...LBSR and new toys!

This past Sunday a few friends and I took a delightful little jaunt down to Coney Island. Except for one flat, it was a nice, uneventful ride with an easy pace that ended with hot dogs at Nathan's (for in-depth coverage of our gastronomical excursions, be sure to hit up that moohare). As I mentioned yesterday, several of the people we rode with had just bought bicycles that day, though one person rented a bike from a nearby bike shop that I had no idea existed.

We understandably had a tough time getting it back to the shop before their closing time of 6:30pm, so I opted to just return it in the morning since I learned it was along my usual route to work. Walking the two bikes, one in each hand, I decided to snap a quick photo of the rented bike for posterity:


As you can tell from the relaxed position of the bike, and the lazy dandelions I included in the 'composition', it is built for comfort, not speed. This is by no means an attack on comfort bikes or those who ride/rent/sell them, its just not my style. I prefer to stay light and quick as such are the demands of city riding.

What struck me about this bike the most was its weight. I don't know exactly how much my bike weighs, but I think its somewhere just under the 20lb mark. This bike seemed to be two, if not three times heavier. Seriously, I have to hand it to the girl for riding this 20 miles on Sunday, she's a champ.

I got there and handed over the behemoth without incident and continued on to work, surprised I had never before known about this shop:

Ride Brooklyn


Yesterday I decided I was sick of my shitty stock brakes and set out to find a new pair of calipers. After finding Bicycle Habitat out of stock (unfortunately an all too common situation for them in the summertime), I tried this store out. Having taken note of the ubiquitous 'Brooklyn' cycling caps displayed in multiple 'colorways' in their window, I knew this was a well stocked shop indeed.


Pete and Jessica, the owners (or so I was led to believe), were extremely helpful and sold me not only a new set of calipers, but a wireless cateye cyclo-computer as well.


Considering Brooklyn Bike & Board boasts awesome mechanics but lacks the scale of other LBS's inventories, I doubt the two stores will step on each others toes too much, despite their being less than two full blocks away from one another. I will definitely continue to patronize both stores given their respective fortes.

Speaking of forte, Today's Stage 11 of the Tour de France ended with yet another victory for the 'dish. He snatched the victory from Thor Hushovd after the latter initiated the final sprint. In doing so, Cavendish has tied the record for number of stages won by a briton in the tour (8).


And of course this means he's back in the green.


There's not much to look forward to from Lance & Co. until this weekend, but perhaps the 'dish will keep us entertained until the race gets to the Alps and Versus can stop glazing over the post-race interviews with shots of the many chateauxs the race passes.

I'm always interested to see the aerial shots of little french villages and castles, but versus uses them as a crutch, which bothers me. I screen-capped the above shot because it was about the thousandth time they showed that same damn building.

I can hear the helicopter radio conversation now,

"Super-five-five, this is ground control do you copy? over."
"Copy that ground control, this is super-five-five, everyone's over the line... Any word from the network? over."
"Nothing yet super-five-five maintain a holding pattern over something pretty and shoot that until something happens on the ground. over."
"Copy that ground control, We've got a stately home with manicured lawns in our sights, good enough? over."
"Good to go super five-five, the winner has a british accent so network says no interviews allowed. over."
"Roger that ground control, we'll keep shooting this building 'til word comes down. over."