition Sport) has soft tread that gets a lot of small cuts, one of them currently open and gaping (but still small). Although the front tire has been around longer than the Bontrager, it is certainly less than 1,000 miles old and makes the Race X Lite AC look pretty darn good.

Recommended pressure is 100-130 psi, so I stay at 100-110, as I am a fairly light 160 pound rider. The ride seems the same as with the previous tire (Specialized All Condition Sport, which handles well enough but is a hole-magnet), maybe slightly less grippy than its soft treaded predecessor. But it is very similar in handling from what I have experienced so far, and that is good.

My front tire needs to be replaced (due to its small gaping cut) and I may put another Bontrager Race X Lite AC on it, but this time in 25mm rather than 23mm. I may be commuting to downtown, and want something that grips in the wet and is flat resistant as well. If anyone else has experiences with this (or other) tires, please post reviews so that we can learn from you.

I rated this overall as a 5 because it has done all that is expected of it so far, and value a 4 because bike tires should not cost what car tires cost.

Strengths:
It has been doing well for 300 to 500 miles so far, and on some rough roads, downtown Baltimore city streets (such as the Hanover St bridge which has a lot of debris on and near it).

Weaknesses:
$60 for a bike tire? I can get a good, and I mean very good car tire for $66 new online. Other than the price, not enough time with the tire to find any flaws, if there are any. The LBS who sold me this bike aren’t thrilled to see Bontrager on my wheel as opposed to Specialized. Oh well

Similar Products Used:
Bontrager Race Lite Hard Case in 32mm on my former bike, a hybrid. I started club riding on it, never a flat. Had trouble keeping up, but no flats.

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Championships will return to Greenville, S.C. for a fifth consecutive year in 2010, with new dates set for September 18-19, 2010. The Championship weekend features the USA Cycling Professional Time Trial Championship on Saturday and the USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championship on Sunday.

USA Cycling, Inc., which owns and sanctions the event, has extended the licensing agreement for 2010 with Medalist Sports, a sports management company that specializes in the planning, promotion and production of professional cycling and fundraising events. Medalist Sports has produced the Championships since 2006. The Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Championships is part of the USA Cycling Professional Tour, a men’s-only, season-long calendar comprised of UCI events that determines the best professional rider and team on American soil. It is also one of 17 national championship events that USA Cycling, Inc. sanctions across five disciplines in the sport for amateurs and professionals.

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