Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
A few weeks back while riding my mountain bike at Whiting Ranch, the original MTB saddle and post on my bike cracked in half. I’d like to think it wasn’t from the excessive weight of my stout manly frame but I know the truth. It came out of nowhere and just snapped leaving me to ride the next five miles standing up. Then, later in the week I crashed on my road bike at 30 MPH and tore my road saddle and hip to shreds, it was great week. After some research I picked up 2 saddles from SDG.
Since that time I’ve fallen in love with the company and their products. Everything they do is:
1. Easy to install and size. I did everything myself and I’m a tool weenie.
2. Looks great! Both my road and mountain set-ups are pretty much the best ever. They kill anything Old Man Sellers could ever muster up from his vintage collection of 1993 vintage mountain bikes.
3. Is super comfy but with high performance. I race*
The boys at SDG Saddles recently posted their 2009 bike saddles and seat posts catalog. It’s worth the click, these guys know how to build bike product.
Go to:
http://www.sdgusa.com/2009catalog
If you’re in the market for a new post or saddle SDG is who you should be supporting. They love cyclists and the local biking community needs to back that.
Andy B
outsideallday.com
*That was a joke, you should have been laughing.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Rummaging through my MTB gear bag at the trail head Thursday night my phone buzzed with a text message. I had awaken at 5:30 AM for an hour swim with the Slugs and Diane Graner-Gallas’ training program was leaving me tired. I was struggling to ready myself for my evening ride with Rob up Del Cerro. The text was from James and now I was going to run along the strand in Manhattan after the ride. By 9 PM Thursday I had put in 3 hours of workouts all before 9 and after 5. I’m glad that the day before Andy B had handed me Fluid Recovery - Tropical Escape. Before Wednesday I had used Endurox as a recovery drink in a number of exertions over the three hour mark. Being familiar with the protein/carbo replacement/recovery drink concept I was excited to try Fluid. Having grown up on Champion Nutrition’s Cytomax and moved on to GU20 I had already replaced them with MotorTabs. This week I replaced Endurox with Fluid. Fluid has a great taste and tastes good even after the water bottle warms up….unlike its Endurox friend. And being a Cal Poly alum makes it even easier to love Fluid.
With forty-six days until Scott Tinley’s Extreme Tri I got fitted on Monday to my Bianchi road bike (training bike) and Trek mountain bike (racing bike). Outside All Day loves Rock N’ Road Cyclery. I just happen to live almost an hour and a half from the closest one. So I met up with Brian, owner of Beach Cities Cycle in Hermosa Beach, and he fitted me up to the bikes. I worked for Brian back in high school and it was great to hang and get his help. I haven’t been comfortable on either bike and he made a bunch of changes. Both pairs of shoes were adjusted, seat post height went up, seat distance changed, MTB stem changed and he coached me on knee position. We would all be wise to get ourselves fitted to our bikes. Go see your bike shop and then head to Lake Lopez to race the Eternal Timing System.
Matt Smart
Outside All Day
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Product for Review:
Pivot, Mach 4
Size: Medium
Geometry: (100MM Fork)
Seat tube: 18.5″
Top Tube (effective): 23.25″
Head Tube: 4.5″
Head Angle: 70.8
Seat Tube Angle: 73
Chainstay: 16.75″
Bottom Bracket Height: 12.8
Stand Over Height: 29.5
Product Strengths:
Aesthetically (Its Looks): Amazing and the anodized finish is great on a mountain bike so one does not have to worry about paint chipping and little nicks that are always happening.
Rear suspension design- This bike has the stiffest rear suspension that I have felt in a four inch travel bike. I loved Chris Cocalis’ original creations, the Titus Racer-X and Moto Lite, but this bike is on a new level in comparison. This beefy rear suspension system allows a rider to really rail the bike in corners and ride much more aggressively than one would normally do on a four inch bike.
The rear suspension system used also allows the bike to stretch out/grip or grab the ground better from its dual pivot controls. This was the one of the best features that was noticed in comparison to the Titus, Racer-X. One can really climb and descend on this machine.
Direct Mount Front Deraileur- The Front derailleur mount used for this bike is also a plus as it creates one of the fastest and definitely the strongest shifting experiences on a mountain bike. The mount allows the derailleur a lot of backbone so that it gets its maximum potential because of the stiffness provided from the frame.
Integrated Bottom Bracket- The bottom bracket is stiff. It allows the bike to put out the most power possible with each pedal stroke and again help provide a nice solid base to the frame when turning and pushing down on the outward pedal.
Product Weaknesses:
Weight- If you are a weight weenie sorry but it’s on the heavy side. If the bike is being built for racing one might get frustrated with a bike that is 23-24lbs. This is about the average wight of our builds composed of Shimano XTR and Sram XO components, Stan’s No Tubes Wheelsets, and a lot of other expensive carbon/weight weenie junk.
However, if you think about the frame and how it comes with a front derailer, bottom bracket cups, and headset 6.14 lbs is not too heavy.
Similar Products Used:
Titus Racer-x (4″ travel)
Titus Motolite (5″ travel)
Pivot Mach 5 (5″ travel)
Pivot Mach 429
The Bottom Line:
The bike rips! It’s a 4inch bike on steroids… It can be ridden like a trail bike with its slack angles and fantastic suspension system.
Rating: 1-5
For more information go to: www.pivotcycles.com
-DSheek
This bike makes me love riding!
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Product Review: DeSoto Arm Coolers
By Hanhster (the Monster)
While it is cool to be a female cyclist there are occasions when it is not so cool to advertise it with those nasty jersey sleeve tans… like say when you’re trying to look like an actual girl in a sleeveless summer dress at a BBQ or at your brother’s USC graduation (that tan line is in the family photo album forever now).
After slathering Neutrogena sunblock spf 55 on my arms couldn’t keep my arms from still getting way darker than the rest of my body (nothing against Neutrogena as I also tried other brands of sunblock and that didn’t work either) my search for another solution to the jersey sleeve tan began…and enter the DeSoto Arm Coolers.
I’ve had 2 weeks now of being able to wear these arm coolers on both training rides and races in sunny Southern California and my conclusion: Three Snaps! And here’s why…
I concur w. other reviewers that initially slipping into these arm coolers on a hot day for a ride feels strange but after a few minutes of moving you quickly overcome this strangeness and it starts to feel very natural. Also like other reviewers, I concur that they don’t actually “cool” your arms but since they start feeling pretty natural they don’t heat them up either. After a few 3+ hr training rides and a couple criterium races I did notice that my jersey sleeve tan line is now not as pronounced as before and since this basically shows that these arm coolers are doing the trick to fend off the sun that’s all I needed to know. I also like that these arm coolers feel a bit like compression wear on your arms holding it together and don’t slip down your arms like some cheapo arm warmers out there giving you that saggy arm wear look (chicks in particular don’t like anything that increases the “sag” factor). By the way, one way to tell the difference between these Desoto arm coolers and traditional arm warmers is that the DeSoto arm coolers are actually a bit porous almost mesh-like but not quite.
If your goal is to lose that jersey sleeve tan line this product will work for you. Let us know what you think of them too. I would say email me but as usual men run this website and they didn’t bother to give me my own outsideallday.com email address.
Word.
Rating = 5 (1 out of 5, 5 is the highest) I try to tell her people don’t understand the “snaps” classification but It has been proved otherwise…
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
This is one of those toys you want to keep forever!
The bike is set up with all my favorite components and tires. I have weighed it in at 23.2lbs. This is without making the tires tubeless and with my enormous computer plus all of its extra parts.
Click to get the full story:
Niner, Air 9 Product Review
-DSheek
It’s a keeper!
