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Thursday, January 27, 2011

"Fire" SALE "secret" image.

Lots of quotation marks, eh?

"Fire" SALE! January 28 and 29!


Ok ok, there's no fire (knock on wood). But there IS a lot of construction coming leaving us with a great new look at the store on it's way. Starting February 1 the shop goes under the knife to make the retail and training side into ONE store instead of two!

This is where the sale comes in: there will be dust. Lot's of dust. So we were at the shop today thinking about how we didn't want to have to cover everything and/or find a clean hiding spot for it.

What to do?

That's where you come in. On January 28th and 29th everything in the store will be 35% off. That's right, 2010 and 2011 bikes, clothing, accessories, helmets, you name it!

All you have to do is print out the secret image we just posted here on the blog....see the newest post!

Help us out here. We don't want to hike 50 bikes down to our basement. We'd much rather send this stuff home with you for safe keeping/wearing/riding!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Favorite Things: Power Meters

I know, a bit general. But one of my favorite things has less to do with the brand and more about the idea. Numbers are my thing. I like seeing numbers, measuring things, comparing things, seeing progress. Since I don't do any regular time trials, getting baseline measurements could be tough. Then when you factor in changing conditions, it's hard to see if a change is working or not without power.

Power helps me to not just see how I am doing, but guides almost all of my workouts. Power helps me gauge fitness and pace myself.

Speaking a bit less generally, I'm a fan of crank-based power meters; SRM and Quarq to be specific. I have a lot more saddle time with Quarq, indoors and out.

With the Quarq compared to riding on the Computrainer, I consistently see a less-than-2% variance between the two. Like anything though, there are pros and cons to each system.

Quarq Pros:
$1000 less than a comparable SRM
User-replaceable battery
Change wheels whenever you want
2% +/- accuracy
Excellent customer service

Quarq Cons:
Must calibrate more often (easy process though)
Has to be sent back to change to different chainrings
New company still working out some bugs
Limited crankset options

When it comes to the SRM, it's a bunch of pros with only a couple of cons. The SRM is the gold standard in the industry, professionals use it for a reason. Accuracy is as good or better than anything else on the market.

SRM Pros:
Change wheels anytime
Change chainrings on your own
Best accuracy in the business
Proven to withstand any conditions

SRM Cons:
$1000 more than anything else on the market
Has to be sent back for battery changes (granted, only about once every two years)

There's a third major player in the market right now, probably the biggest one, Power Tap. Their method of power measurement is at the hub. The down side is that power is built into your wheel, so you need to choose your rim wisely. The huge up side is price, as Power Tap blows everyone else out of the water! The range is $850-1850 if you ignore the wired version, which we recommend doing.

The beauty in all of this is that the industry is moving to ANT+ protocol, which means your Garmin 500/705/800 will work with any of these.

Ideally you'd want to sit down and decide one thing: can I live with power laced into one rim? If you can, Power Tap is certainly the way to go if you don't have tons of cash burning a hole in your pocket. If you want the ability to change wheels but don't drive a Range Rover with a Porsche parked in your garage for nice days, maybe the Quarq is for you. Have that Range Rover and Porsche covered, have a bunch of race wheels, and are ready for the Porsche of power meters? Pony up for the SRM.

Favorite Things: Crank Brothers Pedals

We're starting a little something different, seeing if you are interested. I've asked each of the guys at the shop to a few write-ups on different parts, people, rides, etc that they find to be their "favorite". A little way to share the things we love about cycling with you.

The first one comes from Mike, a dedicated user of Crank Brothers Egg Beater pedals:

Since Crank Bros. introduced the Eggbeater pedal over a decade (?) ago, I knew had to get a pair. The sheer simplicity of their design is what drew me too them, and the ease of use and maintenance is what has had me outfit 4 mountain bikes, 1 cyclocross bike, and 1 road bike with them over the years. Float adjustment is achieved by simply by choosing which cleat goes on which shoe. Entry and exit are like butter, even in the muddiest of conditions thanks to the ample mud clearance of the wings as well as the 4 sided design. Their minimal weight is just the icing on the cake! All of these things make Eggbeaters my FAVORITE pedals. Period.


I can say that I think Mike has hit the nail on the head. I own at least 6 pairs of these pedals, from Egg Beater 4ti, 2ti, SL's, and even some Candy 3's.

Pricing ranges from $60 to $425 depending on how light you want them to be thanks to generous doses of titanium.