The Invisible Bike Helmet

November 10, 2013 by Lee Agur

Want to feel the freedom of cycling without the restriction of a conventional bike helmet? Here is your chance!

The invisible bike helmet has quite an inspiring story. A couple of swedish women have been working away for 7 years and have come up with quite a remarkable solution that protects your head without wearing anything on it. At first, people said it was impossible while laughing in their faces, but the girls attitudes were: “if people say it’s impossible we have to prove them wrong.” They did.

What is the invisible bike helmet?

Essentially, it is an “air bag” helmet that is designed to deploy and protect all around your precious head before anything bad happens.

Cost

This bike helmet runs for around $600. What would you pay for style points?

Concerns

What if the invisible bike helmet stays invisible? I would be concerned that this thing doesn’t work… all it takes is once.

Downside

To my knowledge you are only able to use this helmet once, so try not to crash because each crash may cost you $600.

This helmet is not designed for mountain bikers!

Technically it is not invisible, it is a collar around your neck.

Upside

You would feel very free with this invisible helmet. It would definitely put a smile on your face with the wind blowing through your hair. Also, it will not mess your hair up like a conventional bike helmet.

This helmet would be perfect for commuters.

Watch this short video on the invisible bike helmet:

Conclusion

You will not see me rushing out to be the guinea pig on this invention; however, I think it is a great option for people who hate wearing helmets and are forced to by law. Having different options is never a bad thing.

The invisible bike helmet is an amazing invention for commuters.

Here is a link to the invisible bike helmet homepage to check it out.

Do you think it is a good idea? Bad idea? Share below.

Revolutionary Invention for Commuter Cyclists

November 8, 2013 by Lee Agur

This Smart Wheel can be put on ANY bike and is going to revolutionize commuter cycling.

So what is it?

It is an electric rear wheel that comes out of the box and can fit on most bikes. It is a pedal assist that turns on when you start pedaling, and stops when you stop. It allows you to get places without breaking a sweat.

The wheel weighs 9 lbs (4kg) and can go up to 20mph for approximately 30 miles before the next charge.

Features

This nifty invention for commuter cyclists will allow you to recharge your phone while on the go and has many other very cool features.

A simple and free App for your phone allows you to set speed, and monitor your current speed, the distance, the time of traveling and the battery level. The App will also allow you to track where the wheel is via GPS in the event that is gets stolen.

You can lock the wheel with the simple touch of a button on your phone and it will even let you know that your bike is moving without you.

Included in the purchase is a light that doubles as your phone holder and charger.

The battery will recharge itself on down hills and only take two to three hours to fully recharge from a normal electrical socket.

The App can record your cycling habits and suggest new faster routes that are safer or more fun to take.

Installation of the wheel is very simple and can be done in less than 2 minutes.

What is the cost?

So what is the price tag of this revolutionary new invention for commuter cyclists? The wheel plus the light cost $590 and ships Worldwide. For more info visit kickstarter here or watch the video. This idea needs your help to get some momentum so please spread it by sharing it below.

Shit Cyclists Say

November 7, 2013 by Lee Agur

A Parody on some of the shit cyclists say. Hilarious video even if you are not a cyclist.

If you like it, share it!

Amazing Cycling Motivation Video

November 6, 2013 by Lee Agur

Some serious cycling motivation to get you out there and hammering.

If you like it, Like us below:

10 Reasons to Bike

November 6, 2013 by Lee Agur

10 Reasons to Bike

1. It is a healthy activity you are able to do for the rest of your life

Unlike running, biking is not hard on your body, you are able to enjoy the sport forever. Since it is not hard on your joints it is one of the easiest ways to exercise; it is even recommended for rehabilitation of most injuries because it is non weight bearing. Biking builds strength, muscle tone and stamina along with reducing the risk of heart disease.

2. Great stress reliever

Getting outdoors and connecting with nature is a great way to release stressful thoughts. It is said that biking can be a better stress reliever than meditating, as you focus on your pedal stroke or the next turn.

3. Good for the environment

Carbon footprint = 0. Save the environment by riding your bike to work or doing random errands.

4. Lose some weight

Biking actually trains your body to burn more fat! It obviously burns calories while you are biking, but it also burns calories long after you have stopped pedaling.

5. Overall happiness

It is science, endorphins are released when you bike (or exercise). Endorphins are your body’s “feel good” drug. Maybe that is why I am addicted to biking.

When you get on a bike there is a feeling of freedom that you cannot deny. There is a thrill of speed, and an overall sense of awesomeness that is taking place every single time. You can’t help but smile.

6. Social sport

Biking is a very social sport, it is a great way to hang out with your friends, family or partner.

It is even a great way to have a meeting! “Biking is the new golf” in the business world.

7. Better sleep

All of the fresh air and exercise will help you sleep better, and even more, you will deserve it.

8. Great way to see an area

You want to get familiar with an area, go for a bike ride. Or… bike up a mountain and get a good view.

