5 Reasons To Ride RAAM

The world’s toughest cycling race has come to the end for another year. The race that takes riders over 3000 miles from one coast of the US to the other is a real test of a “hard man”.

Although it is extremely tough. There are a number of good reasons why RAAM would be a better choice than many other sporting events.

1. Very Few Competitors

This goes hand in hand with the early mover advantage.

Although gaining in popularity, this is still a small sport. That means there is room for the surprise newbie.

Breaking into a major sport like basketball with it’s huge amount of money and professional athletes is extremely difficult. In ultracycling the field is much smaller.

In RAAM 2012 there were a total of 45 individual entries. 41 men and 4 women. Just finishing makes you awesome.

2. No Pros

When professional athletes enter a sport, all bets are off.

There no room for the little guy even in big cycling events with teams and physicians and coaches.

This is still mostly an enthusiast sport. The approach is professional, but the big bucks are not there and very few make a living from doing it.

Sure, there are people who put in the effort of professionals, but almost all competitors still have other jobs to pay the bills.

3. Relatively Easy Entry

Okay, it’s not easy.

But it’s not complicated. You don’t need to work your way up a league or anything like that. Just do some really huge rides in a pretty decent time.

Some of the examples include…

  • Finishing a 2 or 4 person team in RAAM
  • 400 miles in 24 hrs
  • RAAM style races of 350 miles or more

Nothing too heavy, just stuff similar to actual RAAM, just usually shorter.

Official details at the RAAM site here.

4. See the US from a bike

Only applies to non-US types.

But that’s me! And 95% of the world.

I don’t think there is any other way I would rather see a new country that from the seat of a bicycle.

It’s a great way to take in the whole spectrum of American scenery in the same time it would take people on a normal tour.

5. It’s Legendary

Finally, there is nothing better than completing the toughest race in the world.

There are few sporting events that take more of a toll on a person’s body both physically and mentally than this.

The Copenhagen Wheel

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellotopeter/Beyond1200#5510970799316672322

The Copenhagen Wheel is touted as bringing the web, online social media, green power and cycling together.

The wheel itself feels like cool technology for technologies sake, and I don’t mind that. Efforts to do new things inspire others to do new things and that all works together in the end.

All it needs now is to include a Rohloff hub and you’ll have an ridiculously expensive wheel that does a whole lot of cool things. And it will bring your bike one step closer to being the electronic beast that most cars have become.

I have to give it credit for being a super-simple way to add electric power to any bike.

Here’s a video about it:

This was from an article at The Guardian.

Shimano MTB Cycling Shoes Review Update

The original review is at Shimano MTB Cycling Shoes Review but I took new pics with a better camera, so here is an update.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellotopeter/Beyond1200#5510940003743186482

Faithfully serving me for over a decade, this pair of shoes don’t disappoint. Being my fourth pair of cycling shoes they have lasted a helluva lot longer than any other shoes I have owned.

The typical minimal design and comfortable shape all make the shoes almost unnoticeable after I put them on and start riding. Seeing as I already did a overview of the shoes before, lets look at how they have held up specifically.

From the picture above, the areas of wear and tear are quite clear, but I’ll identify them more clearly here.

The leather has held up through all these years. It is has dried out and I have never applied anything to make the leather stronger or put back the shine. The original glossy red is no longer there, but still, bright red shoes don’t need to be shiny to be noticed.

The sole and the body started to separate a few months ago, as can be seen where the nose piece attaches to the main body. I outline how to repair shimano cycling shoes previously. After a bit of patching they are now ready to go.

With good fit, there is less necessity to have tight straps. Like the fit of a good helmet, the shoes should stay on even without being strapped in. This is true with this pair and the two straps serve as the final bond to keep your shoes and feet together. The straps combine a plastic strap part with velcro. The plastic and velcro are almost completely separated, so it seems the plastic part was superfluous and probably just there for branding purposes. The velcro still holds strong and will probably be strong enough to last for a few more years.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellotopeter/Beyond1200#5510940111682878386

The bottom of the shoes shows the deterioration of the rubber. Seeing as I don’t walk around in these shoes much the rubber has just worn out with time, rather than from heavy use.

The wear patterns do show the most contacted points of the sole. The area around the cleat is worn out because it takes a bit of beating when the engaging and disengaging the pedal. The nose of the shoe also takes a slightly harder beating when walking.

The hardened rubber no longer provides great levels of grip when walking on slippery surfaces and I need to watch out when walking on smooth, wet floors, but then again I need to be careful when I do that with all my ordinary shoes too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellotopeter/Beyond1200#5510940891451020194

A closeup of the rubber near the cleat.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellotopeter/Beyond1200#5510940791701511106

The sole of the shoe has been strong and dependable.

As I haven’t bought any new shoes in such a long time I’m not clear if modern shoes experience the same problems as all my original shoes did.

At the time I bought my first set of Shimano shoes (not this pair) many of my friends had problems with the soles of their shoes cracking or breaking.

The sole of those original Shimano shoes cracked right across, just behind where the cleat was mounted. Friends were quick to tell me that it was because I did crazy things on my bike or that I was heavy, but that’s just rubbish and as these shoes have shown, those original problems were in the design.

This pair are as strong and dependable as before, although now a little tired looking, much like the dude who puts them on every now and again.