9. Boost of energy

Biking will increase your energy levels by activating brain neural circuits that make a person feel more energized.

10. Sexier Legs

What? It is true.

Cornering Tips

November 5, 2013 by Lee Agur

Get FREE SPEED and learn how to corner. Cornering a bike properly can save you massive amounts of energy and time. I have been working on cornering every ride since my last race… where I got destroyed on the downhill. So… what was I doing wrong?

Look Where You Want to Go

Your body likes to follow your eyes, so look where you want to go, not where you don’t. A common mistake is continuing to look at what you are trying to avoid; this generally results in a collision with that same object. Let your peripheral vision do the work, it can see that object and you will not hit it.

Look far in to the corner, not right in front of you. Your hips turn the same direction you are looking and your hips determine where the bike is going to steer. I am guilty of looking directly in front of myself quite frequently, especially when the turns come hard and fast. Depending on your speed and the angle of the corner determines how far in to the corner you look. In sharp corners look as far ahead as possible. Play with it and you will notice significant improvements immediately.

Brake Before the Corner

I am aggressive when it comes to cornering, too aggressive. I loose valuable speed because I do not brake enough before the turn which results in me having to brake in the turn. Braking in the turn actually makes the bike want to stand up on itself and straighten out, two things you are trying not to do. You end up fighting the bike and shedding more speed than necessary to make the turn safely.

Generally, you only want to be doing one of the following things at any given time: braking, cornering, or pedaling. Combining these things can lead to disaster.

Find the Line

Approach the corner as wide as possible, cut through the apex and finish wide. This is the straightest line through the turn, allowing you to carry more speed and reducing the angle of the turn making it less scary. Many people cut to the apex to early which results in excessive braking near the end of the turn and exiting slowly.

Don’t Pedal in a Corner Pedal out of a Corner

Pedaling in a corner can cause you to strike your inside pedal on the ground and send you flying. If this happens try not to panic and over correct. Over correcting will certainly cause a crash.

Once you have completed the turn and the bike is in a more upright position it is safe to hammer on the pedals again. Hopefully you remembered to shift down to an easier gear before you entered the turn so it is not too difficult to pedal out of it.

How to Steer Your Bike

There are three different ways to steer the bike: Upright steering, leaning and countersteering.

Upright Steering

Upright steering is when you turn your handle bars and keep your body and the bike as upright as possible. This is best reserved for slow speeds and dangerous conditions i.e. wet and slippery conditions. If your tried this at a high speed you would fly off your bike. Been there, done that… don’t recommend it.

Leaning

This is the most common method of steering and involves leaning your bike and body over to make the turn. Lean over more to turn sharper and make sure that you have your outside pedal at the 6 o’clock position pushing your weight through that pedal to keep traction with your tires.

Countersteering

The next level of steering. In order to test it out, go down a straight road, pick up some speed then push your right hand down… what happens? Initially your front wheel turns right, but as the bike starts to lean over you turn left. The sharper the turn and less consistent the turn (more bends) the more important countersteering becomes.

Position While Countersteering

Initially, you press with your opposite hand, but as you being to turn you want your inside arm straight and applying a bit of pressure to continue to turn the direction you want to go.

Lean your body over, but then lean your bike over even harder. This is not like leaning technique where the angle of your bike and the angle of your body are the same in relation to the ground. In countersteering you lean the bike over more and your body is more upright in order to keep traction.

Try to keep your weight back and low and remember to push hard on your outside pedal that is located at the 6 o’clock position.

If you learn how to countersteer you will not regret it, it is safer and faster as it allows you to make adjustments through out the turn much quicker.

How to Breathe While Cycling – I Bet You Don’t Do it Properly

November 5, 2013 by Lee Agur

How to Breathe While Cycling – Test

Take a quick test on how to breathe while cycling. Look down and take a deep breath. Did your chest raise like superman and tummy stay relatively flat? Great. Like I said… You don’t know how to breathe properly!

Millions of breaths a year and you think we would have it down. Generally due to stress, the vast majority of us tend to breathe with our chest, as if we are the wolf in the three little pigs trying to blow the house down. This is not the most effective or efficient way to fill the lungs, nor is it the way we were designed to breathe.

How to Breathe While Cycling

Your diaphragm (a muscle below the lungs) should move downward and help expand your lungs to bring air into them. Focus on filling the bottom 1/3 of your lungs first by using your belly to breathe rather than your chest. The result should be your tummy blowing up like a balloon first, and then the rib cage expanding second. (not the other way around like superman or the big bad wolf). The exhale should be similar, you should be contracting your abdomen to expel the air in your lungs.

Why it is Important to Breathe Properly While Cycling

Breathing properly while cycling will help deliver more oxygen to muscle tissue.
If you are a chest breather you will tire more quickly than a deep belly breather because you are not allowing yourself to inhale enough oxygen or exhale sufficient carbon dioxide.
Delivers more oxygen to the brain
Helps maintain the acid/base balance in the body by increasing oxygen flow and decreasing carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide increases acidity levels and larger quantities are created during exercise)

Things that Can Prevent Proper Breathing While Cycling

The most common problem is your position on the bike. I remember wanting to get in a very aerodynamic position, and as a result, I sacrificed my breathing and comfort. In the end I sacrificed speed by not being able to breathe properly. The aggressive position lowered the oxygen getting to the muscles resulting in a lower power output. Closing your hip angle too much and not allowing space for your diaphragm to move down in order to breathe in will ultimately result in fatiguing quicker and slower cycling.

Great Examples of Breathing Properly

Interestingly enough, if you would like a great example of how to breathe properly then you should watch an infant breathe. Infants use their diaphragm to breathe deeply and fully… maybe that is why they all have potbellies.

Unfortunately, adults are prone to stress which causes the diaphragm to tighten resulting in shallow chest breathing.

Another example would be to watch some pros on TV. Some look like they are growing gut! (Some are growing a tiny ponch while others are implementing this breathing technique.)

If you would like to learn more about breathing properly you can purchase: Breathe Strong Perform Better

The 6 Most Hardcore Cycling Quotes From the Pros

November 2, 2013 by Lee Agur

1. Shut up Legs. – Jens Voigt

2. As long as I breathe, I attack. – Bernard Hinault

3. If you brake, you don’t win. – Mario Cipollini

4. Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. – Lance Armstrong

5. Don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades. – Eddy Mercx

6. It doesn’t get any easier, you just get faster. – Greg Lemond

Aerobic vs Anaerobic Exercise

November 1, 2013 by Lee Agur

The oversimplified, Coles Notes version… muscles use glucose as energy in two ways, aerobically with oxygen and anaerobically without oxygen. Both aerobic and anaerobic produce energy stores called ATP which is used to make your muscles contract, heart pump and other physiological process to keep us alive.

Advantages of Aerobic vs Anaerobic

Aerobic ATP and Anaerobic ATP are produced in different ways, what you need to know is that aerobic ATP is produced slower, but can be produced for much longer and results in more ATP production.

An interesting comparison of aerobic vs anaerobic is that the aerobic metabolism can use 1 unit of glucose and turn it in to 34 ATP where as the anaerobic metabolism can take that same unit of glucose and only produce 2 ATP. This means that the aerobic metabolism is 17 times more efficient than the anaerobic metabolism. That is like comparing a smart car to a semi truck in a fuel efficiency contest! This is very important during endurance events because we can only digest/refuel so much and must be as efficient as possible.

Another advantage of aerobic vs anaerobic is that the aerobic system can use carbohydrates, fats or protein as fuel where as the anaerobic system can only use carbohydrates. (Hence why carbs are so important just before exercise, during exercise and shortly after as discussed in the paleo diet for cyclists post).

Disadvantages of Aerobic vs Anaerobic

The anaerobic metabolism produces ATP at a very fast rate compared to the aerobic metabolism which means that if you need energy for a sprint you are going to go anaerobic because you need that energy QUICKLY.

Misconception about Aerobic vs Anaerobic

Everyone seems to think that you change from aerobic to anaerobic at the flip of a switch, as if there is this imaginary point of exertion that you have to hover below so you do not go anaerobic. This simply is not true. Aerobic vs Anaerobic is better thought of as a light dimmer than a light toggle switch.

What I am suggesting is that both of these energy sources are being utilized at the same time and at almost any level of effort.

Anaerobic and aerobic have an inverse relationship, if you were to go (earmuffs children) “balls to the wall” or… all out, then for the first minute your energy would be primarily from Anaerobic ATP, right at the 1 minute marker is where they would be equal and anything after that would be primarily aerobic ATP. At the 5 minute marker you are already using as much as 80% aerobic ATP.

So why do you care?

Everyone talks about the anaerobic threshold and trying to stay under it, there is a big fear that if they go over it bad things happen (in endurance events – sprinters don’t care). Going “anaerobic” results in lactate forming in your blood stream, it is that painful burn in your legs that makes you want to slow down. Your anaerobic threshold is the point where you can clear the lactate from your blood stream just as fast as you can produce it.

More importantly, your anaerobic system can only use carbohydrates to produce ATP and your body can only store approximately 2000 carb calories. The downside here is that you are able to burn through most of that in 2 hours of hard exercise, and you are only able to digest about 400 calories an hour so… for endurance events it is essential to utilize as little of the precious carbohydrate as fuel as possible while still maintaining a high speed. By using your aerobic system you are able to burn fat as an energy source.

You have enough fat stores to go for a couple days without refueling, even if you are lean. This does not mean that you can hop on a bike and ride for a couple days, because no matter how slow you go you are still using some anaerobic energy and burning carbohydrate.

Also, I always thought that sprinting up a short steep climb was not that big of a deal during a endurance event… it turns out it is up to 17 times more inefficient! Save that precious energy. (I sometimes did this to “wake” everything up… dumb)

All the little things matter!